Category: General News

Dear Parents/ carers

The Year 5/6 production, Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies, was brilliantly performed this year: the pupils and staff never let us down. We are always treated to a bit of a spectacle (the props and costumes were superb) and we are always blown away by the children’s confidence and presence on stage. The play was riddled with awful jokes which in the wrong hands can be hackneyed and tedious. Instead we were all prepared to give ourselves up to it and laugh because the children delivered their lines so expertly- with precision timing – and threw themselves into their characters. The singing, the dancing, the acting- were all first rate and as usual fresh talent was realised and nurtured up there on the stage. The final performance on Wednesday really took off- one actor’s confidence rubbing off on the next and inciting the audience into greater participation until the atmosphere was electric. It was the perfect send off for a group of pupils who have always gelled well and looked out for each other- the performance had a flavour of them as a group; was, if you like, a good true reflection of their group spirit, their togetherness. It also felt though like a group coming of age- growing into their parts as they’ve grown into themselves recently—a display of confidence, personal ambition and readiness for the next stage in their education. In short they shone.

A lot of our Year 6 children had been together since Reception and those that joined later had slotted in as if they had started in Reception. Looking on you could see a year group that functioned well; that was full of so many wonderful friendships; friendships that if they’re lucky and if they make an effort- should and could last a lifetime. For my part, I will miss them enormously- partly because I’ve been around long enough now that I felt they were my Leavers – they were just coming into Year 1, after all, when I arrived on the scene. As a group they had always been impressive; energetic and creative and full of beans, and they will undoubtedly leave a big hole here at Minch. They, no doubt, had been bursting to get out and get on with the more ‘grown up’ business of secondary school for some time: to them the years in primary school have been half a lifetime. I hope they enjoyed themselves and I hope they felt proud of themselves. I hope that they felt ready, for the most part, to take on the challenges ahead, as well as make good use of all the rewarding experiences and opportunities that will be coming their way. We felt very proud of them and this will always temper any sadness. We felt proud of the way they had conducted themselves as a Year 6; proud of them as individuals; of their many attributes and talents; proud of them as young people with so much to give. We so enjoyed having them and send our very best wishes with them as they strike out into the blue beyond.

We selected a book of poetry as a present for them this year. For me poetry has the capacity to reflect deeply on all of life- on everything and anything – so it seemed an appropriate present to give them as they drift off beyond our clutches to lead the rest of their lives. This particular collection is a favourite of mine- it’s called ‘Because a Fire Was in My Head’ – I hope this is how we are passing these children onto their secondary schools- fired up and ready. I hope this is what we are achieving for all our pupils. We aim to recognise and nurture all the pupils as individuals; to work on an ethos which supports their emotional and social needs as well as getting them inspired and fired up by learning itself so that they will always want to learn. I am very proud of our teaching team – we are none of us perfect but there is real strength in depth in this team and an unfaltering commitment to the children first and foremost. We are not pre-occupied by what an Ofsted team might think of us or by the SATS results per se- these are necessary and perfectly reasonable methods for judging one school against another but in terms of ‘knowing’ a school they are a scratch of the surface – real life is always going to be infinitely more complex and subtle than a number or a grade. The bottom line is this however- if we get it right for the children and I mean right for them in as many ways as we can- then high standards will always follow. As an Ofsted inspector I have seen schools who are so cowed by the Ofsted process and so preoccupied with their data (understandably so, I might add, given the very real pressure on schools to perform), that they have lost sight of the child. We are not prepared to make this mistake- I have staff with real integrity- who are determined to care for nothing but the children in their care.

The high standards are filtering through. Below are the latest figures – some of these may need to be revised if papers are sent back to the markers so treat this as a draft but a reliable indicator, all the same, of an upward shift in standards over time.

Phonic Screening Check

 

Â	2013	2014	2015
Minchinhampton	62	81	100

 

Key Stage 1 Data

 

	Level 2 +			Level 2b+			Level 3+
	2013	2014	2015	2013	2014	2015	2013	2014	2015
Reading	100	88	96	89	86	91	39	48	47
Writing	96	91	96	83	79	77	22	7	   30
Maths	100	95	96	89	88	81	22	33	40

 

Key Stage 2

 

Â	Level 4+ percentage			Level5+ percentage			Level6+percentage			2 Levels of Progress			3 Levels of Progress
	Sch13	Sch14	Sch 15	Sch13	Sch 14	Sch 15	Sch13	Sch14	Sch15	Sch13	Sch14	Sch 15	Sch13	Sch14	Sch 15
Reading	100	90	95	59	66	79	5	0	2	97	93	98	19	21	43
Writing	97	93	100	51	63	64	0	7	4	97	98	100	29	48	68
Maths	92	81	95	51	59	60	18	12	17	95	88	98	30	33	43

 

 

A few things could to be said by way of explanation:-

1. Progress is the most critical measure for schools because some cohorts will always have a higher attainment profile than others. The progress measures here are strong when compared
2. The percentages of pupils achieving level 3 at KS1 and level 5 at KS2 has been rising steadily. These figures are strong when compared to other schools nationally.
3. Maths is finally catching up with English. We continue to work on ways to improve the teaching of maths and this trend will continue.
4. The disparity between Level 6 in English and Level 6 in maths is the same nationally.

Now that you have seen the figures, I have to warn you that levels will no longer exist as of September. This is to be applauded – the new way of working without levels and instead through year group related skills and knowledge is educationally much more enlightened; more in line with our approach and ethos and much better for the pupils. However it will take some getting used to – for teachers and parents alike. I will explain how it is to work and the thinking behind it in detail next term.

For now I am signing off for the summer and I wish you quality time and happiness with your children. There should be a temporary classroom in place as of September as well as some lovely play structures in Foundation Stage- so plenty to keep us busy until then. It’s been a tough year for some of our teams this year- in particular The Nursery and our school office and we wish them a better one next year. The children however continue to thrive and that’s what we’re here for.

N Moss

 

Not long ago I wrote about the importance of something called formative assessment in our teaching.  I was lucky enough recently to attend a conference with a man called Dylan Wiliam who is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education and a man worth listening to (see www.dylanwiliam.org)  He has painstakingly been through all the research about what actually makes a difference to children’s learning (there are ‘mountains’ of this kind of research). The three areas of teaching practice he identified as empirically proven to have impact on children’s learning were:- formative assessment, metacognition and philosophy for children. Of course that is not to say educationalists have found the definitive answer to this hot potato- but certainly those of us in teaching have a responsibility to spend our time and money on those things that are proven to work. We are therefore committed to formative assessment – the whole school attended a conference on this for our last INSET and all our teachers work in teaching and learning groups on an ongoing basis, supporting each other to develop better methods of formative assessment. Our school will be leading 15 schools in some action research next year, working with one of the most high profile proponents of formative assessment over the last 15 years, Shirley Clarke. We will also be receiving whole school INSET on Philosophy for Children in October. Both the formative assessment and the P4C are things we are working on with DGAT- our multi-academy trust.

I joined Shirley Clarke for a conference on Friday and again the question of what actually makes a difference came up in conversation. I bring you back to this because I find it fascinating how sometimes public perception (and that includes teachers’ perceptions) can be so at odds with empirical evidence and/or lag so far behind. For example it has been proven that class size, ability grouping and moving schools has little impact on a pupils’ learning. There you go- I’ve said it! And now you’re all sitting there (myself included), going slightly red in the face, and screaming, ‘Nonsense!’ from the rooftops, or at least across the living room. To all of you I would say three things:- firstly we need to be careful not to maintain a strong opinion about how things work just because we have always held it; secondly there will always be individual exceptions to the rule and thirdly, consider that much of what gets bandied about in the press and by politicians about education is based on their own educational experiences (some of which will, by now, be 30 + years old and 30 years is a long time in education).

The argument about class size is always going to be a hot one, particularly because it is often held up as an advantage for independent schools but also because it would seem patently logical- teacher has more time with each pupil- therefore pupil makes better progress. I suppose the point here is this- the most significant impact on pupil learning is the relationship between teacher and pupil, followed closely by the employment of enlightened teaching strategies that empower the pupils as learners as opposed to teaching ‘at’ them. If the teaching is weak or closed, it has a detrimental impact on learning- whether it be 15 pupils in a class or 30. Also the dynamic in a classroom is more subtle and important than you would imagine and can defy the logic of high teacher: pupil ratio. I have taught classes of 15 in an independent school and they have been really hard work- particularly if the combination of children is problematic in terms of generating ideas or balancing certain personalities. The learners themselves are a critical part of the equation (predictably enough) and more often than not, a class of 30 can be a richer and more productive resource in the hands of a good teacher than a class of 15. The best teaching strategies out there (ones that employ formative assessment) utilise the learners as a resource for learning and involve lots of collaboration and peer support: the smaller the class size, the less the scope for doing this. Of course class size can make a difference but it is not necessarily a smaller class size that makes the positive difference- it is more subtle than that and reliably comes down to the quality of teaching every time.

I will return to this ‘conversation’ at the outset of next term. The conference gave me a great deal of food for thought, some of which needs in-depth conversation with the Senior Leadership Team and the rest of the staff before we decide how to proceed. I always witter on about how careful we are that the decisions we take will lead to the best possible outcomes for your children. I reiterate that now.

As a rule I wouldn’t generally describe out pupil body as rule bound. Don’t get me wrong- they understand their right from wrong and are unfailingly great company and always mean well. However they don’t just follow the instructions on the box- their natural creativity means they generally break out of any boxes provided and come up with something entirely unexpected- hence the success of the scrap store in school lunchtimes: the scrap store being, ‘present given to child at christmas-child then plays with the cardboard box that the present came in instead,’ taken to its natural extreme and it thrives here at Minchinhampton. Hence the success in recent years of our K’Nex challengers- a 1st and now a 2nd place in as many years, when you consider the numbers in the competition, is rather impressive and speaks volumes about our pupils’ capacity for creativity- as of course do the many and varied ways in which our pupils respond to being given topic and values homework; the wonderful initiatives our school committees come up with and their beautiful artwork . At every available opportunity our children grab the initiative and take the law into their own hands. We, for our part, ride the wave as best we can- providing a significant range of extra-curricular opportunities for them; giving them autonomy in the classroom and freedom at lunchtimes and letting go the reins on learning whenever we can and dare. I spend my days awash with children’s work which never ceases to surprise and charm me and with endless ideas and requests from the children. Sometimes I feel my head going under -heaven knows, the rest of the school community, whether it be staff or parents, governors or the PTA, are no better- they are simply grown up versions of these ridiculously proactive, busy-minded children- but it is all undeniably pleasurable. We are presently reviewing our school rules and behaviour in school and, as part of this, I will soon be sending you back a survey about behaviour. Our primary concern here is to ensure the children’s learning behaviours deliver, for them, the very best learning. It’s an interesting conundrum this one- given the children’s creativity is a key driver as well as an invaluable engine for this school, what is the best approach for getting the very best traction with their learning? We’re doing just fine of course -this is always going to be about fine tuning and I will be very interested in your feedback as we look to go forward.

Anyone visiting Minchinhampton Academy for the first time always comments on the positive atmosphere. This is down, in no small part, to the engaging, enthusiastic pupils we borrow, each day, from yourselves. It is also down to the quality of relationships between adults and children throughout the school- that atmosphere people talk about comes from hearing and seeing interactions around the school that are friendly, considerate and trusting. Visitors talk about well-behaved children but it is the spirit of the school that people all feel very strongly about. This has grown over the past few years, and is because the school has a clear conviction about its culture and what it means to be a part of Minchinhampton Academy. As part of this, we have a strong commitment to pastoral care throughout the teaching team.

We aim to be proactive about children’s needs; to predict when children might have worries and respond before they develop into something bigger. We want to be there to provide children with direction at play time, a guiding hand in class and a safe haven at any time during the school day. Children always pick up on change, they feel the vibes when the lives of the people around them shift or move in a direction that feels wrong or not familiar. This affects them and they bring their feelings to school – albeit they might not be immediately obvious. But the staff know what to look for and how to handle these feelings. This is the essence of what Minchinhampton is about. The school puts the children’s needs first: all of them just need space and time to be themselves and to be understood.

There have had to be subtle changes to the way we operate pastorally over the last few months and I thought now would be a good moment to update you. All pastoral concerns should be referred first and foremost through the class teachers and teaching assistants and/or myself. If you cannot contact us directly, we will come back to you as soon as possible and at least within 24 hours. We will then keep you informed about what action we have taken and how things are going and parents must also keep us informed. Sometimes there is no easy ‘click of the fingers’ to solve an issue but usually constant communication and feedback between ourselves and yourselves goes along way. We do also have a Pastoral Team who operate across the school: they are myself, Sara Jones, Ronald Jansen, Paula Hough and Rob Bradshaw. The team are on hand to support pupils during lunchtimes but also to offer more in depth support where it is necessary at other times of the day. Staff will regularly refer on pupils or ‘situations’ to the pastoral team who then have at their disposal a whole range of strategies including giving children responsibilities, signposting them to particular clubs or  offering them guidance and support. They can also refer on again to an outside agency if more specialist advice is needed. Last year the Buddy Room became a good base for the team and a safe place for children to sit, draw or talk. Unfortunately it has been a music room for the majority of this year but we will definitely have it in back in action at some point.

Please, please, if you have any concerns about your child, their happiness and well-being, don’t hesitate to contact your class teacher or myself. We will always listen and are very committed, as a school, to helping your child to feel happy and settled. Every child goes through difficult times at some point in their school life but, as I have already said, if we work together, we can find solutions.

With the other head teachers from the Academy Trust, I was lucky enough recently to attend a conference with a man called Dylan Wiliam who is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education and a man worth listening to (see www.dylanwiliam.org)  If Educational Policy was defined by people like him as opposed to politicians with short term agendas and their own (possibly inaccurate) pre-conceptions, I firmly believe education would be in a better place than it is. He does not ‘pull his punches’ when discussing politics in education. He spoke about the National Strategies for English and maths which were designed to radically improve achievement in this country. They cost ½ billion ponds to implement but actual levels of attainment went up very little. He said it would have been cheaper to offer every child in the country a £1000 bribe to try to improve their exam results! Wiliam is unconvinced by many other expensive solutions that have been seized upon over the years. He says there is little empirical evidence that many initiatives have had any significant impact on pupil achievement including curriculum reform; how schools are structured (for example small schools, large schools, middle schools); computers, interactive whiteboards and workforce reforms.  And yet, he says, there is more need than ever to get this right because the world is changing at such a pace. There are many traditional skills that are disappearing fast from the workplace and being replaced by technology. Essentially there is a race on between education and technology and unless we are clear about what children really need from their education, we are going to fail them hopelessly. Education (despite the age old claims by one generation that the next is ill-educated and theirs was a golden age before it all went wrong)- has continued to improve steadily. The average IQ of the population has gone up by 3 points every decade for the last 80 years. Schools and education have got better but unfortunately the price of admission to the workplace has also gone up. Wiliam says there is only one 21^st century skill worth worrying about- ‘We need to produce people who know how to act when they are faced with situations for which they were no specifically prepared.’ (Paper 1998).

Wiliam claims there are only three areas of teaching practice that are empirically proven to have impact on children’s learning- formative assessment, metacognition and philosophy for children. We have been weaving more and more formative assessment into our practice over the last few years and now we intend to make it better still. Formative assessment is nothing new- it is what good teachers have always done. Good teachers establish where the pupils are in their learning. They identify the learning destination and then carefully plan a route to get there. Along the way they make regular checks on progress and make adjustments to the course as conditions dictate. This all sound terribly simple but at its heart is a really strong commitment to each child’s needs, a fine and subtle appreciation of learning and an excellent level of interaction between teacher and pupils so not so simple then. We need our children to take responsibility for their own learning- to understand themselves as leaners and to be constantly evaluating their learning and the learning of their peers. We want the children generating their own ideas and questions and we often take these as the starting point. Wherever possible we want them to use their initiative and think creatively, exploring different possible solutions to the same problem. We want them to be resilient and persevere when faced with a challenge. Again, not so simple, but definitely worth spending our time and energy on.

I’d like to say a word quickly about our ongoing project to develop our reading spaces in school. Our thanks must go out to Mrs Webb for all her inspirational work. Over the last two years Mrs Webb has built up our impressive stock of books both in the library and in each classroom. She runs whole class sessions in the afternoons, promoting the very best new books we have on offer; she manages the school librarians who help to organise, maintain and promote the library; runs book clubs with groups of children and produces arresting and exciting displays. We must also say a very big thank you to Mr Knowles, Mick Orr and Meg Mclaughlin who have  very recently created our reading pods (or caves as they seem to now be known) outside my office window. The children have taken to these immediately and at lunchtime or during guided reading sessions, there are reliably a huddle of them happily tucked up inside, pouring over books. The Water Garden has always been a space where some children like to go and read as well as act out their oral re-tells. We aim to encourage this further by providing them with chests full of dressing up clothes (hence the request later in this newsletter)  and building cabinets to house ‘outdoor’ books- these being some of our older books, past their best and ready to be put out to pasture. Lastly we have an artist coming in this next term to work with children and parents to create little ‘borrower- style’ installations of scenes from stories. These will be found all through the library and other shared spaces and will each come with a QR code. You will be able to scan the QR code with a mobile device; this will then links you to a video of a class re-telling of that story or perhaps also some artwork, drama or writing by the children.

I keep mentioning our website (sorry to be a bore) but it is now flourishing under Mrs Saeed’s expert eye and as a result of her tireless efforts. I have recently drawn your attention to both the ‘Curriculum’ and ‘Important Information’ tabs as useful sources of information for parents about how we teach and how you might support your children at home. I need to put a word in now for our blogs which are now all up and running. There are blogs for each class and for myself, writing and values. Ultimately we want our pupils blogging their writing –this to give them a wider audience and plentiful feedback. I have seen this working brilliantly in a few schools- with children becoming highly motivated writers as a result. Essentially we have to accept that another blogger’s opinion in say Australia is far more exciting and engaging than just teacher and peer feedback day in day out – however well given. We are not yet ready to make this leap and our commitment to blogging class news is partly by way of preparation for the leap when it comes. However, thus far, where it has worked well our class blogs have proved very positive – not least because they give parents a window into what goes on in school and pupils the chance to show off what they have done. And yet, in most cases, we are still missing a vital ingredient: your comments. We can write away, all the time assuming and hoping that people are reading the blogs, but blogging really relies on feedback, and this means your comments. The staff crave them to help justify time spent preparing the blogs but of course they also means a great deal to the pupils themselves. So I am here making a plea to all of you out there in the ether- parents, governors and pupils alike- to make sure you look at the blogs and that you comment when you look. And of course, the more you comment the more the blog will be updated- and hey presto we will have a well-rounded, reciprocal relationship developing beautifully across cyber space.

N Moss

Dear Parents/ carers

 Parent Forum

To reiterate, the general picture from the parent surveys we received was very positive. I am particularly pleased that more positive percentages regarding behaviour, bullying, praise and happiness in school have been maintained. We have also seen a marked improvement in the percentages for clubs, for ‘school listening to the viewpoints of parents’ and for ‘how I can best help my child.’

We have organised two Parent Forums but unfortunately have had no take up from parents. This could mean one of two things or both- either parents are too busy or too happy. Either way I feel I must feedback to parents now about our thoughts and any plans we have drawn up.

Only 88% of you agreed that ‘My child has work that is right for his/her ability,’ and agreed that homework was appropriate. When I have spoken to parents informally about this issue, often the concern has been around maths homework which is usually designed to practice basic skills. It is not therefore a reliable window into all the learning that is going on in the classroom. We have done this because two years ago our Parent Forums voiced concerns about maths homework that was difficult to understand as well as concern about their children’s basic skills in maths. We will continue to look for ways to improve homework but it could remain an area of contention between school and home, given people’s opinions about homework can be greatly varied. We have worked hard our end to improve our reliability and our feedback when it comes to homework and parents have got a lot better at ensuring their children complete it. Perhaps we should be satisfied with that and sometimes agree to disagree on the issue.

One area I am particularly pleased with has been the number of you who agreed that ‘I am kept well informed about how I can best help my child.’ We have gradually built this over the years and I hope you have found the latest information on the website under the ‘Curriculum’ tab has improved the quality of information yet further. We have also provided you with home learning suggestions on the website and we will soon be publishing activity suggestions to accompany the pupils’ maths target cards.

One other area that regularly has a lower percentage is ‘parents feeling informed about their child’s progress’ (88% agreed and 50% strongly agreed). To address this in recent times, we have adapted the way we conduct parents evenings to ensure you come into the meeting already better informed. The Report Card or the Report (which now comes out mid-year) both give a clear indication to parents about their child’s attainment, progress and effort. Parents Evenings can then be used to qualify and reflect on these judgements. We also now conduct longer parent meetings twice a year where we feel it would benefit the child. We have also introduced Open afternoons over the last few years so parents get a chance to come and look through their children’s books and displays with them. This year we will be looking to improve communication further by trying to improve the quality of our parent meetings. All teachers will be receiving training in how to manage meetings better so that parents get more out of them (see our Achievement for All initiative on the long term plan).

Given we have now not had Parent Forums this year, the consultation process feels incomplete. Please do come and see me if you have any feedback that you feel might be useful.

Thank you

Kind regards

N Moss

Some of the writing coming out of Year 5 and 6 has been excellent recently. The drama and intrigue of Macbeth seems to have inspired them.

Macbeth

Paragraph 2

At that same moment, a wounded warrior dragged himself through the huge oak doors of Inverness Castle. As he struggled forwards, trying to ignore the agonising pain that overwhelmed him, he gasped for breath and tried to deliver his message. “Victory, my lord,” he spluttered, “Thanks to your general, Macbeth.” King Duncan paused, leaned forward and ordered, “We will reward Macbeth’s bravery and honour him with the title ‘Thane of Cawdoor;’ I will visit Dunsinane personally.” The king shot a nervous glance at the warrior and chewed his fingernails as the warrior’s face turned white as snow (the colour seemed to be draining out of him.) But the king kept his confidence and beckoned for his tailor. ‘’I must prepare,” he boomed, “I leave at dawn!” The warrior suddenly started screaming and shrieking in a bloodcurdling, ear piercing way.

By Archie Dowie

 

 

A Tree

Behold! A help I am!

Held here in a secure globe,

With help from me an adult you are to be,

I breathe you and you breathe me.

 

I hear happiness and sadness,

I know everyone, the hikers and the happy picnickers,

I stretch over to shelter them,

No one says thank you

But I hear laughter,

And that’s enough for me.

 

I see people viciously taking my friends like packs of dogs.

Roars from chainsaws and then they fall

I know that they will take me some day.

We shout at the wind to take the humans away.

 

I feel very wet but very dry,

I know I’m not dry but my breath is wet.

We huddle together to catch the heat.

I feel warm-hearted towards the rodents inside me.

 

I know others need my oxygen

but I am old and frail

So now I’m going to die

I rest and sleep

But I might come back

As my dear child

 

 

 

Compassion  by Emily Braune (Year 6)

 

This story that I am about to tell

Is about two people called Harry and Belle,

It shows what it’s like to be in other people’s shoes,

Empathy is the one to choose

 

When Belle is sitting all alone

And Harry is with his friends,

He notices her with tears in her eyes,

Harry knows Belle doesn’t pretend.

 

He feels her sorrow and her pain

And asks her what’s the issue

She tells him her tale with a quivering voice

Whist dabbing her eye with a tissue.

 

His voice is warm and tender

It puts her at her ease,

Harry’s arm is around Belle’s shoulder

He gives her a compassionate squeeze.

 

I hope you’ll see from my caring tale

That the role of the friend is clear

to provide love, support and sympathy

At times of greatest fear.

 

Didn’t you know! Compassion is the new fashion!