Please follow the link below to find information about how the school have spent it's Sports Premium funding.
A massive thank you to one of our governors Tim Hollingshurst who has worked alongside our sports co-ordinator Mrs Shaw to gather this information together.
I am delighted to hear that four of our parents are running the London Marathon this weekend. On behalf of school I wish them all the very best and look forward to speaking to them about their experience of the race and to hear about their wonderful achievement. They are Mr and Mrs Wass, Mr Taylor and Mr Chadwick.
Good luck to all and we hope to see you on the television!
I have been sent two links to fundraising pages should anyone wish to sponsor them:
Congratulations to our chair of governors Mrs Armitage who has been awarded with the National Leader of Governance status this week (NLG). We are incredibly proud of Mrs Armitage and her leadership of our governors and are delighted that this has been recognised with a National Award that very few are able to attain. It is another great example of us sharing our practice as part of the systems leadership agenda.
On the government website it states that National Leaders of Governors are:
National leaders of governance are highly effective chairs of governors who use their
skills and experience to support another chair of governors to improve school and
academy performance.
National leaders of governance have contributed to raising
standards in their own school or academy by providing
appropriate support and challenge to their headteacher or
principal and by developing their governing body.
All national leaders of governance have had training in coaching
and mentoring and have at least three years’ experience as chair
within the last five years.
They aim to supplement existing sources of school-to-school
support for governance offered by local authorities, dioceses,
trusts and other partners.
In some situations, national leaders of governance may work
alongside national leaders of education and local leaders of
education.
The data dashboard for the school has been published for 2014.
It is a very useful document for governors but also for the general public and compares the attainment and progress of our pupils against similar schools and all schools nationally.
I hope you find it useful and I am sure you will be as proud as I am of our staff and pupils for all their hard work.
http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/dash.php?urn=112853
In our first workshop get-together of 2015, it was a packed house to greet our School Improvement Adviser, Carolyn Brearley. Governors were also joined by the school's Senior Leadership Team to benefit from this collaborative professional development opportunity.
Mr Crawford opened the workshop by reading out a letter from David Laws, Minister of State for Schools, congratulating the school for our fantastic performance in 2014. A proud moment for everybody in the school community who have worked so hard!
Carolyn is a senior adviser, hugely experienced and enthusiastically supportive. She helped us make sense of our RAISEonline performance data and explore the strengths and development opportunities for the school. (With deft use of post-it notes and the fridge to sort them on!). We also reviewed Ofsted criteria for achievement and mapped our own evidence against these.
All in all a productive and engaging session. Many thanks to Carolyn for leading it so helpfully.
Before Christmas we had a very special day here in school when we officially opened our new classroom. The classroom was opened by the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Kevin Gillott and Ian Thomas, the Director of Children Services for Derbyshire.
It was also lovely to welcome back the project manager Dee Hill and Kev Walker who was Team Leader throughout the duration of the build. We had a lovely assembly and were joined by Governors, members of the PTFA and parents who help in school.
It has been in all the local papers over Christmas, an example of the write up can be found by following the link below:
The official photos from the day can also be found below.
You may be aware that the league tables have been published today. Below is a link to the schools in Derbyshire. You are able to click on the top of each column which will list the schools in rank order. I am delighted to say that in all key measures of attainment and progress we are joint first. I must say a massive thank you to all our staff and pupils for all their hard work, I am very proud of them.
Also, this year there is a section where it ranks your school against 125 similar schools from across the country in places such as Westminster, Devon and Herefordshire. Out of the 125 similar schools we came 1st which is a fantastic achievement.
I am sure you are as proud as me to be associated with such a wonderful school. Thank you as always for your support.
Our newest Parent Governor, Rachel Watson has got 'stuck into' her role with enthusiasm by working alongside our well-experienced LA Governor, Sheila Porter, to review our approach to reading in school.
The ladies have made a couple of recent visits to school to explore the topic with Mrs Rhodes. The aim of their monitoring was to look at how the school willl maintain an upward trend in reading and literacy. Some key points from their report:
Overall, both reading and literacy skills are high on the agenda within school and are central to all subjects. Schemes and systems in place offer every support to children in their learning and actively promote a love for reading
Phonics (Letters & Sounds) taught in 20-minute slots as first lesson each day.
Yr 1 children are given a Phonics Screening Test – an external, statutory test to monitor progress
Many hanks to Mrs Watson, Mrs Porter and to Mrs Rhodes for the time taken to review this important area of our school.
It was a full house and a packed schedule for governors this evening. We reviewed the school budget, approved key spending for school improvement and covered performance management activity.
We reviewed an excellent monitoring report from governors who've been looking into how we continue to maintain very high standards of reading and plans were made to monitor other key areas of focus this year.
Finally Mr Crawford talked us through significant changes to the way the new curriculum impacts the way our children's attainment and progress are assessed.
Thanks to all governors for fantastic input and engagement as usual!
It was a pleasure and privilege to welcome our 'Smalley Old Boys' to school today. This is the 2nd year we've hosted the reunion. The get-together consists of a hot school lunch, a chance to see the children rehearse for our Remembrance Service and enjoy a tour of the school.
Our year 5 & 6 children were warmly congratulated by the former pupils for beautiful singing and reading with clarity and confidence. Thank you to Mrs Mason for keeping our long held tradition strong.