Dear Parents & Carers,
This is the last official newsletter of this academic year and even at this late stage of the year, there is so much to report.
Recent School Events
It’s been a very busy two weeks in the life of St Mary’s!
- The PSA led a fabulous Summer Fair at Church Lane, managing to raise almost £4,000
- We have held Book Fairs across both school sites
- There have been new Nursery & Reception Parents’ Meetings as well as a whole school Open Evening
- We have held a multitude of end of year music concerts
- we have taken part in a plethora of sports competitions across London
- Many classes have had much fun attending a range of school trips
- All Key Stage 1 year groups performed brilliantly for their parents during their moving on assemblies
- A wonderful sports day was held today in the pouring rain at Rectory Gardens, ably led by our PE lead Mr Oakley, with help from Mr Allison, Mr Beardwell and Mr Bruce. Sadly we have had to cancel the end of year BBQ for today but are very happy that it will take place now on Thursday 19th July.
Staffing Update
You should by now have found out who your child’s class teacher is next year. For those of you who came along last week to the Open Evening, you will of course have found out then as well as finding out the classroom that your child will be in next year. I hope that you and your child are pleased and looking forward to a new academic year from the beginning of September. See here for a full update of the classes for next year.
Staff Leavers
You will also have learned that there are a number of staff members who will be leaving us at the end of this year. Alongside myself, this includes:
- Libby Greenwood, our Goslings class teacher who will be starting a new role at a school in Islington
- Madeleine O’Donnell, our Violet class teacher who leaves us to take up a position in another local school
- Jane Hamilton, our nursery teacher who, for personal reasons has decided that she will not be returning to teaching this coming September
- Emma Webb, Year 2 teaching assistant who leaves us to start a new career in dog-walking
- Edwin Solomon, Year 1 teaching assistant who will be starting a new career as an electrician
We wish all colleagues the very best of everything wonderful in all that they go on to do next and I very much hope that they will take fond memories of St Mary’s with them.
Ofsted & Academy Order
As you will remember, we had our fair share of challenges with Ofsted over the past year. Fortunately, just two months after the publication of the original adverse report, we overturned what we all knew was an inaccurate and unfair judgement of our school . This also meant that we were eligible to apply to have the Department for Education’s ‘Academy Order’ revoked. I am pleased to let you know that we have since been successful in recently achieving this too. What a year it has been!
Test (SATs) Outcomes
Our school’s test outcomes this year are pleasing. In Year 1, the proportion of children who passed the phonics test threshold was high at 80%. In Year 2, our children have exceeded national average figures for outcomes achieved in all of reading , writing and maths. Also, our Year 6 SATs outcomes are strong and are either in line with, or slightly above national average figures.
Well done children and a huge thank you to all school staff who have worked so very hard to achieve such positive outcomes for our school and most importantly, our children.
End of Year Events
With just one week to go before the end of the 2022-23 academic year, there still remains much to do, such as the Year 6 productions next week Monday and Tuesday, the Church Tower Service on Wednesday, the rescheduled barbecue event on Thursday and the Year 6 Leavers’ Assembly next week Friday morning …and no doubt more besides.
Whilst this is the last newsletter that I will be writing to you, I will however, send out an end of term letter at the end of next week as we break for the summer holiday.
Wishing you a relaxing and dry(!) weekend,
Calvin Henry
Headteacher
