Welcome to this week’s bulletin…
…which for reasons unknown seems to have decided to present itself, or at least all the links, in a rather different format!
Trust School Improvement Visit: We have undergone a quality assurance/school improvement visit this week. This is a very thorough, challenging, deep dive into all aspects of the school. The team went away hugely impressed with the attitudes and behaviour of the children and the positive relationships between adults and children. Quote: “this school is not normal!” It was noted how brilliantly the Early Years children have settled in and how proud the children are of their school and their own learning. There were lots of other lovely positives, building on last November’s very pleasing OfSTED inspection. The only area that was picked up on for immediate attention is the new enhanced provision, The Hive, which it was recognised is a ‘work in progress’. Over the next two weeks, we will be sharply focussing our attention on quickly developing the environment in this provision, now that the initial building works have been completed.
Thanks to all who have commented on the recently published school holiday pattern for 2024-25. We follow the pattern set by Carlton le Willows as it remains the secondary school the large majority of our children and their older siblings go to. 46 of our 59 year sixes moved onto there this year, compared to 10 to Carlton Academy, 2 to Nottingham Academy and 1 elsewhere. It makes sense for us to stay in synch with C le W. Like many of you, we too have noticed that the 2024 Summer holiday turns out a bit shorter than usual. It’s got some of us staff in a holiday booking frenzy too! This is just the way it has fallen and rest assured that there are exactly the correct number of school days (190) in the year.
We have received a small number of requests from parents/carers to remove their children from lessons in certain subjects. This does crop up every now and then. Just to remind the community then, that all subjects are compulsory, set by law in the National Curriculum. There is no right to withdraw children from any lessons, other than:
the optional Sex Education unit of two lessons, part of Relationships Education, in Year Six.
Religious Education: children may be withdrawn. Schools must superrvise them, but do not need to teach them. Usually, they will be sent to read in another classroom. We would not encourage this as we believe it is healthy to know about religions other than one’s own and the lessons are not worship or promotion but learning about the history, development and culture of the world faiths. We believe it adds to understanding, recognising shared values and respect for differing views, but ultimately the choice to withdraw exists and we would not interfere with that.
Coming next week – look out for a re-launch of our Anti-Bullying Charter. There will be an Assembly for children on Monday and a presentation (online) to families straight after. The Charter has proven to be a very useful tool and guide in the past, but we’ve realised we’ve not reminded people about it for a while.
Year One Meeting: We have been told that there was some confusion over the above meeting, with some parents being told (not by us) that the Year 1 meeting was moved from Tuesday 19th to Monday 25th, based we think, on having seen this post. The Year 1 meeting was not moved and no post was sent about it being moved – the announcement above was about the Reception meeting. If any parents/carers of Y1 children missed their meeting, they would be very welcome to arrange to catch up with the Y1 team. A word with Miss Desborough on the playground at drop-off is a good bet, otherwise, feel free to email: ldesborough@parkdale.notts.sch..uk
Year 6 homework meeting – for any parents/carers who were unable to attend, there is a document here to show you what was discussed: https://parkdale-primary.co.uk/year-6-homework-meeting/
Year 2 homework meeting: this is scheduled for after school, next Thursday, 28th September.