The time is probably about right (ish!!) to return to plans for next year! Here is how the school will be structured and a low down of who will be teaching who….We’ll hopefully have a lot of laughs, make a few mistakes of course, but get most things spot on to the benefit of all, enjoy ourselves and thrive.
There is a change to the structure of the school in the junior year groups next year. As we continue our journey on the road to becoming a full one and a half form entry school, we still have classes with numbers of 40 and below. This is the reason for the change in structure next year... accordingly, next year the mixed year 3/4 class will be replaced with a straight year 4 class. The full structure of the classes, teachers and classroom bases are found below.
Classes 1 & 2 45 Reception kids—our new children. Welcome!
Siobhan Horder and Louise Darlington (Assistant Head for assessment) will be teaching you and you will be located in the current reception base. Although 2 classes, they will very much work as one!
Class 3 30 Year 1 Children - Rachel Smith. Located in the green room along the promenade. As the year begins Rachel will be on maternity leave as she expects her second baby - massive congratulations to Rachel. Therefore, for the duration of Rachel's maternity leave class 3 will be taught by Anne Fothergill and Karen Barclay. Anne and Karen have worked wonderfully together teaching the current class 5 as Nic Cook has been on maternity leave and I have no doubt they will do an equally stunning job in Year 1 until Rachel's return.
Class 4 30 kids Year 1/2 Children (15 of each) (See below for more info) Emma Smith (am) and Jenny Leap (pm) will be teaching you in the orange room based along the promenade.
Class 5 28 Year 2 kids One of our newly appointed teachers Mark Holmes will be teaching you and you will be based in the promenade purple room.
Class 6 32 Year 3 kids Another one of our new teachers, Clare Dugdale, will be teaching you. You will be located in the promenade blue room.
Class 7 Year 3/4 kids (14 year 3 , 15 year 4 kids) Angela Makepeace will be teaching you and you will be located in Angela's current classroom upstairs.
Class 8 30 Year 4 kids Tom Norris will be teaching you. You will be located in Beth Makinson's current classroom.
Class 9 35 Year 5 kids - Charlotte Brown will be teaching you. You will be upstairs in Mr Horne's current classroom.
Class 10 20 Year 6 kids You will be taught by Georgina Berry and she is staying in her current classroom.
And finally Class 11 Rob Horne will be the other 19 year 6 Kids and you will be based in Charlotte's current classroom along the promenade. Again, as with reception, although year 6 are in two classes they will very much work as one for the majority of the time.
Naomi Harrison will continue working 3 days at St George’s and 1 day at Mossy Lea. Michelle Yates, and Nic Cook upon her return, will be leading us on the COVID catch up plan across school. Rachel Smith has done a brilliant job plugging the COVID gaps with the current reception and year 1 children this year and will continue to do so until summer. From September Michelle will predominantly be focusing on next year's year 3, 4 and 5 children. The beauty of having two smaller year 6 classes is we can plug the COVID gaps within the year 6 staff team with one class teacher running interventions as the other one teaches.
As a result, all the children in school will have accessed the COVID catch up at some point but don't worry - this is a two-year plan (at least) and the plan will evolve and change as time goes by depending on what the needs of the children are.
Questions regarding school structure
Let me go into a little more detail about the class organising—I’ll try and pre-empt your thoughts.
Questions normally surround mixed aged classes, and friendship groups. Firstly, let me reassure you, mixed aged classes are normal. St George’s has always had them—always. No child is advanced a year. No child is held back a year. The work will not be harder in one class, or easier in another. Every child will cover their age appropriate curriculum. Mixed aged classes will be much easier to manage now….. We’re up to year 3 being full at 45, our new admission number, which means that kids now, up to year 3 are grouped into mini groups of 15. This mean that even though they rotate around a bit, it also means that they have the security of always being with the same group of 15 kids. This way kids get the best of both worlds…. They find their security and confidence from being with the same 15, yet over the years make great friends with all 45 kids in their year group, and that gives them oodles of confidence for when they move onto high school. I often get we asked how we organise the mini groups of 15. We do this in reception. It‘s purely based on age. Nothing else. Occasionally, if needed we will adjust the groups if for example there isn’t an appropriate proportion of boys and girls. And when necessary we take into account parent requests. Please note we only take this into account for exceptional circumstances i.e. circumstances that are particular to a particular child, rather than parents requests for friendship groups. If we did the latter, we would potentially lose the overall belief of a random group of kids… it would become selective. And that’s not right.
My 2nd main point, is that of friendship groups. Over 2 years children will be with every child in the year group, so they will meet everyone. Furthermore, if the COVID road map goes ahead as planned, by September, kids will have break time, lunch with everyone from their class, and key stage, go on trips with them, and indeed will probably have maths with them etc…. So they are not separate. Not at all. Of course, during lessons, the kids may not be with their “best friends” - but very often this term is used because parents are “friends” and the reality of it is, the kids don’t play together at school, it’s just that the parents want them to! That said, we do ensure that children are with their friends in school—I don’t want any kids to lose the confidence that having a friend brings, but it is also good for children to mix with all children in their 45…. Having a social circle of 45 is far better than a social circle of 1 or 2…. So please don’t worry if your child isn’t always with their “best friends” of the time—they have plenty of time to be with them I promise!
We will try and get the information regarding which class your child is in to you this week. However, with things being as they are, it might roll over into next...
