It is a little heavy-handed to break down a school year to a list of numbers, and some numbers don't make sense to anyone but those few in the know. However, it is generally numbers that stand the test of time. 55BC, 1066 and all that, Aston Villa 1 Bayern Munich 0 etc. Surely 4.24 pm on Monday 22nd July will come to own some significance.
Here, I hope it serves a few simple but well-intentioned purposes:
1: To celebrate a twelve month of success.
2: To celebrate the amazing achievements of our ever-growing number of children, and
3: To celebrate the all-too-often forgotten works of the staff and governors.
Here goes (and trust me, even if you don't know all of them, you'll know when I'm trying to praise and when I'm seeking to do something... else.)
91 - The percentage of year 6 children at or above the national expected level for maths
3 - The number of years in a row we have managed to beat the national average
18 - the overall percentage improvement for year 6 writing in this year's SATs results
5 - The number of consecutive years our APS has exceeded the national average
4 - The number of consecutive years above the floor target (not achieved in the 8 years leading up to 2010)
90 - The percentage of homegrown children achieving the nationally expected level in year 2 reading
3 - The number of children who scored 40 out of 40 in the Year 1 Phonics test
2 - Meaning "Good", the grade OfSTED awarded the school for Achievement
32 - The number of drop in observations I conducted during terms 5 and 6
0 - The number of inadequate lessons I saw in that time
Countless - The number of hours teachers and support staff spent in improving teaching throughout terms 2, 3, 4 and 5 during the teaching toolkit project
2 - Meaning "Good", the grade OfSTED awarded the school for Quality of Teaching and Learning.
10 - the number of children who have managed 100% attendance for the year
2 - the improvement on the same number last year
11 - the number of the children who were on 99.4%+ (only missed 1 day or less)
4 - The reduction in the number of children excluded
6 - The number of letters the governors had to send out for the wrong reasons
2 - Meaning "Good", the grade OfSTED awarded the school for Behaviour and Safety.
10 - The number of staff who have presented to the LA at the core visits this year.
2, 2, 2 - The scores at the 3 core visits this year (As with OfSTED, 2 equates to "Good")
2 - Meaning "Good", the grade OfSTED awarded the school for leadership and management
And, going forward, aspire - achieve - enjoy still rules
83 - Percentage of children at ARE for reading and maths by the end of next year
27.5 - APS for next year's year 6
1/3 - The reduction in childhood obesity
0 - The number of fixed term exclusions
1000 - The number of followers we want on twitter
0 - the number of issues we will face that started on facebook.
7 - The number of David Bowie songs we will learn in term 1.
I cannot offer a thank you great enough for everything that has been achieved this year. To all the staff, please choose the combination of wellwishes from the list below; you may have one or all, or a selection, they are all offered with my most sincere thanks:
Have a wonderful holiday
Bon voyage colleagues, and good luck in your new adventures
Thank you for your herculean efforts this year
Thank you for being part of this very special team
From my desk, from my corridor, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you all.
Have a wonderful summer.
Until we once again combine to push back the boundaries of pedagogy ever further, that is all....
