April Newsletter 2016

April 2016 www.westpark.hartlepool.sch.uk - our school website DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 11th April to 23rd June - Y2 and Y6 Teacher Assessment Term (the Y2 and Y6 children will be assessed by their class teacher throughout this term).

2nd May - Bank Holiday 9th May- Y6 SATs week 16th May - Assessment Week (Y1, Y3, Y4, Y5) 30th May to 3rd June - Half Term 8th June - Red, White and Blue Day 13th to 17th June - Y1 / 2 Phonics Screening 29th June 2pm - Y6 Leavers’ Assembly 4th July - Olympic Legacy Activity Week 6th July (pm) - Key Stage 1 Sports Day 7th July (pm) - Key Stage 2 Sports Day 15th July - School closes for the Summer Holidays.

Thursday 5th September - School re-opens for 2016 / 2017 school year.

Parent Gardening Team We are looking for volunteers to work with our parent gardening team.

The team come in for one afternoon per week, to work with the children in the school gardens and small allotments planting flowers and vegetables.

It would be wonderful if we could increase the numbers allowing more children to take part in the activities.

If you are interested in joining this group please contact Mrs Devonshire through our school office.

Authorised Absence There will be no authorised absence (holiday requests) for any children during summer time assessments. It is extremely difficult for individual children to complete assessments separately from their peers. We are always keen to avoid any undue anxiety for the children; we would ask all parents to avoid taking holidays this term, especially parents of Y2 and Y6 children who will be completing work which will be used for teacher assessment up until the 23rd June.

Water Bottles Could I remind parents that we encourage children to bring water bottles into school. As the weather improves, the children benefit from access to a drink at their desk.

World Book Day World Book Day was recognised in school with activities which were thoroughly enjoyed across the school. It was great to see so many of the children and adults dressed as their favourite character. This successful day also allowed staff to emphasise the importance of reading in school and what an enjoyable pastime reading can be.

After the success of the day we have decided to have another theme day on the 8th June to celebrate the Queen’s birthday—more information will follow soon.

Y6 Transition If your child has accepted a place at High Tunstall or Dyke House, the transition this year will be in the final two weeks of term, with children attending their chosen secondary school full time from 4th July.

Walk and Extra Mile for West Park School

Parent View Responses

I would like to thank everyone who supported our sponsored event this term. The staff and children were delighted when we were able to announce that our target had been reached. Work starts, weather permitting, on the 25th April. The school council have done extremely well and are happy with the designs. I am sure that we will all be impressed by the improvements.

To summarise the results, nine of the twelve questions were over 90% positive. The three questions below this mark are detailed below and we will work hard to improve these percentages in the future:

Attendance and Progress Attendance and progress are closely monitored by staff at West Park School. Recent analysis shows a clear correlation between these key concerns. During our recent parent consultations your child’s progress will have been discussed with their class teacher. If it has been found that concerns with individual progress are linked to poor attendance Miss Hall will be making phone calls to parents or carers to make them fully aware of their child’s position.

Half Barrel Planters The introduction of the half barrel planters has been welcomed by many parents who walk along the pavement on Duchy Road. These have been donated by concerned parents and residents in the past. It has been suggested that more planters are used along the pavement as cars still block pedestrians, especially those with pushchairs. We are more than happy to accept further donations of these planters in the future.

No Dogs Allowed!

Under no circumstances should dogs be brought onto the school grounds. This includes dogs which are being carried, at the head height of most of our children.

Parent View Responses Thank you to all parents and carers who completed our Parent View questionnaire during Parent Consultations.

Once again, the results were extremely positive; they can be viewed online using the address below:

https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/

Question 6: “My child receives appropriate homework for their age” .

85% agree, 12% disagree, 3% don’t know.

Historically this has been a difficult problem to address.

Parent and carer’s opinion of home work differs greatly.

Some parents state that the school gives too much homework, others that we don’t give enough! We would ask the 12% of parents who feel that our homework policy is inappropriate to contact school with their reasons and these will be considered when the homework policy is updated in the near future. I will also request parental involvement in the writing of the new policy in the Autumn Term.

Question 8: “This school deals effectively with bullying” 67% agree, 9% disagree, 24% don’t know Although it is good to see that 1 in 4 parents have had no experience of bullying in school, the 9% of parents who feel that we don’t deal with bullying effectively are a great concern to myself and all of our staff. My advice to all parents and carers would be that if you feel that an incident has not been dealt with well by the school contact us immediately and keep in contact until the issue is resolved. The well-being of all children at this school is of the highest priority. Bullying is not tolerated. We have decided to publish our own information leaflet for all parents regarding this issue. This will be available this term.

Question 11: “I receive valuable information from the school about my child’s progress.”

87% agree, 11% disagree, 2% don’t know To explain our position regarding the reporting of children’s progress, we provide information for parents three times during the school year (statutory requirement). Two parent consultation evenings are held and the children receive their school report in the summer term. School staff always contact parents directly in addition if they require their support with a matter of concern. Between parent consultations many parents seem happy with the “no news, is good news” scenario but obviously 11% of our families feel that they require additional information. In light of results from this questionnaire we intend to pilot the use of an APP which has been used successfully in other schools to improve communication with parents. Watch this space!