The darling SATs of May

It is May, the sun is shining and the lambs are growing bigger by the day. It must therefore be time for SAT's. Our oldest children spend parts of four days doing their SATs this week. The context this year is a national boycott led by NAHT and NUT. Our school is going ahead as while we are unhesitatingly against the SATs we feel that more noticed needed to have been given to the children before a change of expectation. As with so many other events, SATs have assumed 'rights of passage' status and are one of those things that pupils have expected for years. Contrary to popular opinion, children in our school don't mind SATs that much. Most admit to having found the week quite fun and many admit to really enjoying the process. Why the contradiction? Our school places no pressure on members of staff to reach particular targets. The pressure created by schools and parents when passed on to pupils is what really causes their stress. Our view is that we do the best job we possibly can, help all children to ac hive, provide support to those who most need it (not just those at expedient grade boundaries) and then see how they did at the end of the process. We do evaluate and see if we can learn lessons but we don't hold an inquisition.

Ofsted have been and gone this year and graciously graded us as a Good school with many Outstanding elements. Sadly they can never pay back the time to children that was lost documenting and finding evidence to support what we already knew as fact.

Our number continue to grwo and currently sit at 156 pupils on roll.

Happy New Year

Heavy snow last night on top of ice remaining from the last two weeks of frozen conditions. We were one of the only schools open today in the area. The complication for schools is often that the weather at the school is less important than conditions at the homes of staff. While our village was snowy but passable with care, many staff had difficult and dangerous journeys. In some case being unable to get the short distance from home to main road. Of 155, about 100 pupils managed to get safely to school today.

Highs, lows and T-Towels

Highs and lows over the last week.Our numbers continue to grow through moves from other schools.8 pupils have joined us this term after transfers from other local schools. Moving schools can solve or create problems for families but it is reassuring that the movements give us a net gain in numbers. Visiting parents tell us they like the happy and relaxed atmosphere of the school, they see pupils working hard and enjoying positive relationships. Currently our number on role stands at 154, close to its highest ever level.
Sadly we have had to close yesterday and today due to flooding.The water was running straight off the fell and though the KS2 cloakroom before exiting onto the playground. We have wet carpets and a lot of debris to clean up. The closure came due to the difficulties of staff getting through flooded roads, some travelling significant distances. Many parents asked for the maximum notice in the event of closure so we took the step of announcing it last night, following advice from the Environment Agency and discussions with other local schools. Almost inevitably today has been less wet despite awful forecasts.
Throughout the school the sense of Christmas is upon us. Play lines being learned, songs being sung and that tangible sense of excitement beginning to build.

Autumn Days

This week we sang Autumn days for the first time. We have been back at school for four weeks now and the first hint of Autumn has arrived. The leaves are falling, early dew and hints of frost. Before long the fallen leaves will block the road drains and with the next heavy rain staff will find it difficult to get to school due to the flooding. We had 12 children join our reception class and another three into other year groups bring us to the largest number on roll for some time. This week sees the start of a very exciting project in school. We are working with four other local schools to give our most able children the chance to work with others from different schools. On Wednesday we have a launch day at Rydal Hall to start the project off. The team of children will create a website that will feature reviews of Lakeland tourist attractions written by children for children. Last week we also saw a milestone as the 800th entry was posted to our pupil blog - Making the News. We have more posts than any other school in the country.

Court Cases

All the recent news seems to involve courts getting involved with schools and parents. it would seem that we will be expected to take parents to court if their children misbehave and they will be able to take us to court if their children fall behind and do not get 1:1 support. This way chaos lies, not to mention chronic waste of time and money.
Whatever happened to just talking to one another like adults and sharing reasonable expectations? One the positive side it seems as though the Numeracy and Literacy frameworks will go. Once they were the answer to everything, how times change. Few of us will lament their passing I suspect.
The school is very busy with trips and events at present and far from 'winding down', the end of the term seems to get busier with every passing year.

They think it's all over...

The drama that is the story of SATs reached the end of another act today. We have finished our KS2 SAT's and said goodbye (we are told) to the Science tests for ever. As ever our children made the best of it and we did all we could to make the week less stressful. We held our customary SATs breakfasts filling the school with the delicious smell of toasting bread. Afternoons were fun filled and all admit to the week being less awful than they had feared. We can now get back to our core purpose of educating children to become considerate, thoughtful and kind adults.

The DCSF have announced that they plan to put the SATs back next year to prevent our Y6's have time to once again enjoy schooling. They seem to have forgotten that many schools will have booked residential and similar activities for June next year. Many of these opportunities have to be booked well over 12 months ahead. One senses that the DCSF may have to re-think that hasty decision. We formally opened our EYFS Playhouse this week, the youngest children seem delighted with their new place to play.

Another first is the introduction of our new text messaging service to parents. This is proving to be a great success and is being used both to send information directly and also to point to paper letters or prompt returns. We expect to add an email copy in the near future. A wish would be to eliminate paper correspondence altogether.

We hope that we both provide a more effective communication and also help parents to be more involved with the day to day life of the school.

Many tired eyes point to the fact that we are nearly at half term and all will benefit from a break in what we dream will be sunshine.

Pandemics

Today we have been in receipt of the first batch of helpful advice regarding responses from schools in the event of a Flu Pandemic. We are all no doubt filled with dread at such a prospect and yet have to turn our minds to thoughts of measured and logical responses that aim to improve the safety of our children. Schools will be creating or revising their emergency planning and parents will be wondering how to manage having their children's schools closed for potentially long periods. With regard to any attempts to maintain an educational provision under such circumstances thoughts will turn to remote learning in it's various forms and also systems to allow rapid communications. Perhaps this will act as a spur to all of us to improve the opportunities for pupils to benefit from our Learning Platforms.
I hope above all else that when strategic decisions are being made, the safety of children and others is placed above logistical considerations.