Pound Hill Infant School

Crawley Lane, Pound Hill, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 7EB Tel: 01293 873975 - Fax: 01293 873976 Website: www.poundhillinfant.w-sussex.sch.uk Email: office@poundhillinfant.w-sussex.sch.uk

Headteacher: Julie Knock-Bravery

15 November 2012 IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
Dear Parents and Carers A sad farewell to Mrs Roderick. As I am sure some of you will be aware Mrs Roderick has recently celebrated a milestone birthday and, sadly for us, she will be retiring at the end of December. Mrs. Roderick has worked at Pound Hill Infant School for 20 years and leaves us with mixed emotions, having thoroughly loved her time at the school, but also very much looking forward to an enjoyable retirement. I am sure you join us all in wishing her a very restful and productive retirement. Mrs. Roderick has requested that she is not given gifts to mark her retirement and instead she has asked for donations to be made to the childrens charity, CoCos Africa. As a consequence we have set up a separate fund in Mrs. Rodericks honour and all money raised will be allocated to a project, which she is choosing in conjunction with the team at CoCos Africa later this term. If any parents wish to make a donation please hand them into the school office before Friday 14th December. Please ensure your envelope has your childs name and your childs class written on it. Please feel free to include any messages for Mrs Roderick. January 2013 With Mrs Roderick leaving we have had to make some further adjustments to the classes next term. Therefore, from January 2013: Spruce Class - Mrs. Brewis will form a job share with Mrs Brown in Spruce Class. We have tried particularly hard to ensure as much continuity for the children in Spruce Class following this classs difficult start to the academic year. We hope that by maintaining Mrs. Brown as class teacher in partnership with Mrs. Brewis, who taught a number of the children last year, a very smooth transition will be achieved for the children and their parents. Once again we thank you for your patience and understanding in what has been a most challenging time. Larch Class We have recently appointed a new teacher Mrs Webb who will be joining us in January 2013. She will take over as the new class teacher of Larch Class for the rest of the academic year. Mrs Webb is an experienced teacher, currently teaching in London. She will be visiting Larch Class during this term to introduce herself and to meet the children in preparation for her starting in the new year. I am sure you will join me in welcoming her to our school. Pine Class Mrs Stewart will continue to teach in Pine Class for 4 days for the remainder of this year. From January 2013 Mrs Stewart will be supported by Mrs Sharp who will teach Pine Class on a Friday. This term has proved particularly challenging regarding ensuring the continuity of staffing that parents and children expect at Pound Hill Infant School. The allocation of teachers for Spruce Class has been particularly difficult due to Miss Thwaites leaving earlier than expected for her maternity leave and this not coinciding precisely with the return of Mrs Brown. Unfortunately, these circumstances were out of our control and I fully understand that they have not been ideal for both the children and parents. I am sure you can appreciate that in a school, managing the role of employer, with strict employment legislation, and balancing this with meeting the needs of the children and parents is very complex. Please be assured that our first priority is always to ensure as little disruption to the quality of childrens learning as we can. I am always happy to talk to parents regarding concerns. Please contact the main school office to make an appointment.

Frequently asked Questions It has come to my attention that a few misconceptions have been circulating regarding why and how classes are taught when the class teacher is not in class. I have taken the liberty of clarifying some of these questions below: Why is the class teacher not in the class all the time? Every class teacher is legally entitled to at least half a day a week out of the classroom for Planning, Preparation and Assessment time. Alongside this, teachers who have additional responsibilities, such as subject leadership or priority areas on the School Improvement Plan are also given time to complete these additional tasks and this is allocated dependent on need. At this time, the class will be taught by one of our Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTA) who has completed a rigorous training and assessment programme to achieve the professional standards and awarded the status. In addition, some staff will also be released to undertake further professional development activities; this is particularly relevant for newly qualified teachers. Our commitment to professional development has overarching benefits for our school. It means we consistently attract and retain the highest quality of teachers and support staff and this directly impacts on the quality of teaching and learning your children receive. What is an HLTA and why do you use them at Pound Hill Infant School? An HLTA works in partnership with teachers. They have been rigorously assessed against professional standards and thus are qualified to take on more responsible roles than other support staff. At Pound Hill Infant School we have three qualified HLTAs: Mrs Davis, Mrs Millard and Mrs Sharp. Our HLTA team take part in our continuous professional development programme and their quality of teaching is subject to the same scrutiny as our qualified teachers and is of a consistently high standard. We are very fortunate that Mrs Davis, Mrs Millard and Mrs Sharp are not only extremely skilled, but have a thorough understanding of the school curriculum, procedures and policies and know the children and teachers extremely well. We made the decision to develop our own HLTA team three years ago in response to concerns raised about the ability of supply teachers, with little or no experience of our school, to deliver our curriculum to the high standard we insist on. Our HLTAs work in partnership with our teachers, which ensures teaching is carefully planned and meets the needs of the children. I would like to assure parents that the expertise and skills they bring to the classroom is always preferable to using supply staff who visit us infrequently, may have little knowledge of our curriculum and teaching methods, and do not know the children well. In addition, all our evidence shows that this decision has been one of the contributory factors in maintaining the achievement of consistently high standards throughout the school over the past three years. So why do you use supply teachers at all? Sometimes it is necessary to use supply teachers, this is primarily when teachers are absent at short notice such as illness. These occasions are obviously not foreseen and thus if we are unable to use our own HLTA team we will source a supply teacher. If this is necessary, we try extremely hard to retain the same teacher for the class teachers period of absence and recruit from our bank of preferred supply teachers if possible. Very occasionally, we also need to arrange a supply teacher to cover teachers for other circumstances such as attending professional development activities, if we are unable to use our own HLTA team. We thank you for your continued support of our school and we appreciate your confidence and trust in us to make the best decisions we can for your childs education. Please remember we are always happy to discuss any issues you may have and strongly encourage you to make an appointment with your class teacher, Mrs Watson or myself if you are concerned. We also like to hear from you when things are working well as this also helps us with the future improvement planning of the school. Please feel free to pop in and see us or drop us an email or letter. Kind regards

Ms. Julie Knock-Bravery Headteacher