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What have been our successes this year?

• We have been very pleased with the results of our Excellence and Enjoyment initiative delivering stimulating and effective learning for our children.
  
• The introduction of target books has helped children focus on what they need to work on to make good progress and enabled this to be shared with parents and carers.
  
• The School Charter continues to encourge hard work and good behaviour whilst delivering a clear and consistent means of discipline.
  
• Hot school meals have been a great success with over half the children enjoying a well balanced nutritional meal.
  
• We have extended french language teaching from Year 3 to 5 with full Key Stage 2 planned for next year.
  
• Five of our teachers visited our twin school in Sri Lanka to establish long term curriculum links between the two schools. The staff returned enlightened and full of ideas for sharing their experiences with the children. This inspired fantastic work in our Sri Lankan themed Annual Arts Festival
  
• We were awarded the Activemark by the Department for Education and Science for our commitment to sports and physical education.
  
• Finally, we were delighted to be re-awarded the Artsmark Gold commendation from the Arts Council.

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What are we trying to improve?

Our School Development Plan for 2006/07 addressed the key concerns of the government's Every Child Matters initiative and incorporated ideas from all staff, governors and parents as follows:

Be Healthy

• Hot school meals
  
• More after school sports activities

Stay Safe               

• Introduce an internet use safety scheme
  
• Refurbish remaining toilets

Enjoy and Achieve

• Provide targeted booster groups in reading, writing and maths
  
• Reviews of teaching on writing, ICT and science
  
• Develop identification and provisions for gifted and talented pupils

Positive contribution

• Introduce peer mentoring
  
• Improve links with Sri Lankan school for multicultural awareness

Economic wellbeing

• Develop health eating tuck shop

We are working towards the following major developments in 2007/08:

• Introduction of the International Primary Curriculum to enhance the learning experience and stimulate the creative thinking of our children
  
• Developing curriculum links with our twinned Sri Lankan school
  
• Extended school provision for before and after school care

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How much progress do pupils make between age 7 and 11?

Our school

Confidence interval

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How well do pupils achieve at age 11?

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How have our results changed over time?

Our results have consistently shown over time that our pupils achieve above average when compared with both other Northamptonshire schools and also all schools nationally.

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How are we making sure that every child gets teaching to meet their individual needs?

In Reception, we assess all our children and monitor as they move along ‘Early Learning Goals’. Moving up through the school, each child’s progress and development is continuously monitored by both teacher assessment and Key Stage 1 and 2 tests.
We encourage the early identification of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) so that we can ensure that all pupils are educated appropriately. We prepare Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for children included on the school’s SEN register and these are reviewed regularly. Individual progress is monitored through regular consultations between relevant staff, the SEN Co-ordinator and the SEN governor. Where necessary, we invite parents to termly reviews.

All children have target books to enable them to focus on their own development areas and share that information with parents and carers.
To assess each individual child’s progress they undertake Vernon spelling and NFER reading tests twice yearly. We use the results of these tests to decide which children are to be targeted for additional support.
We are actively involved with other Campion cluster schools in providing opportunities for our Gifted and Talented pupils.

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How are we working with parents and the community?

We encourage parents to contribute to the school. As a village school we actively participate in village activities. Here are some of the partnerships that we undertake:
Parental Partnership
· Friendly & Approachable Staff
· Regular consultation evenings
· Parental Questionnaires
· Regular communications regarding the curriculum and class activities
· Friends of Harpole School - group organising fund-raising events eg: cake sales, discos

Community Partnership
· Art Exhibition and BBQ
· Rose Queen Fete– in aid of Welfare of the Elderly
· Scarecrow Festival
· Harvest Festival
· Class visits to local businesses
· Local farm visits
· Community members take part in assemblies & class talks

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What have pupils told us about the school, and what have we done as a result?

The School Council has two representatives elected from each class and meets regularly to discuss issues of concern to pupils. The following ideas were suggested and appropriate action taken.
The state of our toilets was of concern to the pupils, as indeed had already been identified by the
school. We continued with our refurbishment plans for all the school toilets.
The children identified a lack of storage space for bags and coats for Years 5 and 6. We have now installed lockers.

The School Council are now considering plans for refurbishing the bike sheds.

As part of our curriculum monitoring each term, we ask a sample of children how they enjoy their learning and ask them for ways we can improve. For example, our ITC review highlighted a need for smaller computer mice for Reception and Key Stage 1 children which we were able to provide.

We conducted a pupil questionnaire during the year. This showed our children enjoyed being at Harpole School, found the lessons interesting and the teachers helped them to learn.

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How do we make sure our pupils are healthy, safe and well-supported?

The school takes its responsibility for the Health and Safety of the whole school community very seriously. The following activities and initiatives have been undertaken:

• Updated the School’s Health and Safety Policy and provided appropriate training
  
• Annual Health and Safety inspection of school premises (internally and externally)
  
• Risk assessments undertaken before all school visits
  
• Monitoring the possibility of bullying within the school
  
• Cycling proficiency training provided
  
• Personal, Social and Health Education incorporated into all classes
  
• St John's ambulance first aid training was provided for all Years 4, 5 and 6

In response to concerns over unsafe parking outside the school entrance, the governors have organised occasional parking patrols to raise awareness of safety issues.

All classes have a regular 'circle time' when children are encouraged to express any concerns they have. A new initiative this year has been the 'Listening Ear' where pupils know they can go and speak to an adult at breaktimes.

We conducted a pupil questionnaire during the year and the pupils told us:

• 81% feel safe at school, with just 3 children expressing concerns over safety at school
  
• 93% would talk to an adult in school if they were worried.

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How do our absence rates compare with other schools?

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What activities and options are available to pupils?

Our pupils benefit from a wide range of extra curricular activities to help develop further skills in the arts and sports. Our Artsmark Gold award recognises the high standards of achievement and the dedication of our staff. Here are the clubs we provide

Choir

Art

Dance

Drama

Drums

Violin/cello

Recorder

Woodwind

Brass

Football

Netball

Hockey

Basketball

Tennis

Regular trips stimulate pupils' learning and provide opportunities for growing their social skills.
In our pupil survey during the year, 70% of children confirmed that they take part in an after school club.

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What do our pupils do after leaving this school?

Most of our pupils go to Campion School in Bugbrooke. We have excellent links with both the senior school and the other feeder primary schools in the Campion Cluster. Two day visits are arranged for our Year 6 pupils to visit Campion School in the Summer Term.

In 2006, three of our boys went on to Northampton School for Boys and one girl went on to Northampton School for Girls.
 
Above all, we aim to prepare our Year 6 children to take this major next step in their lives with confidence.

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What have we done in response to Ofsted?

In 2003 Ofsted identified the following areas for improvement
1. How the teachers assess pupils’ progress in subjects other than in English and mathematics.
2. Clarification and agreeing leadership roles and responsibilities in order for co-ordinators to support the management of the school.
3. How teachers use information and communication technology in daily lessons.
4. The planned programme for pupils’ personal, social and emotional development.

These have all been addressed as follows
1. New assessment procedures in place across the school.
2. The roles of co-ordinators have been clarified. We reviewed the allocation of responsibilities to ensure we shared the load more evenly in our Senior Management team.
3. Interactive whiteboards are installed in all classrooms and core programs installed. The
introduction of our COW enables a wide range of ICT activities to be provided in many more curriculum areas.
4. A new scheme of work for Personal, Social and Health Education has been implemented.

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More Information

If you would like more information about school policies, including our policies on special educational needs and disability, admissions, finance, school food and our complaints procedure, please contact us:

By telephone: 01604 830072

Our website: http://www.harpoleprimary.co.uk

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