At the heart of our school ethos is the belief that families should be at the core of school life. We hope you agree that supporting your child at school is a really important aspect of their development. For this reason, in addition to the traditional opportunities such as regular parent evenings, invitations to sports events, local church services and annual musicals, we have introduced lots of different ways in which families can share and support their children’s learning.

Busy lives make it hard for some families to stay in touch with all that happens in school. To help you, we produce:

• A regular newsletter
• Weekly news through our website in the form of a ‘What’s on Guide’
• Regular updates via our Website and Parent Mail app
• A text messaging service for more urgent news.
• Parent and school Facebook accounts

We carry out an annual survey; we involve parents and carers as much as possible in important decisions. Recently, we have consulted on nursery provision and school reports. Working together we can ensure that your children are supported, safe and nurtured in our school. Our website also provides many opportunities for you to comment and discuss events and activities at school; we find this a valuable source of opinions that we can learn from.

In our last survey, 100% of parents said that their child was happy at school – we are very proud of this statistic.

We have an ‘open door’ policy – staff are available briefly at the start and end of the day and we encourage parents to contact us wherever they feel the need. By working together we can support your child more effectively.

We do encourage children to attend school regularly – we have tight procedures for monitoring attendance – every day that a child does not attend school can affect their progress, confidence and friendships. We hope that you will support us with this. 

As our children develop, we understand that adults may find the modern methods of doing things by which they were taught at school can be different to those which children use today. To provide support we hold “Open Days” and information evenings. These will be posted on our website. We have Open Days once per term – these are invaluable in giving parents and carers an insight into what happens in school on a normal day – parents who attend these, comment very favourably.

achieve

Quality of Education

We are working hard as a staff to make sure our children achieve well. We have made good progress in many areas including: Early years results that are above national in the 2 areas that are measured by the Department for Education. Phonics results that have been above national for the last 2 years. Writing results above national at KS2 for the last 2 years.

This year we are focusing on reading across school as reading is so important in all areas of the curriculum. We are working with a local authority advisor to develop this further.

Behaviour and Attitudes

We are proud of our children. The assessment for the Healthy schools award quoted:

“The behaviour of the pupils was exemplary, with pupils wanting to behave well and do the right thing - a real credit to the school. A positive behaviour system is in place across school that encourages pupils to take ownership of their behaviour.”

Leadership and Management

The school has made good progress in leadership and management. The school is forward thinking and is keen to ensure that the ‘every child, every lesson’ moto is embraced by all staff. In a recent teaching and learning review, the leadership team were described as:

“This distributive leadership style has created a passionate team who work collegiately in sharing an ambitious vision for Gildersome.”

The Gildersome Curriculum

The best thing about working in our school is the satisfaction of watching the children having fun whilst they learn. Staff plan exciting, engaging lessons that often involve visits or visitors. Our curriculum is based around a question prompt that encourages children to consider evidence over the course of the topic before coming to their own conclusions about the answer. We have always worked hard to ensure that our curriculum remains broad and balanced – an acknowledgement that all children have talents and skills that need to be nurtured and celebrated and that these talents may not necessarily be in reading, writing and mathematics. Hence, there are lots of opportunities to ‘shine’ in other ways – through performing or through sports activities, for example.

To share learning with you at home, our teachers incorporate into their planning ways that parents and carers can become involved in the learning such as through homework projects and information and videos on the blog.

For parents wishing to spend more time in school there are also lots of opportunities. Our PTA organise fundraising events throughout the year and new members are always made welcome. Many parents also provide valuable support, for example, parents in Year 2 came to talk to the children about their jobs. We also welcome parents on many of our school trips. Opportunities also exist for parents to contribute to the running of school through our strong and focussed governing body.

We are proud of the contribution which families make to the life of our school. It confirms our belief that it is not about sending your child to Gildersome Primary, it is about becoming a part of the school family and the school community.

The best way to visit the school is to come and see the children during the school day – you are warmly welcome to visit the school by appointment.