Swaffield Primary School
Headteacher : Mrs C H Lilley
Governors’ report to parents,
carers and guardians March 2012
Introduction from Lindsay Hopkins, Chair of the governors
Every year I enjoy singing the praises of Swaffield School and 2012 is particularly special. Our ‘Good’ Ofsted inspection last year has taken the school up to a new level. As you may or may not know we no longer produce a huge report for the parents to plough through! We provide you with a snapshot of what has happened and what is happening to be combined with the information you already receive from the web site and our regular newsletters. So here is the Governors’ 2012 Report to the parents of Swaffield School and, once again, it is a pleasure to invite you to attend a get-together before the next main governors’ meeting giving you the opportunity to ask anything you want from any of the governors in a friendly and informal environment. The get-together will take place from 5.30-6pm in the 1st floor hall on Wednesday, 7thMarch. If you are unable to make it, just e-mail me and we can organise a coffee and a chat prior to school starting in the morning. Also, you can always contact me or one of the parent governors if you want to talk about anything to do with the governing body, or have any concerns that you want to raise – a list of governors can be found in the annex and details of how to contact governors are at the bottom of page 4.
The governing body is made up of parents, teachers, appointees from local political parties and volunteers. The time input from every Governor throughout the year is enormous (at least 10 hours a term) and I am proud that Swaffield is lucky to have a governing body which holds a high reputation for commitment and focus on success. The role of a governing body is to be a critical friend to the school and to interface with the senior management, teachers and support staff across every aspect of school life. We continually pose constructive questions on performance, progress and the development of the school to the Senior Management, Teaching and Support Staff. All governors are linked with a subject in the curriculum or an element of the school management and take part in one of the 3 main sub-committees that help monitor and manage the Swaffield school development plan, which is the strategic business plan of the school.
Swaffield has always been committed to being a genuine community school with a broad based curriculum. While results and statistics have their place in any school (and as you will see in this report, our results continue to improve every year), the key focus is for every child who comes through Swaffield to experience a rich, varied and enjoyable journey every year that they spend here. We stand by the concept of education in its broadest sense.
School Development Plan – a report from Chris Lilley, head teacher
The School Development Plan sets out our priorities for the year, is made up of a number of action plans and it focuses attention and resources on particular targets, enabling us to evaluate improvement.
Every member of the management team and all subject leaders have action plans, which they are responsible for implementing and evaluating. The governors review the targets every term and discuss outcomes and impact with the leaders concerned.
Following our ‘Good’ Ofsted inspection in June 2011 we have identified the following targets for 2011-2012:-
· To ensure that there is consistent challenge in lessons and work is planned effectively to extend the learning of all abilities
· To implement the ‘Read, Write, Inc’ programme throughout the school
· ‘Read, Write, Inc’ is a systematic synthetic phonics programme and is intended to improve the children’s reading and writing skills. Writing is a target area throughout the school and across every subject.
· To develop the children’s mental maths skills, using a variety of resources and programmes to support this.
We were very pleased with the SATs results achieved by our Year 6 pupils last year and again we have set challenging targets for this year.
Curriculum
The curriculum sub-committee members are primarily interested in what the children are taught and how they learn. Each member of the committee has a special interest in a subject, and we frequently meet with the teachers to learn about developments and changes in the curriculum. This year we are following with interest progress in reading and writing. We’re concentrating on:
· Tracking improvements in reading following the introduction of a new way of using phonics to teach children to read.
· Encouraging pupils to write more excitingly and accurately.
We also keep track of:
· Many of the schools’ policies.
· Attendance and punctuality.
Performance and standards
The well-deserved result of the latest OFSTED report is an achievement only made possible through sustained year on year improvement in both progress and attainment. Raised standards at Swaffield also reflect the continued hard work of the teachers and pupils alike – encouraging the children to take responsibility for their learning has been an important step in the Swaffield improvement plan and is certainly paying off.
The performance and standards committee meets once a term to ensure all the procedures are in place to track progress, identify shortfalls, and put every pupil back on track as needed. At Swaffield, every child matters, and the individual needs of every pupil are identified and closely monitored using the latest available systems and software, making sure that each child achieves his true potential. In recent years, various measures have been introduced to keep learning fun. The latest Read, Write Inc. initiative has been hugely successful, and is just one of the measures in place to increase the standards of writing across the whole school. Greater emphasis on teacher assessment means that results are a true reflection of a child’s capabilities, based on a year’s work rather than the pressure of a single exam paper.
As a committee it has been hugely rewarding not only to see the results steadily improve in recent years, but to have the constant assurance that Swaffield is constantly seeking new ways to improve performance and standards across the school.
In addition, the value added score used to measure pupil progress in all UK primary schools, measured an impressive 101.0 in 2011, outrunning many local schools in the borough (100.0 represents progress as expected).
The table below sets out our Key Stage 2 (year 6) results over the last three years:
Subject
/ /2009
Level 4& above /
2009
Level 5 /2010
Level 4& above /
2010
Level 5 /2011
Level 4& above /
2011
Level 5English
/SwaffieldNational
/ 81%80% / 23%
29% / 83%
81% / 34%
33% / 82%
81% / 18%
29%
Maths
/SwaffieldNational
/ 91%79% / 41%
35% / 81%
80% / 41%
35% / 89%
80% / 45%
35%
Finance and resources
The Finance Committee meet once or twice a term. We support the school’s senior management with effective financial management ensuring the school budget is spent wisely and properly. This allows the school to optimise their resources to provide high-quality teaching and learning and therefore raise standards and attainment for all pupils.
We support the decision for Swaffield to become a three form entry school. The teacher training scheme, that occupies part of the top floor of the school will be moving to Alderbrook School this summer and this will therefore allow the school to claim back the additional rooms for expansion.
The biggest project in the coming year will be the replacement of all windows in the school’s main building. The school will be making a significant contribution towards the council’s cost for this. We will keep parents informed but currently hope that the scaffolding for this will go up in May 2012 and come down at the end of the project during the autumn term. We will also be looking closely at the possibility of converting to academy status.
Inclusion
Swaffield is committed to being an inclusive school and we provide for a wide range of children’s needs.
Special Educational Needs
In January 2012, we had 114 children on the Special Needs Register, which accounts for 24% of the school population. All these children have an individual Provision Map, which explains the support they are getting and gives learning targets for them. These are reviewed and shared with parents at Open Evenings.
A comprehensive range of interventions are used to support children who are experiencing difficulties in reading, writing and maths. We have also set up groups to support children with speech and language difficulties and Occupational Therapy groups to help children who are having difficulty with motor skills, such as handwriting. These groups are supported by therapists from Wandsworth.
The Ofsted report in 2011 stated that “Care, guidance and support are exemplary. Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who join the school with particularly low levels of attainment is especially strong and helps them to achieve well.”
English as an Additional Language
Children with English as an additional language are well supported at Swaffield with two teaching assistants (Ethnic Minority Achievement support staff) working with children across the school. We will continue to celebrate the diversity of the cultures and languages of the children at Swaffield through our work about the Olympic Games this year.
We hope that you have found this report useful and informative. We would love to see you between 5.30 and 6pm on Wednesday, 7thMarch 2012 in the 1st Floor Hall, but please remember if you cannot make it then you can always contact one of the governors to discuss anything you want.
A full list of governors, as well as the current teaching staff list can be found below. Just email , or telephone the school on 020 8874 2825 and leave a message asking one of the governors to contact you.
The Swaffield Governing Body
Name / Category / Sub-committee / Link subjectLindsay Hopkins (Chair) / Community governor / Finance / Child protection
Jon Cox / Local authority governor / Finance
Claire Clay (Vice chair – VC) / Local authority governor / Curriculum (Chair) / English/Teaching & Learning
Chris Lilley / Head teacher / All committees
Denise Shires / Deputy head teacher / All committees
Anna Pierssene / Assistant head teacher / Curriculum
Lesley Middleton / Advisor/Clerk / Finance
Julie Atkinson (VC) / Associate governor / Performance and Standards (Chair) & Finance / Assessment/Early years
Liz Love / Community governor / Performance and Standards & Curriculum / Arts/Early years/KS2
Max Griffin / Parent governor / Curriculum / ICT/Education welfare
James Franklin-Adams (VC) / Parent governor / Performance and Standards & Finance (Chair) / Health & Safety
Debbie Nejand / Staff governor / Curriculum
Sally Calder / Staff governor / Curriculum
Roy Yatali / Parent governor / Curriculum / KS1/Community Cohesion
Clare Stilgoe / Community governor / Gov/CPD
Marjan Moosavi / Associate governor / Curriculum / Science/PE
Ewan Dauncey / Local authority governor / Finance
Marlo Kinnear / Parent governor / Curriculum/Performance & Standards / Maths
Zahida Rana / Parent governor / Curriculum
Ed Perrett / Parent governor / Finance/Performance & Standards
Katie McDowell / Local authority governor / Curriculum / SEN/Child Protection/Safeguarding
Staff list 2011-2012
Year / Teachers / Class / Teaching Assistants / Special Educational Needs6 / Miss Ranger / 2A / Mrs Saddler (supporting key stage 2 classes with general duties / part of lunchtime supervision team)
Mrs Shojaii
Miss Beazley / Mrs Brace
Mrs Blunden
Miss Sunderland
Miss Tulluck
Mrs Posnic-Boyce
Miss Patko
Mrs Killingly
Miss Boulton
Mr Buchan
Miss Owczarzak
6 / Miss Bean (PE) / 2C
5 / Miss Hillier (Information and communication technology/KS2 Co-ord) / 2D
5 / Mr Espiritu / 2E
4 / Miss Wilton-Jones / 1I
4 / Mr Myers (Maths) / 1G
3 / Mrs Naldrett (Science) / 1B
3 / Miss Vyse (G & T) / 1D
RWI / Miss Hopkinson (English) / 1H / Miss Crolle
2 / Mrs Saeed (Key stage 1 co-ord / personal, health and social education/Behaviour) / 1F /
Mrs Olomo/Mrs Boag
/ Mrs RegganeMiss Thompson
2 / Miss Bexton (MFL) / 1E
1 / Miss Plumer / H /
Miss Saxby
1 / Miss Ryan (Geography/Sustainability) / G / Miss Beecroft1 / Miss House (The Arts) / I / Miss Ford
Reception / Mrs Nejand (Foundation Stage co-ord/ religious education) / D /
Miss Christopher
/ Mr McGowanReception / Miss Preston / E / Mrs Watling
Reception / Miss Lau (Music) / F /
Mrs Calder
Nursery / Becky MooreSarah Hobson / N / Rachel Mehiri
Jane Appleby
Jade Dunton
Planning, preparing, assessing cover / Miss Baltazidis (Physical education)
Mrs Sodeau (Foundation stage support)
Mrs Brygola/Miss Guest(Music/French) / Lunch duty
Mrs Pavitt
Mr Farrell / Learning Mentors
Mrs Tobin
Mrs Desai
Absent / Mrs Lufflum (Maternity Leave)
Mrs Myers (Maternity Leave)
Mrs Jones (Maternity Leave
Leadership
Team /
Mrs Lilley (Headteacher)
Mrs Shires (Deputy Headteacher)Miss Pierssene (Assistant Headteacher) / Admin
Prem /
Mrs Middleton (Business Manager)
Mrs Burridge (Senior Admin Officer)Miss Cox (Admin Officer)
Mr Davies (Premises Officer)
Links with other organisations