All the staff and children have been working on the School Development Plan (SDP) for this year. We have looked at the feedback from the Ofsted report and SIAMS report, as well as used the information gained from school data and monitoring systems.
To continue to improve children's achievement in writing, with a focus on non-fiction writing across the curriculum.
To continue to improve children's achievement in MATHS by ensuring children know their age appropriate number facts and reasoning skills.
To ensure that the more able pupils are stretched sufficiently and disadvantaged pupils' progress is further accelerated and opportunities to demonstrate this are evident across the curriculum.
To maintain the outstanding Christian character and effectiveness through building local, national and international links with other church schools and sharpen the school's self-evaluation within the SIAMS toolkit.
I hope you all had an enjoyable summer holiday.
I wanted to take the earliest opportunity to write to you all as the new and very proud Acting Headteacher of St John's School. I have received a very warm welcome from everyone already, highlighting what a caring and special school we have.
I know that a new Headteacher is a big change for a school, so I will be taking every opportunity over the next few weeks to meet and get to know as many of the children, parents, staff and governors as possible. As many of you know, I was able to visit the school various times in the summer term to allow for a smooth transition. I would personally like to thank Mr Jones, the staff and the Governors for their time and support to ensure this.
During my teaching career, I have been fortunate enough to have taught most year groups, in a variety of different Somerset schools. I have been a Headteacher in three church primary schools previous to St John's and before that I was Deputy Headteacher in a large middle school.
As a parent of two children myself, I understand the pressures, along with the great pleasures, of bringing up children. Working closely with parents and carers is very important to me as together we can improve the educational outcomes for all the children in our care – giving them the best possible choices for their future.
I have already met some of you at the start or end of the day. However, I will also be holding an informal 'Meet the new Headteacher' session on Monday 11th September at 9am-9.30am in the school hall. The PTA has kindly offered to provide the teas and coffee, so please do drop in and say hello. I would also like to use this opportunity to find out what is working well and the areas we need to improve from a parent's viewpoint, so please come with your ideas, comments or just to meet me. There will be further opportunities throughout the year and in addition to this, I will continue to write regular newsletters and update the school's twitter page.