Open - Swansea Edunet

‘AIM HIGH TOGETHER’
Newsletter
Monday 16 June 2014
Dear Parents / Carers,
Premises Work – scaffolding is being erected next week to allow work on replacement of soffit boards to
take place. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but have been assured this is necessary.
Summer Showers - Lightweight Waterproof
Please can you ensure your child has a lightweight hooded waterproof
that can be worn during break times during the summer months. This
will then allow them to enjoy the outdoors during light summer rain
showers.
Nursery Induction - Monday 23 June 2014
Please note that there will be no morning nursery class on 23 June as
we will be holding an induction for new pupils joining us in September.
Year 6 Transition – Bishop Gore Community School
On Thursday 26 June Bishop Gore will be holding an Induction Day for Year 6 pupils transferring to them in
September.
LC2 Primary Schools’ Fun Run
Well done Mrs Charles who came 10th out of 245 adult runners on
Tuesday. We’ll be there next Tuesday for the children’s race and hope
you will be too.
The next LC2 School’s Fun Run is at 6pm on Tuesday 17th June and will be
the decider. Grange Primary School are very close to winning the £400
cash prize, so please make a special effort to attend. Registration is from
4.30pm with a warm up at 5.45pm led by Tommy the Turtle. After you
Register there will be a Grange Meeting Point - look out for Mrs Charles
and the Grange Banner!
Orders for Class Photographs
Please return your orders for class photographs to school no later than
Tuesday 17 June 2014.
Panoramic School Photograph
The date for the whole school photograph has been moved. The photographer will now be in school on
Thursday10th July 2014.
Absences in Term Time Requests
A new form has been issued by the South West and Mid Wales Education
Consortium and is to be completed by parents for all absence in term time
requests. A decision has been taken at Consortium level that all absences due
to holiday and extended visits should not be authorised by any Head Teacher.
Supplementary Newsletter: An Update on Changes at Grange
Context
Myself and the Governing body here at Grange Primary are keen to maintain transparency and clarity in
communication. Inevitably there are always going to be changes when there is a new leadership team in a school
and this can be unsettling for some. We seek to reassure you all that any changes made are in the interests of our
continuing high aims of raising standards and providing the very best educational experiences fit to meet the
demands of the twenty first century.
It has come to our attention that the school gate telegraph service may have experienced a few technical
difficulties with tangled wires, so the governors have asked me to set out to you a brief overview of changes at
Grange since January 2014. I also thought it may be useful for you to have a brief pen picture of my own
background in education prior to my appointment in January.
Following a few years of service as a Police Officer in West Midlands Police service I returned
to University and qualified as a teacher in 1991. As my teaching career progressed, I worked
on the National Numeracy Project and was appointed as one of three National Numeracy
consultants working in Sandwell authority in the Midlands to roll out the new strategy during
which time my work to support teachers was published. Following the success of the team
in raising standards, I joined a specialist team working with school leaders to improve their
schools. I took up my first substantive headship in 2001 and more recently became
executive head teacher of two schools and Dyslexia specialist co-ordinator across eleven.
During that time I led my schools through five successful Ofsted inspections. I have a particular passion for catering
for the individual needs of all children, and as part of my own professional development continued to study,
specialising in special educational needs provision. I am a qualified member of the British Dyslexia Association.
Following a family move to the area, I am thrilled and feel privileged to be able to continue my career at Grange.
Changes I have implemented with consultation and support from the Governing Body
Premises
Gates closed at peak times at start and end of school day in the interests of safety of our pupils.
Soffits are to be replaced on the front of the school over the next few weeks, completing Mrs Martell’s project to
smarten the exterior of the building.
Carpets will be laid throughout the school corridors during the summer holiday.
We have decided to change round the location of some classes to facilitate more appropriate settings and enable
collaborative team teaching more easily within phases. HIU Hearing impaired unit) will move to current Y1 location,
reception to current Y2, Y1 to current reception, Year 2 to current Year 3, Year 3 to 4 and Year 4 to current HIU
location. The move also minimises the steps children currently in the school with physical difficulties have to
encounter. All teaching staff have welcomed this move as an improvement in environmental provision.
Many of our interactive white boards in classes are now quite old and as technology has significantly advanced we
shall gradually replace these boards with newer versions. We have a maintenance programme incorporating the
continual updating of computers etc.
It is my understanding that for some years it has been desirable to re-surface the “yard” as it is known as (top
playground). Shortly after starting at Grange I was approached by PTA about this and made enquiries with the local
authority. As a result I was informed that our playground surface, whilst not perhaps as we would wish, is indeed
good compared to many. To resurface the area, with compliance health and safety and disability access
requirements would be extremely expensive, approximately £75K, and therefore not viable at this current time. I
applaud the PTA for their fund-raising efforts but I’m sure parents would like to see something for their hard work
and sadly I fear the playground project may be a few years down the road. It will, however, be revisited regularly
during our health and safety termly reviews.
Staffing
Following Mrs Hurley’s role as Acting Head and subsequently acting Deputy, from Easter she was appointed as
substantive Deputy Head. From September Mrs Pope has been appointed Key Stage 2 Phase leader and Mrs Minty
Foundation phase leader. Mrs Schropfer continues her role as Nursery teacher and special needs coordinator/support for the whole school. Mr Davies, as part of the school senior management team, felt it was too
much for him to also retire last year with Mrs Martell and Mr Fox, but now wishes to pursue his own personal
interests more in retirement after a loyal and very long service of thirty eight years to the profession. We respect
his well-earned right to do so and have reluctantly had to find a replacement. We are pleased to have appointed
Mr James Littlehales who will teach in Year 4 from September and we have also been able to appoint Mr Matthew
Court who will be working as part of Mrs Schropfer’s support team from September. Support programmes will be
delivered to identified individual or groups of children including more and able and talented children as well as
those needing a little catch-up work. These sessions will be delivered by Mrs Schropfer, Mr Court, Mrs Charles or
Mrs Saunders.
For some years Music at Grange has been taught by a local authority employed peripatetic teacher, Mrs Bramley
who works in several Swansea schools. She too is retiring from school work to pursue personal interests and so
Music at Grange will be co-ordinated by Mr Court who will also be delivering some Music lessons as will class
teachers too. Mrs Bramley has built up a great Orchestra here at Grange, hosting an annual festival for our
neighbouring schools which we are keen to continue. Any parents with musical talents and a little time to spare
would be most welcomed in school. Both Mr Littlehales and Mr Court are keen sportsmen and are already planning
a variety of in house and inter school events for both girls and boys.
For the forthcoming year Mrs Hurley will be non-classroom based and will be delivering a weekly Welsh lesson in
each class throughout the school. Due to our excellent numbers we are able to maintain single year classes for a
second year and the structure for the year will be as follows:Nursery: Mrs Schropfer Reception: Mrs Minty Year 1: Mrs Thomas Year 2: Mrs Kuhne (formerly Mrs FordKuhne) Monday – Thursday, Mrs Hurley Friday Year 3: Mrs Patrick Year 4: Mr Littlehales Year 5: Mrs Pope Year
6: Miss Gully.
Mr Court will be working on an ICT project, primarily with upper Key Stage 2 that will incorporate making story
board footage for our website which is currently under review in light of impending ICT upgrades here at Grange.
Following the retirement of the hearing impaired unit specialist teacher last July, Mrs Garland kindly stepped on to
the bridge for September 2013. She has worked for two days each week with Mrs Folland. She now wishes to
pursue her other position as access to learning adviser full time. We are currently working closely with County
special needs advisers to provide an appropriate replacement for September.
Staff Absence
Sadly we have three teachers who are currently unfit to work. These are Mrs Brice, Mrs Patrick and Mrs Folland.
Mrs Patrick has had a few attempts at returning but sadly each time has quickly resulted in her illness returning. I
would ask parents to respect the privacy rights of these teachers and not speculate on the nature of their illnesses.
We wish them all a speedy recovery and return to their teaching duties here at Grange. I remain in regular contact
with them and in the meantime their roles are being covered via local authority approved teaching agencies when
we cannot adequately cover in house.
Curriculum
From September 2013 a new framework for teaching Literacy and Numeracy was introduced throughout Wales,
with revisions from September 2014. We also have a statutory national curriculum. As a result of these new
initiatives it has been necessary to review the content and delivery of the curriculum at Grange. From September
each class will teach English and Mathematics Skills Lessons and these skills will then be applied through a Literacy
and Numeracy element in a topic of work, such as Year Five’s current World Cup themed topic. In this way we can
address the statutory requirements, tailor a curriculum to pupil interests and give relevance and meaning to the
children’s studies. A timetable, termly overview of work and diary of forthcoming events will be issued to you all at
the start of each term, commencing Autumn ( September 2014).
We will be offering a variety of workshops during the next academic year, commencing September. These will
include reading at home, your child and numeracy, letters and sounds synthetic phonics and testing and
assessment. If there are any other particular areas you feel would be beneficial to run workshops about, please do
let us know and we will try to accommodate your wishes.
We have introduced a new reading scheme, Oxford Reading Tree and a new scheme of Mathematics, Abacus
evolve Active Learn Primary. Both schemes have text books, interactive games and resources and online
supplementary activities to support childrens’ learning. We use these schemes as a base for planning and teaching
but tailor lessons as appropriate to your child’s needs. We have also purchased a significant amount of lovely new
resources such as supplementary reading books, maths equipment etc. to enhance the learning environment.
We are fortunate to have super grounds here at Grange and it is my intention to incorporate this area into our
learning environment. Mrs Charles will be taking advanced training as a Forest School leader in the Autumn term
which will enable her to take small classes of children for regular time-tabled forest school sessions.
I firmly believe that schools and school leaders should work together to offer the very best quality of opportunities
for children and I am really pleased that I have been able to arrange for our children to be part of a cluster of
schools in a group project next year where children showing high ability and talent in a particular area will have the
opportunity to join like-minded children from other schools for a specialist taught day in a particular subject. This is
not limited to academic subjects such as English and Maths, although these will be included. It will cover areas such
as Art, Drama and Sport too. I have also liaised with our neighbouring school YGG Llwynderw who are as eager as I
to work together. We are hoping to put together a reading group, sharing discussion in conversational Welsh and a
session to introduce more traditional playground games. Mrs Hurley will be leading this project.
The children will probably have shared with you that we have introduced them to a new handwriting style. For
older children who already have an established free-flowing joined handwriting style, such as our Year 6 pupils, we
are not seeking to alter this. For those less advanced in their hand writing development we are using a fully cursive
style which we believe promotes more uniform sized writing and is easier for children to develop with speed and
accuracy. So far, the children are really enjoying this and their work looks really great. Pen is used when the teacher
feels the child is ready and pencil is always used in Maths work.
The pace of change has been brisk. You may be aware that we have an Inspection scheduled for the Autumn Term
and so it has been necessary to move quickly. My aim is to communicate developments through my newsletter and
the school website but if there is anything you have a question regarding which is not answered via these methods
please ask me! I welcome parental questions, enquires and helpful suggestions.
Lots going on there, but all good things that we are all very excited about. We do hope you will share in our
enthusiasm and continue to support the school in its high aim to do the very best for your children and provide a
happy, safe and exciting learning environment.
Kind Regards,
Mrs Sue Kite – Headteacher

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