July 5th 2010 - Newsletter
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Summer Fair |
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The ‘Friends Association‘ have been working hard to organise this year’s Summer Fair which takes place on Saturday (10th July). You should already have information about this through the Friends’ newsletter; lots of interesting and fun things are planned. Mrs Browning organises the raffle and would like sold, and unsold, raffle tickets returned to school as soon as possible this week, please. Sports Day We had a really good day on Friday and the weather was good to us again. The most important thing about Sports Day is that we all have a good time, but there are also points to compete for. This year Red Team came first with 694 points. Well done Red Team!
Staffing It’s taken us a bit longer than usual to sort out our staffing for next year, but we’re just about there now. We are very sad to be saying goodbye to several members of staff at the end of this term. Mrs Brown is leaving us after five years. Her husband has a new job and they are moving out of London. Liz Murphy, who has taught in F2 for the last two years and was a support teacher in KS2 before that is moving back to Australia. Hamish de Kort, one of our Learning Support Assistants, is also returning to Australia. After spending 18 months at St Mary’s Hamish is now considering training as a teacher back in Australia. Farhana Miah, another of our Learning Support Assistants, is leaving us to train as a teacher. Sarah Kent, who taught in Year 2 for a few weeks and then worked in KS2 covering Charlotte Crowther’s maternity leave, is leaving at the end of this year to go to South Africa. Bruce Manson, who has been our Finance Officer for twenty years, is emigrating to the USA in the summer where his wife is now working. Bruce isn’t cutting his ties with us completely - he will still be involved in the administration of the school budget (which he can do remotely). We’re obviously very sorry to be saying goodbye to so many friends, particularly those people, like Bruce, who have been with us for so long, but we’re also really pleased for all of them as they set out on such interesting and exciting new adventures. Our Staffing for next year looks like this:
Bookmaking Event The Friends of St Mary’s are organising a small workshop in September to make a book. Michael Peru, the Chair of the Friends, writes: “Dear parents/carers/children, On Saturday, 18th September 2010, we will be having our first bookmaking day. St Mary’s have previously supplied content for 2 books in the last 2 years; both beautifully done. Now, we would like to share with children the process of bookmaking. The day will be 10.00am to 4.00pm, with an hour for lunch. To be involved in this great day you must let me know before end of term (22nd July). IT IS FREE!!! The aim of this day is the educational value of creativity and how wonderful it is to make your own book. This is the chance to be in at the beginning of a new venture. There are only four places available, so please reply to me quickly if you would like to be included. Contact Michael Peru on 02077239694 or see Mrs Leith at school. Thank You.” Michael Peru. Year 2 Assessments We’re really pleased with the results of our Year 2 assessments and tests this year. The children always do their best and staff always work really hard with them. Our Year 2 results have been in line with National figures for the past few years, and this is a great accomplishment when you consider that the National figures include all schools: schools in leafy suburbs, in the countryside, in affluent areas, schools with no children who speak a language other than English, etc. This year we had 88.5% of our Year 2 pupils attaining level 2 or above in Reading. This is the highest we’ve had for at least 5 years. It’s higher than the Westminster average and higher than National averages. 80.8% of our pupils in Year 2 attained level 2 or above in writing. Our second highest figure for at least 5 years. This is higher than last year, higher than Westminster averages for the past 5 years and the same as National percentages for the past 5 years. In maths 96.2% attained level 2 or above. Our highest for at least 5 years, significantly higher than Westminster averages over the same period and higher than National figures too. It’s a similar story with our children attaining the higher level 3. Our figures are better than Westminster averages, better than Inner London averages and in line with National averages. Our children exceeded the targets set for them by the Local Authority based on their previous attainment. Our children, by and large, exceeded their personal targets, whether they were high attaining pupils, average attaining pupils or children with special educational needs. The class made ‘good’ (better than predicted, based on their prior attainment) progress through their time in Foundation Stage and continued to make at least ‘good’ progress through Year 1 and Year 2. Well done Year 2 children, and well done all staff in KS1 and Foundation Stage! One of the strategies we use to raise the literacy levels of children who are struggling is Reading Recovery. This is taught 1:1 by Miss Bowden. This is an immensely expensive programme, but makes a huge difference to the children who are on the programme. We can only hope that, with difficult financial times ahead, we can continue with this. Year 6 SATs The Year 6 SATs results have also just been published. These are statuary tests, externally marked. Level 4 is the ‘average’ level at the end of KS2. Our Year 6 had 93% at Level 4 or above in English (13% more than National figures) and 90% at Level 4 or above in Maths (11% higher than the national picture). At the higher Level 5 we have 43% at level 5 (again, about 13% higher than national figures) in English and 27% at level 5 in Maths (about 3% - 1 pupil lower than the national picture). These figures are significantly higher than the children’s targets, set by Westminster, based on prior attainment and will show very significant ‘value added,’ as OFSTED describe it. What this means is that the children will, individually and collectively, have made far more progress over their time at St Mary’s than could reasonably be predicted. Well done Year 6 children and well done to everyone involved in their learning! We’re good at getting not only the maximum, but more than the maximum, from all of our children This Week
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