Events
William Reynolds Primary School Award
Our Nurture group has been going for 11 years now and this was our first award since we had merged the infant and junior schools.
Our Nurture group started in 2005 and in 2007 we decided to go for our first award, by 2011 we decided that we would go for our second award.
In 2011 we were told that we were doing very well as a Nurture group and school and just like the children have the chance to show their best efforts in their chance to shine work, where the teachers mark it and tell the children what they are doing well and what they need to do next to improve and make further progress (their next steps). We were told how well we were doing but were also given 2 next steps.
1.To record on the weekly planning for Sparklers the children’s targets they are working on. (That was easy we made a grid and put them on!)
- To make sure that with the merger of the infants and juniors school all staff to know and understand knew what the nurture group is about and how we can do this across the whole of our new primary school. (This was a little harder so we decided to do a staff meeting with all the teachers and support staff)
Our school motto is ‘To be the best we can be’ and we work hard doing that in all areas of school. So what did we need to do to in order to achieve this award for the 3rd time? (And remember that we are the first out of all the schools in Telford and Wrekin to do this and only one of 3 in the whole of the country!)
Well, just like you in your lessons where after your learning objective, you have a success criteria that you agree before you start your work and that to be successful, you need to show evidence in your work where you have meet each of the success criteria’s, well to gain this award we also had to meet a success criteria only these are called ‘a set of standards’. We had to prove to the assessor (just like you have to prove to your teacher) that we had the evidence in our Nurture group and school to meet those standards.
First of all, we had to complete an application form and then we had to have an assessor from the Nurture group network based in London to come out to do an observation.
The application form was broken down into 3 parts and in
Part 1 – we had to write about the adults who work in our nurture room, their qualifications and explain how the room is laid out and show evidence that we have achieved our next steps. (1 and 2)
In part 2 – we had to provide evidence of how the nurture group operates within our school and how we make links with the main classes and your teachers as well as with our local community (like our parent sessions and the regular visits from our CSO Linda Davis) and how we work with other people who support you.
Part 3 – was explaining the history behind our nurture group, why we have it.
The person who came to assess us was called ‘Claire,’ and this was the 2nd time she had assessed us. Well, when she came to our school to observe our Nurture group she was pleased that we had the evidence to show we had achieved all the standards as well as our next steps (1 and 2) from 2011.
Claire also talked to our staff in our Nurture group and some of our school governors as well as some of our teachers and support staff and parents (who told her that they loved doing the relaxation techniques with their children and were using them at home). She also talked to some children who were or had been in our Nurture group. Claire observed a lot of learning and laughter during her visit.
She had lots of good things to say about our school and our Nurture group. Claire said that staff genuinely care for and understand the needs of our children and parents. But it didn’t just end there she went on to say how we are an exemplar school which clearly demonstrated a whole school nurturing approach and environment with the Nurturing ethos radiating into every corner of the school.
We are such a fantastic school, not just in terms of the progress and achievement that you all make but in all our staff from our Headteacher, Deputy, teachers, support staff, lunchtime supervisors, cleaners and our care taker who all care so passionately about each and every one of you.
But just like two of of our 8 secrets of success ‘work hard’ and ‘improve’ – Claire left us with another next step which was to make sure that as Mrs Clayton was retiring in July we needed to make sure that Mrs Hartwright was supported well to carry on the fantastic work.
http://www.lucyallan.com/news/lucy-attends-william-reynolds-award-presentation