Good afternoon,
The Preparatory Department staff are very much looking forward to meeting you again during Parents Evening. The meetings are scheduled as:
Tuesday 10th & Wednesday 11th November – Prep I, II, III & V
Tuesday 17th & Wednesday 18th November – Prep IV & VI
Your appointments are 10 minutes in duration. I have instructed teachers to keep to the allotted time slots to avoid delays for other parents. If you would like to discuss an issue in more depth please make another appointment with the class teacher. Mrs Nairn and I will also be available to discuss any issues with you.
Children from Prep II up to Prep VI have undertaken InCAS tests during the final weeks of last half term. These tests are a very useful indication of a pupil’s progress in the previous academic year as well as providing information on a child’s ability to learn and their attitude towards school. The data that we have received has been quite complex and is difficult to explain and interpret in a relatively short space of time. I have therefore developed a Target Sheet that will be presented to you during your appointment. The target sheets will focus on the key areas that the tests have highlighted for each pupil along with initial teacher assessment. EYFS and Prep I teachers will use other forms of teacher assessment to set targets. The target sheet will contain:
a) A specific target/s for each child in literacy and numeracy to aim for by our summer written report in July 2016.
b) A development of the idea of pupils contributing to their end of year reports by inviting them to also comment to set targets for their own learning that will be shared with parents at Parents Evenings in the autumn and spring terms.
These targets will be tracked by the teacher throughout the year. A ‘half time report’ will be given in the February parents evening. Using teacher assessment staff will report whether these targets are being achieved. Our summer reports will provide assessment reports with a reflection from the teacher of whether targets have been met.
The support of our parents with homework is crucial for the continued development of our pupil’s education. With the introduction of our new Abacus maths scheme I have worked with our maths coordinator, Mrs Davies to develop some strategies to enable parents to have the tools available to assist their children at home.
On our very popular Prep blog that was developed around a month ago there is now a page dedicated to providing parents with information to help their children in the learning process. I hope that this is useful to you but in particular we have developed links to the work we do with the children in the new abacus maths scheme. This abacus link shows all the teaching strategies in a parent friendly way from reception through to Prep VI.
The link is https://bridgewaterprep.wordpress.com/learning-resources-and-web-links/
I hope that this link is useful as well as the new initiative of the Target Sheet for each pupil. Effective information for parents has been one of our main objectives this term. Any feedback from parents is always welcome.
Thank you for your continued support.
Kind Regards
Mr M. Rooney
Acting Deputy Head & Leader of Prep.
Bridgewater School - Prep. Department 