| Dear Parents, I am delighted to be here at last and I am very excited at the prospect of leading this excellent school into a bright future. Before I begin I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the immense job that Sam Durham did in leading and managing this school in the absence of a permanent Headteacher. Sam is a superb professional whose commitment to the school and the children is absolute. Sam ensured that the school maintained its very high standards and that the children were at the forefront of everything. Sam was assisted in this by Beverley Stevens without whom Sam’s job would have been a lot more difficult. Massive thanks to them both. At the same time we must acknowledge the great work done by the teaching and support staff. I am so pleased to have the support of so many excellent people. They fill me with confidence about the prospects for the school as we move into a new dimension. This week has been hectic! I have met many parents and pupils and am beginning to get to know names and faces. Please bear with me. There are lots of you and there is only one of me. In time, I am sure that I will know every member of the school community and we will all benefit from that. I have a lot to tell you so please read the following information carefully. New parents meeting:There will be a meeting for new parents at the school on Monday 17th September at 9.00am. This is a chance for you to find out about our rules, regulations, procedures etc. It will be an opportunity for you to meet with me and the Deputy Heads of Primary and Secondary, Sam Durham and Beverley Stevens respectively. Please come armed with as many questions as you can think of and we will try to answer them all.Bullying:This message takes prominence in this newsletter for obvious reasons. Bullying, no matter what form it takes; physical, psychological or otherwise, will not be tolerated in this school. I have had to deal with one case already and whilst one incident should not be taken as a general malaise, I want my contempt for bullying to be understood by everyone. Please understand, and let your children understand, that children who bully others will be identified and dealt with. The punishment for bullying will be made clear in a separate letter. Victims of bullying should let their teacher know immediately.Examination Results:
Curriculum Outlines and Pupil and Parent Guidelines:These will be distributed on Monday 10th September. Please familiarise yourselves with them. They contain critical information that you need to understand. If you have any confusion please contact Beverley Stevens (Secondary) or Sam Durham (Primary) through the school office. We will also be issuing an Internet Access Permission slip for you to sign and return.Extra-curricular activities:Given the limitations of our facilities I am delighted by the depth and range of the extra-curricular activities we offer. I attach a list of the activities available and urge pupils to take advantage of them. I can assure you that I have every intention of developing this element of the school in the near future.Office Hours:Our office is staffed between the hours 8.30am to 4.30pm. Should you wish to make contact with the school or any member of staff please do so through the school secretary D. Patricia, at tel: 289 398 328, fax: 289 398 298 or by e-mail: eisl@mail.telepac.ptSchool Lunches:Lunches are ordered and paid for monthly and in advance. A menu is sent out in the last week of each month to pupils who normally partake of lunches. Extra menus are available in the office. A sandwich/soup option is also available to pupils from Y3 upwards which can be arranged at registration. Sealed envelopes, containing completed menus (with child’s name and form clearly printed) and correct money, can be handed in to the office or placed in the box in the corridor between offices. Please ensure correct money is included as D. Patricia is not able to give change. It is advisable to make a copy of the completed menu for your own reference.Communication:It is very important for us to have immediate contact with parents. We need a comprehensive data base of all of your contact details e.g. home telephone, mobile, e-mail and fax. This needs to be updated so that it is always accurate. In order to ensure that our records are up-to-date please e-mail the details to D. Patricia at the school as soon as possible.Website:School websites are often the first point of contact for prospective parents. They are also very useful vehicles for the transmission of information to current parents and as an educational resource for pupils. Our website is, quite frankly, poor. This is a priority for me and I can assure you that progress on the development of a website that we can all be proud of is ongoing. More news soon!School Year and Calendar:Some things a new Headteacher has to do are bound to be unpopular. It is my belief that the current 173 day school year is not sufficient to deliver our modified version of the National Curriculum of England and Wales. I have announced to the Board of Governors and staff that as from September 2008 the number of school days will increase to 178. This will put us more in line with high performing international schools. As yet the calendar has not been decided. I have established a working party of staff to produce a structure and I will notify you as soon as possible about the outcome.Inspection:Whilst on the issue of potentially unpopular initiatives, I have announced to the Board of Governors and the staff that I am inviting an OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) style inspection of the school in October 2008. It is critical that we have an objective assessment of where we stand in relation to where we should be. Whilst we can all be proud of the way the school is, there will always be areas for improvement. A great way of finding out where they are is by external scrutiny.Wider Reading Action Programme (WRAP):It should be obvious to everyone that reading is beneficial to the educational development of our children. However, I am often amazed by how little some of them actually read. I am going to introduce a programme that will encourage the children to be active readers. I will need parental support in this so watch out for communication relating to WRAP. Our library is not as well resourced as I would like. I, like many of you, have many books at home that I have read and that are now just gathering dust. I am appealing to all parents to have a good look around and if you think you have books that would be suitable and that you would like to donate to the school then please drop them off at the office. We will ensure that they are catalogued and displayed appropriate to ages. This will be a great start. So anything, from young to open age books, would be much appreciated.Assessment, Recording, Reporting and Tracking:It is my intention to know something about the ability of every child at the school. Our assessment procedures will be such that they will support and not just measure the educational process. We will have sophisticated recording procedures such that the information that we require about e.g. progress, is readily available. Further, we will be able to track an individual pupil´s progress throughout his/her school life in order to ensure that he/she is on target to achieve the demanding targets that we will set. We will then be able to report to you about potential, current attainment and what needs to be done to ensure attainment of potential. This is an area that Beverley Stevens will be co-ordinating. I am sure you will be impressed by the results.Car Park:I know I should be shocked by the activity around the car park during drop off and pick up periods but, having come here from the Gulf, I can assure you I have seen a lot worse. However, the situation is still a cause for considerable concern. The potential for accidents is great and there is a real danger that a child could be hurt. I want to outline, for you, a number of developments regarding this issue:
Security:You may have noticed a number of developments around the site. When the installation is complete we will have 12 security cameras focused on the perimeter and other key points of the site. I am impressed by the forward thinking of our Board of Governors here because I understand that such security measures will be a legal minimum requirement in the near future. In addition we have built a new wall, fence and gates at the front of the school and a new fence and gate at the rear. This considerably enhances the security of the school, the staff and, most importantly, the children. Curriculum Outlines and Pupil and Parent Guidelines: These will be distributed on Monday 10th September. Please familiarise yourselves with them. They contain critical information that you need to understand. If you have any confusion please contact Beverley Stevens (Secondary) or Sam Durham (Primary) through the school office. We will also be issuing an Internet Access Permission slip for you to sign and return.Parents Consultative Group:I have established a committee of parents who I will meet with on a monthly basis. The objective here is to give a focus group of parents an opportunity to inform me of e.g. areas of concern. Please note that this is not an advisory body and it has no formal constitution or authority. It is my way of reassuring parents that their voice is heard. Barriers to effective communication must be dismantled. This meeting will go a long way towards ensuring greater mutual understanding, compatibility and support. Remember my comment about ´when we are all pulling in the same direction ….then nothing can stop us!´ Parents who want to be part of this committee should contact Michelle Lyons, the President of the PTA, at gary@glyons.netIn terms of the structure of the PCG, I would like to have a minimum of one parent representative for each year group who will act as a point of reference for the other parents. Their responsibility will be to represent issues of those other parents and to provide feedback from meetings. I can see this role developing into something central to the wellbeing and progress of the school. Some parents have already volunteered and they are listed below. The first meeting will be held on Thursday 13th September at 2pm. |
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