School Improvement

School Improvement Priorities 2020-21

The School Improvement Plan is the document which drives ongoing improvements and developments in school. The Governing Body is responsible for evaluating the progress made against the plan and has an approved process in place for regular and effective monitoring. Our pupils have experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of COVID-19. Over a third of our children are from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds and are among those hardest hit. The scale of our response as a school must match the scale of the challenge with an excellent ‘Catch Up Plan’. We also know many children will need additional emotional support and work on attachment as they have been at home for such a long time.

We know that we have the professional knowledge, expertise and commitment as a school to ensure that pupils continue to access a high quality curriculum from home and or school. With the support of our parents and families, we must implement a quality ‘contingency plan’ in case of future class/school lockdowns. Many of our children suffer with poor working memories and we are committed as a school to ensure our teaching is the best it can be to help children learn and remember what has been learnt, over time; a large part of our focus this year, be it in school or remote learning will be focusing on improving our teaching to improve memory and retrieval in children. Numbers are at an all-time low in school and numbers coming into Nursery have dropped considerably. This has to also be a feature of our priorities this year so that funding levels and staffing levels remain unchanged. Unless they live on the estate, many families do not know that Pinewood exists and with a drop in young children on the estate, this has caused us problems as a school. It is also a shame for young children in our area not to be accessing our outstanding learning environment. So, in light of the above, these are our school priorities this year and this is how you can help us achieve great things for your children:

Priority 1:  Leadership and Management

To further promote the school in the locality and wider locality in order to improve school numbers and income into school

How parents/carers can help:

• Promote our school as much as possible, sing our praises far and wide and help us make sure people know we are here
• Promote our school positively on social media
• If you have any contacts with people that can help us promote our wonderful School, then please come and talk to us
• Help with leaflet drops
• Let us know if you know how we can get a discount on signage for Coppice Road
• This is difficult with Covid but if there are any further community events that we can get involved with, please let us know
• Help us with open days next Summer 2021

Priority 2:  Teaching and Learning

To develop support strategies as a response to Covid to enable effective catch up for all students through teaching and whole school strategies; targeted approach, wider strategy.

How parents/carers can help:

• Read daily with your child and ask if you need us to help you understand how best to support your child
• Undertake any homework activities given and encourage your child to focus and concentrate on the tasks given
• If invited to an intervention before or after school, try ensure your child attends promptly
• Offer encouragement to your child
• Send your child to school whenever possible so no more learning time is lost
• Use the links provided by your teacher to help your child do extra learning at home
• Read a story to your child daily
• Ensure your child has a good night’s sleep (sorry to sound like a nag!!)
• Help your child with Microsoft Teams when up and running and let us know if you do not have access to IT/Internet
• Check seesaw every day and the school website as much as possible
• Sign up for our SEAL programme in September if you feel it could be of use
• Let us know how we can help you support  your child

Priority 3: Behaviour and Attitudes

To become a trauma aware school and develop effective strategies and means of supporting emotional health and attachment issues

How parents/carers can help:

• Working closely with us supporting children with their emotional health
• Engaging with ELSA initiatives if suggested for your child
• Make sure your children are in school as much as possible
• Share stories with your children and discuss feelings and emotions
• Encourage your children in KS1 to attend an after school club
• Encourage your child to go on Y2 residential (fingers crossed)

Priority 4:  Teaching and Learning

 Employ Practical strategies in our teaching to help improve children’s retention and Integrating memory friendly approaches into curriculum design

How parents/carers can help:

• When working with your child at home follow the guidance we give you
• When working with your child on key words or number words, make sure you keep going back to the ones learnt in previous week to encourage retrieval practice
• Use the knowledge organisers with your child that we will be giving you over time
• Talk with your child about previous learning – ‘

Can you remember last year when you learnt about  . . . ? Tell me 5 things you remember’.

 ‘Tell me 5 things that you have to remember in your writing?’

• Use the termly maths and writing expectations booklet
• Access seesaw every day

Priority 5 – Teaching and Learning

To Employ a Contingency Plan for Providing Remote Education 

How parents/carers can help:

• Ensure your child has an IPAD or laptop that they can access during school time if working from home and talk to us if not
• Engage with Microsoft Teams
• Engage with Seesaw
• Ensure your child completes the work sent daily and talk to us if there are any problems
• Work with us and understand that on some occasions your class teacher will be working on home learning whilst teaching full time in school
• Be mindful how much and how little you are communicating with teachers on Seesaw
• Attend live remote meetings when asked
• Send your child to school whenever possible