School News
I just can not believe that we are approaching the end of my first year as
Headteacher of Swaffham Prior school. Whoever said to me that village life
would be more "laid-back" and "a slower pace" than the
centre of town where I was before, was just so misguided! Mind you I would have
it no other way and will continue to keep as many activities and adventures
going on in school as possible!
The school grounds looked lovely before the Easter break with a mass of yellow daffodils that seemed to brighten every corner. Our whole-school planting session back in the Autumn really did pay off. We will have to plan another session for next Autumn to fill the remaining gaps and to "branch out" with other bulbs!
At the end of the Spring term the School said "goodbye" formally to Mrs Cheales -the former deputy-head -who decided not to return to her job after her maternity leave as she has re-located to Australia due to her husband's work. We wish them well. We recruited Mrs Julia Baker at the end of last term and now have our full teaching team which means we can really push forward confidently with our school development plans. The School Development plan has been completed for the next year and continues to reflect the few points for development that OFSTED raised back in November during our inspection. We feel we have already begun addressing these successfully, basing them on the "outstanding" judgements that we received in many areas such as "Care, guidance and support of children" , "Safeguarding children" , "The extent to which children adopt healthy lifestyles" and "The school's engagement with parents and carers" -the areas which we consider to be the most important for us to get right first!
We have continued to hold our acts of special collective worship at St Mary's Church. Both our Christmas and Easter services, in particular, were lovely events shared by many friends and family. Reverend Lewis also continues to make frequent visits into school to take our collective worship for which we are very grateful. FoSPS -our parent group -have worked solidly all year to hold both social and fundraising events: The Easter bingo was certainly an experience with chocolate eggs everywhere! Having the Easter Bunny calling the numbers was of course a necessity and added to the fun atmosphere. They continue to run regular "CafĂ©" sessions on one Friday afternoon per half term. These are very popular with friends and family who come along for a chat over a slice of home-made cake and a cup of tea. There was also our recent "Barrow Of Booze" at The Reach Fair which raised a tremendous £762. As school budgets get tighter, we rely more and more on the goodwill and support of our parents to fund equipment for the classrooms. Over the Easter holidays we had a brand new cycle shelter installed in the grounds. It also has storage boxes for helmets to save bringing them into school. We like to encourage the children to use their bikes where possible to come to school to foster healthy lifestyles and to show them how they can help the environment. We have experienced a few problems in the school grounds with dog excrement. It seems that dogs are being brought into the school grounds during the weekends and allowed to foul and then owners not clearing it up. Obviously this is a health hazard for the children and so we would ask people to be a little bit more thoughtful please and to find somewhere else to exercise their dogs.
At the time of writing we still have some spaces for our Reception year starting in September 2010. If you have not been allocated an appropriate place for your child then why not come along for an informal chat and visit to find out more about us here at Swaffham Prior?
We try to involve the children in as many events outside of school, in our local community as we can and so Reach Fair provided an excellent opportunity for our children to produce the cover for the programme and for our maypole dancers to perform for the crowd; they did very well and were a credit to the school. Our school choir is off to Ely Cathedral on Tuesday 25th May for the big Sing-Up concert which involves many of our local schools. It should prove to be a fantastic experience for all involved.
At present we hire out our school hall to local Scouts and Cubs as well as various other community groups. If you are interested in making use of this facility then please contact our school office on 01638 741529