Ofsted January 2019 said
The Headteacher and the Governors have ensured that safeguarding processes and procedures meet requirements. The Headteacher and the Governors have targeted Pupil Premium funding to ensure that pupils have effective support in class.
Mrs Tricia Waller, our Chair of Governors, is currently looking for more members of our Governing Board. Please see the video below if you are interested in joining us.
Message from the Chair of Governors
I think I can safely say that when I wrote last year’s report in summer 2020, no one believed that in the coming school year we would be experiencing two more lockdowns and the continued disruption to life that the on-going Covid 19 restrictions have placed on us all. The pandemic has intensified existing workload and wellbeing issues for our school community and led to new pressures and daily challenges for everyone.
Our school leadership has had to deal with the new day-to-day logistics of Covid testing and reporting, providing cover for short-notice staff absence due to need to isolate, dividing the whole school community into “bubbles”, the need for increased daily and weekly hygiene and cleaning routines and instituting staggered drop-off and collection times.
Our teaching staff have had to re-plan and adapt lessons for the classroom and home learning, adapt to new ways of teaching through video clips and using virtual meetings, provide support to parents and families with home learning and give feedback and assistance when needed, assess and re-assess pupils after each lockdown in order to identify learning gaps and then provide tailored teaching to close those gaps, give support SEN pupils without the help of visits from external agencies and all the while continue to ensure the safeguarding of our children is given the highest priority.
The Governors, many of whom are also parents of school-age children, have been inspired and humbled by the concerted efforts of our school’s parents and families. You have devoted time and effort to support your children’s home learning, while many of you have juggled full-time working from home as well. We thank you for the enormous contributions you have made over these past eighteen months and the ways in which you have worked with the school to help our children to continue to enjoy learning and grow as confident, creative individuals.
Throughout all of this, our Headteacher, Mrs Futers has shown great fortitude and sensitivity in leading her staff through the issues this year has thrown at them, while tackling each challenge with her customary ingenuity and creativity. Teachers, teaching assistants, meal-time supervisors, premises and office staff – in fact our whole school community, has pulled together as a team to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our children in these uncertain times and have worked hard to give them the best learning experiences possible. We are so proud of them all.
My fellow Governors and I have greatly missed being able to visit the school and engage with the children and staff. We hope that in the coming year restrictions will ease sufficiently so that we will be able to once again join the children in experiencing the buzz of learning in the classroom, the laughter at playtime and the thrill of their creativity and anticipation of new experiences. That is what makes the role of being a Governor so rewarding!
I wish you all happy, healthy and safe summer
Tricia Waller
Chair of Governors
July 2021
If you would like to be a governor, or have a concern or a point of view to share please let us know. We can be contacted via the School Office or by email at office@dereham.norfolk.sch.uk.
