BLOG 2017 / 18

The main news this term is that we have appointed a new head to take over in September. Lynnette Johnson our current deputy will take up the role and I am confident I am leaving the school in very good hands. Once we have confirmed our deputy head appointment early next term we will begin the hand over in earnest.

The other major news of course was that we had our Ofsted inspection. and I am delighted that we received our 5th Outstanding judgement. This is an exceptional result for any school - and also for any one headteacher. The inspector surveyed staff and parents as part oif the process and said she had never becore inspected a school where no complaints were received from either group. So our little school is one of the best in the country on this basis. We are all very proud of the work to which we we all contribute, to help our pupils make progress in all areas of their lives. 

I am also very pleased that we received an Outstanding report from our Health and Safet audit and that the review of our provision for Looked after Children was excellent and we were considered a flagship school for this work.

Amidst all this we asked staff to complete an anonymous questionnaire ( from HSE) to check on stress levels amongst school staff. This also came back overwhelmingly positive with very few staff reporting a feeling of stress in any area of their work lives. So we are happy and successful!!

Now it's on to my last term which I expect to enjoy every bit as much as I have enjoyed all the others!!!

Time seems to be rushing past since I made the decision to retire. Only just over a term and a half to go!! My job has been advertised and we hope to have a new head appointed before the end of term. Our chair of governors is working with the Herts team to plan a robust interview process.

We received the news yesterday that Lakeside has achieved an Outstanding grade following our recent Health and Safety inspection. It's not easy to get this score given the raft of different areas that are inspected. Many thanks to Lynnette and Greg who led on the work.

We will be welcoming our two new parent governors to their first metitng next week. Jayne Rowe and Becky Bristow will be your parent reps and you will be able to meet them at school events.

Our new Lords' Taverners minibus is excellent and is being very well used. 

We finish our Erasmus programme this year,. We have teacher exchange visits to Spain in February and Turkey in June. We are also taking students on a a trip to Poland in April. Tanis Ian and I are taking 6 students to spend tiome in the Polish school along with students from Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria and Belgium.  We are looking forward to this  as our previous visit to Belgium was a great success.

We recently conducted a work related stress audit for staff I am very pleased that the results were overwhelmingly positive and staff are reporting that,althought the work can be demanding and ntensive by its very nature, they feel well supported in their work by their colleagues as well as by management. 

Laura Hall has started  a new closed group on Facebook  for Lakeside parents. It already has 35 members soit could be a good pace to go to get advice or just chat.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/144583096158940/  

We have started our Donkey therapy sessions with donkeys Boyo and Pahroah. All the  children had the opportunity to meet the donkeys and they had mixed reactions! We have seslected those we feel will benefit from the experience of working with the donkeys initially.

We are coming to the end of our Erasmus project. I ewas able to take two members of staff to visit a school in Bulgasrua this term. We have two more staff visits to Spain and Turkey and a visit for the students to Poland in April. I am looking forward to that. 

The main event so far this term has been the presentation of the new minimbus. It was provided by Lords Taveneres thanks to a major domnation form the Game Fair who were at Hatfield House this summer.  Lord Salisbury came to the presentatioon which was very much appreciated. 

We raised over £250 for Children in Need. We had an excellent response to the request foir cakes. 

Now it will all be about Christmas - and the various events. The conceet this year will be a little different as we have fewer children who are able to act a part. For the pupils with autism it is very difficult to be asked to come into a room full of peope with little notice and preparation and be ready to follow a set of instructions.  The expeereince is meant to be fun and pleasant and for increasing number sof pupils it isn't So we are bringing in technology and soem pupils will only appear on screen and the whole format is much looser. But hopefully it will work!! Tamsin and Ian are working on music and technology.