Governors’ Newsletter -Autumn 2013
Welcome to our third Governors’ Newsletter. We hope you will find it an informative summary of what has been going on across the Federation in the autumn term.
Cross-Federation initiatives
The new school year has already seen many cross-federation initiatives, including all Federation staff working together in phase groups, extension maths video conferencing between the schools and a working together of Early Years staff. These opportunities enable staff to exchange ideas and work together to ensure the best possible experience for all the children.
In addition, residentials are already planned for years 4, 5 and 6 in the summer. It is heartening to see how much the children enjoy these opportunities to work and socialise with a wider peer group.
Governor Surgeries
We would like to remind you about the governor surgeries held at all three schools. Please look out for the dates of these, as they are an opportunity for you to meet the Executive Head Teacher, Mrs Perry, and some of the other Governors in an informal setting after school. You don’t need to have a particular issue to raise – just come and enjoy the tea!
Sport at Lord’s Meadow
(The Government’s funding for primary school PE and School Sport Physical Education, Daily Physical Activity and School Sport (PEDPASS))
The Federation has been awarded funds to further the physical education of our children in the Federation and it was decided that in the autumn term years 5 and 6 would attend the Lord’s Meadow Leisure Centre. In the spring it will be the turn of Years 3 and 4 and in the summer, Years 1 and 2. Years 1 and 2 will have a different itinerary from the older children.
The Governors have to monitor the spending of the funds and on the first visit on 20th September Jackie Enright and Marian Beresford travelled with the children on the bus to Crediton, staying with them for the morning and can report as follows:-
Years 5 and 6 across the Federation were taken by bus and coach to Lord’s Meadow Leisure Centre for the morning. There were four activities:-
Swimming: Jane Brimacombe, a qualified swimming instructor at the Leisure Centre, led the swimming instruction helped by Mr White, staff and First Year BTech Sports students from Exeter College. The competent swimmers did lengths with a tumble turn. The less competent swam lengths stopping at each end and the remaining children did half lengths. For children who couldn’t swim, they had coaching in the separate shallower pool.
Tennis: Tammi Vukusic, a sports tutor from Exeter College, coached the tennis together with five of her First Year BTech students. The children started with basic manoeuvres such as running backwards, forwards and from side to side. They then practised ball control with their racquets walking and running between cones and then bouncing the balls on the ground.
Zumbatonics: Iurie, an independent Zumbatonics coach from Exeter, led this aerobic exercise. The children were asked to spread out across the hall. They were given warm up exercises to do followed by a full work out which was tailored to each group’s ability. They finished with cool down exercises.
Trampoline: Polly, a Premier Sport instructor, coached 10 of the children on the trampoline with additional support from the students. To start off the children went up in pairs to get used to the trampoline and then each child was given individual tuition accordingly to ability.
In theory the children are to spend half an hour swimming and tennis coaching, and alternating the trampoline and Zumbatronics each week.
We are delighted with the success of this initiative to date and are very grateful to all the staff and instructors who make the morning such an enjoyable experience for the children.
Governor profile – Allison Toogood
Our foundation governor, Alliison Toogood, has kindly provided the following short profile of herself, outlining what a foundation governor is and does.
'Being a foundation governor means I am a member of Thorverton parish church and have been nominated by the Parochial Church Council to serve the school it originally founded and have especial care for its Christian character. I am a teacher by profession and have also spent some time working in educational publishing. As a Federation governor, I work to encourage and build on links between the church and all the Federation schools in their local communities. I wear many different ‘hats’ in the community of Thorverton; as sub-postmistress for the community post office, shop-keeper and landlady of the Thorverton Arms. So I have links with many overlapping groups of people in the village, as well as members of the other parishes in the Netherexe Mission Community of churches, including Newton St Cyres. I believe it is really important to ensure that children are always considered as an integral part of the community they live in and work hard to encourage real involvement.'
Parent surveys
Thank you for sparing the time to fill in the Parent/Carer Survey in the summer term. This information is very important to us all and helps us to monitor how our schools in the Federation are doing.
There was some really positive information that you fed back.
By way of a brief summary of the results: Parents felt that their children are gaining new skills that will help in their future and their children are making good progress. You felt the school is led and managed well and the teaching is good. Children are encouraged to work hard and to do their best. All parents who responded felt comfortable approaching the schools with questions and felt their children are safe & well supported at school.
Those who responded felt that the schools treat their children fairly and that the children are encouraged to become independent. All parents responding felt their school is friendly and welcoming and would recommend their school to a friend.
At the time of the survey parents felt they didn’t know who all the governors were, hence the half termly Governor Surgeries mentioned above. Theseare a great opportunity to come along and have a chat over a cup of tea. We also have thisGovernor Newsletter, which gives details of what we have being doing during the term and any news relating to the governing body.
Our governors have a monitoring role, and one of the areas that wehave been looking at in the autumn term and will be continuing to review in the spring term is how well the children get on over playtime. In particular we will be monitoring play time after lunch.
Our governors attend a variety of school events i.e. sports day, concerts along with Heather Perry our Executive Head and our Heads of Teaching & Learning, and our parent governors are usually at school every day. We are endeavouring to meet as many parents as possible please do come and say hello.
Ofsted Parent View
Whilst on the subject of surveys, we would like to take this opportunity to remind parents of Ofsted’s short online survey for parents, called Parent View. This is run independently of the schools and is a useful tool for all the schools (and the governors) to monitor how we are doing on an ongoing basis. The survey does not take long to complete and information is anonymous. Furthermore, Ofsted does not pass on details of those completing the forms to any third parties. We would be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete this survey at your leisure. It should be noted that the best route for registering any specific concern is still with Mrs Perry or with the individual Heads of Teaching and Learning as the anonymity of the surveys means we are unable to follow up individual issues or any negative responses. The link is
Sharing skills and reading help
if you have a particular skill or interest you would like to share with the children, or would like to come and help with reading, do approach any of the Heads of Teaching or Learning. We have a number of people who generously give up an hour a week to hear children read, which benefits the children and helps support our dedicated staff. If you would like more information about this, see the spring 2013 newsletter which contained a brief article about reading, together with a short report by one of our governors.
As we approach the end of the autumn term, we would like to thank all the staff and parents and carers for their continuing support of the schools and wish you a happy Christmas and a restful break.
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