Setting up St Michael S Federation

Developing the Christian ethos, RE and collective worship, SMSC across the Federation

Setting up St Michael’s Federation

In 2011 Onny and Lydbury North C of E (A) Primary Schools were highlighted for possible closure and in response to this the two school communities worked tirelessly together to form the first Federation in Shropshire – St Michael’s Federation. The governors from each school, and their extended communities, put tremendous efforts into ensuring that the schools should continue to thrive as a Federation.
The distinctive Christian nature of our Church Schools was very much celebrated and given importance in our Federation proposal documents (see section written by Venerable Colin Williams and Revd Stephanie Fountain.)
Bishop Anthony visited our schools and spoke with the children – he later led a service in Lydbury North Church as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.
When we were putting our thoughts and ideas together for the vision and values of the school we wanted the distinctive Christian values to be very apparent in our work. ( see mission statement on website and on display in all classrooms)
Much thought went into choosing the name of the Federation and as each village church is called St Michael’s we chose to take that name for the Federation. We canvased our communities and asked them to come up with ideas and to design a logo for the Federation. This was led by the Federation committee. The children had so many ideas to share using images of St Michael ( present in both stained glass windows in the churches) Finally it was decided to approach a former pupil of Onny school who is a local graphic designer. He came up with our logo which is a clever design based on an acorn to link with the rural nature of our schools and the acorn is actually a shield to link with St Michael.
The Federation formed in January 2012 and the schools began work on putting their two curriculums together.

2012/2013

By autumn 2012 the two schools were planning together in key stage teams across the curriculum; with teachers using their areas of expertise to plan particular areas of the curriculum. We decided to utilise staff skills and bring the two schools together for an afternoon each week; teaching RE and music at Lydbury each Monday afternoon. This also allowed our two NQT teachers PPA time.
In October Lydbury held a “Farmers Market” for the first time at the school and Onny came to support and fill in questionnaires about the event in readiness for their event later in the year. This linked really well with the Harvest Festivals in our schools.
In November Onny hosted “The Pearl of Africa Choir” and Lydbury joined in with singing, dancing and jewellery making workshops with the choir. In the evening the “Food Centre” kindly allowed us to use their events room and the “Pearl of Africa Choir” sang to raise money for their schools in Uganda.
In December both schools went to see “James and the Giant Peach “ in Birmingham and also visited Birmingham art gallery with a focus on the Nativity paintings.
At Christmas the Federation put on a huge production at Walcot Hall of “Gawain and the Green Knight” in which both schools took part. This was a huge undertaking, which was led by Rosie Green our music specialist. It allowed the schools to work very closely together on a joint project ( see photographs and responses)
In January the HT Lydbury took over teaching RE to both key stages to allow KS2 lead maths teacher to work with Year 6 children at Onny. This enabled the HT to gather evidence of the children’s knowledge of the understanding of the bible and the parables of Jesus as they studied. It also enabled the levels of discussion and reflection to be assessed. The work was based on drama and role play and collective art work. ( see photographs of drama workshops)
At the end of the Easter term we celebrated Easter together with the KS2 children taking part in the Ludlow Church Walk; while KS1 worked together at Onny School for the morning and then had a shared Easter lunch. On the last day before the Easter break the KS1 children from Onny joined KS1 at Lydbury at Walcot Hall for a forest school session and Easter egg hunt.
In the spring term Revd. Stephanie Fountain arranged a special exhibition at Bishops Castle Church “Faces of Faith” which linked art and faith. The children from both schools visited the exhibition in the church and the KS1 children took part in a workshop in the Church Barn in Bishops Castle. Revd. Regan O’Callaghan came to Lydbury for the day and led a workshop for both KS2 children. Revd. Maree Wilson came to join the children and took part in the workshop. The children painted icons and learnt about the messages surrounding them.

In the summer term numbers in the schools increased and it was less effective working in this way, so the schools reverted to working in their separate schools for RE and music with the music coordinator going over to Onny one afternoon a week. The planning for RE was still shared but each teacher then adapted it to the needs of her class and from the children’s responses. Our collective worship was based on the Olympic and Paralympics values and the children were very motivated by this focus; which continued into September with the Paralympics.

2013/2014

Revd. Sarah joined us as curate at Lydbury North; moving in to the vicarage opposite the school and quickly becoming part of the school.
In September we supported the Universal Concern projects in Malawi and held a “Malawi Day” in each school to raise awareness – this linked with KS2 RE focus on “Our Precious Water”
The KS1 classes did a study of the village churches with Revd. Maree and Revd. Sarah.
In October 2013 we took part in the BBC Masterpieces for Schools Project and had a real Monet picture for the day. This was an amazing day which brought all stakeholders from our schools together to have a shared, unique experience. ( see Monet folder and reference to film and BBC coverage ) This was developed further with a silk painting and storytelling workshop in each school in the spring term.- SMSC
Lucinda and Robin Parish donated a wonderful metal sculpture of an oak tree to sit outside Lydbury School as a thank you for educating their four children, but also to celebrate the forming of the Federation. It was created by a former pupil of Lydbury School – Roger Williams. This is another symbol of our ethos.
At the end of October Lydbury held a “Farmers Market” (now every two years) – linking with the Harvest Festival.
Our Christmas celebrations took the form of separate Nativity plays and Carol Services in each school with all the usual awe and wonder and costume mishaps that makes these events so special. Both schools also attended “Cinderella” at the Community Centre in Craven Arms – hosted by the local church and much enjoyed by children and staff.
Revd. Sarah joined the governing body.
In February each year we focus on “Fair Trade Fortnight” in our assemblies and this produced some heated debating and was great to see children with such strong views about equality and justice.
Revd. Stephanie and Revd. Sarah led a lent workshop at Lydbury and enjoyed making pancakes and taking part in pancake races with the children.
We looked at the 50 things to do before you are 11 years (National Trust) as a focus for our continued work on Christian Vision and Values.
The Ark drama was written and produced by Mr Ian Barge as part of the Ludlow arts festival and students from three schools took part: Ludlow Primary school, Onny School and Ludlow CE School (secondary school) Ian came to Onny School and had a number of rehearsals with Revd. Maree and the children before the dress rehearsal in Ludlow. There were two performances and parents and students thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working together.
Little Lambs is a group which Revd. Maree set up with four women who were involved in four different parish churches in the Ludlow team ministry: Bromfield, Stanton lacy, Culmington and Onibury. Three of the four had small children under four years old and the other was caring for a small child of a friend. (Two of their children now attend Onny School and a number of Onny parents now attend the group with their small children and babies.) Onny School offered use of the community room and the group provides a link between the church, the school and the community. It provides many opportunities for pastoral outreach and support in a relaxed atmosphere. The team meet regularly to plan the programme which is themed according to the seasons, festivals and the church year, bible stories and local activities. Each session has a free play time, an activity time (craft activity or cooking) snack time. Revd. Maree usually leads a circle time with action songs, story time of either a bible story or an illustrated story with puppets etc. the group closes with a prayer and the grace. After two years the group has grown as have the number of baptisms in the churches!
As Chaplain and foundation governor at Ludlow CE school Revd. Maree continues to support the Onny children as they move on to Year 7 and a much larger campus and she is always available to provide extra pastoral support.
In the summer term Revd. Stephanie and Revd. Sarah ran a “Joseph and his Technicolour Dream coat” after school club; having fun with the songs from the production and doing art based on the production.
The Year 4, 5 and 6 children all went for a residential to York in June; this included a visit to York Minister.
Each year the Year 6 children all take part in the Diocese service for all Year 6 children together at Hereford Cathedral.
In July 2014 the foundation governors and HT Lydbury met to discuss the new SACRE and plans for further Federation development for RE and Acts of Worship as moving to one HT in September 2014.
Foundation Governors to meet again in the autumn term and block two days for working together on developing RE and acts of worship in the spring term.

2014/2015

Harvest Festivals were held in each church – one in September and one in October; linking in with the timing of each village’s celebrations.
Revd. Sarah led the wedding of “The Owl and the Pussy Cat” in Lydbury church with KS1 and Nursery.
The Federation became a member of the newly formed South West Shropshire Learning Trust; a charity trust set up to work collaboratively to support the education and wellbeing of the children in the local area. ( St Michael’s Federation, Federation of Chirbury and Stiperstones C of E (A) Primary Schools, Bishop Castle Primary School, Norbury Primary School, Hope C of E (A) Primary School, St Georges C of E (A) Primary School, Clunbury C of E (A) Primary School, Newcastle upon Clun C of E (A) Primary School and Bishop Castle Community College. ) We also have partners including the Hereford Diocese, Worcester University and Ludlow College.
“Little Lambs” members are increasing and they recently held a coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer relief. HT has met with the leaders and money from the previous preschool group has been donated and enabled the purchase of a beautiful wooden kitchen for role play: alongside a wooden garage and farm set. The nursery and Little Lambs are working closely together; sharing equipment.
All key stages have had joint visits this term and it is great to see the children and staff working so closely together with a shared ethos. The KS2 classes went for a team building day to “The Old Vicarage” at Stotteston in September. You would have thought it was one school! KS2 also went on an Iron Age experience day; while KS1 visited the Safari Park. For the first time HT led a joint nursery trip to “The Owl Gardens and Small Breeds Farm Park” and future visits will become a community event with parents and toddlers from “Little lambs” and “Bumps, Babies and Beyond” at Lydbury. Nursery open days are planned for both schools in late November.
Revd. Greasley visited Lydbury on November 5th to speak with the children about his school in Zambia (This follows up work we had done in the schools last year when we gave our unwanted mathematics texts books to the school) This will be a focus of further work during the year.
Remembrance Day has additional focus this year with the hundred year’s anniversary of the First World War. Lydbury will attend the church on Armistice Day for the traditional rocket launch at either side of the two minutes silence in the church yard. Onny will have a service in school and are creating a garden of remembrance. The theme for the week will be “Let Us Remember”
Onny School had SIAM inspection and received a Good judgement. This enabled us to celebrate the work we had been doing to establish and move forward with our Federation.
The children have made plans for their annual “Children in Need” event – this year it’s a “Heroes” theme. We are linking this with our work on remembrance.
KS1 in both schools a Nativity play with KS2 leading the carol service in the churches at the end of term.
In January the Year 5 and 6 children from both schools took part in Child Line workshops to raise awareness of the children.
KS1 Lydbury linked up with Hope C of E (A) Primary Schools for shared workshop on an Artic experience.
In February Onny School had an Ofsted inspection and moved from Needs Improvement to a Good outcome; receiving a very positive report which all Governors and the extended staff could celebrate.
In April the schools councils gave a presentation to the other schools as part of our work with the SWSLT. A competition was held to design a logo for the trust and will be ready to use in the next school year.
Our residential this year was in June to Condover Hall which all Year 4, 5 and 6 children enjoyed from across the schools. In non-uniform the children worked together as if one school.
We held a farewell service for Revd. Maree as she leaves us to continue her ministry in Geneva. She took with her gifts of a book of poems, large cards and the now traditional large life size portrait!
Another goodbye was to venerable Colin Williams who leaves us as our Chair of Governors to take up the post of Archdeacon of Europe. He too enjoyed receiving gifts and a life sized portrait to take with him to Frankfurt.
We raised money for the Nepal appeal and linked up with “Schools in the Clouds” and we will continue to support them next year as members of the charity plan another visit to the schools next year.
KS1 from Lydbury and Class 2 Onny enjoyed a visit to Milichope Estate to explore rural crafts and look around the estate.
KS1 from Lydbury and Class 2 Onny also spent a forest day together up at Walcot Hall which was very much enjoyed and demonstrated how well the children work together.
The Onny flag was chosen to fly at the Houses of Parliament as part of the “Flags for parliament” project – congratulations to Lizzy, Erin and Annie.
Onny feast was held at Onny with a play from Year 6 based on the Famous Five and a routine danced to sixties music. This was very well received from parents, grandparents and friends of the school.
Lydbury children used the new village Hall for the first time and put on a wonderful production of “Shakespeare Rocks” Nursery to Year 6 all took part and this made a really fun family occasion.
The last forest school sessions were open to parents this year. Miss Segrott cooked up sausages for her class and invited parents. At Lybury there was a family forest afternoon with parents and grandparents and younger visitors joining in with the forest challenges and enjoying forest snacks!
Leaver’s services were held on the final day of term to celebrate the time that our Year 6 children had spent in school with us. Venerable Colin Williams led his final service in Onny Church in the morning. Presentations and goodbyes were also given to Mrs Ann Morgan as she retires as caretaker in Charge after 16 years. At Lydbury Revd. Sarah led the service, with recorder playing from the children and thank you to Mrs Whittaker for her continued support with music. The KS2 children presented letters to Lily and Jake to read on their first day at secondary school.

2015/2016

We had our first combined church service on Tuesday 29th September in celebration of “St Michael’s Feast Day” and the name of our Federation.