Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope that you had an enjoyable half term break. There are a number of events happening this term including:

• World Book Day on the 6^th of March. As I mentioned in the newsletter before half term, children are invited to come dressed up as a character from their favourite book. We will be holding an assembly which will be open to all parents in the morning at 9:10am where the best dressed pupil from each class will win a prize donated by the PTA. Throughout the rest of the day the children will be taking part in a number of activities linked to some inspirational books.
• Also on the 6^th March, we will be holding a cake sale in aid of cancer research – this has been organised by a number of our pupils who have had family members affected by this terrible disease. If your child would like to buy a cake to support the cause then please send them with a maximum of a £1. Cakes will vary in price from 30p – 50p.

As you are aware, expansion work began over half term at the school. Currently there is minimal impact on the school but over the course of the next month we will see the project take shape – this will include the formation of a new car park and the installation of a compound. The builders’ compound will create a segregated area that will ensure all of the building works are kept separate from our pupils. As a consequence of this work we will lose half of the middle school playground – measures have been put in place to accommodate this change and we are confident that there will be little effect on the children. Losing half of the playground does mean that we will need to restructure our dinner and sandwich sittings – when we have a clear timescale on the development of the middle playground I will write to you with a clear outline of the new organisational structure.

The issue of parking is once again becoming a problem outside the front of school with a minority of parents pulling on to the pavement or stopping on the zig zags to drop off children. This causes serious issues for the visibility of our lollipop lady (Rosemary) and I appreciate your help and support in this area – as you will remember, last year one of our pupils was hit by a car and we are keen to ensure all of our pupils stay as safe as possible. I have contacted West Midlands Police and requested that they send officers to help us monitor this issue.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Steve Taylor

 

Dear Parents/Carers

As a school we are continuing to work hard and focus on improving the quality of learning opportunities for all of our pupils – strategies that we have focused on recently have included:

• Ensuring the children are proactively engaged and involved in their learning within the first ten minutes of a lesson. In effect this is shortening the length of teacher input to ensure that children have maximum opportunity to apply their skills.
• Placing and emphasis on ‘working walls’ – these are essentially display areas within class and rather than purely displaying work the ‘working walls’ help show a learning process. This strategy is aimed at encouraging pupils to work independently and make effective use of visual resources within class to move their learning forward.
• The new marking policy continues to be a key focus across school with the emphasis on providing the children with accurate feedback.
• The quality and levels of differentiation provided within subjects have been an area for focus with a lot of work being done across the school to ensure all pupils’ needs are being met.

On the 11^th March the school hosted a ‘learning walk’ which is a method of monitoring the quality of teaching and learning throughout the school. This process was led by a Local Education Authority advisor and an experienced lead OFSTED inspector – accompanying them were a number of senior leaders from across Coventry. Feedback from the ‘learning walk’ was positive and highlighted good progress in the development of learning opportunities for pupils. There are still, as with any school, areas that we need to strengthen and develop but the main message from the team was that they had seen real improvements since September. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their continued hard work and commitment in these areas.

On a separate note, I am sad to inform you that Julia Hornsby (EYFS Phase Leader) has decided to retire at the end of the summer term. Mrs Hornsby is an outstanding practitioner and she will be sorely missed. The school is now working hard to seek a high quality replacement and when I have further information I will be in touch.

As you are aware, the school has been chosen for expansion. We are currently working with architects on various plans for the school and all are exciting and would bring a real improvement to the school site and building. I will keep you updated of further developments.

Below are some key dates that will be of interest to you, they are:

• Sports day will be held on the afternoon of the 5^th July. If this is cancelled due to weather the backup date will be the 11^th July.
• Pupil reports will be handed out on the 12^th July.
• Parents evening will take place from 4-6pm on 17^th July.
• The Y6 leaver’s assembly will take place at 9am on the 19^th July.

Finally, I would like to highlight some up and coming PTA events:

• Race night is due to take place on the 10^th May from 6pm. It is £3.50 and includes fish and chips. We have only 30 tickets out of 120 left and if you are interested then please purchase your tickets soon to avoid disappointment.
• The Summer Fayre will be taking place on Saturday 29^th June from 12-4pm. If you have a business, or know of someone who would like to advertise their business, the PTA will be producing a programme which will go out to in excess of a thousand people. Advertisements in the programme cost £20 for half a page and £40 for a full page – if you are interested please contact Alison Barton. As usual the Summer Fayre is reliant on the kind support of parents and carers to man stalls – if you are available (even for only a short period of time) please sign up to help.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Steve Taylor

Headteacher

 

Dear Parents/Carers,

A brief update to say that, as you may have noticed, teams of parents (led by the PTA) have been carrying out road safety surveys – these will continue to take place over the next two days and will hopefully lead to action from the council. I would like to thank all of the volunteers for their support in trying to make the issue of crossing safer at Park Hill.

On a separate note the vicar at St Andrews (Greg Smith) has organised a fun morning at the the church on the 18th February – the theme is Dr Who and there will be lots of fun events taking place. A place for the morning is £2 and can be booked via: Rebecca Martin: beccamartin@talktalk.net or 76461508

Thanks

Steve Taylor

 

cost two pounds and can booked via 

 

PTA information

On Friday I had the pleasure of attending the Spooktacular Discos within school – I was massively impressed by the quality of the fancy dress costumes and also by how effectively the whole evening ran. I would like to thank the PTA for their superb work in this area and also the many staff who gave up their evening to support the event. In total over £700 was raised which is a fantastic achievement – it is great to see parents supporting these events and it is because of your backing that the school has been able to invest in a range of new ICT equipment.

On a separate note, please be aware that the PTA require all tea towel order forms to be in by this Wed the 24th October – this is in order for you to receive them by Christmas.

The deadline for the Christmas card orders is Friday the 26th October.

 

Many thanks

 

Steve Taylor

 

On the 11th of …

On the 11th of September at 7pm I will be holding a parent forum in the school hall. The focus will be on discussing the direction of the school over the next 3 years and providing all parents who are interested with an opportunity to meet me and ask questions. The forum will last for approximately 45 minutes.