Dear Parents/Carers,

Back in September, 42 of you contributed to a parent/carer survey.

These surveys are very important, because it gives us a further indication of how the school is doing and they are designed to give you a voice in the continual improvement of our school.

Below is a summary of responses to some of the key questions, as well as some comments on specific comments that were made. If you do not see your view represented, please be reassured that it has been taken on board.

Summary

To make sense of the information below, the possible answers were:

1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Don’t know
4. Disagree
5. Strongly disagree

 

• 96% agreed/strongly agreed that their child was happy in school.

 

• 96% agreed/strongly agreed that their child felt safe in school.

 

 

• 96% agreed/strongly agreed that behaviour was good in school.

 

• 76% agreed/strongly agreed that the school lets them know about what their child is learning.

Please see our website, this has a guide to our curriculum. Last year, we introduced termly newsletters to explain what the children are learning each term. Please note that these are updated regularly to contain new information.

 

• 76% agreed/strongly agreed that the school lets them know how well their child is doing in school.

 

We offer two parent consultation evenings a year as well as an extra one for the parents of children on our SEND register. In the spring term parents receive an annual report about their child. Each term we send postcards home to celebrate those who have behaved well and worked hard over the previous few months.

• 80% agreed/strongly agreed that the school has high expectations for their child.

 

• 98% agreed/strongly agreed that their child does well in school.

 

 

• 78% agreed/strongly agreed that the school offers a good range of subjects.

We teach all the subjects in the national curriculum: English, maths, PE, PSHE/RSE, DT, art, music, RE, geography, history, computing, science and French. We also see ‘play’, ‘spiritual/personal development’ and collective worship as part of the curriculum.

There is not enough time in a week to fit in every single subject. Therefore we timetable our curriculum to ensure each subject gets the time it needs. Some subjects are taught in blocks, which means that they will do this subject over the space of two weeks each term, dedicating quality time to it.

Every Day	Every Week	In blocks
Maths English Spelling Phonics (EYFS/KS1) Reading Timestables/Key number facts Collective Worship	Physical Education (PE) Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) Religious Education (RE)	Geography History Science Music Computing French Design Technology (DT) Art

 

• 73% agreed/strongly agreed that the school helps their child with their wider personal development.

Our last inspection report cited that:

“Pastoral care is outstanding for all involved in the school. This contributes significantly to positive mental health and wellbeing.”

‘Wider personal development’ takes a number of forms in our school. The basis for this are our values: respect, forgiveness, service, compassion, responsibility and friendship. These values provide a framework for personal growth and are taught explicitly through daily collective worship and weekly PSHE/Thrive. In weekly PSHE sessions, the children learn about many things, but the overall focus is to help them make good decisions in life, manage emotions and get on with others. Equally, bi-weekly Thrive looks specifically at social situations and getting along with others. We aim to ensure that the children are able to extend their interests or spark new ones by giving them as many experiences as possible. Good examples from this term alone include: visits from a freestyle footballer, an Olympian Judoka, a poetry slam and a theatre visit. We also have a well-established and effective pastoral team led by Mrs Steel, our SENDCo. This includes adults who are trained to support children with their well-being. We also have a newly developed area called the ‘Snug’ which is a calm, quiet space for those who need it. At lunchtimes we run ‘Just Chill Club’ a craft/art based lunchtime club for those who prefer something quieter than the playground.

• 98% said that they would recommend the school to another parent.

Specific areas that were mentioned

 

Summer Class Transition

We have developed our in-school procedures for handover of classes between teachers. As a result, the children settle very quickly. However, we recognise that one visit to their new class in the summer term may not be enough for everyone. We currently have one or two ideas about how we could develop this and will share them later in the year.

Cultural Diversity

Over the past two years we have developed our curriculum to ensure that it represents the culturally diverse demographic of the UK. We celebrate such important events as Black History Month, but even more importantly we have adapted our curriculum to ensure that the protected characteristics are better represented. This means, for example, that our children learn about a wide range of important from a number of different backgrounds. We have also worked closely with the Wiltshire Race Equality Council over the past year and a half. Having said all of this, we have still got a lot of work to do and this will remain part of our school improvement priorities for years to come.

Church of England School

Whilst we are a Church of England School, our approach is one of inclusion and is invitational to all. When asked about this, one of our children said “it doesn’t matter if you are Christian or not, it is all about values, which everyone should have.”

Behaviour System

We are really proud of our  school’s behaviour policy. It works very well because it gives the children and staff structure, but it is not perfect for every situation. Every year, we relook at it to examine how it can be improved. One of the reasons for using the system we do, is to recognise that most children work hard and behave well all of the time. Whilst they may not end up on ‘gold’ every day; we aim to balance that out in other ways. For example, those who have remained on ‘green’ for a whole term get postcards home to thank them for their perseverance. We issue ‘team tokens’ for good behaviour – these contribute to a termly reward for the winning team. Every Friday, in collective worship, we celebrate those children who have lived out our school values. This is not to mention, the daily positive praise and support all of the children get. It is important to note that if a child has not got on ‘gold’ it does not mean that they have not been noticed – they definitely have been! Negative behaviour is always addressed, however, this may look different depending on the needs of the child. We feel that in many cases issues between children can be solved with a restorative approach.  We will always aim to share situations with you if we feel that the situation warrants it. However, if we do not, please just ask us.