Glade Hill Primary and Nursery School
We are Golden and we SPARKLE
Headteacher Letter - start of Spring 1
Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,
I hope you all had a nice festive break. It has been so lovely to see all of the children back in school and ready to learn.
Our Super Year 6s have started their SATs groups since returning to school and are attending these in addition to their class teaching at different parts of the day. The aim of this is to give the children that final boost in key areas of the curriculum such as reading and maths in preparation for their SATs tests in May and also to prepare them for secondary school. The children are all engaging really positively with this and working hard. Well done team 6 and a big thank you to all the staff working with them to make this happen.
We also have lots of great learning planned across the other year groups this term, so make sure you check out our website for useful information regarding what your children are learning in their classes. Our teachers have been continuing to work hard on the ‘Class Pages’ and they will be updating them throughout the term with photographs, examples of work and useful links to support your child’s learning.
As part of our efforts at Glade Hill to continually improve, you will be aware that we have three School Development priorities for this academic year.
These are as follows:
- Improving the teaching of Maths to improve outcomes at the end of KS2.
- Further develop our Phonics teaching and assessments.
- Developing our EYFS provision so that our youngest children get off to the best start possible at our school.
These are areas of particular focus for us, and we continue to work on and teach the rest of the curriculum as well.
As part of this, staff training and development for the Spring and Summer terms will focus on continuing to improve the teaching of maths across the school and continuing to develop our phonics teaching and assessment. Senior Leaders will also be continuing to monitor the impact of this on children’s learning and progress.
As you will be aware improving attendance continues to be very important to our school. Helping your child to have the best possible attendance is an important way that you can support their learning and achievement. Research shows that children with over 95% attendance achieve better grades, achieve their best and are happier and more settled in school. The Government are really focusing on this area and are launching a campaign ‘Every moment matters’ to raise awareness of the importance of good attendance for all children. The Nottingham Priority Education Investment Area (PEIA) team have also produced some useful videos in a range of languages that you may find useful to watch. Here are the links to these:
To promote good attendance in school, we will be continuing to present children with 100% attendance each term with star badges to mark this achievement. The bronze badges will be given out on Friday. We will also be continuing to announce which classes have the best attendance each week in assemblies, which the children love. The winning classes earn extra outside time and the phase attendance trophy for the week! Thank you in advance for making sure your child comes to school as much as possible, and please let us know via the office if you require any additional support.
With so much going on in school, and lots of trips and enrichment activities coming up, 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 look forward to seeing you all very soon.
Kindest regards,
Mrs Anna Stapleton
Headteacher