In May 2009 OfSTED described us as ‘an outstanding school’ and today we are pleased to be able to announce that we are continuing to sustain our national ‘outstanding school’ status, with Solihull M.B.C describing us as a ‘Category 1 School’.

As a school we successfully try to achieve a healthy balance between high academic standards and the exciting opportunities that we are able to offer our pupils in the hope that they will grow and mature into children who love life and learning. As a staff, we design our learning programmes to recognise and celebrate the talents and achievements of our pupils whilst reinforcing the positive relationships we foster with our families and local and international communities. 2011 was another excellent year where our children did their very best and scored highly in our external SAT’s examinations. Well done children! This year we have new initiatives in place that will help our pupils to be even more successful, and so unlock their potential to an even greater extent.

NEW for Autumn Term 2011:

·       Welcome to Nursery: an informal package of three mornings available to all nursery parents and their children. It offers opportunities for children and parents alike to meet with others, enjoy activities and relax in their new surroundings. See our new ‘School Year Calendar’ for further details.

·       Extended Services: Child and Family Support Worker: Mrs. Debbie Shaw will be developing this new service for parents and families. Debbie will work with our families throughout the school, to help them obtain the most out of the educational opportunities available. She will promote and develop our extended service provision and provide quality parenting support within the school and its community. Debbie can be contacted via our School Office.

·       Welcome to Mrs. Lindsey Thorne our new Deputy Headteacher at Peterbrook. Mrs. Thorne will, in addition to developing the role of Deputy, also be leading and delivering a new daily Literacy curriculum initiative in years 4&5.

·       Our Year 6 teaching team is also expanding this year with the introduction of an extra practitioner, Mrs. Dionne McCracken who will teach a 4^th set for Literacy and Numeracy.

·       Our new Lower Key Stage 2 Standards Leader (former Year 6 teacher) Mrs. Hayley Burke, is also leading a new specialist teacher curriculum programme in years 3&4 this year involving the delivery of French, Music, Information Technology and Science Investigation.

·       Exciting curriculum innovation is also taking place across Key Stage 2 with the introduction of unique Literacy modules (one per year group) which have been designed, produced and piloted by our Key Stage 2 Literacy Leader, Mrs. Carley Davies and school governor Mr. David Crathorne of ‘Write Here ... Write Now’. Growing out of our popular school Media & IT Clubs, these new writing modules will be marketed across Solihull MBC as they offer a new approach to raising standards in writing via, media technologies involving movie animation, pop video production, documentary drama production and ‘green screen’ technology. Watch out for the introduction of our new ‘Peterbrook TV’ initiative!!

·       Peterbrook has been an international school since February 2002 and we enjoy active participatory links with China, Sri Lanka, France and Sweden. This school year we will welcome a teacher delegation from our partner school AnZhen No.2 Primary School, Beijing in October 2011 and also a return to Peterbrook of AnZhen pupils and teachers in June 2012 for our Mini-Olympic Games Festival (Peterbrook pupils and teachers visited Beijing in May 2008). In addition to this we will also be leading on the introduction of Skype video technology in our partner schools in France and Sweden so that new curriculum projects can be piloted.

School year 2011-12 will also see us embedding successful initiatives introduced last year, namely:

·       PAWS & GRIZZLIES Childcare Provision: our new 3-11year-old wraparound provision continues to go from strength to strength! Open 50 weeks-a-year, from 7.45am-6.00pm daily, this non-profit-making provision is proving to be extremely popular with our pupils and their families. P&G Manager, Mrs. Lin Platel and her team have many new and exciting activities planned for the year ahead.

·       ECO Garden: our newly-opened school and community garden is currently bursting at the seams with fruit, vegetables and flowers, grown by our pupils under the guidance of our new Community Gardening Team and our school ECO Councillors. Maintained throughout the school holidays, our tasty produce is eaten and enjoyed during school lunchtimes and special occasion products like pumpkins are plumping-up in preparation for our Infant & Junior Hallowe’en Discos in October! Why not come along and see the ECO Garden for yourself or have a chat with our Community Gardeners - Emma, Maureen, Dave, Tony and Tracey if you would like to volunteer and join in the fun!

Our school website has once again been phenomenal, with over 264,000 hits since its successful launch. Together with our podcasting radio-station, Radio Peterbrook, our websites showcase everything that our school does and both are hugely popular with our pupils and parent body. New to our website this year will be the introduction of Peterbrook TV – watch this space!!

It is no secret that the children who achieve most from their school opportunities and experiences are those whose parents support them the most. With parents, their families and teachers working closely together, our pupils will develop and fulfil their potential, and once again this year we look to you to support your child in his/her learning.

I am immensely proud to be the Headteacher at Peterbrook. Our school is a great school – all our pupils, staff and parents are proud to be part of it, and we all look forward to another great year together! 

“If you believe it, you can achieve it!” (Our school Achievement Motto)