Dear parents and carers,
The leadership of any school is an important area. It’s not just down to one person. Alongside myself, as Head of School, we have different layers of leadership. For example, the subject leaders and senior teachers within the school as well as the executive leadership team for our trust. Supporting the leadership of our trust (TEAM) are the Trustees and supporting the leadership of each school within the trust is a Local Governing Body (LGB). This week our LGB met for the first time this academic year to look at our priorities for the year and plan our calendar of visits and meetings. The LGB governors play a really important part in the running of the school. Their role is to support and challenge the leadership on a range of areas. On top of the initial meeting, they have one meeting per term and there is one LGB visit per term, on which normally two LGB members will visit the school for a couple of hours to look at how the school is progressing with our improvement priorities. This often involves talking to leaders, talking to staff, talking to pupils and looking at learning. It’s a really interesting and fulfilling role. We currently have a couple of governor vacancies on our LGB. If you, or someone you know, are interested in finding out more about how the school works and are passionate about improving the futures within our local community, we’d love you to get involved. You don’t have to have experience of the education sector. Our LGB governors work in a variety of sectors. We would love more parent and community governors on our team. The poster below has more information.
One other very important leadership group for our school is the school council. Over the past two weeks, each class has chosen (democratically) their two school council representatives. These children will meet regularly with Mrs Haynes to find ways to make our school even better. The children will take ideas back to their classes to share and discuss. They have to be good listeners and good speakers. Here are photos of the new school council. We’re sure they’re going to do a fantastic job.
Our assembly this week for Year 1 and Year 2 focussed on determination and being a Carly Can Do. We looked at two real-life Carly Can Do’s: Dolly Parton and Mr Mortimer’s brother. We looked at how Dolly Parton came from a deprived background and once she became successful, had been determined that other children from a poor background shouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to learn to read and write. She’d set up charities which continue to provide children around the world with books at home to read. We also talked about my brother, who recently completed a 24-hour running race. We talked about how he needed to be determined to keep running even when he was tired, his feet were sore and his legs really hurt. We thought about how we could be a Carly Can Do in school – for example, improving our reading by keeping on practising, even when it’s tricky at times, because we want to get there. We talked about the pride you feel when you have achieved these goals.
Finally, just a reminder please. Can you please ensure children’s jumpers, coats, hats, bags, drinks and lunchboxes are labelled with their names and that they recognise their label. Staff are spending a lot of time trying to match lost items to children. Also, please remind your children that toys and other treasures from home need to stay at home.
Have a super weekend.
Best wishes,
John Mortimer
Head of School
