Vision
All children make good progress; no underperforming cohorts or groups
all teachers enabling good or better learning; all schools aim to be outstanding
Tuesday 3rd January 2017
Dear Parents/Carers,
School Improvement Update-January 2017
In the Autumn Term we continued to improve as a school. We achieved the following:
- The Forge Trust was officially formed in September 2016 when The Parkgate Academy joined. Today,
The Forest View Academy also join our trust. The DfE have approved our growth plans, and we will
continue to expand our portfolio of schools in the next 5 years. The founder school, The Sir Donald Bailey
Academy, will increasingly benefit financially as we will reap the rewards from economies of scale.
- Mr Hessey is now a National Leader of Education (NLE), and our school is a National Support School:
a beacon for best practice in primary schools. We support other struggling schools in the region, and
receive an extra income for providing this service.
- Between October and December 2016, every teacher was observed teaching Guided Reading. Reading
comprehension remains our school’s weakest subject in examination results (although exam results are
still ‘good’). As a leadership team, we are seeking a new approach in order to further improve, therefore we
analysed the current practice throughout school. Thevast majority of teaching in our school was at least good
(see below). Our teaching profile in this areais very good, in line with thechildren’s results overall.
Requires Improvement / Good / Good with Outstanding features / Outstanding with Good features / Outstanding1 / 13 / 0 / 0 / 7
- Mr Hessey and Mr Macintyre have been asked by the DfE to sit on the New Sponsor Forum Group in
Sheffield, where we attend a termly meeting to discuss the academisation agenda in the East Midlands.
Mr Hessey has also been asked to sit on the Journey to Excellence Programme (an initiative to improve the
performance of schools in coalfield areas) board, with a select few other successful Multi-Academy Trust
Chief Executive Officers. We are committed to improving the life chances of children who attend schools
similar to our school, and the Department for Education realise that we have the expertise to help them to
improve schools in the East Midlands.
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- We have a number of teachers and leaders completing their Masters Degrees in Education. Mr Hessey is
currently comparing approaches to teaching phonics in The Parkgate Academy and The Sir Donald Bailey
Academy; Miss Parnwell is completing a randomised control trial looking at the teaching of vocabulary, and
Mrs Davies is studying progress in children’s reading in KS1.Our school is forward thinking, and the extra
research helps to keep us at the ‘cutting edge’ of best practice in order to ensure our children get the best
education possible.
- Mr Macintyre has overseen the fitting of a completely new Veissmann heating system in school.
We will benefit from efficiency savings, which will go a long way to helping us to control the reduction in
funding from the government, and decreasing future budgets.
- We have recruited well in preparation for September 2017, and employed 3 newly qualified teachers to begin
their teaching careers with us. Miss English, Miss Pepper and Mr Sheridan have all completed lengthy placements
with our school, and the leadership team have carefully tracked their progress. They impressed our team,
and consequently were offered contracts commencing in September 2017. We also encouraged certain
teachers to move on with their careers in other schools, where we felt that children were no longer getting
the best deal. Just as any top football team should do, we are always on the lookout for the best talent, and potentially outstanding young teachers who we can ‘mould’ into what we consider to be ‘outstanding’ practitioners.
- We are constantly refurbishing the school site and buildings. In the Autumn term, Mr Matthews painted all
windows and external walls in the Bailey Block. We believe that ourchildren deserve the best environment to
learn in, and work tirelessly to achieve this, eventhough our budget is extremely tight.
- We seconded some of our most experienced teachers to The Parkgate Academy in September 2016. Mrs
Preece (Bonner), Mr Baker, Miss Bracegirdle and Mrs Evans (Royston) have done a great job, and have helped
theschool to improve. This allowed our school to develop new and younger leaders, such as Miss Parnwell
(Year 1) and Miss Middleton (Year 4) who subsequently became year group leaders in our school. It also
kept our wage bill down and allowed us to keep low class sizes and personalise learning for our children.
- We are currently ‘in talks’ with other schools and Governing Bodies, who are approaching us to join our
newly formed trust, and benefit from our wide ranging expertise. We have very tight criteria, and schools
who choose to join us must accept our terms and conditions in order to improve, and in order for us to
keep improving.
- We have designed and implemented our new assessment system, and parents will shortly be receiving a
summary and overview, explaining how things work, and how this relates to their child. We believe that
an exam based system is at the heart of any outstanding assessment system, with high quality teacher
assessment and feedback supplementing judgements made on individual children.
- We are continuing to invest in low class sizes to ensure children receive ‘personalised’ learning. Children’s
progress and pupil achievement (attainment + progress) in mathematics and English is absolutely
paramount at primary school.
- Our leadership team ALL lead by example, and provide an excellent model of best practice in teaching.
We believe that the best leadership teams ‘lead by example’, and this is why our leadership team is so
Highly rated.
- We now have a twitter account (@sirdonaldbailey) and a Forge Trust twitter account (@forgetrust1).
We will be updating these pages weekly with exciting things the children are doing in school.
- Since reading is our main area for improvement, we have arranged for each child in Year 6 to have
a ‘mentor’ in reading. Teachers will provide any 1:1 tuition as required until the children sit their SATs
in May 2017. Children will receive personalised learning with the best approach to maximise their progress.
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- We recently completed monitoring of uniform across the school. As a result, a new uniform escalation
policy for addressing non-uniform has been completed. This will shortly be shared with parents. We are
very proud of our academy, and want to ensure that the children across the school consistently wear their
uniform. As a result this willgive the children a sense of belonging to The Sir Donald Bailey Academy and
will create a strong and smart identity for the school in the community.
- We continuously strive to ensure that the behaviour of our children is of a high standard. We are always
looking for effective ways to address negative behaviour. Senior Leadership Team have recently developed
an exclusion escalation policy. As a result, the trust will continue to insist on high standards of behaviour.
Staff and parents will be clear on the escalation and repercussions, should a child not comply with the rules
and sanctions of the Academy.
- We have appointed Mrs Beech, who is developing our school choir, drama and homework club. We
recognise that these are areas that the school could improve, and we have taken the necessary steps to
provide better provision for our children.
Our school continues to go from strength to strength, and without doubt, we are now a major
force in Newark and Nottinghamshire. See how we compare to other outstanding schools below:
Aspect / The Sir Donald Bailey Academy / CotgraveCandelby Lane School / Chuter Ede Primary School / Barnby Road Primary School / Norbridge Academy / Are we better than Cotgrave? / Are we better than Chuter Ede? / Are we better than Barnby Road? / Are we better than Norbridge?Progress in Reading / + 1 (average) / + 1 (average) / +0.9 (average) / -0.8 (average) / +10.2 (well above average) / Same / Yes / Yes / No
Progress in Writing / + 4.1 (well above average) / + 2 (average) / +0.9 (average) / +1.9 (above average) / + 5.6 (well above average) / Yes / Yes / Yes / No
Progress in Maths / + 4.6 (well above average) / +1.4 (average) / +2.6 (above average) / -0.3 (average) / + 7.9 (well above average) / Yes / Yes / Yes / No
% of children achieving a higher standard (attainment) / 8% / 14% / 4% / 5% / 20% / No / Yes / Yes / No
Summary: In September 2011, Bowbridge Primary School was one of the most underperforming schools in Nottinghamshire, and the DfE were monitoring it closely. There was a real possibility
that the school would be taken over. It was failing our children. In 5 years we have dramatically changed the school and its reputation linked to academic performance! Well done to everyone associated with the school, including our children, parents, school community and teachers. The
Sir Donald Bailey Academy isnow a very successful school.
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Finally, we would like to remind parents and carers about the importance of children attending
school every day. It is vital that you send your children to school on time every day, as the Pupil
Parent Guarantee (Home School Agreement) states. We will be monitoring attendance very
closely this term, and hope to see huge improvements. Thank you in advance for helping the
school (and your child’s education) with this.
Kindest regards,
L. Hessey J. Macintyre
CEO/ Principal DEPUTY CEO / Vice Principal
The Forge Trust The Forge Trust
L. Taylor L. Connolly L. Goodman Head of School Assistant Principal Assistant Principal FS/ KS1
SEN & Inclusion
E. PreeceC. Newham
Assistant Principal KS2 Assistant Principal
Pastoral Care
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