End of Year News from Wendover CE Junior School
As we fast approach the end of a very successful year for Wendover CE Junior School, it is only right that we reflect on all that has been good as we plan for September.
The school has moved forward significantly in the last eighteen months. Standards are high in all areas with particular improvements being made in achievement and learning behaviour. Our most recent SATs results were extremely positive with a very high proportion of pupils making more than expected progress in Reading, Writing, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling. Not only are we significantly higher than the national averages in all areas, but we have improved on last year’s results.
We have had a number of external audits this year which confirmed that the school is improving quickly:
- The Section 8 inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspector in October confirmed that we were taking effective action to move the school forward.
- A further visit by a registered inspector in April confirmed that the hard work of the Wendover team and the commitment of the children and parents has had a significant impact on teaching and learning, behaviour and the quality of leadership within the school.
- We continue to work with the Buckinghamshire Learning Trust and local schools to further improve our school.
We have had much to celebrate outside the classroom too. Children have been participating in a wide range of competitions with other schools including athletics, cross country, football, basketball, swimming, dance, badminton, netball, cricket and dodgeball. There have also been a good number of performances such as the nativity, street dance, music concert and end of year show for Year 6. In addition to this, children have had a wide range of extra-curricular activities to choose from and have engaged in community events including carol singing, the flower festival and our shared services at St Mary’s Church.
As you may be aware, both John Hampden Infant School and Wendover CE Junior School are improving our facilities as part of our commitment to provide quality education for our children. The ‘bulge class’ works have already begun and we are excited to see our site beginning to transform. We are greatly looking forward to the completion of these works next term – not least some larger classrooms.
We are also delighted that our campaign to have a barrier installed at the campus entrance has been successful in receiving Local Area Forum funding and will be in place during peak times from September. Our children and their families will enjoy a much safer campus as a result of this.
Our priorities for next year will be to further improve the learning within the school, together with reviewing our vision and ethos. This year we have developed our school values and everything we do is driven by Respect, Responsibility, Reflection and Resilience. Whilst learning behaviour has already improved, we will be providing even more opportunities for children to understand how they learn best. Writing will be a key focus for us during the Autumn term, whilst maintaining our high standards in Reading and Maths.
If you would like to be part of the Wendover team we would love to hear from you. We welcome classroom volunteers and we will have 3 governor vacancies next term – 2 from the parent body and 1 foundation governor. Please contact the school for further details (finance@wendoverjunior.co.uk or 01296 696822 option 4).