Newsletter - January 14

Dear Parents,

A Happy New Year! I hope you had a peaceful, restful (and not too expensive) Christmas break.

The spring term is the one where children in Y2 and Y6 are working towards their end of year SATs. As you will be aware, children in Y2 are assessed by teacher assessment. Although national exemplars are used to standardise work, children’s final levels are awarded by the use of continual assessment by their own teachers. As such, they should not notice too much change from their current working procedures. Children in Y6 will be sitting nationally moderated tests in a more formal setting. A meeting will be arranged very shortly to give parents of children in Y6 more details about the tests and the way in which children can be best prepared for them. The exact date for the meeting has not yet been set as I am still awaiting further information from central government as to the changes that are likely to take place for this year’s tests. In the meantime, owing to the changes in funding and the number of trained teaching assistants that I have been able to employ, parents should be aware that a great deal of diverse and differentiated programmes are in place to ensure that all children are being given the best opportunity to make expected, or better, progress.

Parents’ Meetings and Other Dates

Parents’ meetings have been planned for the second half of this term – on Tuesday, 25^th March and Tuesday, 1^st April. Owing to the nature of the SATs programme, I am exploring the possibility of holding consultations for parents of children in Y6 at a different time to the other children. If we go ahead with this plan, I will announce dates as soon as possible. There will also be a meeting, as promised, for parents to understand how we teach mental maths. Guidelines will be sent out to all parents in advance. A more detailed diary of events will be sent out to parents shortly.

Dinner Supervision

On the last day of the autumn term, we said goodbye to Mrs Seal who had been a dinner supervisor at the school for twenty-five years. Children and staff presented her with a trio of roses bushes from David Austen. Mrs Seal is an extremely keen gardener and was on the founding committee for Shifnal’s award-winning Sensory Garden. Mr. Evans, working in school as a teaching assistant, has kindly agreed to also work as a dinner supervisor, having had a great deal of experience in both roles at other schools. This now means that Mr Brain, Mr Spiers and Mr Evans (together with Mr Wilson on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays) will be organising Play Leaders and lunch time outdoor activities for all the children allowing the five dinner ladies to oversee the dining room and lunch time arrangements.

Modern Foreign Languages

Spanish lessons have started this term already and have been met with great enthusiasm from all the children who have been involved. For children in KS2, detailed information about the May residential will be sent out shortly.

Road Works on Park Lane

It has just been brought to my attention that Park Lane will be closed to through traffic on the 16^th and 17^th January (this Thursday and Friday). There will still be access to the school. I believe that the stretch of road that is being re-surfaced is between the end of the row of houses on Park Lane and towards Kemberton and Ryton. In theory, cars should still be able to come on to Park Lane from the Wolverhampton Road and then leave the same way.