SPEAK choose their charity

On Friday 28th September 2018 SPEAK held their second meeting of the year where they voted for the committee members and discussed how things have been going since September. We would like to share with you highlights from the minutes of their first meeting.

Election of Chair and Assistant Chair

Sam gave a wonderful speech outlining why he would make a great chair of SPEAK and was duly elected.

Katie and Karra put themselves forward for the role of Assistant Chair and gave such great speeches that SPEAK decided to elect both to share the role!

Eben and Martyn were elected as secretaries and will take the minutes, type them up and distribute them. (A very responsible job!)

Adopted charity

Two charities were nominated by Karra and Katie; British Diabetic society and Young Carers. Both girls gave compelling reasons why the charities should be chosen and by a narrow margin, Winchester Young Carers was chosen as this years’ adopted charity. Winchester Young Carers does some fabulous work supporting young people who have a caring role at home.

Later in the year SPEAK will organise a fundraiser for Young Carers.

What is going well

SPEAK reported that the children were really enjoying their learning.

They really liked the behaviour system because you had to work hard to move up the traffic lights and they felt it was encouraging children to behave well.

The children reported that they enjoyed getting the Headteacher’s merit awards and this encouraged them to work hard.

The children were enjoying the PPA sessions with MLT coaches and enjoyed the range of activities they offered.

Even Better If ….

SPEAK reps reported that they would like more structured activities to play at break times and would like to go in the Quad area more.

The children reported really enjoying the Golden Mile track and asked if they could do it daily, with the scores recorded.

They also reported they are meeting with Mr Johnson to discuss these two points and will share how they get on after their next meeting.

Cake sale raises £213.21

A huge, sunny thanks to everyone who supported yesterday's cake sale. We had the most fantastic selection of cakes and biscuits, KS1 are clearly a talented bunch of bakers!

Whether you set up, baked or bought, we raised a wonderful £213.21 - what a great start to our fundraising year!

Assessment information evening

This evening was for parents and carers, and gave an overview of assessment within our school.

Mr Johnson and the team gave an overview of the curriculum, the Hampshire Assessment Model (HAM), Assessment for Learning (AfL), our data milestones and phases, Mastery and SATs.

During the evening there were a number of resources highlighted. Links to those resources can be found below.

English

The National Curriculum for English sets out the statutory programmes of study and attainment targets for English at key stages 1 and 2. The two statutory appendices – on spelling and on vocabulary, grammar and punctuation – give an overview of the specific features that should be included in teaching the programmes of study.

Useful external links:

First 100 words | Next 200 words | Support for spelling | Phonics terminology | Grammar glossary | BBC Bitesize - Key Stage 1 English | BBC Bitesize - Key Stage 2 English

Maths

The National Curriculum for Maths sets out the statutory programmes of study and attainment targets for Maths at key stages 1 and 2.

Useful external links:

MyMaths | BBC Bitesize - Key Stage 1 Maths | BBC Bitesize - Key Stage 2 Maths

Please be aware that whilst every care is taken to monitor the security and content of the links on this page, we are not responsible for the contents or reliability of any other websites to which we provide a link and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them.

Parent Governor Vacancy

Due to a recent resignation, we have a vacancy for a parent governor.

Stanmore Primary School has always aimed for a partnership with parents which undoubtedly brings great benefits to the children. One of the most significant ways you can help in promoting this aim is to volunteer to be a parent governor. 

The governing body's main tasks are:

• to ensure that the school has a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction;

• to hold the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;

• to oversee the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent. 

Parent governors are welcomed as valued members of the team and play a vital role in ensuring the governing body is aware of the views of parents and the local community. We feel sure that there are parents prepared to take on this important role and give their time and commitment to helping us to continue to improve the school's performance.

In looking to fill this vacancy the governors of the school have identified the following skills, experience and attributes that they feel would help strengthen the governing body:

• experience in education and/or curriculum development

• experience in HR

• experience in customer service / hospitality / communications

Training and support will be available to help you develop into the role. This will include in-house mentoring and support as well as access to external governor training. 

If you feel you can help in this capacity please download an application form or contact the school office for a copy of the form, which will need to be completed and returned to the school, care of the Headteacher, by 12.00 noon on Friday 24th May 2019.

The guidelines giving full details about how vacancies are filled can be found on the information for prospective governors on the Hampshire County Council website. You will find video, e-learning and written information on the site and all of these will provide you with further details about the role.

Please note that for the protection of children all governor appointments are subject to an identity check.

If there are more applications than vacancies, we will hold an election and you will be sent a voting paper in due course. You may return the ballot paper either via your child or by post.

Yours sincerely 

Chris Lindsay
Chair of Governors

Home Learning

Dear Parents/Carers,

In am writing to inform you of the introduction of our new home learning expectations.

From Thursday 20th September, we will be sending home weekly home learning. All home learning across the school will be handed out on a Thursday, with the due date being the following Wednesday. This means your child will have from Thursday until Wednesday to complete their home learning. All home learning will be marked on Wednesday and any misconceptions will be addressed in class by the class teacher. If your child should submit their learning after Wednesday, this will not be marked. All children will have their own home learning book and all of your child’s home learning will be in this book, for your child to complete.

The home learning expectations are as follows;

Year R

• Please read with your child, where possible every day.

• Spellings will be given out later in the term.

Years 1 - 4

• Will be alternating Maths and English each week. The home learning will be a set task, aimed to take your child around 30 minutes a week.

• Please read with your child, where possible every day.

• Please practise spellings every day.

Years 5 - 6

• Year 5 and 6 will be set Maths and English each week. They will be set a task aimed to take your child around 20 minutes for each subject a week.

• Please read with your child, where possible every day.

• Please practise spellings every day.

If you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to speak to myself or Mr Johnson.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss S Norris

Acting Deputy Headteacher

Stanmore Primary School

New Behaviour Reward System

We have introduced a new behaviour reward system this year which focuses on children’s individual behaviour both inside and outside the classroom. The system works on a 5 point scale ranging from Green to Black.

It works very simply with all the children starting the day in the ‘Orange’ section. For demonstrating good learning behaviours linked to the school rules children move up the scale into the Yellow section (Great Behaviour), if they continue to show the right learning behaviours they move onto the top section which is the ‘Green’ labelled Outstanding Behaviour. Every time a child reaches ‘Green’ they receive a Headteacher’s Merit Card from either Mr Johnson, Miss Norris or Mr Davies.

Consequently if a child demonstrates poor choices with behaviour, they are given chances to make amends before their name is moved down to the ‘Red’ section, which means 2 minutes loss of break time to explain to the class teacher why they chose to behave in this way. If the child continues to make poor choices despite being on ‘Red’ and having warnings, their name will be moved onto the ‘Black’ section where they will spend some time away from their class completing work or writing a letter of apology. Depending on the reason why the child’s name is on ‘Black’ they will either spend time in another class or with a member of the School’s Senior Leadership Team.

The system is reset at lunchtime, meaning that children have two opportunities to make it to the ‘Green’. This behaviour system is used by all members of staff across the school ensuring a consistency in approach to behaviour management, rewards and sanctions.

“Since introducing this system on Monday in our first assembly, 193 merit cards have been awarded to children across the school. When collecting their merit cards from my office at the end of the day, the children have been clear as to the reasons why they reached the ‘Green’ section and are extremely proud of themselves, hopefully they have shared their successes with you too.”

— Mr Johnson - 7th September 2018

Staff news

May I take this opportunity to welcome our new members of staff to the school.

We have been joined by:

• Laura Kempson, who will be teaching in Year 6,

• Bethany Anderson, who will be working as a Teaching Assistant in Maple Class,

• Nicola Roberts, who will be teaching in Year 2 to provide continuity in the absence of Mr Read or Mr Cascarini when they have their PPA and Leadership time out of class,

• Sharon Andrews-Morelli, who will be working as a Teaching Assistant in Sycamore Class,

• Liz McGovern, who will be working as a Teaching Assistant in Birch Class, and

• Pamela Chalker, who will be working as a Teaching Assistant in Aspen Class.

I wish them every success as they settle in and become familiar with the school.

Congratulations also to Miss Norris who has officially taken up the position of Acting Deputy Headteacher.

Sadly, we must say goodbye to Mrs Rachel Mills next Friday. For the past year, Mrs Mills has been studying full time at the University of Winchester for a Degree in Social Work, while also working as the Senior Admin Assistant in reception. Mrs Mills has been an invaluable member of staff, who has worked tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of the office. Unfortunately, the demands of her new timetable have forced her to make the difficult decision to leave Stanmore and focus all her energy on her work placements. Mrs Mills will be missed by all the staff and children, and we wish her all the best in her new career.

September smarten up

We want to say a big thank you to all the parents and children who came into school on Saturday 1st September to help keep the summer growth under control. 

It is great to see members of our community giving up their time to help our school, and the work really paid off and made a big difference within a couple of hours. 

If you are interested in signing up to volunteer and help our school for future events, please contact Mrs Lowy by email at stanmoretidyup@gmail.com. 

Introductory letter from Mr Johnson

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am writing to introduce myself to you as the new Interim Headteacher.

I am very excited to be at Stanmore from the start of next term, and very much looking forward to meeting the whole school community because I believe that working together, working as a community, we can make a real difference to the lives of our children.

I have been in education for over 20 years having taught in Lincolnshire, Portsmouth and Hampshire. For the past six years I have been the Headteacher of Stoke Park Junior School having successfully improved the school from being graded as ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Good with Outstanding features’ within the first two years of my headship.

Stanmore will be the fourth school that I have had the pleasure of leading, and whilst this could be seen as an unsettling period for you, it is a really exciting time for the school and I am pleased to be working with a strong team to continue to drive improvements as identified by the Ofsted report. It is also a time for looking forward, and although I am not officially taking up post until September, I will be in the playground on Tuesday morning next week, and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

Over the next week and the summer holidays I am going to be spending time getting to know the school, getting to know the children and building relationships with everyone involved with Stanmore, in order to ensure a successful transition from one Interim Headteacher to another, and ensure that the new academic year starts on a positive note.

The partnership with parents and carers is absolutely key to me and I encourage you to maintain close communication with your child’s class teacher both when things are going well for your child and when challenges arise. If you would like to see me at any time, please do make an appointment through the office, although on some days I may be ‘catchable’ if you just want a quick word! I aim to be on the playground before and after school as much as possible, so for those of you who are unable to see me on Tuesday morning please come and introduce yourself and say hello, it will be lovely to meet you all and talk about how we are moving the school forward.

In the short term, we will be working hard to ensure that your children experience a curriculum that is fun, engaging and challenging. As a team, we are focused on enabling the children to con;nue to develop socially, emo;onally and academically - making good progress and achieving well.

Yours faithfully,

Matt Johnson
Interim Headteacher

Leadership arrangements for our school

Dear Parent / Carer,

I am writing to update you on the details and changes to the leadership arrangements for our school from September 2018.

As you are aware, Miss Wood has left us now and has undergone surgery today. We wish her well with her recovery and treatment for her cancer. I want to thank you for all your messages of support I have received and passed on to her.

From the beginning of September 2018 we will have a new Acting Headteacher, Mr Matt Johnson. He is the Headteacher at Stoke Park Junior School and he will be working with us full time from the start of term.

Joining Mr Johnson on the management team will be Mr Paul Davies, the Headteacher at Hambledon Primary. He will be with us two days a week, as an Educational Consultant, helping us with our continued drive to improve teaching and learning.

I am pleased to inform you that Miss Norris has been appointed Acting Deputy Head, and will be taking up her new position effective immediately. Mrs. White who has been Acting Deputy Head this term will return to Winnall at the end of next week. I want to thank her for her support for the school and I also want to thank the parents, staff and governors at Winnall Primary for helping us during this time.

Mrs Horkan has taken the decision to step down from her Assistant Headteacher role and will be concentrating on her Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Designated Safeguarding roles. We are also actively working to bring in support from a Hampshire Leader in SEN from September who will be joining us to support with the improvements to our SEN provision.

Mr Cascarini remains in his position as Assistant Headteacher.

Please join me in welcoming Mr Johnson and Mr Davies to our school, and in congratulating Miss Norris on her new Acting position. I hope you can see that we have assembled a very strong, experienced and capable team to help us accelerate our progress in bringing the school back to being the BEST it can be for our children and our community. The team will be focused on high expectations and high standards in all aspects of school life.

As stated in my previous letter, the recruitment process for a new permanent Headteacher has begun. We expect to be in a position to interview and offer the post to the successful candidate in the Autumn term, with a view to them starting at the beginning of the Spring or Summer term.

Finally, I would like to thank the many parents I managed to meet at the parent’s meetings last week, and all those who have sent their messages of support to staff and governors. We appreciate your time, commitment, support, engagement and positive challenge for the school. It is heartening to know that there is such a strong group of parents who care deeply about the school, the community it serves, want the best for it, and are willing to support and stand up for it.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Lindsay
Chair of Governors