Author: 1211817

Woodlands Community
Primary School
Governors’ Annual
Report to Parents
Academic Year - 2018/ 2019
Website: www.woodlandsprimaryschool.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/WoodlandsPrima1
Tel: 01633647488 Text: 07786208896
Email: Clerk.WoodlandsPrimary@torfaen.gov.uk
Governors - Who’s Who?
Clerk to the Governors: Jo Howard c/o Woodlands Community Primary School. Tel. 01633 647488
Chair of Governors: Ms Claire Ager c/o the school.
Parent Governor Elections will take will take place every 4 years. The next election will happen in March 2021, or when there is a vacancy, whichever comes first.
In addition to this report, our School Prospectus and date card have been published. A copy is available in the office for parents who have not already received one. There are no significant changes to our prospectus since last year that are not mentioned in this report.
No meeting was held under Section 94 of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013.
SESSION TIMES
Nursery Session Times
Morning Session 9.00 11.30
Afternoon Session 12.45 3.15
Infant (Foundation Phase) Session Times
Morning Session 8.55 12.05
Afternoon Session 1.05 3.15
Assembly 10.05 10.20
Morning Playtime 10.20 10.35
Afternoon Playtime 2.10 2.25
Lower Juniors (Key Stage 2) Session Times
Morning Session 8.55 12.25
Afternoon Session 1.20 3.15
Assembly 10.05 10.20
Morning Playtime 11.20 11.35
Upper Juniors (Key Stage 2) Session Times
Morning Session 8.55 12.30
Afternoon Session 1.25 3.15
Assembly 10.05 10.20
Morning Playtime 11.20 11.35
N.B. Term dates are outlined in our date card which supplements this report.
COMMUNITY LINKS
Home Family Links
We have access to a number of supportive services to help you with parenting, finance and housing. We also have our own Pastoral Lead, Jo Sidnell, who is available to offer support to families and children when needed. Her job is to work with children and families in a supportive way to remove barriers to learning. If you or your child need support with behaviour management, bedtime routines, bereavement, reluctance to come to school or any other issue Jo would be happy to help.
Extra-curricular Activities and Clubs After School
We have a number of extra-curricular activities, some which involve the community. For an up to date list of our current after school clubs please contact the school office. Last year we ran the following extra-curricular clubs:
Craft club
Coding club
Dance Club
Gardening club
Football club
Maths club
Netball club
Clwb Cymraeg
Police Liaison
We have good community links with the police liaison officer, PC Murphy, who regularly runs educational sessions throughout the school. In addition, PC Murphy is available to help and advise children, parents and the school when needed.
We have recently appointed 20 Heddlu Bach (Mini Police) officers from Years 5 & 6 who work with our local PCSO to promote and raise awareness of community safety, e.g. litter picks, staying safe on Bonfire Night, safe parking, speeding etc.
Local Area
We try to use the local area as a resource as much as possible. We take part in lots of community events such as sending our choir to take part in the Community Carol Concert and to sing for the OAP’s Home at Leadon Court at Christmas time.
As part of an Intergenerational Project, our KS2 pupils have worked closely with the residents of Leadon Court on an Art project. Pupils also make regular visits to Crownbridge Special School to participate in cooking, sensory, art and music sessions.
Sports
Sport is high on our agenda at all times. We have achieved a certain measure of success.
We offer a number of sports activities after school. These include netball, football, rugby and dance. Our school football and rugby teams have taken part in local competitions with a degree of success. Our results are as follows:
2018 Torfaen Cricket festival 3 wins 1 loss
2018 Nant Celyn football festival group winners overall 3rd place
2018 Police football tournament— group winners overall 4th place
2018—Children participated in a cross country competition.
Year 5 children go swimming every week for a whole year and Year 6 children go climbing every week.
In addition, children participate in daily fitness activities that promote physical and mental well-being. Activities include the daily mile (walking/running), HIIT training and yoga.

2017 / Improve boy’s performance in writing across the school. / July 2018 / End of KS2. At the expected level both genders have been in line or above all comparators for 2 out of 3 years. There is a trend for girls to do better than boys in English and W2L. This is not as apparent in maths and science where boys are in line with girls in 2 out of 3 years and both genders are in line or above comparators in 2 out of 3 years. Girls do better than boys at oracy and writing and boys do better in reading in 2 out of 3 years. Boys writing has improved this year but remains a strategic action plan point.	2018 / To consistently and robustly respond to bullying, discrimination and harassment both with regards to the victim and the perpetrator. To ensure that the number of incidents continues to be small. / The number of bullying incidents continues to be small. Our anti-bullying policy was revised with input from the pupils. The pupil wellbeing team presented this to the rest of the children and to Governors.	2019 / Equality Objective 1. / Ensure that all policies and procedures are gender neutral. / Equality Objective 2. / Continue to narrow the gap between boys and girls across the school. / Equality Objective 3. / Raise awareness of Equality Issues amongst all stakeholders
2017 Maintain children on free school meal’s (FSM) performance and improve higher level performance at end of FP. / The performance of KS2 FSM pupils is consistently very good. For example only 1 FSM pupil didn’t achieve CSI in 2017 and 2018. 100% of FSM pupils achieved the expected level in English and science in 2018 and FSM performance was above non FSM at the higher level in all PIs and has been for 2 out of 3 years. Again FP FSM pupils do as well or better at the expected level as their peers. However they do not do as well at the higher level.	2018 / To increase opportunities to listen to children and young people in order to influence decision making. / We have continued to increase the level of pupil involvement in decision making. For example, the pupil wellbeing team helped to revise the anti-bullying policy and we have introduced pupil learning reviews to enable pupils to take more control over their own learning.

Additional Educational Needs (AEN)/ Looked After Children (LAC)
We try to identify children with Additional Educational Needs as soon as they enter the school in the Nursery. Good communication between Nursery and pre-school facilities in the ICC mean that often we gain information about children before they start with us. This process gives the child the best start to school life as we are able to meet individual needs as soon as possible.
Close working with outside agencies, including the Educational Psychologist, increase the support we can offer to children as they move through the school. In general, each class has some support for the children in their class. This support is directly proportional to the level of need of the children in each particular class. Progress of AEN/ LAC children is measured through our usual testing and assessment arrangements as well as a review of their specific targets on a termly basis.
AEN children are given specific and measurable targets which are worked on regularly in class as much as possible and sometimes through withdrawal groups. Some children receive support from peripatetic teachers and some children are allocated a teaching assistant to work with them in small groups.
LAC children are given extra support where appropriate and grant funding is used to meet their needs through resources and support.

Policy Review
The following policies have been reviewed and adopted by the Governing Body in 2018/2019:
Safeguarding, Health and Safety, Anti-bullying, Marking, Transition, First Aid and E-Safety.

School Improvement Plan
Our priorities for School Improvement in 2018/2019 have been:
Improve writing and spelling across the school.
Reduce the gender difference in writing at the end of KS2.
Improve pupils’ reasoning skills.
Improve punctuality.
Improve Welsh reading.
This year professional development for the staff has been in line with our school priorities and has focussed on writing, especially boys’ writing, reasoning skills and Welsh reading. We have made good progress with all our priorities for development and standards continue to improve as a result.

Welsh Language
Woodlands is an English medium school and as a result the main language used is English. However, we are proud of our Welsh heritage and try to ensure that children are given the opportunity to learn Welsh in weekly lessons appropriate to their age and ability. In addition, pupils are encouraged to use their Welsh in other lessons and around the school. We celebrate the Welsh culture as much as possible through the curriculum, additional activities, trips and visits.
School Building
We are fortunate to have good facilities both internally and externally and the building and its surroundings, including toilet facilities, are in good repair. Following a 4 year programme the building has been fully refurbished. This cycle of improvement will continue so that we maintain the school environment to a high standard. The inside of the school, including the toilets, are cleaned daily to ensure that the school environment is safe and hygienic for the children. This year we have continued to improve our outdoor areas in the Foundation Phase so that the children have better facilities and resources to use.

Healthy Eating
We encourage healthy eating and drinking through our Breakfast Club, fruit snack time, salad bar at lunchtime and packed lunch policy. Water is available in every classroom. The children are taught about healthy eating and drinking in Science.
School Council have held Assemblies to promote healthy eating and drinking. They have spoken to the children about the healthy snacks that are available at break time and have asked the canteen to increase the choice of fruit on offer.

Rates of Authorised and Unauthorised Absences
Attendance Monitors have effectively promoted good attendance through weekly and half termly attendance rewards and this has contributed to a further improvement in attendance in 2018/2019 and exceeded its target to achieve 95.03% with a 0.28% uplift on last year.
Number of children at the school = 342 in September 2019

	Total absence %	% days missed - unauthorised	% days missed - authorised
2018/19	4.96%	1.9%	3.06%
Target for 2019/20	5.0%	1.80%	3.2%

Woodland’s School Accounts

Income		Expenditure
Income	72,842	Employees	1,068,148
Carry Forward	103,261	Resources	92,404
Budget Share	1,167,459	Premises	135,705
Grants	71,313	Other Services	52,394
		Carry Forward to next year	66,224
		Governors’ Expenses/ Gifts	0
Total	1,414,875	Total	1,414,875

Woodlands Community Primary School – Pupil Deprivation Grant
2017 / 2018
It is a Welsh Government requirement that the school make you aware of the way in which we use our Pupil Deprivation Grant. This is a grant that is targeted at supporting pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM).
This school currently has a school roll, excluding the Nursery, of pupils of which 119 (34%) are eligible for free school meals. This equates to 40% of the school population and generates a grant of £90,650. The number of pupils eligible for free school meals has increased dramatically over the last few years (2017 figure was 73 - 24%).
The school currently undertakes the following activities in order to support pupils facing the challenges of poverty and deprivation:
Speech and language intervention N-Y2
Teaching Talking - R and Y1
Read, Write Inc 1 to1s - R to Y4
Maths Intervention – Y2 upwards
Catch Up Reading – KS2
Corrective Reading – Y3 upwards
Small Group Support – KS2
After school maths club for Y5 and Y6
Homework Club for FSM pupils
Parent Project with parents of children who still don’t make progress.
In addition Pastoral Support is provided for FSM children in the form of:
Grief/ Bereavement/ Trauma
Attendance
Self Esteem
Behaviour – Social Skills
Thrive
As a result FSM pupils consistently perform well by the end of Year 6. For example, only 1 FSM pupil didn’t achieve the expected level in 2017 and 2018 and 2 in 2019.

School Fund
The School Fund Account is used to buy equipment for the children and to subsidise the cost of children’s school trips and treats. All donations and fundraising monies are put into school fund. Please see below the accounts for 2018 to 2019.

WOODLANDS INFANT SCHOOL FUND					School Year	2018	-	2019
FINANCIAL REPORT
STARTING BALANCE:			11437.72
	INCOME					EXPENDITURE
	Misc		16754.33			Misc		15266.84
	Donations		25.00			Xmas/Easter		0.00
	Nursery		769.48			Nursery		769.48
	Photos		0.00			Photos		0.00
	Trips		20946.90			Trips		30010.80
	Swimming		827.79			Swimming		1815.00
	TCBC		0.00			TCBC/Cash		0.00
	Book Fair		802.20			Book Fair		801.75
						END OF FINANCIAL YEAR
						CASH IN BANK		2899.55
	TOTAL		51563.42			TOTAL		51563.42

TRANSITION
We have good links with our cluster Secondary School, Cwmbran High. This year we noticed that the majority of our pupils have chosen to apply for Cwmbran High. Of our July 2019 Y6 – 14 went to Croesyceiliog and 31 to Cwmbran High.
We have built strong links with Cwmbran High to ensure that your child’s transition is as smooth as possible. We also ensure strong links with the other secondary schools where appropriate. Below are some of the activities that we have taken part in:
Annual joint training with staff at Woodlands and staff at Cwmbran High to work on special projects e.g. sharing teaching methods and agreeing on what constitutes good children’s work – writing/ spelling project.
Secondary staff visit primary to look at the standards of children’s work.
Taster days for children going to secondary school on music, ICT and languages
Year 5 children can also go to the open evenings.
Good communication when records are passed on to secondary school.
ICT training with Cwmbran High on coding.
Joint agreement of standards in children’s work.
Enhanced transition for vulnerable pupils.

Pupils with disabilities / Children with disabilities are welcomed into the school and wherever possible or practical, provision will be made to accommodate these children. / Woodlands is on a flat site and doors and corridors are wide enough to accommodate wheelchair access. We have planned a programme of improvements to the building which will further enhance access for disabled people. / Disabled children are given support in order to access all aspects of the curriculum. Thought is given to disabled children when considering all new projects. / Strategic Equality Plan / We have reviewed our aims for 2018/2019 and set new aims for Sept 2019 to July 2020

Name of Governor	Type	Office Expires
Ms Claire Ager – Chair	Chair / Community	06.03.2023
Mrs Ceri Griffiths	Vice Chair / Parent	23.03.2021
Mrs Jaci Bates - Head	Head	N/A
Mrs Frances English	LA	08.07.2022
Cllr Kathy Evans	LA	03.09.2022
Cllr Steven Evans	LA	08.07.2022
Mr Bob White	Community	01.10.2023
Mrs Perminderjit Mudher	Community	07.03.2022
Mrs Joana Baker	Community	09.10.2023
Mr Venkatesh Mahesh Kumar	Parent	07.03.2022
Mrs Kirsty Furness	Parent	TBC
Mr Jez Marsh	Parent	08.01.2023
Ms Sarah Cook	Teacher	04.05.2021
Ms Ceri Preece	Staff	07.10.2022

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