We have reached the end of another school year and one in which we have achieved a great deal. As ever, the end of year performance was wonderful. All our children did themselves proud in ‘Pirates of the Curry Bean’ but I have to say a special ‘well done’ to Year 6 who were amazing- some of them really do find their niche when it comes to the show and it’s great seeing how they have grown in confidence over the years. Without the hard work and enthusiasm from staff, parents and children these events couldn’t happen – so ‘thank you’!
Some of our particular Achievements this Year
This has been a particularly busy year but a great deal for us to be proud of. Here are just a few of them:
- Fantastic sets of statutory test outcomes and teacher assessments which are above the national average
- Highly successful visit from a consultant to the Department of Education who was impressed with the children’s excellent behaviour and attitudes to learning as well as the impressive quality of their writing
- Introduction of Accelerated Reader in KS2 which has really engaged and motivated our children to be avid readers
- Our provision in the reception classes was judged to be ‘Outstanding’ by the Trust
- Ms Hopkins has been appointed as a LA Lead Practitioner for EYFSso she will be running training sessions across the county and will be supporting schools who want to develop and improve their EYFS
- Nursery opening in September
- Stay and Play after school- so now we provide wrap-around care
- Family Support Adviser- Tara O’Loghlen – who I know has worked to support many families, some of whom have found themselves in crisis
- Two members of staff trained in Forest Schools – we plan to roll this out to certain year groups from the start of next year
For me, being the headteacher in a community school means just that – we don’t work and exist in isolation but as part of the whole community, responding to the local context. Linked to this there are 2 things in particular that we are proud of: the work of Tara O’Loghlen in terms of family learning and the opening of Millfield Nursery in September.
Tara O’Loghlen wins an award on behalf of the School!
Tara O’Loghlen, our Family Support Adviser, was invited to an event recently to celebrate Adult Learning and Skills within Cambridgeshire. Tara has linked up with Family Learning and is our school lead in this. Along with Zoe, the Family Learning tutor, we have had weekly family learning events over the whole year- from helping your child with maths, to developing your skills as a listening parent, to improving your own English and maths skills. As a result of Tara’s enthusiasm and because of the number of families who have engaged in family learning, Millfield received the ‘Excellent Partner Award’!
Millfield Nursery
Within Littleport there is an increasing demand for pre-school places which currently can’t be met. Last November the Local Authority approached both primary schools and all the pre-schools in the village to see if anybody wanted to expand or start a pre-school- we expressed an interest. As a consequence, we were asked in February by the LA to set up a pre-school for children the term after they turn 3 years old; this means we won’t be in direct competition with Busy Bees (on our site) who have 2 year olds. Millfield Nursery will be open from 8am until 5:30pm which will offer great flexibility to parents who may need that due to work patterns.
It will cater for up to 24 children at any one time. Staff have been appointed and the lead practitioner will be Ms Debbie Papworth; Debbie has worked in our reception classes for the last 4 years and before that was a pre-school manager. Therefore she will be well placed to ensure the outstanding provision of reception is also extended to younger children. Already we have a good number of children registered and we are very excited to be able to offer this to the local community.