Andy Gibson- Head of Early Career Framework with Initial Teacher Training

At Co-op Academies Trust, we believe in changing the lives of young people through empowering teachers and young people to work together for a better education and a better community. I’ve been lucky enough to have visited several academies since joining the Trust as Head of ECF with ITT in January and the purposeful learning that was present everywhere was amazing to see.

I found an affinity with the Ways of Being and knew that I wanted to be a part of the driving force behind such a dynamic Trust. Outstanding education is the single biggest driver of outcomes for our young students with the quality of staff being the most significant variable that leaders can influence directly. Co-op Academies Trust are committed to ensuring teachers receive high-quality training and professional development at every stage of their career, I was again drawn to work with like minded practitioners. 

Like Co-op, I value self-help and self-responsibility, meaning when I was tasked with ensuring supportive and structured opportunities for practitioners to explore and master strategies where present, I was ready for the challenge. 

Co-op Academies’ commitment to curriculum, pedagogy, teaching and learning and the wider trust community resonated with me to guarantee we are evidence-informed, rooted in honesty and openness and do what matters most across all schools so that we work in solidarity to best create outstanding opportunities for our young people.

As well as overseeing Early Career Teaching in all of our academies and working with our superb practitioners, my new role is to create our own Trust Initial Teacher Training programme. We will be working with Bright Futures SCITT to bring together expertise from across the Trust Primary, Secondary, Special and Further Education provisions in an aim to promote excellence in all aspects of education. Our trainees will benefit from focused, central and school-based training, working in our academies on the thirteen courses we offer: Primary 3-7, Primary 5-11, Primary SEND, English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History, Religious Education, Computing and Design & Technology.

Although they will be completing a PGCE, all our trainees will benefit from being on our School Direct course which means being in the classroom from day one, working and training with our outstanding practitioners  and understanding what it means to be a Co-op teacher. Thank you to everyone who has worked with me so far in helping to create the foundations of the programme. Your eagerness and ambition will make this a fantastic provision we have to offer. 

Train to Teach with Co-op Academies

This week

Welcome to this week’s Parkland Post!  Dare we say it, it is definitely beginning to feel a bit more like spring – we have had some fabulous sunrises and sunsets and have noticed the birds in our local area are very busy which links very nicely to this weekend’s Skills Builder home task. 

Big Garden Birdwatch

This week on Newsround, our children watched a report on which birds you might see in our gardens and parks.  The RSPB are holding their Big Garden Bird Watch this weekend and invite you to join in with more than one million other people to count the number of birds you see in one hour.  Taking part is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
1.  Watch the birds around you for one hour.

2.  Count how many species of bird land on your patch.

3.  Go online and tell the RSPB what you saw.

This week

Welcome to this week’s Parkland Post, we hope you have had a fabulous week.  There has been so much learning going on around school, it has been a joy to walk around and see what our children have been working on.  Mrs Wierzbianski and Miss Spence had the pleasure of chatting with some of our children who had been chosen for Hot Chocolate Friday this morning.  This is a wonderful opportunity for us to share a lovely treat, talk about the things they have learned and find out what their favourite part of the week has been.  

Covid-19

We are looking closely at the current situation across school with the number of positive cases, we will update our families as soon as we have clear and up to date guidance for you. Thank you for your continued support.

At the moment, if your child has any symptoms, please do not send them to school.  Do a lateral flow test and if positive, book or order a PCR test.  Symptoms are:  a new continuous cough, a high temperature, a loss of taste or smell.  
Symptoms for the Omicron variant also include a runny nose and congestion, tiredness and a cough or sore throat, similar to a cold, headache and stomach ache.   If you or your child have these symptoms, please do a lateral flow test to check whether you or your child are infected so we can limit the spread of the virus.  Please keep us informed if your child is ill so we can record absences.  Thank you.  

Jigsaw/PSHE – Dreams and Goals

On Monday, Mrs Wierzbianski gave an assembly which introduced this half term’s Jigsaw (PSHE) theme.  Our children and staff will be focusing on Dreams and Goals.  Everyone was asked to think about one thing about themselves that they are proud of and then asked to think of a goal for the year ahead.  We talked about how sometimes it might be difficult to stick to your goal because it was unrealistic in the first place so we decided we would think about making it achievable.  During their work in PSHE sessions in class, our children will be sharing these goals and dreams and helping each other with ways in which we can successfully achieve them.

Parent Forum
Our next Parent Forum will take place on Thursday 27th January at 9am in school where we will be sharing our MIND mental health and well-being action plan which the last group helped to create.  There will be tea, coffee and cake so feel free to come and join us.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend with your families and that you enjoy some fresh air and hopefully some good weather!  We will see you all bright and early on Monday morning.

Skills Builder Home Task

For this week’s home task linked to our Careers Related Learning skill of Listening, we would like you to do the following:
Think of someone in your family who has a talent that you admire.
It could be that they are great at baking delicious cakes, or they seem to have green fingers and their plants always grow really well.  They may know lots of card tricks or they have fun ideas of things to do on rainy days.
Ask them to help you learn something they know – to share their talent with you.
Listen carefully as they explain and ask questions to help you understand more.

Parent Forum Date

Thank you to those parents that attended our previous forum, it is important that we get your input and ideas for school. If you can make the next one please join us for tea and cake and a good chat! Here are the dates for the rest of the year.

January 27th

March 4th

May 5th

School Dinner Prices

Please be aware that from the 1st of January the cost of a school dinner will be £1.95 which is 5 pence more per day. Thank you.

Uniform

Please remember to send your child in the correct uniform as there have been a few instances of inappropriate footwear and earrings.  The uniform list can be found on the following link to our website:

Uniform list

Pride Awards

Do what matters most

Be yourself, always

Show you care

Succeed together

Nursery

Hudson

For developing his confidence and continuing to build relationships with his peers.

River

For having a fantastic first week and a positive attitude towards her learning.

Reception

Willow

For writing some fantastic sentences about Stick Man.

Arlo

For applying his new Maths skills around the classroom.  Well done Arlo!

Year 1

Lily

For always trying her best with all of her work.

Boston

For always listening and working well with others during our group work.

Year 2

Melissa

Not giving up on her work, even when she its tricky.

Ruby

For working well with others, well done Ruby.

Year 3/4A

Aoife

For putting everything into your learning.  Your character description is a perfect example of this.

Noah

Your positive and supportive attitude.  You have so much passion for learning- it’s great!  Keep it up!

Year 3/4NW

Alice

Perseverance with your Maths work on column addition

Jack B

 Fabulous teamwork in our French lessons. 

Year 5

Lewis

Superb work in Maths, working on factors and multiples.

Karter

Excellent group work and discussion about our book Wuthering Heights.

Year 6

Ruby

For their work in Maths this week where the focus was simplifying fractions.  Both Ruby and Jessica have impressed us with their ‘can do’ attitudes!

Jessica

For their work in Maths this week where the focus was simplifying fractions.  Both Ruby and Jessica have impressed us with their ‘can do’ attitudes!

This week

Welcome to this week’s Parkland Post; what a week it has been!  It has been wonderful to see so many parents and carers attending our Christmas events – thank you for doing so in such a way that has kept our school community safe.

The Nativity, which was held on Monday and Tuesday, was incredibly special.  All the staff and visitors were impressed at how well each child delivered their lines and how beautifully they all sang – it was impossible not to have those toes tapping!
Our KS2 Carol Service on Wednesday was a delight too.  Rev. Mary Winters joined us and talked to the pupils about gratitude and how we should be thankful for what we have. The children excelled themselves singing in all of our chosen songs and performing sign language in our rendition of Little Donkey. On Wednesday, school looked even more festive as we came in our Christmas jumpers – there were so many different designs and it brought a smile to everyone’s faces!  Our wonderful kitchen team prepared and served a delicious Christmas dinner complete with crackers on the tables and singing of Christmas songs; it was wonderful to see our pupils and staff enjoying themselves so much.

Remembering Justin Bowman
During our concerts this week, a collection box was available as many parents had asked if they could make a donation towards a memoriam for Justin Bowman who sadly died recently.  The donations will be used for a bench in school in consultation with Justin’s family.  Thank you to all those who have made a donation.  If anyone would still like to make a donation, they can do so via our school office.

This week

Welcome to this week’s Parkland Post!  As we approach Christmas, we seem to be getting busier and busier; there is definitely a festive buzz as you walk around school.  Our Christmas Tree is now up in the hall and has been decorated with twinkling lights and beautiful baubles – you could say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Y3/4 trip
Yesterday, Years 3 and 4 had a trip to the National Science and Media Museum to support their learning in Science.  They took part in a workshop which investigated sound and had a great time looking round the rest of the museum.  We are so lucky to have such a magnificent museum on our doorstep.  

Learning across school

Mrs Wierzbianski was able to spend time in each of our classes this week to speak to pupils about their learning and to see first hand what they were doing.  In Nursery, they were feeling and looking very festive with lots of different tasks such as creating Christmas cards, dressing up in festive costumes and role-playing.  They were also accessing other areas of continuous provision such as the water tray where the boys were telling Mrs Wierzbianski all about blue whales and other things you might find in cold places.

In Reception, the pupils were writing letters to Father Christmas which they are going to post next week.  Miss Carter was impressed with the quality of independent writing and how well the children are using their phonic knowledge.

In KS1, Year 1 were busy with a whole class phonics session where they were practising the ‘ear’ sound (trigraph) and their handwriting.  Fred was certainly challenging them to some tricky words!

In Year 2, the pupils were busy practising their 2-digit number recognition and working together to partition.  Each partnership showed how well they could succeed together which is one of our Co-op Ways of Being.

This week

Miss Connors began the week delivering an assembly which focused one the this year’s theme ‘One Kind Word’.  She began by asking our pupils what kindness means to them and there were lots of good ideas from them.  Miss Connors then showed images of reminders of how to be kind and asked how we would put this into action across our school.

Times Tables of the Week
This week, KS2 have been reciting their 8x tables again so they can become more confident with this knowledge.  We have added a ‘bop’ to ensure we all stay together as we call them out.  In KS1, the pupils have been counting forwards in 2s from 20.  

Learning across KS1 this week:
In Year 1, they have been adding and subtracting within 10 and finding a total.  The pupils worked together as a whole class and then worked independently on these calculations.