As I sit down to write this blog I find it hard to believe just how quickly the weeks are flying by and that we are already so far into the new academic year! We seem to have moved from running races on the banks in the blazing sunshine to the sounds of Christmas songs drifting from the school hall in a matter of minutes!
Our new Reception children have settled into school life really well and we hope that any families new to Tranmere this year have found the start to the year smooth and that you are enjoying being a part of our very special school community.
This term has already been incredibly busy in school. The first full Governing Body meeting has taken place and the sub committees are all now up and running. We are pleased to be welcoming some new members to our Governing Body this year. More information for parents regarding our Governors can be found on the school website.
We have already made a start on the priorities we have highlighted in this year’s school development plan. In terms of teaching and learning priorities, we will be focusing this year on further developing the mastery approach in mathematics (introduced last academic year) by developing a similar system for the teaching of reading and writing. The senior leadership team have spent time researching different approaches to this and we are now firmly in the process of putting a structure together that we feel best suits our school. There will be more information to come regarding this as our plans move forward.
This year we will also be continuing to work closely with other Aireborough schools to further develop our systems for assessing pupil attainment and progress. The documentation and systems we put together last year to assess in the core subject areas have been extremely successful and have provided a common language by which local primaries can discuss, share and compare outcomes. Our aim this year is to work in partnership to extend the system to support the assessment of the foundation subjects (History, Geography, Art etc).
As you will know, our school has previously been awarded the prestigious ‘Artsmark’ award in recognition of the importance and focus we place on providing our children with opportunities within the arts. The revalidation of this award will also be a key focus for us this academic year. All of our incredibly talented pupils and staff will play their part in showing just how artistic we are at Tranmere Park – so look out on the Tranmere Times for special performance assemblies and other opportunities our pupils will have to express themselves creatively throughout the year!
We already have so much to be proud of this academic year. We were all so proud of the way ‘Team Tranmere’ rallied for our Harvest Festival celebrations. The number of tins and packets we managed to provide to Otley food bank was astonishing and it was so lovely to see just how proud the children were when they saw their collective efforts in assembly – a true lesson in the difference that can be made when a community pulls together!
We also need to say a huge congratulations to our school Fair Trade council who worked together to ensure we were revalidated with the ‘Fair Trade Award’. They are great ambassadors for Fair Trade within our school, sharing messages around where our food comes from and encouraging an understanding of the way in which people of the world are connected and that the choices we make can really make a difference to the lives of others. They drive our Fair Trade work through delivering assemblies to the rest of the school and fully organising our Fair Trade shop, from the ordering of the produce to the organising of the actual stall. We are very proud of the work that they do.
We have also been busy developing our school building. After winning a Dulux competition to design a computer suite, we have all been very excited to finally see our own computer suite be transformed. We now have an exciting space complete with checked carpet in a colour scheme of bright, clashing colours that the children love (but which may make Mrs Finley need a lie down in a dark room!).
Even though we are still firmly in November, Christmas fever is beginning to hit as all phases in school begin the hard work of putting their Christmas productions together. The very hard working PTA are also in the process of putting together our school Christmas fair on Saturday 3rd December. We are always so grateful for their efforts and the money that they manage to raise for school which allows us to purchase things that we wouldn’t otherwise have the funds to buy. Any offers of help for the Christmas fair would be gratefully received. It is a great way to get into the festive spirit and also be involved with the wider Tranmere community.
We have lots of exciting events coming up in the next few weeks – we look forward to seeing you there and sharing the celebrations! Bring on the tinsel……
Mrs Hodgson