End of year celebration

End of year report to pupils and parents – July 2016

Dear Parents,

 

I know that you’ve been (hopefully) well informed of what’s been happening in the school. However, I am a big believer that you should celebrate successes, so we have collated a summary of the achievements from this year.  I’ve centred them around our motto of ‘Growing together in mind, body and spirit’ as this is the essence and ethos of our lovely school.

We are very proud of our pupils. They have worked hard, been engaged in their learning and have enjoyed school.

• They are also incredibly kind and caring children, who have made an effort to support people and animals who are less fortunate than themselves – they want to make a difference! We have raised a lot of money each term for charities such as Devon Refugees, RD&E Hospital, CLIC, and Oxfam.

• The expectations have risen at the school. I hope you have noticed significant growth in your child this year in terms of improved progress and attitudes (despite the new levels and tougher expectations of the new curriculum).  Please look in their books to see the improved standards, or at the class scrapbooks for a log of their learning.
• We’ve grown in number. We have had an enormous amount of new children who have  joined the school this year. In September we will have 265 pupils – which means nearly 50 children have joined this year: a reflection of our growing popularity!
• We’ve maintained a breadth of curriculum despite the lack of time to fit in all the literacy and numeracy objectives.
  • Our unique St Peter’s curriculum makes learning fun!
  • Topics have been brought to life with lots of visits, trips and experiences – nearly 50 for the year!
  • We learn about our history, geography and science through our locality, which means our children have a growing appreciation of our wonderful community.
• We ‘liberated’ pupils and teachers from the afternoon drudgery of worksheets and videos. Instead, our topic scrapbooks show the playful, engaging and hands-on learning that the children have been doing instead.
• We’ve encouraged children to work together more. All staff received training to ensure there is a lot of collaboration in lessons.
• We have worked with teachers so that pupils are given clear ‘success criteria’ and marking ladders in their lessons. This also helps them to self-assess and take ownership of their learning.
• Pupils are much better at trying new things: making mistakes and not giving up! This is our ‘growth mindset’.
• We’ve had a massive push on handwriting – which has had a dramatic effect on standards. Thanks to parents for helping with this, especially the early development, where they need to develop gross and fine motor skills.
• We have developed our children’s understanding in maths – helping the children making connections using maths resources.
• We’ve been working on the quality in our books. We mark our books to show: success, and ‘not there yet’ – giving more verbal feedback and steps for improvement.
• It has been a hugely successful year for sport.
  • Nearly every class teacher has worked with Mrs Kilburn to develop high-quality PE lessons.
  • We have lots of sports clubs!
  • And in competition we have excelled, winning the East Devon Tennis trophy,  the East Devon Rounders trophy, East Devon Aquathon, East Devon Cycling Trophy and winning East Devon medals in Y5/6 Quad Kids as well a medal at the Stockland Cross Country and winning many girl and boy football matches.  We reached the Devon School Games finals, the pinnacle of Primary School Sport,  in three different sports which is a new record for the school!
  • We also had an outstanding Sports Day, illustrating inclusive and competitive sports. Nursery children competed in a triathlon.
  • We also have some very talented children who are elite performers in rugby, cricket, tennis and football.
  • The gala week fun run was well attended by St Peter’s children!
  • We secured a cricket coach to work with some KS2 children this term.
  • Some pupils have accessed additional PE provision with Mrs Kilburn or as part of ‘Fun Fit’ sessions.
• It has been a hugely successful year for music too!
  • We are still at the centre of the Otter Music Collective hub. Many of our children play in this group along with children from other local schools. The Devon Music Education Hub awarded us a grant for the Otter Music Collective of £3000 following our bid for funding in April.
  • We have massively increased the amount and range of peripatetic music teaching in the school – children can have lessons in singing, drumming, woodwind, strings, guitar, brass, keyboard and piano. We’ve gone from 20 to almost  60 children having  individual music lessons – almost a  300% increase!
  • Mrs Lewis and Mr Moger- Taylor have led music brilliantly.  We have a two year rolling music programme in place – which is unique to our school. Children in KS2 have a specialist music lesson each week. The children learn around six instruments over the course of  KS2 as part of their Wider Opportunities music provision. All the children also have a singing session each week on Thursday at the end of the day.
  • There have been increased musical opportunities, including our fantastic ‘Musical Mayhem’ concert at the end of the Spring Term, performances at care homes such as Bay Court, at the Devon County Show, local festivals and collaborations with Lympstone and Lady Sewards as well as a number of after school music clubs..
  • Song Leaders were trained as part  the ‘Singing Playgrounds’ project.
  • Mrs Broad and Mrs Parker represented the school at a prestigious music event in London.
• We’ve held our successful residentials to London, Escot and a sleepover at the school.
• Children have benefitted from the Exeter University enrichment activities.
• Our ECO council has been campaigning for recycling.
• Mrs Moore has provided lots of social and life skills each term, including the Fire Safety, Friendship, Police, Fireworks, Online Safety, RNLI, Sex and Relationships education, and Healthy Eating.
• We have continued to hold celebrations of achievements, and to use the school website and celebration assembly to highlight successes. The children are very motivated by team points and Headteacher stickers!
• Mrs Cawthera has provided lots of support to parents and children with emotional needs.  
• All children received training on how to stay ‘safe, strong and free’ through Devon CAP.
• Our school meals have continued to improve thanks to feedback from parents and pupils. The take-up over the year has increased.
• There is a strong programme of transition events into Exmouth Community College.
• Helen Manchester has been running forest school provision for some Reception children.
• Our Science Garden is regularly used by all the children – and visiting schools.
• We have strengthened our links with the Church and developed our spirituality.
  • The 40 Acts for Lent showed what good Christian citizens we have.
  • Children have also completed many individual acts of kindness for tolerance. We are creating activists of the future – who will have the courage to make change.
  • The children have represented us well in church services (Women’s Day of Prayer, Celebrate Together).
  • We changed the format of Celebrate Together services, to make them more engaging.
  • We’ve had many ‘Faith days’ – including visits from the University of Exeter Islamic Society, Exeter Buddhist Society, and Christian clergy visits.
  • We developed a prayer space in each class.
  • We had a visit from Bishop Sarah Mullally.
  • The school and church meet regularly to work together.
  • We have built on and embedded our daily worship practices, which are now more collaborative – with children having a greater input.
  • The Christmas productions and performances were a delight!
• The Year 5 and 6 production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ at the Barnfield theatre was unbelievable! So professional for a group of 9, 10 and 11 year olds – really entertaining.

 

• We’ve worked hard to grow together with parents. I hope you feel our engagement with you has increased and has been more purposeful. We’ve made teachers more accessible, worked on our communication and tried to make home learning more manageable. We’ve also used Tapestry for our children in the Foundation Stage, so parents can upload their own assessments. We’ve held family fun days and invited parents in to take part in learning – and to sometimes lead it! The mystery reader has been very popular.
• There has been brilliant attendance at parent events – helping parents’ minds to grow! We’ve tried to give you a better understanding about how your child learns, and the language we use.  We would like to say a big thank you to parents for contributing to your child’s success.
• Our huge army of volunteers has grown. They give invaluable help across the school – thank you to you all!
• We have grown our links with other schools. Most important in this is our membership of the Devon Primary SCITT (the number one teacher-training course in the Country). Not only are we growing new teachers, like the wonderful Miss Gray and Mr Murray, but we also benefit from working with other high-calibre schools.
• We have been growing the partnerships within our own community, such as: the Fairlynch Museum (which nearly every child has attended!), the Church, BUDFAS, Clinton Devon Estates, Budleigh Forest School, the Riding School, Budleigh Library, Simon Green (stone art)….and many more!
• The PTA have – somehow – built on the quality events from last year to provide us with more fun events, fundraising and socials for the school. They are fabulous – thank you to you all!
• www.tree.vision has been born thanks to the commitment and passion of our parents!

 

• The school premises have continued to develop thanks to the work of Mr Force, Mrs Stone and Mr Tee. We have a fabulous new classroom block.
• We also thanked the Warm Wish group for fundraising for our amazing new swimming pool facility.  This is an wonderful facility for the school.

 

• The new members of staff: Mrs Stone, Mrs Fuller, Miss Acres and Miss Pritchard have added strength to our school.
• We have been growing the expertise of our staff. We regularly provide them with coaching and collaboration time. We have created an ethos of reflection time for staff – time where they can ‘stop and think’ about the impact of their teaching, so they make the best choices for our children.
• We have had specific training on:

• Formative assessment (using what your child already knows to inform teaching);
• Maths reasoning and making connections;
• Spelling;
• Handwriting;
• Grammar;
• Reading;
• Moderation of the new curriculum.
• And with all the stresses in education at the moment we have been doing our best to look after them all!

Next year our main aims are to continue to develop:

• Teaching;
• Leadership;
• Maths, including children’s reasoning skills;
• Literacy, including a love of reading for all pupils;
• Support staff;
• Our unique St Peter’s curriculum;
• Our PE specialism;
• Our  Music specialism.

Thanks again for all your support this year. We are so lucky to have a fantastic school community at our school. Remember you can feedback on this academic year at http://goo.gl/forms/kpIUBXx02O1iKxK03

Have a happy and restful Summer!

From the St Peter’s Team.

Posted: 20/07/16