Head teacher’s report to Governors – 17th March 2016

Yerbury’s profile:

Following a request from the previous meeting to report which people are part-time, please find the information in the tables below. All teachers (in bold) are fulltime apart from where shown. (Key: 0.2 = 1 school day, with 1.0 = 5 full days)

Class / Boys / Girls / Total / Teacher & Support Staff
Year 6B / 15 / 15 / 30 / Elisa Butler, Andrea Littlewood (0.8)
Year 6G / 15 / 15 / 30 / Gail Gyles,Judy Smith (1.0)
Year 5S / 12 / 15 / 27 / Becky Smith, Liz Smithson (0.9)
Year 5J / 14 / 14 / 28 / Bob Jones, Julia Notice (1.0)
Year 4T / 14 / 15 / 29 / Miriam Tarragona, Lauren Power (1.0), Sara Birch (0.5)
Year 4B / Sophie Beeston, Rose Glen (0.7)
Year 3A / 18 / 12 / 30 / Katherine Applegarth, Sarah McPeake (0.8), Julia Notice
Year 3M / 17 / 13 / 30 / Natalie Mintz, Fiona Usher (1.0)
Year 2T / 14 / 16 / 30 / Antonella Thomas, Lorraine McGuiness (0.5), Judy Smith
Year 2H / 15 / 14 / 30 / Jenny Hall, Amy Clayton (1.0), Ebony Thomas (1.0)
Year 1G / 13 / 17 / 30 / Julia Gale (0.8), Philippa Gibson (0.8), Jackie Shaughnessy (0.6), Julia N
Year 1R / 15 / 14 / 29 / Rebecca Reid, Viviana Fortunato (1.0)
RecB / 18 / 11 / 29 / Sue Burbridge , Cara Trusler (0.6), Lisa Brown (0.8), Saadia El Jacifi (0.4)
RecR / 19 / 11 / 30 / Zoe Richardson, Daniel Norbert (1.0), Lidia Hayes (0.3)
Nur Red / 10 / 16 / 26 / Lara Smiles Kathy Hamilton (1.0), Norma Doyle (0.7),Glena Caulker (0.4)
Nur Yellow / 12 / 13 / 25 / Sharon Bayliss, Selita Sulejmani (1.0), Brogan Ewens (1.0),
Total / 234 / 228 / 462
Additional teaching staff / Provision: / Days
Becky / SENCO and Ma group work / 4 days
Celia / PPA / 4 days
Julia / Dyslexia group work / 3 days
Ben / Music teacher / 2 days
Alan / Brass teacher / 1 day
Oonagh / Recorder teacher / 1 day
Val / Specialist EAL and Literacy teacher (and resident author) / 2 days
Jo K / PPA / 2 days
Rosanna / PPA / 1 day
Pupil information:
Total roll / 462
Pupil Premium (LAC, FSM, Ever6) / 85 (18%)
Pupils on SEN register / 22 Support (4 have statements)

Staffing:

Staffing continues to be stable, with some movement which is synonymous with a 2-form-entry primary school. Our biggest challenge currently does not stem from the teaching staff; both Sharon and Kate from the office left at half-term, and following 113 applications for the post of Administration Officer, and 7 interviews later, no successful candidate was appointed. This puts further pressure on a fairly new office team who have been dealing with the physical move of the office, as well as the building work and day-to-day running of the school office. They have been fantastic. We have provisionally employed a temp who is supporting in the office until we find a suitable person. We are due to interview more potential candidates on Thursday 10thMarch, so I will hopefully have good news at the FGB meeting.

Attendance: Rec to Y6

Historical yearly attendance figures:

National / 95.60% / Diff: / 95.20% / Diff: / 96.1% / Diff: / DfE yet to publish
Attendance / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015
Yerbury / 96.1% / +0.5% / 96% / +0.8% / 97.2% / +1.1% / 96.3%

Current figures for Autumn12:

Overall, attendance at Yerbury is very good. The majority of absence has been due to illness or medical reasons. Where it isn’t, we are working together with these families and continue to monitor attendance.

At the beginning of Autumn 2, the new Attendance Policy and a covering letter were sent to parents, and it was positively received by many parents. We do sincerely hope it has an impact on parents choosing not to take their children on holidays during term time.

We only report from Reception upwards as children haven’t reached statutory school age in Nursery.

Pupils in group / Authorised Absences / Unauthorised Absences / % Attendance
Year R / 59 / 1.4 / 0.0 / 98.6
Year 1 / 59 / 2.8 / 0.2 / 97.0
Year 2 / 59 / 3.3 / 0.7 / 96.1
Year 3 / 60 / 2.2 / 0.6 / 97.2
Year 4 / 59 / 1.7 / 0.5 / 97.9
Year 5 / 55 / 2.0 / 0.1 / 97.9
Year 6 / 60 / 3.0 / 0.4 / 96.6
Total / 411 / 2.5 / 0.4 / 97.1

Overall, children come into school regularly and the majority of absences are authorised. Reception’s attendance is particularly exemplary, especially considering that usually we would expect to see more absence for illness in EYFS and KS1 as the children build up their immune systems. Autumn Term is usually where we see the most sickness amongst children.

FreeMeals % / Pupils in group / Authorised Absences / Unauthorised Absences / % Attendance
Nursery / 2 / 5.0 / 0 / 95.0
Reception / 6 / 3.8 / 0 / 96.2
Year 1 / 5 / 6.9 / 0 / 93.1
Year 2 / 5 / 7.4 / 0 / 92.6
Year 3 / 2 / 6.9 / 0 / 93.1
Year 4 / 3 / 1.4 / 0.5 / 98.1
Year 5 / 3 / 2.8 / 0.5 / 96.8
Year 6 / 4 / 3.4 / 0.8 / 95.8
Total FSM / 30 / 4.6 / 0.3 / 95.1
Total N-FSM / 437 / 2.8 / 0.4 / 96.8

Children eligible for free school meals are less likely to take unauthorised absences, the majority of which at Yerbury are for holidays. However, they are more likely to be off with illness. We had to include Nursery as the data management system would not provide a report without it.

SEN % / Pupils in group / Authorised Absences / Unauthorised Absences / % Attendance
Year 1 / 2 / 6.9 / 0.7 / 92.4
Year 2 / 1 / 28.5 / 0 / 71.5
Year 3 / 4 / 5.2 / 0 / 94.8
Year 4 / 5 / 1.3 / 0.4 / 98.3
Year 5 / 6 / 1.5 / 0 / 98.5
Year 6 / 4 / 3.1 / 0.7 / 96.2
Total SEN / 22 / 4.1 / 0.3 / 95.6
Whole school / 352 / 2.5 / 0.4 / 97.1

Again, children with SEN are less likely to take unauthorised absences but due to some children with complex medical needs, they are more likely to be off for extended periods of time with genuine medical reasons.

Group / Pupils in groups / No. who were Persistent Absentees
(under 90%) over Autumn & Spring Term / Reasons
Year R / 59 / 4 / Illness
Year 1 / 59 / 3 / Illness / Term time Leave- Exceptional circumstances
Year 2 / 59 / 5 / Illness
Year 3 / 60 / 1 / Illness
Year 4 / 59 / 1 / Illness
Year 5 / 55 / 1 / Illness
Year 6 / 60 / 2 / Illness
Total / 17

As predicted and explained, there is an increase in PAs due to the change in percentage which constitutes persistent absenteeism (it was raised from 85% to 90% in September 2015). Last year we had 0 PAs; this year so far we have 17. Hopefully, that will decrease in time as children continue to come to school.

Heidi (Attendance Officer) and I meet half-termly to discuss the children individually. We make a judgement using the reasons and the level of engagement of parents regarding what support or strategies are then used to help the parents improve their child’s attendance. As you can see from the table above, the vast majority of PAs have had extended episodes of sickness which is authorised absence.

Behaviour:

Overall, children are incredibly well-behaved at Yerbury. They are polite, kind and caring, moving about the school in a calm and respectful way. As in every school, there are times when children make poor choices in relation to their behaviour. They are given opportunities to reflect on what they did, how it impacted on others, and what they could/should have done instead; a learning experience.

Time Out is when the child is sent to a Senior Member of the Leadership Team during a lunchtime, and has a structured conversation with them; this often results in writing a reflection of what happened and what they learnt. It also enables the SLT to really get to the bottom of what is going on.

An analysis of Time Out for the first five weeks of the Autumn term was reported in the Autumn Term HT Report. The table below displays data for the whole of the Autumn term from September to December.

Autumn Term / Boys / Girls / PP / N-PP
Out of 30 ‘visits’
(21 incidents) / 28 (93%) / 2 (7%) / 12 (40%) / 16 (60%)

The majority of reasons for the visits to Timeout in the Autumn term were linked to poor behaviour that continued after a member of staff asked for it to stop. Other incidents that occurred a small number of times included returning to class late, refusing to follow instructions, use of bad language, intentionally wasting food, poor presentation, and behaving dangerously on the stairs.

An analysis of Time Out in Spring 1 has now been completed:

Spring Term / Boys / Girls / PP / N-PP
Out of 23 ‘visits’
(14 incidents) / 19 (83%) / 4 (17%) / 8 (35%) / 15 (65%)

The majority of reasons for the visits to Timeout in Spring 1 were also linked to poor behaviour that continued after a member of staff asked for it to stop. There were a small number of incidents that included rudeness to staff, swearing, failure to complete homework, or violent conduct.

Boys overall still attend ‘TimeOut’ more than girls. As reported in the Autumn report, boys tend to display more physical behaviour than girls, something which if targeted at others is unacceptable in school. Margaret has fed back to the whole teaching staff about research relating to boys learning styles and implications for behaviour. This arises from a focus in the EYFS on boys. Some of the recommendations include allowing boys to move freely and to build physical aspects into lessons.

Autumn/
Spring1 / White British / White Euro / Black Caribbean / White Irish / Latin, South, Central American / White + Black African / Filipino / Turkish Cypriot / White + Other Asian / Indian / African Asian
Out of 30 ‘visits’ / 16 (53%) / 1 (3%) / 0 / 2
(7%) / 1
(3%) / 1 (3%) / 4
(13%) / 2 (7%) / 2 (7%) / 1 (3%) / 0
Out of 23 ‘visits’ / 11 (48%) / 1 (4%) / 1
(4%) / 0 / 0 / 1
(4%) / 3
(13%) / 1
(4%) / 1
(4%) / 2
(9%) / 1
(4%)

In the last Census (January 2016) the percentage of Ethnic Minority Groups was 44% and 56% were White British. The percentage of ethnicities attending ‘Time Out’ roughly match this.

Quality of teaching and learning:

Staff work incredibly hard to ensure the children receive a rich, relevant and challenging curriculum, which is evident from the care and time they put in on a daily basis. Monitoring the quality of teaching and learning is on-going andclass focus weeks take place termly. We are currently in the middle of our second cycle, in which we observe lessons, look at books, talk to children and look at the learning environment. This gives us a clear, whole picture of the provision in every class. Teachers, together with a senior leader, look at the strengths and the areas for development. At the end of each term we also discuss pupil progress in Pupil Progress Meetings. These are meetings that the Assessment Leader and the relevant Assistant Headteacher has with every class teacher individually and looks at all children in detail, in particular those who are not achieving or progressing as highly/ quickly as they should. This information also then helps the class teachers, SENCO and school plan for interventions accordingly. The format for these meetings has changed to reflect the new curriculum and assessment. In addition to Pupil progress meetings there are provision map meetings which are lead by the SENCO and focus on ensuring additional learning needs are met.

Teaching and learning overall at Yerbury is of a high standard. We will not be reporting on percentages of lesson observations anymore as we have moved to a more encompassing understanding of judging the provision overall through Class Focus Weeks. This is a much better reflection of the day-to-day quality of teaching and learning at Yerbury, and it is also how Ofsted will be judging provision overall.

We currently judge the provision of teaching and learning to be good overall, with some outstanding features. We have a mixture of new and experienced staff, and they are responding in a positive and reflective manner to feedback, different expectations and their roles. They are passionate about the children’s education and are always keen to develop professionally and learn from each other. There is a collaborative and supportive ethos amongst staff and this benefits the children enormously. We are fortunate to have such a great team here at Yerbury.

Following the Autumn Term Class Foci, strengths of provision included:

A huge strength in the lessons seen, which fits with our vision of creativity across the curriculum, is the real life contexts children were learning within.

There were:

  • high expectations
  • excellent behaviours for learning
  • a real sense of enjoyment
  • engagement from the children.

We saw exciting and stimulating learningenvironments, both indoors and outdoors.

Areas to develop included:

  • continued challenge for the more able
  • further refining of differentiation
  • to develop higher order questioning and growth mindset skills

We started to address these areas in our Spring INSET day on 5th January.

The overwhelming message from the pupil interviews was that the pupils feel safe and happy and all pupils could list at least three members of staff they could turn to if they had a problem or a worry. The children spoke positively about the school, the adults and their learning. Pupils are incredibly proud of the learning they do and the children are seemingly aware that Yerbury is ‘special’ and perhaps different to other schools. Children in Reception and KS1 were able to articulate what they enjoyed, what they learned and how they were helped. Every child interviewed said that learning is fun and their teachers make it so. One child said, “Our teacher either tells us what we need to do to learn, or writes it in our books. We have started conference marking this term, which is good because we can improve our work with our teacher. Our teacher is not strict but she expects everyone to try hard.” An upper Key Stage Two pupil said, “Our teacher has high expectations, if she knows you can do more, she will expect you to. She really knows us all as learners. She is always there to help everyone, she moves everyone forward and doesn’t leave anyone behind”.

All these comments are then fed back to teachers, and when it is a whole school issue, it is shared/ addressed appropriately, e.g. assembly, staff morning meeting etc. This gives us a great insight into how the children perceive things and what is important to them.

The ranges of learning and experiences are also evident at events such as class assemblies, and from the ‘Days’ e.g. Victorian Day, Biography Day, Market Day, Roman Day, The Puppet Show etc. I warmly encourage Governors to attend these events as they demonstrate the wonderful teaching and learning that has been going on in the various year groups and gives you a feel of the rich experiences the children are getting. These are advertised in the weekly update that Governors receive.

The next Special Day event in Spring Term is Y2’s Puppet Show. 2T are performing on Tuesday 8th of March @ 2.45pm, and 2H are performing on Thursday 10th March 1 @ 2.45pm. Please let the office know in advance if you can make any of the events and remember to sign into the Governors’ Book. It would be lovely to see you there.

Standards/ CLC meeting:

Due to the changes in assessment, a detailed explanation was provided by Liz Read of what the school is doing both internally and together with external partners to enable a smooth transition to ‘Assessment without Levels’ and to ensure children are continuing to progress well. Liz also gave Governors an update on Pupil Premium; Liam Frost gave an update on Sports Funding, SPAG, working with secondary schools and maximising the impact of additional adults; and Margaret O’Neill reported on EYFS. I reported to Governors about the SDP overall, in particular about further developing distributed leadership and an update on the work done with Sam O’Leary on the Equalities Action Plan. For further details, please see the minutes for the Curriculum and Learning Committee held on the 10th February 2016.

Budget monitoring:

The budget monitoring report for January was presented at the most recent FGP, alongside all documents for the Schools Financial Values Standard. For further detail, please see the minutes for the Finance Committee Meeting held on the 24th February 2016.

Any other business:

Verbal update on clubs by HT

Verbal update on Maths assessments

Inset days for 2016-17:

5th6th of September 2016

3rd & 4th January 2017 (the 3rd is likely to be a joint Inset with 14 Future Zone schools)

18th April 2017

The days have been strategically chosen to have the biggest impact on training and school improvement.

Fire drill:

The school is due to have a Fire Drill for Spring Term at the end of Week 4.

School Closure:

None to be reported

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