What a fabulous day! Our Year 3/4 children had a dress-up day, coming as characters from our class novel, Rebecca’s World. We saw a variety of creative costumes that children (and parents!) have worked hard to produce. Well done to all the glittery Mr Glisters and his henchmen, cautious Kovaks, green Grisbys, super scientists, reliable Rebeccas, superhero-wannabe Captain Ks and last but not least… the GHOSTS!
…thanks very much to you if you came along yesterday to the first of our ‘Watch us while we work’ sessions. This was a visit to school to get a flavour of what Reading, Writing and Maths teaching and learning is like in school, and hopefully to help you understand more about your child’s progress and how you can support at home.
Thanks for the feedback, too. Following the visits to classes, you had the opportunity to speak with Miss Hague about what you saw and to raise any questions and comments.
Here’s some of the feedback:
“Good to see children so engaged. Fast pace to the lesson. Supportive environment to encourage confidence. Very impressed with phonics.”
“Loved having an insight into the lessons and getting tips on how we can help and games we can do at home.”
“The fast pace of the lesson was good. Also, all children were engaged and knew expectations.”
“Really enjoyed seeing the Maths and times tables work, with the same numbers in 10s and 100s. Children were really keen to work.”
That’s great – thanks very much. Teachers will appreciate the comments.
We also appreciate constructive suggestions that will help you and your child. Here’s one that we’ll definitely act on:
It would be good to have “…a timetable to understand the daily life at school.” Agreed! We’ll publish a typical timetable for each class or phase on our website – sometimes times and subjects change, but we agree it would be useful for you to know a typical day to help you have a positive and reflective conversation with your child about the day they’ve had.
One parent thought it would be even better if they could have visited their own child’s class. There was an opportunity to do this at the recent Homework Review session. However, this can be very distracting for children, and affect the lessons – they would be much less typical of what goes on in school.
Again, thanks to all who came.
Scholes (Elmet) Primary will be inspected, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended), on 07 November 2017. This is a monitoring inspection – completely normal following the ‘Requires Improvement’ judgement earlier this year. The focus is around whether we are taking effective enough action to improve provision and outcomes; it will not result in a new inspection report or new judgement (although a follow-up letter will be published). Our inspection will be led by Nicholas Whittaker, HMI.
Our Living and Learning theme this half-term is Identity. Pupils will learn about their rights and responsibilities, what makes themselves and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others and what is meant by community. This will be taught through our Living and Learning sessions and also two focused weeks – Anti-bullying week (13 November) and Who do you think you are? (20 November).
Our full Living and Learning long term plan is now available on the health pages and you can keep up to date with our weekly Living and Learning statements on the parent noticeboard in the playground and also on the school calendar.
An external review of governance was carried out on Scholes (Elmet) Primary School on 13 March 2017, following a recommendation from the Ofsted inspection on 19 and 20 January 2017. A report and suggested governing body action plan were produced.
A follow-up review was arranged to consider progress since then. This took place on 27 September 2017. A summary of the findings is presented here (with key points added in bold – not part of the original text).
The reviewers found a good deal of evidence to demonstrate rapid development of the effectiveness of the governing body.
The governors who had completed the skills audit evidenced a good representation of essential and specialist skills and experience as described in the DfE’s Competency Framework for Governance and the Ofsted report, December 2016, “Improving Governance”.
There was one vacancy on the governing body for an LA governor due to a recent resignation. The governing body identified that they would benefit from someone with skills and experience in buildings and property management…
The governors’ knowledge of the school showed a marked improvement since the March 2017 audit in a number of areas…
Governors were aware of the importance of self-development and a governor has been assigned responsibility for training. The training governor will consider the completed skills audits alongside allocated responsibilities with a view to mapping out a training and development programme for the year.
This is a great conclusion for the Governing Body review: well done and thank you to our current team of governors. School leaders all report feeling supported but also challenged and held to account by current governors.
The first half-term of this school year has seen a slight drop in attendance compared to the same period last year. Nevertheless, attendance at Scholes (Elmet) Primary continues to be high – many thanks for your support.
What about each class? Well, a big well done to pupils (and parents/carers!) in Year 5 and Year 6 – attendance for the three oldest classes is all above the school average. Equally impressive is attendance for pupils in Miss Eckersley’s Reception class and Miss Parling’s Year 1 class – great stuff!
…is Miss Karen Hague!
As you will know, Miss Hague has been Head of School since January, having taken over from Mr Payling.
A recruitment process to find a permanent Head of School culminated yesterday, Thursday 19 October, in Miss Hague’s appointment.
The recruitment was rigorous. Three governors were involved as well as me, the Head of Federation. Also involved was a headteacher from another Leeds school in order to provide an external viewpoint. The selection process involved four different activities relating to teaching and learning and school leadership. The final decision was tough because all the candidates were strong.
Thank you to all the people who applied, particularly those who were shortlisted to attend the recruitment day. Particular thanks – and well done – to Miss Hague herself.
Miss Hague has the deepest respect from all staff and pupils in school, and I know parents also respect and support her.
She and I are looking forward to continuing to make sure Scholes (Elmet) Primary keeps getting better and better.
…and so there’s no specific homework next week. This is in-line with our Homework Policy.
During the half-term, please encourage your child to read each day, even if just for 15 minutes. As well as their current book, reading comics, newspapers, websites are all good – and why not take a trip to the library!
It would also be really helpful to help your child brush up on their times tables. Children in Year 2 should know x2, x5 and x10 (and the related division facts) by the end of the year – so give them a head start now! By the end of Year 4, children should know all their tables up to 12 x 12 (and the related division facts).
And make sure they enjoy the break, too: perhaps an autumn walk, a day out, a trip to the cinema… There are lots of things going on in Leeds – check them out.
Whatever you get up to, we’re looking forward to seeing you again on Monday 30 October.
Practice that feels like play – does this sound beneficial for your child? Have a look at IXL. It’s an online tool where you can access different activities to help your child practise basic skills.
It’s split into year groups, specifically looking at English and Maths, then each subject is broken down into sections. You can get a flavour of the activities by hovering over the title and can have a go at some of them – it looks great fun and very child friendly. The questions are all interactive and there are detailed explanations for new concepts.
There is a small monthly fee if you wish to sign up. Take a look – it might be something you want to explore.
At Scholes, we want our children to be happy and healthy learners. Life’s so busy, sometimes we need some ‘time out’ to get some peace and quiet – some ‘head space’.
On Monday 18 September, we’re looking forward to some sessions around minfulness. In the meantime, check out this article.