CCJ Priorities and Plans 2008-9

A New School year.

Last year, our first with brand new classrooms throughout the school, the focus was on ‘New Building, New Standards’. We needed to show that the £1m of taxpayers money spent on the school would improve children’s learning. It has! Our yr 6 SATs, which are the  main public and government measure of school success, were really good, I’ll give details as soon as we get final confirmation of results.

Of course there is much more to school life and children’s success than SATS and in many other ways, for instance sport, art, music, ‘Healthy Schools’ & parental partnership (e,g. the garden, the Fair & the Yr6 final party) the school had a really successful year.

This year we want to build on what is successful and working well. At our first  INSET day staff (teachers and non teachers) with some governors looked at the aims of the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda. This outlines five key (equally important?) areas that all public services that work with children have to address, and strive to deliver the best outcomes for all children in all five areas……...

· Be safe. (Our focus on Wednesday was new Child Protection guidance)

·Be healthy. (A major focus last year with significant impact)

· Enjoy & achieve. (The two are connected!)

· Make a contribution.

· Economic success and Well-being.

Apart from the fact that we ‘have’ to, as a school, work within this agenda this is surely what we all want for children (our own and others) whether we are parents or professionals.

Schools have moved  (since our day!) way beyond a focus on the 3R’s!

Perhaps the biggest challenge in making all 5 real for all children is that schools and parents really do have to work together and to do this communication is key. So…..

• There is a weekly (paper!) newsletter every Friday.

• We keep the website updated weekly with the newsletters if you miss the paper copy as well as putting up key policy documents and news. (There is a bit of a backlog at the moment, to be sorted next week!)

• We do have an ‘open door’ ethos, so do feel free to try to talk to teachers after school (or very, briefly before). Mr Wood (Deputy head) does not have a class this year so he will be ‘around and about’ much more and my door is nearly always open. Obviously this doesn’t mean that the member of staff you’d like to see is  always available,  however the office will always take, pass on or respond as quickly as possible to messages; verbal, telephone, written or email.

We really value feedback and communication from parents, whether it is about your child or about the school in general. So, if you have a concern, a question, a request, a suggestion or even a simple observation (negative or positive!)….. Please! Please! Please! Communicate it to the appropriate person in the school and we’ll do our outmost to respond.

School + Parents → 5 ECMs for all children!

I’m really confident it is going to be a great year for the school!

                                                                                                                                         
 Here are some of the questions we are reflecting on  which  ahve informed the detailed  2008-9 Improvement Plan

What children learn
Have we got the balance right between the core subjects we are ‘tested’ on and other curriculum subjects?
How highly do our children achieve compared to other schools and do they make the expected progress from the foundations  for learning laid down at Christ Church Infants?
Is ICT really used well to support learning in all areas and do all children have high quality opportunities for thinking, speaking, writing, problem solving and working collaboratively?

How children learn
Do individuals with different learning needs all flourish?
Can we do more (or different) in terms of  individual/group support for either those who need to ‘catch up’ or those who are very able?
How can we learn more from children ( ‘pupil voice’) about how they experience the school/ Can we tap into them for ideas about  more ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’?

The context for learning
Have we fully tapped in to the tremendous resource that parents can be in terms of supporting their child’s learning? (No!)
With wonderful new classrooms what else can we do to improve the richness and variety of children’s learning?  (The outdoor environment?)
What  more/different could we do, as governors, staff and parents, to really promote  all children not only ‘knowing’ but actually adopting positive values towards themselves,  towards others and to the environment?

 The  priority areas will be...........................

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