School Council
The newly elected School Council have been given their badges by Miss Parling (School Council leader) and are proudly wearing them. They have also taken part in their first decision as elected members. They voted on the type of fundraising the school will do for Children in Need on 17 November. It will be a non-uniform day with a suggested donation of £1.
School Council and Democracy Week
During Democracy Week (16-20 October 2017) pupils took part in the democratic process as they voted for their class representatives for School Council. Congratulations to the elected candidates and we hope they have a successful year representing the views of all the pupils in our school.
Follow-up inspection
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.
Identity
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.
Governing Body review
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.
Attendance matters
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.
- Autumn 1 last year 97.7%
- Autumn 1 this year 97.2%
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!
- F2M: 98.1%
- F2L: 96.9%
- 1K: 98.4%
- 2KL: 96.8%
- 1/2V: 96.1%
- 3/4C: 96.8%
- 3/4E: 96.5%
- 3/4P: 95.9%
- 5/6C: 98.3%
- 5/6F: 98.4%
- 5/6M: 97.5%
Our new Head of School…
…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.
It’s the half-term holidays…
…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.
New Maths teacher for KS2
At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, our intake each year has been 40; this recently increased slightly to 45. The small increase actually benefited in many ways, the biggest benefit being that we could re-organise classes so they avoid crossing over important key stages, such as a Reception/Year 1 mix and a Year 2/Year 3 mix.
We’ve had mixed age classes for over 20 years. We’re really experienced at planning for mixed age classes, and we feel that they can actually benefit all children’s learning in most subjects.
However, the new Maths curriculum lends itself naturally to single-aged year groups. Schools across Leeds are finding that mixed age classes in Maths curriculum challenging to plan for. This is because some learning objectives are quite different – far more than in other subjects. (In fact, the National Curriculum for Reading and Writing is planned around the phases we have at school: Y3,4 expectations are set out together, for example.)
Because of the difficulties in Maths, we are adopting a new system as a trial for the rest of this year. We have recruited an excellent teacher with lots of experience, especially in Maths, to act as a fourth teacher within each Key Stage 2 phase for Maths. This means that we will have two (mixed ability) Maths classes in Year 3, in Year 4, in Year 5 and in Year 6.
The new Maths groups will mean class groups for maths will be smaller. This might provide added benefits including pupil feedback on how they’re learning can be enhanced. Research shows this can have a positive impact on progress.
This is an initiative that we are going to monitor closely for the rest of the year. It’s not a guaranteed long term solution (especially when school budgets are ever-decreasing), but it’s something we want to try out to keep getting better.
The new groups begin on Monday 30 October.
Drop in sessions for parents/carers
The EPOSS Cluster supports parents, children and young people from the schools in Wetherby, Boston Spa and surrounding villages. This includes Scholes (Elmet) Primary School.
The support offered includes:
• Support managing unwanted or challenging behaviour at home.
• Emotional wellbeing.
• Support for anxious children.
• Support with areas of difficulty such as bedtimes or mealtimes.
• Advice for parents.
• Signposting to other support agencies.
The team are holding a drop-in session on WEDNESDAY 01 NOVEMBER from 2.00pm to 3.30pm at school.
The team contains a range of professionals including outreach workers, an art therapist and a counsellor that work together to identify and provide the most appropriate advice and support for all families.
We look forward to welcoming you!