As we approach May, primary school calendars nationally highlight the Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 classes.
The tests have had several revisions over recent years, some of which were covered in our Maths meeting for parents. The Government has produced some information for parents in both a handout and video format. These can be accessed below:
Service is a value central to all Christians' hearts and we've been pondering why that is through collective worship and Religious Education lessons this term. Today was a celebration of this value through a focus on the festival of Easter in Key Stage 1.
Thanks to Reverend Axford, Reverend Langley and Mrs Blaken, the children were lucky enough to benefit from the company and experience of a vast team of adults in school. Members of the church, Open the Book team and parent volunteers spent time in classes to help the children through a series of carousel activities that saw them make crowns, crosses, stained glass windows, and Easter baskets.
'Service' is our Christian value in focus this term, and today our pupils took to 'serving' those in need through their fundraising efforts. Awash in the colour of red, our children have been sporting the primary colour in the name of Comic Relief and raising money in the process for the international charity.
Last night, Blue Coat sent a Year 6 team to compete in the Rotary General Knowledge quiz held at Cam Hopton Primary School. A local event in which 6 schools competed, the quiz spanned a range of subjects over 6 rounds, including: Geography and History; Sport and General Knowledge; Current Affairs; Entertainment; Science and Nature; and English and Maths.
Our handpicked team took part in a selective quiz in school so as to 'qualify' for the school team. The successful quizbods this year were: Matt, Blyth, Patrick and Benjamin. A team of boys who defined the essence of 'teamwork', they showed great learning behaviours by arriving at sensible guesses to questions they didn't know, conferring on their answers, and showed respect to the quizmaster whenever they were unsure about wording of questions.
On Tuesday evening, the school hall was packed with parents eager to find out more about the most challenging Maths curriculum faced by primary school pupils. The evening took parents through a series of items, including:
The most challenging Maths curriculum yet is being taught throughout primary schools nationally.
What does this mean for my child?
What are the opportunities?
What are the challenges?
What is the school doing about it?
How might I support my child at home?
We are happy to announce that Blue Coat has made it through to another Tesco 'Bags of Help' shortlist. On Wednesday 1st Feb (coincidentally Global School Play Day!) voting started for our 'Dengineering Zone' project.
The Dengineering Zone will be a construction play zone on a currently blank corner of the school field. Children will be able to build outdoor dens and teepee structures with wood, ropes and tarpaulins. Depending on the level of funding that we secure through the voting, the zone may also include hammocks, a slack line and a large netted climbing structure.
Since the introduction of the 'new' National Curriculum, Blue Coat has been looking at innovative and in-depth ways of meeting the challenging and ambitious aims for Mathematics. The subject has been a constant focus of staff meetings and INSET days and there is too much going on behind the scenes to do justice to it here.
We would like to share this new Maths curriculum with parents, now we're starting to come to terms with it ourselves. We would like to show you what the maths curriculum values and what it is trying to achieve for your child. In doing so, we will touch on how it is assessed and, more importantly, what Blue Coat is doing to ensure that we develop Future Ready mathematicians.
Every year, we conduct a survey of our parents from which we get a good indication of what we're doing well and where we can focus more. The survey is identical to the Ofsted format but allows stakeholders to include written information.
We are regularly evaluating what we do at Blue Coat. This isn’t just a senior leadership exercise, but one that is ongoing for our catering team, our teaching staff, office team, play team... and our pupils! We recognise that feedback is crucial in helping all of us learn at all levels where we can improve.
Tuesday at 9:22am
Read More: Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs): Information for Parents