Art week at Great Waldingfield CEVC Primary School

This week is Art Week at Great Waldingfield School.  I spent a happy hour at the school yesterday afternoon watching some of the sessions and admiring work done earlier in the week.

The whole school was involved in a series of projects, some relating to other subjects such as ‘art through maths’.   Each class spent one session in the church, and children were also involved with creating pop art and tie-dyeing with natural dyes.  The results of the latter activity were clearly visible hanging in colourful lines outside the school.   A Year 2 child told me that she was ‘really looking forward to using her tie-dyed pillow case’.  She assured me that the dye would not come off!

Visiting teachers from Thomas Gainsborough School in Great Cornard led workshops on ‘chalk and charcoal’ and ‘creating wax resist pictures’.  I watched two year groups, including Early Years, enjoying the not inconsiderable challenges of  wax resistance, I was also fascinated by a session led by Deputy Head David Sandford in which the children were guided in creating drawings of Japanese Manga characters.   This last activity would be a great springboard for acquiring more advanced drawing techniques and I am going to have a go myself!

Manga Eyes

It was great to see the children enjoying being creative, and the wide range of different sessions offered meant that all would have found something at which to excel!

Groundbreaking for new Lavenham Pre School

Martin Weaver, Katherine Eves, and Carroll Reeves

As I come to the end of my term as a county councillor a number of projects with which I have been connected are inevitably continuing without me.  But for one of these at least the end is in sight!  This week it was good to be able to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lavenham Pre School which will move to a new building adjacent to the Village Hall in the autumn.

When planning permission for the extension was sought some time ago, the fee being financed by my locality budget,   finding the full funding for the project was thought to be a considerable challenge.  However thanks to a special grant from the Department of Education, skillfully accessed by Early Years officers at the County Council, the full amount of money is now available and building work will commence very shortly.

The Pre School has been offering a great service to parents at Lavenham School for some time now, but has been constrained by a shortage of space and the need to leave the premises by 12 noon every day.  The new Pre School will be able to offer all day, morning or afternoon care, plus after school and holiday clubs, for children from age 2 to school age in a new purpose built facility surrounded by green playspace.

Further information can be obtained from Katherine Eves, the Pre School Manager, at lavenhampreschool@gmail.com

Delicious refreshments at the ceremony!

Primary School application deadline just one week away!

Parents of children who were born between 1^st September 2012 and 31^st August 2018 have just a week to apply for a primary school place for the 2107/18 School year.

It really is important to get the application to the council in time to give a child the best chance of attending their first choice of school.  An online application is recommended, and 82% of parents and guardians use this facility.  The great advantage of the online route is that parents receive immediate acknowledgement that the application has been received.

 Any applications that reach the County Council after the deadline will be considered after all the others have been processed. This could mean there are no places left at a preferred or nearby school which can cause real inconvenience and distress to parents and children alike. An application must be made, even if the child already has a place in a nursery class, pre-school or children’s centre.

Last year Suffolk County Council received 7920 on-time applications from parents for the reception year outlining which school they would prefer their children to be educated at from September 2016. Of those, 90.7% of applicants received offers for their first preference and 97.5% of applicants received an offer from one of their three preferences.

 Any parents or carers who have not yet applied for a school place should apply online or download an application form at: www.suffolk.gov.uk/admissions or contact Suffolk County Council immediately on 0345 600 0981.

Preliminary GCSE and A level results both show an improvement

Over the last couple of weeks we have received the indicative results for this year's A level and GCSE examinations for Suffolk students.Although the basis on which the results are scored by Government have been changed, it seems that measures taken by the County Council to raise standards continue to bear fruit.

This pleases me, not least because when I stood for election over three years ago I said that I wanted to try to have an impact in this area.  Recently I have been lucky to be able to get closer to the issues involved by sitting on the Schools Improvement Board.  One of the measures put in place around the Raising the Bar initiative,  this group meets on a monthly basis. The progress of all schools in the county is closely examined and monitored, and, where necessary, support and help is given.,  As a member of this Board I have been able to visit schools in the county with a schools improvement officer which has been very interesting. 

In addition to the enormously hard work put in by headteachers, a lot of effort is being expended by the Cabinet Member, Gordon Jones, ordinary members and officers at SCC. Although it was never going to be a speedy process, there are now clear signs that gradual but steady progress is being seen.  

Looking at this year's results, as far as GCSE’s are concerned, more of Suffolk’s 16 year olds achieved expected levels of GCSE attainment in English and maths. Provisional results collated in Suffolk suggest a 4% rise in the number of students reaching the threshold
(currently a C grade or above). Self-reported statistics from Suffolk schools show 63% have achieved the target compared with 59% in 2015.

The results also saw a significant improvement for disadvantaged pupils – these are children looked after and pupils eligible for free school meals.

The overall pass rate for A levels has also continued to rise.  Almost 3000 pupils were entered in Suffolk.  Although yet to be verified the figures show that 98.5% of pupils achieved A* to E, in comparison with 98% in 2015. Although 76% of pupils achieved A* to C in comparison with 77% in 2015, early indications show that our academic average points per entry at 32,9 is above the national figure and an improvement on last year, although direct comparisons are difficult due to a change in the Government's score system.

More good news for Great Waldingfield School.

The school year at Great Waldingfield Primary School is finishing on a high.

After a well deserved 'Good' rating from OFSTED earlier in the term, the school has now received the news that year 6 children have done much better than the national average in recent SATS tests.

These tests have caused particular problems for some schools this year because they were set on a new basis, and teachers across the country found themselves in some difficulty understanding what standard they were teaching to.

It seems that there were not too many problems at Great Waldingfield.  Nationally some 53% of children reached the 'accepted standard' in writing, reading and arithmetic, but at Great Waldingfield the number was 67%.  In Maths and writing the almost 90% of children achieved the accepted standard, compared with national averages in the 70's.

Congratulations to Head, Tina Hosford, Deputy Head, David Sandford, class teacher for years 5 and 6, and the rest of the team.

For more information about Great Waldingfield Church of England Primary School the website can be found HERE.

Suffolk schools improve

Suffolk County Council really is improving educational standards for children across the County.  I am pleased about this because 'a decent education for all' was one of the issues that I said mattered to me when I stood for election three years ago.

For some time now I have served on the School Improvement Board at the County Council which meets on a monthly basis to monitor progress and activity in this area.  I have also been very pleased recently to become a co-opted Governor at Great Waldingfield Primary School, which was last month confirmed as a GOOD school by OFSTED,

A new short animation presents the significant progress that has been made improving education across Suffolk.

Click on the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR5X43HQMaw to see how Suffolk County Council have Raised the Bar.

If you would like to find out more, contact raisingthebar@suffolk.gov.uk

School update; space allocation season.

This week has seen announcements about the allocation of primary school places across the UK.  In Suffolk over 90% of children will be able to attend their first choice school and 97% will go to one of their top three choices. Although full national figures are not yet available enough is already known to recognise that this is quite a good result.

  

There are variations across the county however with around 90 schools still having to refuse children.  I am happy to say that in the Cosford Division, all 6 schools, Elmsett, Whatfield, Kersey, Bildeston, Lavenham and Cockfield, were able to accommodate all applications for September.

In the case of Lavenham this is a relief since last year around 12 families were disappointed, and this included children from the village living quite close to the school.

Despite the fact that we have outperformed the national picture there is no room for long term complacency as last year's outcome demonstrates.   Demand for school places is likely to continue to grow in the area as a whole and some schools, including some in Cosford, have serious physical space constraints today that need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

When the children arrive at their new schools in September, happily they will be entering an improving education system.  It was revealed earlier this month that the proportion of Suffolk schools rated as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted has just hit a new high of 80%. This represents an improvement of 6 percentage points compared to just ten months ago when 74% of Suffolk schools were Good or Outstanding.

Schools in Suffolk are also improving twice as fast as schools across the country as a whole. Over the last ten months the percentage of Good or Outstanding schools nationally has increased by 3% compared to Suffolk’s 6% increase.

If you know a child who has been unsuccessful in achieving the school of choice and whose parents are unhappy about this an appeal is the only possible remedy.  I have information on this for anyone who wants it.  You should be aware however that an appeal will only be successful if the education authority has failed to follow the correct procedures.