Headteacher letter - end of Spring 1 2024

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

We have yet another fantastic half-term at Glade Hill and it was so lovely to celebrate this at our Special Awards assemblies today. The children have blown us all away with their commitment to learning, and how golden and SPARKLY they are. Well done to all the children chosen for awards today, I hope your grown-ups enjoyed the presentation.

All classes have done lots of fantastic learning this half-term and the children are making some fantastic progress. Take a look at some examples of their work below. I know you will be as impressed as I am!

As you will know, as part of our efforts at Glade Hill to continually improve, we have three School Development priorities for this academic year.

This term we have made the following progress towards these:

1. To review current policy and improve provision to raise attainment in reading across the school. – Focus for staff meetings, visit by PEIA English Lead to review provision, coaching staff by English Lead Miss Whiles.
2. To develop assessment strategies across the curriculum to support children in making accelerated progress. – Focus for staff meetings, observations of teaching and feedback by Mrs Want (Deputy Head) and coaching support.
3. To continue to raise attendance levels across the school, reducing the absence rates and supporting persistent absentees to attend school more regularly. – new Office Manager and Attendance Improvement Officer employed (Mrs Raynor) who will start after half-term, ongoing incentives and rewards, support for families by PEIA attendance team.

As shared before, as parents and carers you have a valuable part to play in supporting these development areas too. Some ways you can do this are listed below:

• Read with your child at least three times a week and record this in the school diaries.
• Complete any homework or online learning given to support your child to make the best possible progress.
• Ensure your child is in school as much as possible, good attendance is proven to support pupil achievement and wellbeing.

With so much going on in school, and lots of trips and enrichment activities coming up after half-term, make sure you check the Arbor and MarvellousMe app for updates, reminders and messages regarding all the fun things we are going to be learning and doing. These are our main communication tools so if you do not yet have the apps, or you are experiencing problems, please speak to a member of our Office team who will be able to help you. The MarvellousMe app is also used to send ‘badges’ when your child has been praised by a member of staff including leaders, so keep a look out.

Thank you in advance for all your support for our amazing school and I hope you all have a lovely half-term break.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Anna Stapleton - Headteacher