Getting to Good Seminar

We were delighted that our recent HMI inspection recognized the rapid improvements that are being made in our school: 'The action plan provides you, staff and Governors with an effective structure to accelerate the rate of improvement.'

As a further step in our School's improvement journey, Miss Worsley and I attended an HMI Getting to Good Seminar this week.

Each seminar provides an opportunity for schools to:

• explore and discuss key issues around improvement, looking at Ofsted's evidence about schools that improve and those that don't
• identify, using case study examples, the key drivers for school improvement
• apply learning to plan for improvement in your own school alongside experienced HMI

There were primary, junior and secondary schools from across the East of England at the Seminar. Miss Worsley and I gained some very useful insights from the event.

Post by Alison Wilkinson

Joint Meeting of Staff and Governors

This week we held a joint meeting of Staff and Governors.

We started the evening with a celebration of everything that has been achieved over the last three years; to reflect on what has changed and what remarkable improvements have been made in so many areas of school life.  I made a brief speech to celebrate the contributions of staff and governors, and then we watched a slide show which highlighted some of the school’s recent achievements. These are too numerous to detail here but include:

·         introducing Whole School Values;

·         rigorous assessment of pupil progress;

·         playing competitive sport;

·         new website, class blogs, iPads, interactive whiteboards and visualisers;  

·         refurbishing the Early Years’ Classroom;

·         Collective Worship in Church every Friday;

·         teaching French across the school;

·         doing residential trips for all Key Stage 2 pupils;

·         whole school focus on maths (2012/13) and writing (2013/14) showing real impact on pupils’ progress;

·         setting up of Breakfast Club;

·         many enrichment opportunities like singing at the Royal Albert Hall, visiting museums, learning musical instruments;

·         a huge range of extra-curricular clubs (Art, Knitting, Tennis, Creative Writing etc)

 

However, the main focus of our meeting was to look forward:  to think about how we can make the school even better over the next three years and achieve our shared Vision.

A lot of change is about improving on what you are already doing, but some change is about doing things in a different way, or doing something new. Our meeting was not about ten more things on our 'to do' list but some thinking time about changes we could make that would really help us to TRANSFORM to an outstanding school.

So our question to ourselves was:

 

How do we ensure that Great Gaddesden School is special and outstanding in a unique way?

 

Having looked at research from other schools, we concentrated on two areas:

·         School Climate:  what does the school feel like? Striking the balance between nurturing and challenging. Broadening the pupils’ experiences.

·         Parental involvement and Community Outreach

We worked in small groups to try and think creatively about what we would like to do differently. There was a lot of positive, creative discussion and many good ideas. Miss Worsley and the staff will be looking at these ideas and seeing how they can be a part of the future of Great Gaddesden School.

I feel that we are very fortunate to have an enthusiastic, professional and supportive team of Staff and Governors. The meeting was very positive and productive, and follows a similar meeting in March 2013 when the same group developed the School’s Vision. I would like to particularly thank Kerry Jones, one of our Foundation Governors, who has been instrumental in helping the leadership team to think about the longer term challenges and opportunities for our school.

 Post by Alison Wilkinson

Pi Day!

Did you know that today is Pi Day? This is celebrated on March 14th around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. It will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize - I know that we have some brilliant mathematicians at Great Gaddesden School so how many digits can you memorize?! Remember there are over one trillion to aim for!

I think that some mathematician had fun deciding that Pi day should be on March 14th (3/14)!

Post by Alison Wilkinson

Inspired by Science

I really hope that our school focus on Investigative Science will inspire the pupils of Great Gaddesden School to be excited about Science. It was interesting to read the article in the Independent Newspaper about what children aged 9-13 think about Science in school and in their future careers.

What careers inspire you? Would you rather be a scientist or a sports star?

Post by Alison Wilkinson

 

Children would rather be scientists than actors and professional sports stars, a survey of parents has found.

It reveals that the majority of parents (72 per cent) do not think their children find science lessons boring, while more than two-thirds (67 per cent) claimed their youngsters find the subject exciting.

But it also suggests that nearly one in four (24 per cent) mothers and fathers believe their children find science difficult and the same proportion admit their sons or daughters think it is too much like hard work.

The poll of almost 1,200 parents, carried out by YouGov and commissioned by BAE Systems and the Royal Air Force, also asked about children’s job ambitions. The most popular career path that parents said their children were keen to pursue, out of a given list of jobs, was that of computer games designer, chosen by 15 per cent. This was followed by scientist (12 per cent), vet (12 per cent), emergency services (10 per cent), actor (9 per cent), doctor (9 per cent) and professional sports (9 per cent).

What job? Top ten careers children want to go into

1) Computer Game Designer (15 per cent)
2) Scientist (12 per cent)
3) Vet (12 per cent)
4) Emergency Services e.g. police force, fire brigade, ambulance service (ten per cent)
5) Actor/Actress (nine per cent)
6) Doctor (nine per cent)
7) Professional sports person (nine per cent)
8) Inventor (seven per cent)
9) Musician (seven per cent)
10) Nurse/Midwife (seven per cent)

 

 

Finance, Personnel & Premises Sub Committee

The Finance, Personnel & Premises Sub Committee met on Friday. This sub committee meets twice every term and covers issues ranging from the strategic (such as approving the school budget, agreeing staffing arrangements, and monitoring major capital projects) through to important operational issues (such as checking that the fire drill has been carried out correctly).

This meeting was heavily focused on our planned investment in Technology. We need to invest in the infrastructure to make sure that we have robust systems that are easy to maintain and upgrade. However, we are working really hard to try and make sure that as much of our financial investment as possible directly benefits the children. Clare Rudd is doing a great job talking to other local schools about best practice in this area and meeting with IT companies. She also spoke to the Staff and Pupils to make sure that we are meeting their needs. We look forward to telling you more about this project soon.

This is also the end of the Financial Year for the school and we are busy setting budgets for the next year. The Sub Committee regularly looks at the income and expenditure position of the school;  it is in a healthy financial position and we are looking forward to the year ahead.

Post by Alison Wilkinson

Global Visitors to the School Blogs

With my focus being on IT currently, as a governor, it is fantastic to see all of the staff and pupils putting so much effort into their blogging. It is clear that there really is a lot going on at Great Gaddesden School. Some of the posts written have been absolutely amazing and it's great for parents to be able to see what is going on in their child's class. We have had some great comments from parents about how much they enjoy reading the posts that are being produced.

As well as people associated with the school reading the posts, the Great Gaddesden School Blogs have had some more global visitors too!



Nursery and Reception have had over 1000 page views on their blog. Their audience mainly comes from the UK, USA and Germany. They have even had visits from Serbia, Russia and Finland!

Over 700 people have visited the Year One and Two blog. Their visitors come from the UK, USA, and Germany. They have also had visits from Serbia, Australia and China!

Over 600 people have had a look at what Year Three and Four are doing in class. Their visitors come from the UK, USA, Germany, and Ireland. Their visitors have also landed on the blog from China, Spain, Finland and Russia!

Over 800 people have visited Year Five and Six's blog. They had a google search hit when someone asked their search engine "how to decorate a year 5 classroom" and found the post Year Five and Six wrote. Adding "labels" or "tags" helps to make a post searchable by a search engine.

Their visitors come from United Kingdom, USA, and Germany. There have even been some visits from South Korea, Spain, Finland, Malaysia and Russia!

Over 800 people have visited Miss Worsley's Headteacher blog. They come from the UK, USA, and Germany too. She has also had visitors from India, Spain, China and Finland!

What a global school Great Gaddesden is becoming!

It just goes to show, when you write your post, you never know who will end up seeing it! It could be viewed by people half way around the world - perhaps by other pupils from schools in different countries!

I wonder if the pupils can find the countries that have visited their class blogs on a map or a globe, or even on google earth!! I also wonder if they can find a school blog from another country! Feel free to add it to the comments on my post below if you do!


Clare Rudd

Science Survey

Today I went into school to talk to the children about SCIENCE. Miss Groves and I spoke to one or two children from every class to find out what they enjoyed about their science lessons. We looked at their books together to find out what work they were particularly proud of and asked for their ideas about how we could make Science even more exciting.

I was really impressed by the children’s scientific understanding and their thoughtful  answers to our questions.  Many thanks to Josh, Neive, Bradley, Krysta, Kaia, Seth, Eleanor, Harvey, Harry and Grace. I really enjoyed talking to you today.

Post by Alison Wilkinson