My name is Valerie Thompson, I am a school Governor and I visited the John Bramston on Friday 14th October 2011 to look at one of the School Improvement Priorities – Emotionally healthy pupils ready for learning.
The school has highlighted two success criteria, one being that lesson observations will show that pupils reflect on their learning and are willing to take risks and demonstrate resilience and secondly that pupils say that they feel safe, valued and cared for.
I began my visit by attending the sharing assembly with a large number of parents. We were treated to a variety of items including dancing from one class and a song from another. Each form teacher gave out awards for the week and I certainly saw many pupils feeling valued and praised. It was also an opportunity to observe that the pupils who did not receive an award at the assembly were very pleased for their classmates and supported them in their pleasure of winning.
During the morning, I visited years 2,3,4,5 and actively looked for the success criteria. I saw a variety of pupils, eagerly taking risks with their learning, by offering answers to difficult questions. Staff were encouraging all pupils in the class to stretch their comments and expand their answers to questions; to move them on to the next level of learning.
None of this is possible without an atmosphere of trust within a classroom and I feel that the pupils at John Bramston are in a very supportive environment, where they do feel safe, valued and cared for.
I look forward to working with the staff to ensure that this priority is achieved this year.I would like to thank all of the staff and children for making me feel so welcome during my visit.
Thursday 20 October 2011
Monday 20 June 2011
Lack of Direction!!! Not in 3C…
Lack of Direction!!! Not in 3C…
I was fortunate to join 3C just as they started doing some compass work. All pupils were gathered in a circle with their compasses, each taking it in turn to point to an object in the class with another pupil having to work out whether it was North, East, South, and West. Mr Cusack really had the class engaged with this very hands on learning, well done…
What could you do with £10,000?
Well 4G (Miss Gould maths lesson) certainly knew. The task seemed simple, to fit out an empty classroom with £10,000 to spend! However the class soon realised that it wasn’t as easy as they first thought. In groups they were each given tasks to purchase things like, furniture, stationary, computers, interactive white board etc…The class were really excited about this and were more then happy to share their ideas with me. Full marks again to a really interesting and hands on lesson, I wish maths was this much fun when I was at school!!
I was fortunate to join 3C just as they started doing some compass work. All pupils were gathered in a circle with their compasses, each taking it in turn to point to an object in the class with another pupil having to work out whether it was North, East, South, and West. Mr Cusack really had the class engaged with this very hands on learning, well done…
What could you do with £10,000?
Well 4G (Miss Gould maths lesson) certainly knew. The task seemed simple, to fit out an empty classroom with £10,000 to spend! However the class soon realised that it wasn’t as easy as they first thought. In groups they were each given tasks to purchase things like, furniture, stationary, computers, interactive white board etc…The class were really excited about this and were more then happy to share their ideas with me. Full marks again to a really interesting and hands on lesson, I wish maths was this much fun when I was at school!!
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Val Thompson Governor Visit
I visited the school on Thursday 17th February 2011 in my role as community governor. As I am a newly appointed governor this visit had been organised to let me see as much as possible of the school.
I managed to see most of the year groups apart from the nursery classes. I found an active working environment with the children fully engaged in their activities. The staff work very hard to provide excellent learning experiences and I saw a range of lessons including music, maths and painting.
A special assembly took place during my visit, a representative from the chosen charity of the year, NSPCC, came to tell the children that their fund raising had totalled over £2000. It was very interesting to find out how the money would be used to both help children and to train adults to help in the future.
I joined the children for lunch at the end of my visit and enjoyed the calm and polite way everyone made the most of the mid day break.
I would like to thank all of the staff and children for making me feel so welcome during my visit.
I managed to see most of the year groups apart from the nursery classes. I found an active working environment with the children fully engaged in their activities. The staff work very hard to provide excellent learning experiences and I saw a range of lessons including music, maths and painting.
A special assembly took place during my visit, a representative from the chosen charity of the year, NSPCC, came to tell the children that their fund raising had totalled over £2000. It was very interesting to find out how the money would be used to both help children and to train adults to help in the future.
I joined the children for lunch at the end of my visit and enjoyed the calm and polite way everyone made the most of the mid day break.
I would like to thank all of the staff and children for making me feel so welcome during my visit.
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Governor visit - Thursday 17th february 2011
Visit to John Bramston Primary School - Thursday 17th February 2011
Governor - Brian Walker (SEN Link)
Focus - Interventions to support SEN
I spent a few very happy hours in school seeing how staff support children who need a little extra help. As it was nearing half term there were assessments taking place.
I spent time with Class Y6 K/L as they undertook a 45 minute Science test. Staff were fully engaged in reading out the questions from the test paper for those children that would benefit from this extra help.
I then observed some out-of-class interventions that support children. Mrs Murcutt was working with a year 4 child to help with fine motor skills / speech & language. Mrs Murcutt has introduced some great ideas and resources for her work with children.
I then met Mrs Evans who showed me some of her intervention work. Mrs Evans is trained in using the Precision Teaching technique and works with individual children to support their reading. I observed her working with a child, who told me that the sessions are helping him to 'remember words.'
After a quick visit to Reception and Nursery where I tried extremely hard not to trip over tiny people, I went into Class 4B where there was assessments taking place This time it was a writing assessment. I stayed long enough to witness how well the children were working on their assignments.
I briefly spoke to a lady in the Staff Room who was a representative from the NSPCC. She had just just received over £2000 which had been collected by the children of John Bramston for the charity! She was clearly moved by the amount that was raised.
As always, I was impressed by the colourful and calm environment of the school.
My visit concluded with a debrief with the Assistant Headteacher.
Thank you and well done to everyone who helped to make my visit so pleasurable and informative.
Governor - Brian Walker (SEN Link)
Focus - Interventions to support SEN
I spent a few very happy hours in school seeing how staff support children who need a little extra help. As it was nearing half term there were assessments taking place.
I spent time with Class Y6 K/L as they undertook a 45 minute Science test. Staff were fully engaged in reading out the questions from the test paper for those children that would benefit from this extra help.
I then observed some out-of-class interventions that support children. Mrs Murcutt was working with a year 4 child to help with fine motor skills / speech & language. Mrs Murcutt has introduced some great ideas and resources for her work with children.
I then met Mrs Evans who showed me some of her intervention work. Mrs Evans is trained in using the Precision Teaching technique and works with individual children to support their reading. I observed her working with a child, who told me that the sessions are helping him to 'remember words.'
After a quick visit to Reception and Nursery where I tried extremely hard not to trip over tiny people, I went into Class 4B where there was assessments taking place This time it was a writing assessment. I stayed long enough to witness how well the children were working on their assignments.
I briefly spoke to a lady in the Staff Room who was a representative from the NSPCC. She had just just received over £2000 which had been collected by the children of John Bramston for the charity! She was clearly moved by the amount that was raised.
As always, I was impressed by the colourful and calm environment of the school.
My visit concluded with a debrief with the Assistant Headteacher.
Thank you and well done to everyone who helped to make my visit so pleasurable and informative.
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