School Year 2008-09

 
A new school dawn on 2008-09

Welcome back to the start of another year at Peterbrook, with a particularly warm welcome to all our new children and parents who begin with us for the first time!

In 2006 OfSTED described us as ‘a good school with many outstanding features’. Since then we have been striving to improve that judgement in time for their next visit which is expected sometime this year. As a school we successfully try to achieve a healthy balance between high academic standards and the exciting opportunities we are able to offer our children in the hope that they will grow and mature into children who love life and learning as well as recognise, enjoy and celebrate their talents, and play their full part in their family, school and community.

2007 was an excellent year for academic results: Foundation children, for the second consecutive year achieved standards that placed them above other local schools, Key Stage 1 children were in line with national averages, and Key Stage 2 children achieved results that placed them in the top 5% of schools nationally in terms of Value Added progress. All excellent results! This year we have initiatives in place that will help the children to be just as successful, and unlock their potential to an even greater extent.

The successful Parents as Partners initiative, begun in 2006 with Nursery children, has had a significant role to play in raising Foundation achievement, and I hope that the commitment and support from our parents remains throughout the school. It is no secret that the children who achieve most from their school experiences are those whose parents support them the most. With parents and teachers working closely together the children will benefit, and again this year we look to you to support your child.

Last year with your involvement, we successfully developed our ‘Values led Education’. This year we are, as you know, extending this to incorporate SEAL. This whole school initiative, supported by SEAL Celebration Assemblies, is designed to promote and encourage a child’s Social and Emotional skills and understanding in order to help them enjoy their learning even more. Over the coming year we will watch it unfold with great interest.

As a Gold ArtsMark school, we look to maintain a high profile with the Performing Arts, and a full programme of activities has been planned over the course of the year, beginning this term with our 80 strong Junior Choir taking part in Young Voices at the NIA in November.

Internationally we still continue to benefit from out school partnerships abroad. Following the immense success of the children’s visit to China to perform “The Statue of The Ancient Hero” in Beijing, we have a new Foreign Language Assistant, Dong Huixin, joining us shortly to continue the Mandarin experience for our Junior children.

Our school website, under the leadership of Mr. McGaw has again been phenomenal, with over 24,000 hits in the past year – all viewing the outstanding things our school does. Shortly the format of the website will be relaunched. After 4 years we hope to further improve the facility this offers. Look out shortly too for additional IT surprises in school, designed to inform parents and children about our school!

I am immensely proud to be Headteacher at Peterbrook. Our school is a great school – all our children, staff and parents are proud to be part of it, and we all look to have a great new year!

“If you believe it, you can achieve it!”

E. Carter