Happy New Year and welcome back to a new term. The Governors would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some updates.
Finance
Following our letters last term about the school’s current budget position, we would like to thank all those parents who have told us that they checked to see if they qualified for Free School Meals, which would mean the school is eligible for additional funding via Pupil Premium. Sadly, for the school, it does not look like there will be any new financial benefits, as a result of those parents who checked.
In addition, we would like to thank the 63% of parents who have made their Curriculum Enrichment contribution of £10. In light of the limited success of additional funds via the Free School Meals entitlement, it does mean the school is even more reliant on the Enrichment contribution. Perhaps you planned to and didn’t get round to it? Don’t worry, it is not too late to do so, either via payment to the school office or on Schools Comms.
Meeting the Governors
During the October Parents’ Evenings, Governors set up a corner of the dining room for parents to come along and chat to the Governing Body. It was lovely to speak to so many parents and to discuss any queries they had regarding the recent correspondence from the Governors about the budget and Curriculum Enrichment. This is something the Governing Body would like to repeat so please come and say hello at the next Parents’ Evening in February.
SPA and the amazing events so far!
As usual, our wonderful SPA have organised some great events. We have had the annual family Treasure Hunt, the Murder Mystery Evening and of course, the time-honoured Winter Wonderland. SPA events are always a huge success and that is purely down to the tremendous effort they put into organising and running them.
We are incredibly grateful to the SPA but also the many parents and staff who work tirelessly to make each event a memorable one. The money raised by the SPA is a vital part in the seamless running of our school. They raised over £4,500 at Winter Wonderland which is a phenomenal amount! This money will be put to good use: we are currently updating the IT suite to accommodate Windows 10 and organising some fantastic workshops and visiting speakers to engage the children.
Mrs Driver and Mrs Massey’s Zipping success!
Wow, what a fantastic achievement! Not only to travel down the fastest Zip Wire in Europe, but by doing so, raising £7,010, far exceeding the target set of £3,500. Well done to you both and thank you.
The new defibrillator has been purchased and delivered to school, and arrangements are now being made for its installation. Staff will receive training and the longer-term plan is to also invite members from our local neighbourhood into school for some basic training.
We have started to receive quotes for the new sound equipment for the hall, and because such a magnificent sum was raised, we have been able to look into acquiring new projection equipment, also for the hall. We are hopeful all will be in place for the summer term shows.
Staffing update
We had to say goodbye to Miss Ayliffe at the end of last term, as she moved to Derbyshire over Christmas. We will miss her very much but wish her all the best in the future. We also said farewell to Mrs Barrett who was with us for half a term in Reception but had to leave for personal reasons. We wish her all the best too.
We were pleased to welcome Miss Shaw to Ash Class after October half-term and she has quickly established herself with the pupils and staff and has been a wonderful addition to the school.
Mrs Mitchell will be teaching Cherry Class for the remainder of the academic year and Mrs Thomas will be covering Mrs Mitchell’s teaching duties.
To cover Miss Ayliffe’s Deputy role for the remainder of this academic year, we are pleased to say that Mrs Wheat and Mrs Hall will be taking on the roles of Assistant Headteachers to support Mrs Driver in the running of the school.
Mrs Tite went on maternity leave in early December and we were delighted to hear that baby Sophia Tite arrived safely. Congratulations to the Tite family.
Teaching and Learning
The key priorities on the School Development Plan 2018-2019 are:
- Assessment and progress across the school- continued focus on pupil assessment and progress across all Key Stages.
- Mental well-being of all children- Mrs Delaney and Mrs Butler have been appointed Well-Being Leads in School
- Teaching of science across the school- speakers and workshops being organised
- Focus on the teaching of spelling- staff adopting a more cohesive approach to spelling and trialling a new programme.
We will update you on these in the Governors’ Annual report in July.
End of School pick up
We would like to take this opportunity please, to remind you of our procedure on pupil collection arrangements at the end of the school day. School ends at 3.20pm and pupils must be collected at the school gates by a parent/carer unless older pupils are allowed to walk home by themselves. It is essential that pupils are collected promptly where possible; we have noticed that more and more pupils are waiting in the dining area after 3.20pm, most of which are the same pupils on a daily occurrence.
Please remember that we do not offer wraparound care and therefore, staff should not be expected to supervise pupils after school unless they are attending a club. Please support us by collecting your child/children on time. If your child is picked up by a childminder, we would urge you to remind the childminder of these arrangements too as often childminders are the ones arriving late for pickup which, again, is unacceptable especially as you are paying them for a service.
The Teaching Assistants who wait with the pupils, are not paid to do so, they stay in their own time to ensure a duty of care to your child. As outlined at the commencement of this newsletter, the school does not have funds to pay overtime to these Teaching Assistants.
On the rare occasion you may be delayed in picking up your child, please telephone the school so that arrangements in that instance can be made to ensure your child is looked after until your arrival.
Thank you.
The Governing Body
If you wish to get in touch with the Governing Body, please email us at governors@wransom.herts.sch.uk