Great Gaddesden School Governors

Curriculum and Standards Committee Tuesday, 10th February

We have been enjoying the inspiring and informative talks given by our subject leaders. For this first meeting of 2015 Mrs Lilley was in the hot seat! She is responsible for literacy, a topic which is taken very seriously by us all. Spelling, reading and writing are at the heart of everything we do at school. If a pupil has a good knowledge of these three things then they are well on the way to a good education, a good job, a happy life, and possibly they will be able to fly as well... I am very enthusiastic about literacy and books and reading as you may be able to guess. Mrs Lilley gave us a very thorough explanation of why Literacy is important and how we teach it at Great Gaddesden. All pupils, whatever their interests and abilities should be able to learn and enjoy English. Improving writing has been our most recent focus. There is a Star Writers display in the hall, and each class is to contribute to the Parish Newsletter. I am looking forward to hearing that many more students have gained their Pen license for consistent and neat handwriting across all their work books. There are many exciting activities planned and we hope the School Library will be at the heart of these. Many thanks to Mrs Lilley and also to Mrs Wall who is our Literacy Governor. She has worked closely with Mrs Lilley to update our Literacy policies.
Mrs Comer showed us the achievement data for Special needs pupils and it is clear that good progress is being made. We also discussed Pupil Premium funding: how much has been spent and what it has been used for. We are a small school and intend that all pupils should be able to take a full part in the life of the school: in both education and recreation.
Sports provision is exciting at the moment. We receive £8300 a year to spend on sports provision. Half of this is used for good quality sports coaching. In addition all year groups will be able to have WOW sports experiences. Year 5 and 6 have done football which culminated in a penalty shoot our during a Championship football match at Watford FC!!! WOW indeed.
We have quite a few books in the School Library on football and I am reading The Little Village school by Gervaise Phinn. English and Literacy at the heart of everything!