WELCOME FROM THE HEADTEACHER

I am very proud and excited to be the new head teacher of our wonderfully diverse and vibrant school community, which we refer to as ‘Team Athelstan’.

Everyone who works in our school values the whole school community and has genuine team spirit. I’m very much looking forward to not only working with the school community, but also working with the wider community to improve children’s understanding of our local area and it’s opportunities. We work collaboratively for all our pupils to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens, who will thrive in whatever path they choose in the future. Respect is the cornerstone of our school and we endeavour to ensure that everyone feels valued. We constantly model and teach behaviours that promote respectful, considerate behaviour. These are referred to as our OBE – Outstanding Behaviour Expectations and include both learning and social behaviours.

A very large staff team works tirelessly to make the difference to every single child in our care, both educationally and emotionally and this includes a large pastoral support team, which offers support to a range of pupils and their families.

Staff and pupil health and well-being are of paramount importance to leaders and governors. A well-motivated, highly skilled staff means that all children benefit from a stable and experience teaching and support staff which means that everyone has more opportunities to succeed.

We know that the partnership with parents and carers is paramount for children to achieve their full potential in life, consequently, we have a genuine desire to maintain and further extend this partnership. This means that we are constantly looking for ways of bringing parents and carers into school to see what we do and how we teach various aspects of the curriculum. Furthermore, our weekly celebration assemblies offer parents the opportunity to attend and share in their child’s success.

Recent years have seen our pupils achieve well, often exceeding national standards in formal tests. Just as importantly, however, we believe that the broader provision we offer to our pupils is crucial to developing the whole child and his or her unique interests and talents; during their time with us, pupils have opportunities to excel in dance, drama, music, outdoor education and sporting activities. This culminates in a theatre production at the end of year six, a truly memorable experience for all involved. We have been recognised for our curriculum provision by gaining many awards for curriculum subjects such as Art, Science and Geography but we have also been awarded Green Flag Eco-school status with distinction which shows our commitment to the wider curriculum. One of our teachers has recently become a Teacher Fellow of the Historical Association in recognition of his contribution to the teaching of local history. All of these awards are accredited by national bodies for the relevant curriculum area and shows our drive to continually improve and enrich our provision for all children.

We are passionate about giving pupils the skills to make healthy lifestyle choices and promote extracurricular experiences for all our children; our ultimate aim being that every single child will participate in a club at least once each and every year.  We are extremely fortunate to benefit from a large and pleasant site and we are continually updating and improving our learning environment; this includes the addition of our outdoor library ‘Buster’ which is a retired London double decker bus! Over the last three years, there has been a lot of investment in our outdoor learning areas.  Our school places a huge emphasis on using the outdoor spaces to engage children actively and we have an Enchanted Forest Garden at the front of school; there is also a Butterfly Garden which is a restful area for children to enjoy mindful moments at break times. In addition to these, we have our Creation Station, which is a very large outdoor space incorporating a covered learning base, a fire pit and large raised planters for the children to grow their own produce. There is a further area called the Creature Feature, which houses a pond and a domed willow shelter. 

More recently, we have created a unique learning space called the Launchpad, which has enabled our Year 1 pupils to lead their own learning in a richly stimulating environment, both in their classrooms and in indoor and outdoor spaces.

I believe headship is the best job in the world and It’s a privilege to work at such a well respected school, with such brilliant staff. The previous Headteacher improved the school during her tenure and it’s now my job to build upon that success, create even more opportunities for all of our children and to ensure our school is at the centre of community.

Dave Shaw