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What
have been our successes this year
As a large Primary School we
have maintained our previous standards of achievement and attainment. The
school continues to perform well above both National average and
North Yorkshire
average.
In our Key stage 2, 2005
results, the school met and exceeded its targets in all areas.
At Key stage 1, the results
followed a similar pattern of high achievement.
A Space Week, Book Week and two
Tribal Arts days have enriched the curriculum for the children.
The school netball team won the
Harrogate
and District High 5’s competition and then represented the area at a
County championship, which they won.
Staffing has remained
consistent, the school was oversubscribed.
The school continues to move
forward in re-examining its policies, making changes where it feels
necessary, seeks the views of the parent body through a questionnaire and
continues to hold a good reputation within the area.
The school’s ICT capability
has been completely overhauled and upgraded to a high specification.
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What
are we trying to improve
The school is working towards
the Healthy Schools Award. This will involve a working party of staff,
which will attend courses, liaise with parents and upgrade current school
policies to meet the requirements of the award. The children will enjoy a
‘
Healthy
School
’s’ week at the beginning of next term to start off the process and
involve the parents.
French will be taught from
September 2006 throughout key stage 2, with key stage 1 joining in through
games, poems and songs.
The Parental questionnaire
identified three main areas, which the school will try to address in the
next academic year.
These were:
-
increasing
the amount of information passed to parents about their children’s
progress,
-
the
frequency and timing of requests for money
-
the
range of extra curricular activities.
From September the staff will
plan the curriculum to ensure that the different subjects interlink and
follow a theme.
Several staff are heavily
committed to National Professional Development Courses.
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How
have our results changes over time
Results
have remained constant over a period of several years as can be seen from
graphs of the school results over the last 8 years in the PANDA, the L.A.
Perform disc and general School Performance Data.
At
Key stage 2 our children achieve above the national average and above the
North Yorkshire County Average in all 3 core subject areas of English
Maths and Science and have continuously done so for the past 9 years.
At Key stage1 results equally
show a similar and consistent pattern and this has been authenticated by a
moderation process by an external assessor.
The
school has shown good “value added” in all areas
In the Foundation stage again
children make good progress
Level 5 results have
consistently been above national and
L.A.
average.
In 2001 we had a concern over
writing and all papers were analysed to identify problem areas, which were
then addressed. Writing targets were then introduced. This had the effect
of raising the children’s achievements in writing.
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How
are we making sure we are meeting the learning needs of individual pupils
Each member of staff is
responsible for the progress of individual children and for providing work
that meets the children’s differentiated needs.
Within classes, children are
usually split into 3 main ability groups within Numeracy so that their
individual needs can be met. In Literacy (writing) they differentiate
themselves through the outcome of their work. Children in other areas of
the curriculum may be given differentiated work to address their
individual needs.
Additional support is provided
throughout the school by Teacher Assistant support and S.E.N groups.
A.L.S/ E.L.S. Literacy groups are held in years 4 and 1 and Booster
groups at year 6. We record children’s attainment throughout their time
in our school. We are also looking to introduce new assessment procedures
at the end of each half term from September 06 in English Maths and
Science.
Additionally we identify groups
of children causing concern and track their progress.
We have changed the award/
achievement system to ensure that all children have the opportunity to
obtain an Outstanding School Achievement Award.
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How
do we make sure our pupils are healthy, safe and well supported
We are looking to apply for
Healthy
School
status next year - 2007. We
have recently reviewed our Behaviour and Discipline policy; we have an
annual Anti Bullying questionnaire which goes out to all children. The
school meals service is supplying school meals with a healthy diet.
Water is available for children
to drink.
A “
Police Road
show” has visited the school and the year 6 pupils attended “Crucial
Crew”.
Provision is made for children
to ride bicycles to school.
Fruit breaks are available for
all children in Key stage 1 each day. We constantly talk about being safe
in PHSCE and also in assemblies. Health is formally taught as part of the
curriculum in certain age groups in school; each class has PHSCE as part
of their timetable.
School nurse monitors/supports
learning in school.
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What
activities are available to pupils
The school has an equal
opportunities policy.
We have an Owls Club which is a
Before and After school club.
A holiday club has been run by
Harrogate Council and Football coaching by Leeds United in the summer.
In term time a Netball club
runs several times a week and football, small games, choir, knitting,
orchestra and recorder clubs are also held.
The children in year 3 go
swimming once a week.
Children in year 5and 6 have a
residential visit each year to Robin Hood’s Bay or Bewerley Park Outdoor
Residential Centre.
Day visits to support the
curriculum are taken in each year group
Other sporting groups have
visited the school to work with the older pupils - Golf, Tag Rugby
A French club is held after
school each week. Musical instrument lessons are also taken by peripatetic
staff.
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How
are we working with parents and the community.
From the questionnaire parents
believed that we were a very good school with a very good reputation;
staff were supportive, approachable and friendly.
We have a thriving
P.T.A.
raising approx. £4000 each year.
Parent volunteers come into
school each day and we enjoy a lot of parental support.
We visit Age Concern in
Knaresborough; children visit shops, churches, make visits to the town as
part of their curriculum. We raise money for different local and national
charities.
We run a Before and After
School club, the school is being used during the holiday period for a
children’s club and a sports club and we have 3 evening lettings each
week. There are well fostered links with pre school groups
A major focus of the School
Development plan is to develop further links with the local community.
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What have pupils told us about the school and what have we done as a
result
Our pupils tell us about our
school through School Council and class council meetings. They complete an
annual bullying questionnaire. They also completed a general
questionnaire, parallel with the parent one and issues raised are being
considered.
The children through the School
Council are concerned about the school grounds, occasional incidences of
bullying, litter and generally improving life for their peers.
They have requested bike racks
and these have been erected.
The school council raised the
issue of year 5 toilets with the Governors. Their concerns were accepted,
the toilets altered and the school council involved in the alterations and
colour scheme. A year 6 area had also been developed. We hope to make
further improvements.
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What do our pupils do after leaving this school
Virtually
all our pupils transfer to
King
James
School
in Knaresborough
Some
children, on religious grounds, transfer to St Aidan’s or John Fisher
but 99% transfer to King James.
On
some occasions, Plymouth Brethren children transfer to the groups own
school and we have occasional transfers to Ripon Grammar, Ashville,
Boroughbridge High and the occasional private school.
We
know from meetings with head of year, heads of different departments,
contacts with past parents, discussions with
King
James
School
staff that our pupils do well and achieve highly.
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What
have we done in response to Ofsted
The daily timetable has been
altered so creating more useful teaching blocks of time. The lunchtime has
been brought forward resulting in 2 afternoon periods of more equal
length.
In the last Ofsted Inspection
it was felt that too greater emphasis was placed on the 3 core subjects.
We are adopting a Themes and Schemes approach to the curriculum
which will move towards a more balanced interlinked curriculum. Remaining areas will need to be taught as a discrete subject.
The school is continuing to
work at the multi- cultural approach. From September 2006 all Key stage 2
classes will be learning French within their curriculum. We are also
looking to develop links with a school abroad and although several
attempts have been made these have been unsuccessful, to date.
A new system of Assessment will
be in place from September 06 and assessment activities are planned for
each child in each term in all the core subject areas.
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