MUSWELL HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL - Governors' Annual Report to Parents 2005

Governors' Annual Report to Parents 2005

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITY

Governors' Annual Report to Parents 2005

***To download the orginal formatted document please see the bottom of this page***

The school has had another busy and creative year with impressive results, which are detailed later in this report. The major task of the Governing Body has been to ensure that the school continued to have the leadership and management it needed following Jill Hughes's long-term illness starting in October 2003. At the time of our last Annual Report to parents, Alison Squire was our acting headteacher and we did not know when we could expect Jill's return to work. We were delighted that, by the summer, Jill was eager to come back and was declared fit to do so on a part-time basis.

During the summer, Jill, Alison and the governors gave careful thought as to how we could enable Jill to work part time while ensuring that the school continued to be effectively led and managed at all times. We agreed arrangements for a trial jobshare between Jill and Alison in time for the new school year in September 2004. The benefits of the arrangement included:

* Enabling Jill, a highly valued and experienced headteacher, to continue to build on the success she had built up over the years in leading the school.
* Enabling Alison, who had so successfully led and managed the school in Jill's absence, to continue to work as a headteacher.
* Providing continuity for the children and staff, with two headteachers they already knew well.

We arranged for Alison and Jill each to spend 3 days per week as headteachers, in order to underline their equal importance in the new arrangement and to give the school a generous 6 days per week of headteacher time to cope with the workload.

The jobshare was agreed on a trial basis for a year, and a panel of governors was appointed to monitor its success against agreed criteria. Those governors have been seeking feedback about the effectiveness of the jobshare from all concerned (and this will include parents, through a questionnaire to be circulated shortly). The monitoring process and feedback will greatly help the Governing Body in the decision which has to be made soon about how to proceed after this trial year.

Meanwhile, the school can take some pride in having pioneered a creative and imaginative answer to what is increasingly recognised as a national problem. The demands of a primary school headteacher's job are huge, and schools throughout the country are facing growing difficulties in recruiting and retaining heads. We are among a handful of schools that have tried jobsharing heads, and we suspect we might see the idea catching on more widely.

The jobshare trial had hardly started when the school's management team faced another challenge: Helen Hattersley, our deputy head, who had given Alison such vital support during Jill's absence, fell ill herself and had to take some months off. It was good to see Helen back at work in the spring term, and the senior management team back at full strength.

It is a tribute to the excellent teamwork among the management and the entire staff team that the school has continued to work so well through all these changes.

STEPHEN ENGELHARD
Chair, Governing Body (until January 2005) Back to top

HEADTEACHERS' REPORT

2004-05 has been an eventful and challenging year and the school has been involved in some extremely exciting ventures, starting with the display at The National Gallery of the 'Take One Picture' competition entry that was won by our school. It went on display in April 2004 and all pupils had the opportunity for a special viewing in June, organised by The National Gallery. It remained on display until July and now hangs in our Infant Hall.

* During June we had a successful Science Week for the whole school, involving trips to Rye Meads RSPB Park, London Zoo and Kew Gardens, plus all-day workshops in school.
* Specialist sports coaching was organised during June and July for pupils throughout the school in cricket, tennis, hockey and football, and pupils and teachers benefited from some excellent specialist teaching by coaches from outside institutions.

Sports Day for KS2 was held for the first time at Fortismere School in their sports field and was well attended by parents. Children walked to the venue and it was good to work with one of our local secondary schools for the big day.

Year 6 football successes included the girls' team winning the Haringey League and reaching the semi final of the Haringey Cup and the boys' team were runners up for both the League and the Cup. Well done to all those pupils.

* The Year 6 production was 'Annie' and was a thoroughly professional and exciting show much enjoyed by parents, pupils and staff.
* The School Summer Fair annual event had a circus theme this year and was very successful despite cold weather.

We returned to the new term in September with new headship arrangements as we welcomed Jill Hughes back in her post following her recovery from serious illness. Jill was thrilled to return to the school, finding it still in very good shape because of the hard work of Alison, Helen Hattersley and the staff. We are both really enjoying working together to lead this happy and successful school.

During the autumn term regular meetings were held with parents and representatives from the Borough looking at healthy eating and how to improve school dinners. A parent survey was conducted and a pupil survey was carried out by the School Council. As a result, much of the processed food has been removed from the menu and healthier options are available, such as more vegetarian choices, salads, jacket potatoes and cheese and crackers. The parents have helped plan the summer menu and meet regularly to discuss improving dinners.

* The Year 6 School Journey was an enjoyable week at the end of September where pupils took part in a range of challenging and fun activities at the Isle of Wight 'Little Canada' camp. These included abseiling, high ropes, sports activities and team building games. We also had trips out to historical places of interest including Osborne House and Carisbrooke Castle.

* During October we celebrated Black History Month with a range of visiting artists, storytellers, drumming workshops and historical talks. This is now an annual event and children have really enjoyed the wide range of activities offered.

* The Christmas show had a ?Round the World? theme and was very much enjoyed by both pupils and staff, and children from the Conductive Education Centre came to watch the dress rehearsal. Our orchestra went up to their school and performed a short concert as well as playing for our school Carol Concert and giving a concert performance to parents.

* We have also built links with ?Treehouse? Autistic School and, following staff training on autism and discussions with teachers, several pupils come weekly to attend music, art and PE lessons.

* In the spring term, following the Tsunami disaster, children worked hard to raise money through their own efforts at home and in school and raised over £1300. We also fundraised for Red Nose Day and had a ?Sponsored Silence? for Macmillan Cancer Relief.

After many hours of negotiations we are about to update our ICT suite with more powerful computers and move the existing computers into classrooms. We are also planning to have more interactive whiteboards and laptop computers for staff and some pupils.

The other main work of the school this year has been in raising standards through the process of 'self-evaluation', and staff are currently being trained in line with the new Ofsted requirements. Subject Co-ordinators have been increasing their knowledge of how well their subjects are taught and learnt in the school through a process of work scrutinies and monitoring of lessons. We will be asking pupils and parents for their views on the work of the school and giving you more information about this process as the year progresses.

JILL HUGHES and ALISON SQUIRE
Headteachers Back to top

CURRICULUM COMMITTEE

The school, in collaboration with the Curriculum Committee has been busy regularly reviewing and updating polices throughout the course of the year. We have reviewed Art, ICT, Design and Technology, Marking and Homework, Maths and Science policies and have made slight improvements to ensure consistency. We are delighted to report that we now have a new Humanities co-ordinator who is currently working on reviewing school policies in this area of the curriculum. A monitoring timetable for teaching and learning in all subjects has now been developed and a monitoring aspect incorporated into individual policies. All school policies are accessible in a handbook kept in the school office.

We continue to invite subject co-ordinators to our meetings to discuss progress and practice in their subject areas. The school has many good news stories to report and as ever is addressing the curriculum in a positive and stimulating manner. A good example of this is our excellent art exhibited at The National Gallery whose production involved every child at the school.

Another role of the Curriculum Committee is to review the School Improvement Plan, which includes contributions from the staff team. Although this process is time-consuming, it enables all the staff to have a clear understanding of the focus and priorities of the school. We are pleased to report significant progress has been made in delivering the Post-OFSTED Action Plan, which is now incorporated into the School Improvement Plan.

We are also responsible for ensuring the school sets its targets for SATS results of Year 6 pupils. The school is required to produce these when the children are starting Year 5, which, in practical terms, is sometimes difficult to predict accurately.

More recently we have slightly changed our terms of reference and have become a Committee as opposed to a Working Party, which allows us to ratify and amend the majority of school policies on behalf of the Governing Body.

We would especially like to thank Alison, Jill and all curriculum co-ordinators for their positive contributions and hard work over the past year.

CATHY NORRIS on behalf of
TRACY GOLDBLATT
Chair, Curriculum Committee Back to top

SATs RESULTS & TARGETS

NB FORMATTING HAS BEEN LOST FROM THE TABLES BELOW. TO READ THE ORIGINAL FORMATTED DOCUMENT, SEE THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

Key Stage 1 SATs Results 2004 (taken at the end of Year 2)

This year Haringey took part in trials of a new approach to assessment in Key Stage 1. The approach, trialled in 25% of LEAs in 2003/4, used tests and tasks to underpin teacher assessment. The results of these tests, together with information gained from children's work throughout the year, was used to make one comprehensive judgement about each child's attainment in each subject or aspect.

SATs are taken in Reading, Writing and Maths at the end of Year 2. The Government expectation is that Level 2 should challenge an average 7-year-old; Level 3 is above average and Level 1 is below average. Children develop at different rates; some are still 6 years of age, some have English as an additional language; others have special needs. But this is a broad guideline.

The DfES require that results are published to show percentages of pupils achieving Level 2 and above.

Results in English, Maths and Science for KS1 at Muswell Hill Primary School were broadly in line with, or slightly above, national averages at Level 2 and were well above national average for Level 3, especially in Maths and Reading.

KS1 SATs 2003 KS1 SATs 2004
Level 2+ Level 3 Level 2+ Level 3
Reading 87 % 40 % 85 % 51 %
Writing 93 % 25 % 81 % 26 %
Mathematics 93 % 53 % 98 % 60 %

The next table breaks these figures down and compares them with national results.

Muswell Hill Primary School Key Stage 1 Teacher Assessment Results 2004
Compared with National Key Stage 1 Task & Test Results 2004 (grey columns)
Percentage at each Level
W 1 2C 2B 2A 3 4+
Reading 3 3 12 12 10 14 10 21 14 21 50 21
Writing 2 5 16 13 12 20 12 25 31 21 26 16
Mathematics 2 2 0 7 12 15 17 12 9 25 60 28

Key Stage 2 SATs Results 2004 (taken at the end of Year 6)

Pupils take SATs in English, Maths and Science. The Government expectation is that Level 4 should challenge an average 11-year-old; Level 5 is above average and Level 3 is below average.

Muswell Hill Primary School's results in English, Maths and Science for KS2, both at Level 4 and Level 5, were above the national average.

KS2 SATs 2003 KS2 SATs 2004
Level 4+ Level 5 Level 4+ Level 5
English
Reading
Writing 95 %
93 %
83 % 58 %
70 %
37 % 87 %
92 %
60 % 30 %
57 %
12 %
Mathematics 87 % 58 % 78 % 45 %
Science 98 % 50 % 92 % 52 %

The next table breaks our figures down and compares them with national results:

Muswell Hill Primary School Key Stage 2 Results 2004
Compared with National Key Stage 2 Results 2004 (grey columns)
Percentage at each Level
Below level 3 3 4 5 6 pupils dis-applied pupils absent
English 5 5 8 15 57 51 30 27 - - 2 1 0 1
Mathematics 3 7 18 19 33 43 45 31 - - 2 1 0 0
Science 5 5 3 10 40 43 52 43 - - 2 1 0 0

Against the previous four years of rising results, they have fallen overall, especially compared to last year's results. However, last year our results were exceptionally high and in the top 5% for the country. The cohort this year was different and we expected a drop; we had two pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs who were both disapplied, but this is still shown in our results as pupils not achieving Level 4.

We have analysed the results in detail and looked at all possible reasons and identified areas for development for coming years. Full details can be found in the School Improvement Plan.

Targets for Key Stage 2 SATs 2005

English 86 % Level 4+ (39 % Level 4, 47 % Level 5)
Maths 89 % Level 4+ (42 % Level 4, 47 % Level 5)

Absence Rates 2003/4

Authorised 6.0 % of half-day sessions
Unauthorised 0.0 %
Number on roll 360 (of compulsory school age) Back to top

PERSONNEL COMMITTEE

In a school such as this, where staff are happy and well motivated and turnover is low, the Personnel Committee has mainly the pleasant task of dealing with staff development, the slightly more onerous task of dealing with the implementation of Government directives, and the only occasionally unhappy issue of dealing with staff illness. The Governing Body set up a special committee to monitor the headteacher jobshare arrangement and the Chair of Personnel sits on that committee.

The staff have individual programmes of development actions that are agreed between the headteachers and the individual staff members. Governors are involved only in the broader issues, or those that will carry additional cost implications for the school. Professional development is a very important part of staff morale and staff retention, as well as developing the skills of staff to the benefit of our children.

Two of our staff have chosen different routes to a higher level of professional skill. Jeanette Morgan was successful in her application to be an Advanced Skills Teacher; for this she had to prepare a portfolio of information and have an assessment in November. A requirement of this advancement is that she should commit one day per week to be available for other schools in Haringey, for which the Borough pays. Jackie Myles chose to pursue an upgrade to Skill Level UP3 the first time this grade has become available. Jackie is also Leading Maths Teacher for Haringey and uses half of the day she is allocated out of class to assist another Haringey school to improve their maths results, and the other half for booster classes in our own school. The governors were involved with considering the implications of staff cover costs for the school and concluded that these could be managed successfully. We were also pleased that one of our teaching assistants, Jennifer Broni, is pursuing her ambition to become a trained teacher, some of which training will be school based.

The big issue this year has been planning for the 'Workforce Remodelling' initiative. This should represent a big change in the jobs of teachers and teaching assistants, and although some of the plans have already been introduced, the big changes will come in September 2005 when teachers will have a guarantee of a minimum of 10% of their working week as Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time. This obviously has cost implications for schools and we have been planning for the changes well ahead of time. Some of our Teaching Assistants have done CACHE Certificate training Levels 2 and 3. This is a certificate for TAs working with children both in class and on an individual level. This is a step towards the Higher Level Teaching Assistants qualification.

Sadly, one of our most experienced and very highly regarded members of staff, Helen Hattersley, had a long period of illness this year. Because Helen is also a deputy head, both this role and her class role had to be covered during this period. Jackie Myles and Gillian Collin, our SENCO, were a great help, and Jane Ledsom, a supply teacher well known to the school, covered Helen's class. The governors were confident that the school managed well in her absence, and we are now very pleased to see Helen back.

VALERIE SMITH
Chair, Personnel Committee Back to top

STAFF TRAINING

We continue to be committed to offering professional development and training to all our staff team in order to maintain high standards and good subject knowledge across the school. Each member of staff is encouraged to identify an area of need with regards to training and most, using our small annual budget, have been able to attend a variety of different courses to enhance their skills. For example, the Early Years staff have visited other local schools to observe co-ordination and planning of the outdoor area, which they want to develop further over the coming year in our own school. Also, some members of staff (who had not done so previously) attended a 5-day maths course run on Saturdays in order to enhance their Numeracy teaching skills.

We hold weekly curriculum meetings led by different members of staff and some outside agencies. In addition to this we have regular senior and middle management meetings. We continue to use the teacher availability days (TADs) as opportunities to meet together as a whole staff to plan for the coming year and to prioritise certain areas for development. In September we used one day to train all staff, including kitchen staff, in basic first aid and fire safety. After the Easter break our Science co-ordinator organised a creative focus day at Kew Gardens to look at plant habitats and their environment, linking in with our Science topics for the summer term throughout the school.

We continue to use the Performance Management policy and format to monitor all members of staff and we have had a specific emphasis this year on the 'Workforce Re-modelling', which involves increased training, supervision and mentoring of our support staff.

We continue to work in partnership with some teacher training colleges and welcome students throughout the year in order to give them the opportunity to expand their knowledge and practice through placements in our school. We also accommodate work placement students from local schools and colleges and have a range of selected volunteers to support pupils and staff in the classroom.

HELEN HATTERSLEY
Staff Training Co-ordinator Back to top

FINANCE COMMITTEE

In setting our budgets, the Finance Committee has always sought to maintain the school's strategy of providing as much extra adult support in class and high quality non-contact time as possible.

As reported at the last AGM, 2004 proved a difficult year from a financial point of view to balance our budget due to the headteacher's long-term sickness. The solution of redeploying our two deputies to cover the three senior management roles and provide quality supply teachers did put a strain on the budget, despite long-term sickness insurance. However, in the end the Government made certain transitional funding available to the school and we were able to report a balanced budget for 2004.

The 2005 budget was prepared with significant 'unknowns' in terms of personnel costs and we were fortunate to obtain some transitional funding from the Government again to be able to produce a balanced budget for 2005.

In addition to Government funding, the school is the recipient of generous donations from the fund-raising efforts of the SPA and continually looks for, and applies for grants that help us to improve the school and allow it to implement the School Improvement Plan in the best way possible. This year, we received funds to redevelop 'the mound' in the Infant playground and we still anticipate the Junior playground will be resurfaced.

As has been the case over the past two years, a more detailed account of the school's financial performance will be made available and presented at the AGM in May 2005.

LIZ ROSENFELD
Chair, Finance Committee Back to top

PREMISES COMMITTEE

Over the last year, the Premises Committee has focused on making the school premises more accessible to all children, particularly those with disabilities. We have seen the split-level Infants playground completely remodelled and relandscaped to improve accessibility and visibility. It now accommodates a gently winding ramp suitable for wheelchair access, recontouring and resurfacing of the previously 'out of bounds' area with grass play-carpet and relocation of the climbing frame. Stepped timber decking provides access to the new slide and doubles as a seating arena. The planting schemes are very generous and will flourish in the years to come.

Also as part of the school's plans to improve school accessibility, refurbishment of the children's WCs began in the infants area and we have now completed Years 1 and 2 WCs. New facilities were introduced to the Disabled WC. We will continue this year to upgrade WCs throughout the rest of the school, including staff WCs

In the Junior playground we extended the wall at the foot of the bank to enclose a raised area constructed for picnic tables, over which a sun/rain canopy will be erected. The old climbing frame, which had become too dangerous to use, was removed but replaced with woodland trail equipment on the grassed area at the end of the playground.

Keeping in line with the local authority guidance, a Health & Safety working party was created to identify and keep under scrutiny any risks within the school, both for the premises directly and with regard to the safety of the children, staff and any other members of the school community. An updated Health & Safety policy was adopted by the school and a programme of regular risk assessments formalised.

In the year ahead the school can now concentrate on upgrading the remaining outdoor play areas with improvements planned for extra play equipment, resurfacing and remarking of the Junior playground and 3 new canopies to provide shelter from sun or rain. One canopy will be over Foundation Stage (Reception) outdoor area, another outside the entrance to the Junior hall and a third over the newly created picnic table area in the Junior playground.

NOF funding for resurfacing the Junior playground, a sum of £92,000, has been approved as part of a borough-wide programme, although the actual date when works will begin has yet to be determined.

We are working with the Early Years teachers on a proposal to improve the Foundation Stage outdoor area in order to make the whole area safe, level and wheelchair accessible. We are looking at providing some new play equipment and having a sun canopy outside the classroom doors over the sandpit area.

CHRISTINE JENNINGS
Chair, Premises Committee Back to top

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITY

There are currently 12 children with Statements of Special Educational Needs and over 50 children identified as having a special educational need in the school. Provision is made for these children in line with the school's SEN policy. The school provides co-ordination and resources for children with SEN who do not have statements largely from its own budget: there is little identified additional funding. Over the past year we have been able to maintain and slightly increase the resources for SEN. We are also reviewing the roles of Special Needs Assistants and Teaching Assistants to merge them where appropriate and build a career structure for TAs within the school.

We remain extremely short of space for storage and small group work.

We are delighted to report the success of the Parents' Learning Support Network. The network collaborates with the school to offer mutual support to parents of children with individual needs, disseminate information and act as a focus for consultation for the school. They have also, with the SPA, funded the purchase of specialist computer software.

The majority of pupils with SEN make excellent progress. To build on our success, the school is currently undertaking a major evaluative exercise to check progress for minority groups including disabled pupils and those with SEN. Results of this will be available in the September term 2005. We are also undertaking a provision-mapping analysis of deployment of support for SEN and Disability and the school has identified 'trigger points' for the determination of additional funding for SEN: this will feed into conclusions about the effectiveness of deployment of resources.

In accordance with the Accessibility Plan:

* all curriculum area reviews now include specific consideration of disability and SEN issues;

* the infant playground has been upgraded and now fully complies with accessibility requirements.

We are greatly encouraged by the results emerging from the school's introduction of two literacy programmes, Tracks and Lexia, an ICT package.

We are most grateful to the Tottenham Foundation for grants to provide two laptops, reading scheme books and resources for Early Years work.

NICK PEACEY, SEN Governor
& GILLIAN COLLIN, SENCO (SEN Co-ordinator) Back to top

ABOUT THE GOVERNING BODY

The Governing Body is responsible for appointing the headteacher and taking a strategic view of the school's aims and performance. This involves:
* Setting aims and objectives
* Agreeing policies, targets and priorities
* Monitoring and reviewing whether these are achieved

Governors are helped to play their part by training provided by Haringey's Governor Support and Training Unit.

The full Governing Body meets at least five times per year. It consists of Parent Governors, elected by the parents, Staff Governors, elected by the staff, LEA Governors, appointed by the Local Education Authority, and Community Governors, co-opted by the other governors.

Governors are generally members of at least one of the four main committees and working parties, which meet more frequently and do much of the work of the Governing Body. The Headteacher is also a member of each one. They are:
* Curriculum
* Personnel
* Premises (also Health & Safety)
* Finance

There are also individual governors who have a brief to report on specific aspects of the school's work. These include literacy, numeracy, special needs, ICT and the Foundation stage.

The governors are always happy to discuss their work and the school with parents: find us in the playground, write to us at the school office, or send an email to muswellhillgovernors@yahoo.co.uk .

WHO ARE THE GOVERNORS, May 2005

Representative Governors
Nick Peacey (30-4-08)
Margaret Kennedy (10-10-08)
Vacancy

Staff Governors
Jill Hughes
Alison Squire
Jeanette Morgan (11-6-08)
Jackie Myles (31-8-06)
Jackie Toserkani (31-8-06)

Parent Governors
Cathy Norris (26-1-08)
Christine Jennings (11-6-08) - CHAIR
Liz Sagar (11-6-08)
Ted Lowery (24-1-09)
Tracy Goldblatt (11-6-08)
James Libson (26-1-08)

Community Governors
Stephen Engelhard (27-1-08)
Liz Rosenfeld (15-1-06)
Berrin Bates (31-8-06)
Valerie Smith (11-6-08)

*The dates in brackets indicate the end of each governor's term of office. Back to top

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