Firstly may I welcome all of our families, as partners in learning, back to the new school year. We have had a sensational and wonderful start to the new school year with themed days linked to new topics, wonderful new books and changes to our school to ensure this year is the best it can be for the learners of our school. All of the children have settled beautifully into their new classes and the new staff that have joined us have made a sensational difference already. It was wonderful to see parents who attended our drop in evenings last week to meet your new teachers.

I am delighted to say this year we are continuing to use our submarine learning space in school with groups of Year 6, along with newly decorated temporary classrooms that are sensational for supporting and moving learning forward. This year is certainly going to make teaching and learning even stronger. This is most certainly an exciting time and this Year we will continue to work with school nationally and as a leading school.

In July, we had wonderful outcomes for our data at Key Stage One and Two. The children achieved well above National Average in Reading, Writing and Maths and the progress indicator demonstrate that we were in the top 5% of the country, a fantastic achievement as I am sure you would agree. We believe this is due to the excellent triangulation of partnership where school, learners and parents have worked together to reach our targets. We also had a superb ‘Ofsted inspection’ that was just inspirational and in the next 12 -24 months we welcome Ofsted back for a full inspection to move our school to outstanding. A judgement that Ofsted felt the school was worthy of when they inspected the school in July.

The governing body of Waterside have met already this academic year to strategically plan the next steps for Waterside and our School Development Plan underwent final consultation. We will send a summary out to all parents on Friday 14th September 2017 and I thank the parents who attended the consultation meeting in July, we need and want your voice to improve our school. On Thursday 20th September at 6pm we will host an information evening which parents may attend to discuss or ask any questions on our school direction for the forthcoming year.

From the questionnaire last year, parents raised that they wanted more access daily to deal with any queries or concerns if they pop up. I have to say this is a rare occasion. We have our new learning mentor in place and daily from 8.30am Mrs Mason will be available in the front office for you to speak with. We aim that a response would be given that day to show we deal with all matters swiftly. The senior leadership team will also be available in the front office from 8am – 8.30am along with myself so if you need us come and see us in the front office or entrance to school welcoming the children in from 8.30 – 9am.

Due to the popularity of our revised parents consultations weeks we will be continuing the longer personalised mentoring sessions instead of parents’ evenings. Parents commented they had much stronger knowledge of their children’s attitudes to learning, achievements and next steps targets with the system. This led to high engagement in your children’s learning and at Waterside we never look back and will continue with the positive change. The meetings will continue to be of duration of 30 minutes and you will be able to book direct from your mobile so that you don’t miss any appointments – it will even send you reminders! The parents and pupil learning meetings will take place every term. 

Drop in sessions for parents will also continue and will be weekly on a Friday from 3.30 to 4pm. If you need to see the teacher, have a question or want to look at your children’s learning and books pop by and see us. The door is always open. We also have seeing is believing lessons coming up as we want you to see first-hand the sensational teaching your children have every day.

I look forward to continuing our positive journey together

Mrs Knowles (Head Teacher) and the Team at Waterside.