Newsletter 5

Cheshire Academies Trust

Spring Term 2015

Good Things Grow Here

This is the last newsletter for the Spring term and it is an absolute pleasure to share with you school events that
strongly evidence our uncompromising and highly successful drive to maintain the highest standards of
achievement and personal development for our pupils.

Artsmark Gold
We are extremely proud to inform you that we have been recognised as
demonstrating excellence in arts and cultural provision through external
accreditation by Trinity College London. Artsmark is Arts Council Englands
flagship programme to enable schools and other organisations to evaluate,
strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision. It contributes to the
cultural aspect of Ofsteds requirement that a school promotes students
spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
The highest award Artsmark Gold has been awarded to our school until July
2017 and the full report by the assessor can be viewed on the school website.
Below is an extract from the report.
There is a culture of encouragement and support of the pupils in their artistic expression and this
produces an enjoyment and high standard of work and thinking around the arts subjects. The Arts
are clearly central to the schools work with the pupils. The staff are passionate and excited about the
possibilities of the arts in their teaching and the impact this can have for the wider community.
The students also have an almost tangible love for the arts and enthusiasm for learning and selfexpression through the arts. They also display a confidence and pride in their achievements. The Head
and staff team demonstrate an exemplary commitment to developing the arts in all forms as a powerful,
dynamic approach to teaching and learning across all areas of the curriculum, and a deep rooted
understanding of how the arts are a highly effective tool for developing the whole child and those with
additional needs.
Your pupils are your best advocates and they spoke with confidence about the opportunities, facilities
and resources that you provide and most importantly the inspirational teaching practice that they receive.
The arts are championed at the highest level and this is of significance as it promotes succession
planning and sustains and develops the arts to a high level of ambition.

Big Kitchen Garden Clean Up

Thank you to all our families and staff who helped tidy up the kitchen
garden last Saturday. Your support and time is very much appreciated.

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Comic Relief 2015

On Friday 13 March Mill View Primary School raised an amazing 757 by getting
funny for money. Please look at your childs class blog to see how the money
was raised and what fun we had!
Thank you everyone!

Key Stage 1 Musical

Our children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are busy learning songs for their
musical Tattybogle. The musical is about a scarecrow called Tattybogle who has
a head full of straw and cheerful thoughts. The rain is his music, the birds and
animals his friends and the wind is his dancing partner. Nothing gets him down;
he loves everything even the crows!
Then one day the Autumn wind is so strong that Tattybogle is blown to pieces.
All that is left of him is an old stick, but he never loses hope. Spring turns out to be the start of a glorious new
life for him as his stick takes root and he becomes a tree!
There are two performances on Wednesday 06 May 2015 - 1.45pm and 6pm.

Young Voices 2015

On Thursday 05 March it was an absolute pleasure to accompany Miss Cottrell,
Mrs Batchelor, Miss Fray and our wonderful school choir to Manchester. The
school choir has been practicing since September to take part in one of the most
exciting and memorable musical experiences that I have ever been part of. There
were over 7000 children singing in harmony and performing with a full live band,
backing singers and the internationally acclaimed conductor David Lawrence.
Thank you to all the parents who supported the event. If you wish to listen to
over 7000 children singing in harmony then click onto www.youngvoices.co.uk
and see if you can spot the Mill View banner.
Our school choir also performed for the Artsmark assessor who was a music
specialist. He was very impressed with the high standard in singing and
performance by the children. We are extremely fortunate to have two outstanding
music teachers Mrs Batchelor and Miss Cottrell in our school.

School Values
Throughout March our children have explored the Value of Happiness together.
Mrs McCrimmon and Mrs Gibbons launched the Happiness Value together in
assembly and challenged the children to consider what happiness is, how we can
make ourselves happy and how we help to make others happy, too. Each Monday
two members of staff have led the whole school through a Values assembly to
challenge our perceptions of Happiness. These have included a focus on the work
of Comic Relief which the children thoroughly enjoyed supporting a few weeks
ago!
Next week in assembly Mrs McCrimmon will show examples of the Happiness work the children have completed
in their classes.
Please look on the Happiness forum on the Whole school community section of our website. Here staff and
children have shared examples of things that have made them happy this month. It is lovely to read! Why not
talk to your child about the Happiness work they have explored in class?
Our next Value will be Thoughtfulness and will be explored through the months of April and May. We look
forward to sharing our progress with you.

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School Strategic Development Plan 2015

The school development plan consists of six key

improvement priorities which were agreed with staff
and governors following an analysis of school
achievement data and an evaluation of the schools
current position.
The priorities for January 2015 to December 2015
are
Key Improvement Priority 1
To enable pupils to define and explore their
personal values and develop their emotional literacy
through a curriculum which actively promotes the
fundamental British Values (democracy, the rule of
law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance
of those with different faiths and belief
(Vice Chair of Finance)

Lead people Mrs Hetherington (British Values leader) & Mrs

Gibbons (Assistant Headteacher) and link governor Mrs Lloyd

Key Improvement Priority 2

To collaborate with MAT schools to forge personnel links, developing protocols and procedures to ensure
efficient and effective working practices in all 3 schools (management of the academy status)
Lead people Mrs Walters (Headteacher) and link governor Ms Connolly (Chair of Local Governing Body)

Key Improvement Priority 3

To devise and implement an effective assessment system to use pupil assessment information and data to
improve learning in the classroom and at key points of transition between key stages (Baseline; EY to Year 1;
Year 2 to Year 3)
Lead people Mrs Anderson (Assistant Headteacher) & Mrs Gibbons (Assistant Headteacher) and link governor Mrs Tudor (Chair of
Curriculum)

Key Improvement Priority 4

To support colleagues in identifying & overcoming barriers to learning for pupils with special educational needs
to ensure the pupils learning is consistently good or better
Lead people Mr Wilson (SENCo) and link governor Dr Edwards (Chair of Health & Safety)

Key Improvement Priority 5

To increase the rates of progress pupils make in writing and reading to ensure the proportion making more than
expected progress compares favourably with national data (across Key Stage 1 and 2)
Lead people Mrs Walters (Headteacher) and link governor Mr Heywood (Chair of Finance)

Key Improvement Priority 6

To improve the proportions of children who make at least typical or better progress in writing from their starting
points, including those with special educational needs and the more able.
Link people Mrs McCrimmon (Deputy Headteacher) and link governor Mrs White (Learning Mentor)

Safeguarding Update
Car Parking we have received many complaints from Upton Park residents regarding parents parking on the
private lane. The local police have been informed. Please could we request our families do not park on the
private lane?
Pupil Photographs photographs of pupils in school are not permitted to be taken without prior permission of
parents. Thank you for your cooperation in safeguarding all our pupils.
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Eclipse

Thank you to the PTA for purchasing the safety glasses enabling us all to see the eclipse last Friday. There are
lots of photographs on the school blogs but here are a couple

Diary Dates
Monday 30 to Tuesday 31 March Year 2 Residential to Foxhowl, Delamere Forest
Tuesday 25 March Environmental school officers to visit Newton Primary School
Monday 30 March to Wednesday 1 April Year 5 Residential to the Conway Centre
Thursday 02 April Choir to sing at Pinetum Nursing Home
Thursday 02 April Cake sale in aid of National Autistic Society
Thursday 02 April School closes for Easter holidays
Monday 20 April School opens for the Summer term
Monday 20 April Science workshop in Year 4
Friday 24 April Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service visit with Year 5
Monday 27 April School closed for staff INSET
Wednesday 06 May to Friday 08 May Year 4 residential to the Conway Centre
Monday 11 May to Thursday 14 May End of Key Stage 2 Tests for Year 6
Thursday 21 May Tempest to take Year 6 photographs for leavers books
Friday 22 May School closes for Whit break

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