Headteacher blog 7/5/21

I am doing lots of school tours at the moment: new families with children due to start in September. The timing of the tour is quite significant as in the mornings we see lots of English and Maths whereas afternoon visits showcase a much wider curriculum. The children are clearly very settled now into the routine of school. I was amused on a tour yesterday morning when some Reception children who were playing outside keenly ‘dobbed-in’ their teacher, rushing to tell me to wide, cheeky smiles: “We haven’t even done phonics yet!” (The teacher did later explain that the children had been so engaged with some maths work that she had simply jiggled the planned timings for the day.) Most children do like routine and the security that this provides, but a change every so often can be exciting!

This week, we had a Teaching and Learning sub-committee meeting of the governors. Amongst other things, we were able to report on our assessments of the children in late March, after they returned after lockdown. There do appear to be some children whose apparent level of attainment has slipped but, almost equally, there are many others whose progress appears to have accelerated. Most children remain ‘on track’. Given the disruption we have had, Year 6 – our oldest pupils – appear to be doing relatively well.  This is shown by comparisons to where they were at the end of KS1 (below). Bear in mind that these Teacher Assessments are based on practice SATs without having covered all the curriculum yet, and without the usual ‘booster groups’ Jan-Mar.