Waterfield Primary School School Profile Report 2007/2008

This year Waterfield has continued to strive towards our ethos of being a community school where everyone is valued and celebrated.

Striving for Excellence and Enjoyment
Waterfield has had many afterschool clubs this year to enrich the children’s school experience. These include: Drama Club, Computer Club, Netball Club, girls & boys football teams and those which are by invitation only, including Gardening Club, Balance & Beam, Cookery Club, Breakfast Club, Homework Club and The Mix (an empowerment club aimed at year 5 & 6 boys), The Lighthouse Club (lunchtime club that does creative activities with a faith theme). 

Three new innovative groups were set up this year:

Detective Club
This is a club for gifted and talented pupils in year 6. The children have had to undertake various tasks to solve a murder mystery, find the culprit and the reasons for the murder! The children have had to collect evidence and present their case in court to prosecute an assailant. They have used reasoning, problem solving, science and maths knowledge to understand DNA, chromatography and autopsy reports. The club has been a great success and the children have thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Creative Writing Club
Creative writing club is run after school once a week and aimed at different ability groups throughout year 6. The emphasis is on raising enjoyment of writing and reading and of course having fun!
Dance Time
During the Spring term years 4 and 5 rehearsed an intricate Bollywood routine for Dance Time 2008. The children flourished when performing it at the Hawth. The commitment and dedication from these children representing Waterfield School was outstanding, and the school and their parents were very proud of them.

School Council and Eco team
ECO Team
The children voted and elected new Eco Team Representatives for this year, whose main focus has been to work towards a ‘green’ school award. The children have worked closely alongside teachers and governors to develop a Travel Plan to help us achieve this award, which was won in the Summer term. ‘Walk on Wednesday’ (WOW!) was initiated as part of the Travel Plan and a committee was elected by the Eco team. The Travel Plan Committee attended meetings and fed back to the rest of the school. The Eco team has also continued to be involved with our local community and have taken part in an adventure playground competition to design a new playground for Bewbush. Our designs have been considered and we are awaiting the final result!

School Council
Elections were held, once again, for new School Councillors. The children had to prepare posters and speeches for their classmates to then elect them. It was very exciting turning the library into a voting station with ballot papers and voting booths.  The School Council members have been working alongside the Eco team to develop the Travel Plan. 

Curriculum Targets and Accelerated Learning
We have continued to track pupils on a half-termly basis, which has enabled teachers to follow individual pupil’s progress throughout the year, improve planning and ensure that all pupils know what their next steps of learning are. These targets are discussed in learning conferences between teacher and pupil and have proved to be highly successful and motivating for the children. Accelerated learning groups have run alongside the daily learning objectives to ‘boost’ and ‘plug’ gaps in understanding. The children who have received this have made considerable progress and it has improved their self esteem.

How do we make sure our pupils are healthy, safe and well supported?
The successful introduction of hot school meals has had a positive impact on our children, with teachers reporting of much happier and focused children in afternoon learning time. Waterfield continues to promote healthy eating and lifestyles, with fresh fruit and vegetables available for all children at morning break time.  Circle of Friends has, once again, been running to support children who feel lonely and find it difficult to build relationships. The children involved in these small supportive groups have all found the experience to be rewarding and has boosted their self esteem and confidence. As a school we recognise the importance of a nurturing environment and feel this is one of our strengths.  

The Road Safety Advisor visited the children in the Foundation Stage and taught them about the Green Cross Code. Waterfield was invaded with bikes again, as Year 6 adorned their helmets and took to the roads for their Cycling Proficiency in the Summer term.

We have also employed a new gardener, who is working hard to improve our grounds and make Waterfield a colourful and welcoming environment for our children, staff and visitors!

Attendance
Attendance compares well with similar schools in Crawley, however of course we are striving to improve this further. Thank you in advance for your help with this.

Art & Culture Activities
This year our children have taken part in many creative activities and performances: KS2 Panto – Dick Whittington, KS1 and Foundation Stage Nativity -Cockodoodle Christmas; Thomas Bennett Drama students visited and performed in assembly; The Rainbow Theatre performed Cinderella; and a visiting Orchestra performed some of our favourite songs in a special performance; we also dressed up as our favourite book characters and took part in World Book Day.

Children in Need Day became a pyjama day in school, with various story time activities running, including a visit to our library that was transformed into a bedroom for the occasion. The children bought in donations and raised over £300 for the worthwhile charity.

Violin:
Year 3 have been learning to play the violin during their music lessons this year; taught by two specialist music teachers Mrs Ride and Mrs Luck.  They have given two performances to parents and played to the school during assemblies. 

Modern Foreign Languages:
Waterfield has been pleased to continue the teaching of French and Spanish this year and have been pleased to welcome Mrs Rafferty to the school as a specialist language teacher.  Year 5 have been learning French and Years 2, 3 and 4 have been learning Spanish. During their lessons the children have covered topics including numbers, colours, months, shapes and greetings. They have also learnt about Spanish/French culture. Learning involves games, songs and other fun activities that include all four skill areas: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The year 2 children have written letters to children in a Spanish school and are hoping to establish a pen pal link. An outreach teacher from Ifield Community College has been visiting school to teach Year 6 French, in preparation for secondary school next year.

Visits:
Foundation Stage went to Fisher’s Farm as part of their farm and animals topic and The Sea Life Centre in Brighton to find out about Under the Sea! Year 1 visited Wakehurst Place, where they visited the Millennium Seed Bank and learnt about how plants grow. Year 2 visited Tilgate Nature Park, as part of their animal topic. Year 3 visited the Seven Sisters Nature Reserve, as part of their Rocks and Soils science topic and had ‘Spy Glass’ visit the school for a talk and work shop about elephants. Year 4 visited Bignor Roman Villa and later enjoyed a fun packed Roman Day, where they dressed as Romans and experimented with mosaics. ‘Henry VIII’ also visited Year 4 as part of their Tudor topic and the children learnt about life in the Tudor Court. Year 5 had a splendid day at Preston Manor in Brighton, where they dressed up as Victorians and spent the day in character applying for jobs; baking in the kitchens; working as servants; and being Victorian school children. Year 6 experienced a World War 2 air raid at Newhaven Fort, where they were ushered into a shelter as sirens sounded and ‘bombs’ began to fall. To follow up on the visit, Year 6 dressed up for their WW2 day and enjoyed learning about evacuation from elderly members of the community recollecting their experiences of the war.

Osmington Bay, Year 6 residential trip, was a great success! The children bravely undertook various physical challenges including abseiling, tunnelling and quad biking, ending with a disco. 

Sport:
Over the year our girls and boys Football teams have enjoyed various tournaments and games against schools in the locality. In their P.E. lessons, Year 3 learnt Judo from a qualified instructor and Year 1 developed their multi-skills with a Schools Community Coach.

Community Links:
Bewbush action group have lent a hand and help us dig our science garden. Family Learning has also run successfully over the year on Computer Skills, Art and Literacy. The Year 6 children went to the Hawth and joined other Crawley school children as part of a Citizenship day, they also visited old people’s homes and entertained the residents with their singing. 

Our active School Council has met with our School Councils within our locality and have been involved in sharing ideas about what they’d like for the new adventure playground equipment for the playground in Bewbush.

The Lighthouse Group, a lunch time group run by Dave Jordan from the local church, has been attended by many children of all faiths.

SATS
We were very pleased with our children’s hard work towards their End of Key Stage 1 and End of Key Stage 2 SATs. On the whole our results were better than other schools in our locality and this is something we feel very proud about. In the future we will continue to build upon improvement and are now planning ways forward to bring our result more in line with County and National results. In particular we plan to have a whole school focus on maths to improve on our Level 4 results, and are developing the Science Curriculum in Key Stage 1.

Key Stage 1 Results    Level 2 +    Level 2B +    Level 3 +
Reading    79%    71%    36%
Writing    75%    36%    4%
Maths    89%    82%    21%
Science    71%        0%

Key Stage 2 Results    Level 4 +    Level 5 +
Reading    85%    40%
Writing    71%    13%
English    83%    25%
Maths    67%    29%
English & Maths    63%    15%
Science    83%    31%

One of our Year 6 children has been awarded a place at Christ's Hospital School in Horsham and another, a scholarship with Notre Dame in Lingfield.

Improvements in Process
Over the course of this academic year, Waterfield has seen some considerable developments. We have finally obtained extra land beyond the huts, which over the Summer break will be transformed into a grass football/sports pitch. Interactive whiteboards have been installed in Nursery and Reception classes, which the children are enjoying and learning to use for their learning and play. Playground monitors are being trained to act as mediators and set up games/play, which will continue into the next academic year to support those children that are less confident. Our playground has also benefitted from new designs and markings.

We are delighted to say that Waterfield has been among the first schools in Crawley to have a new Kitchen in school for hot school dinners.

Our teachers have had the opportunity to work alongside various county advisors to enhance their skills and develop the curriculum further.  

At Waterfield we consistently strive to improve standards across the curriculum and value our partnership with parents. We operate a successful open door policy and you are always welcome to visit and talk with staff.