Our Head Teacher is
Mrs Jessica Balado
http://www.beetleyschool.co.uk/
Write to us:
St Mary’s Community Primary School, Elmham Road , Beetley,
Dereham, Norfolk. NR20 4BW
Call the office: 01362 860114 or email us:
Dear Parents and Carers,
A lot has happened since we last wrote. We have compiled this report to inform you of all that has been happening and to celebrate the progress made by the school.
You may have seen information in the news and press about the Government’s recent Education White paper. One of the key proposals within the White Paper is to ensure that every school becomes an Academy. It has been clear for some time that this was the direction of travel, and over the past few months, the Governing Body have been exploring the different models that are available. Please be assured that we are only exploring proposals that would have the maximum benefit for our pupils, parents, staff and for our local community. Staff have met to talk through the initial proposals, and once finalised, we will ensure you are aware of these. We are very confident that we will be able to respond to this initiative in a way that will benefit everyone.
The school is going from strength to strength and we are very proud of what Mrs Balado and her teaching and support team have achieved.
Please do complete Parent View to let us know about all the good things at St Mary’s.
Best wishes
St Mary’s Governing Board
What Progress did the school make during 2014-2015?
The school had 3 external audits during the year. The first of these was carried out by OFSTED in November 2014. Following this, HMI (OFSTED) and an Education Challenge Partner (Norfolk County Council) also visited and agreed that the school was making good progress towards its targets and to becoming a ‘Good’ school.
The Quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment
This has been a priority for governors and the leadership team. The aim is for all teaching to be ‘Good’ or better at all times, resulting in great outcomes for children. Teaching has been monitored through regular no-notice classroom visits and book scrutinies. Where teaching wasn’t good enough or pupil progress was too slow, support has been put in to place.
When we have had to recruit new staff, we have been fortunate in being able to recruit quality staff from a strong field. This has resulted in our being able to strengthen significantly the quality of teaching across the school.
All staff, including teachers and TAs have accessed a wide range of courses to support the quality of their work. This has included whole school training for maths.
Staff have worked hard to provide a wide range of opportunities for all pupils including exciting curriculum activities, extra-curricular clubs and out of school visits:
Year 6 stayed at Kingswood for 4 nights and took part in a wonderful range of team building and outdoor activities; Year 4 went to How Hill for their annual residential. Years 5 and 6 went to London to visit the Natural History Museum Years 3 and 4 went to West Stow and Reception and Years 1 and 2 are off to Banham Zoo this term.
There have been visits to UEA, sports events, Gressenhall Museum and trips around our local area.
We have supported Jeans for Genes, Macmillan, the local community including Bilney Hall and Riverside with delivering Harvest Gifts, Operation Christmas Child, Children in Need, Sport Relief, Children’s Liver Disease.
We have had visits from the NSPCC, Bethany and Benjamin Bear, the amazing Jeff Rich from Status Quo who visited the school in October and got the school drumming – hopefully this didn’t continue for too long at home! Santa visited KS1 and Reception;
Parents have been able to attend our ½ termly open mornings, reading cafés and ‘maths calculations for parents’ sessions which have hopefully helped explain how maths is taught in school now.
Leadership and Management
In September 2015, for the first time since 2012, the school had a full leadership team (SLT). This included a head, a deputy head, an Early Years leader, a finance manager and a SENCo. The SLT has accessed a range of courses and qualifications to support their roles. Throughout the maternity leave of the EYFS lead, the role has been ably covered by Miss Gagen.
We have focussed on developing all staff as leaders. This has included training teachers to take on specific responsibilities, training TAs in developing their roles and responsibilities and enabling staff to develop their practice through visits to other schools. Employing a finance manager has resulted in a more streamlined approach to payments, contracts and site management.
The Governing Body appointed a new Chair in September and reorganised the committees as a result. All governors attend training and each governor has specific responsibilities for holding the school to account for its work. Governors elect to undertake an audit annually with the head of Governor Services, Helen Wardale, who monitors their work and verifies their effectiveness.
The Behaviour of Children
In November 2014, OFSTED identified pupils’ behaviour and safety as ‘good’. They said that pupils enjoy school and are keen to learn. In order to ensure that this remains the case and to support children at all times throughout the day, we have reorganised lunchtimes, introducing supervised sports activities, started a nurture group and have a dedicated nurture TA who supports specific pupils.
Outcomes for Children
Academic outcomes for children continue to rise. There are four key national indicators- a Good Level of Development at the end of Reception (EYFS), the phonics screening check for Year 1, SATs at the end of Year 2 and at the end of Year 6. SATs cover Reading, Writing and Maths.
2013 / 2014 / 2015 / NationalEYFS GLD / 15% / 59% / 87% / 66%
Yr 1 Phonics / 77% / 92% / 83% / 82%
Y2 SATs Level 2b+
Reading
Writing
Maths / 78%
70%
74% / 81%
69%
73% / 88%
71%
92% / 82%
72%
83%
Y6 SATs Level 4b+
Reading
Writing
Maths
RWM combined / 81%
85
69%
65% / 75%
75%
79%
71% / 85%
92%
81%
81% / 80%
87%
77%
69%
The School Building, Grounds and Resources
Thanks to our new Finance manager- Mrs Stott- and our new caretaker- Mr Marsden- we have been able to do so much more to develop our site and resources. We have improved our school environment significantly with the addition of the outdoor classroom and the soft surface under our outdoor equipment. The Princes Trust came in to develop our meadow area and this has been a huge asset to our school. We are in the process of developing and improving the library. Thanks to the PTA in supporting us with these ventures and also to Mrs Stott for securing grants and funding.
What is the school doing to continue improving?The school continually monitors its work and uses this information to plan for further progress. We have a School Development and Improvement Plan that sums up all we want to do to improve as we move through 2016 and into 2017. This is focussed on what OFSTED said (November 2014) and HMI (February 2015).
What did OFSTED say we needed to improve:
· Attainment in reading, writing and maths in Years 2 and 6- results for 2015 show that we were successful
· Challenging the most able pupils in all areas of learning-
· Developing maths across the curriculum
· Monitoring achievement in all subject areas
HMI said:
Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement….
What we are doing to make sure we continue to improve :
· Monitoring teaching, learning, assessments results and the quality of children’s work on a weekly basis
· Continuing to ensure that all teaching challenges the most able children across all areas of learning
· Making sure that maths is an integral part of learning across the school and in all subject areas
· Developing the role of the subject leader to make sure our pupils have great opportunities to learn in all subject areas
· Ensuring we listen to the views of the children and include them in making improvements to our school
· Developing an easy to understand and fit for purpose tracking system that shows pupil progress and attainment
· Implementing effective intervention programmes across the school to support all pupils with need
Our School Governors are:
Jane Buttifant
Chair of Governors, responsible for maths, Quality Assurance Operations Leader at AVIVA manager, co-opted governor
Rebecca Howard
Vice-Chair of Governors, responsible for English, marketing manager,
parent governor
Joanne Farrelly
Responsible for SEND, probation officer, co-opted governor
Sarah Day
Responsible for Health and Safety, behaviour, payroll manager for GT Bunning & sons ltd, co-opted governor
Dr Jean Vickers
Responsible for assessment and vulnerable pupils, retired Director of Public Health,
LA governor
Paul Roberts
Responsible for finance, Director of a Firm of Independent Financial Advisers, co-opted governor
Laura Gkikopoulos
Responsible for Safeguarding, trainee teacher, parent governor
Vanessa Hancock
Responsible for EYFS, Teaching Assistant, staff governor
Tanya Treavett
Our deputy head teacher
Jessica Balado
Our head teacher
Lifelong learning, that challenges, engages, inspires and values every individual.
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