Reaching high for the best for your child

A letter has recently gone out to all parents, partners and local residents regarding County Council plans to expand Fairlands to three forms of entry, commencing in September 2012. A copy of the letter can be found here.

Parents are encouraged to express their views regarding this proposal, using the online form which can be accessed by clicking here. Alternatively, you might like to complete a paper copy, click here, and hand it in to the school office.

More information about the expansion proposals can be found on the hertsdirect.org.uk website, by clicking here.

Welcome back to Fairlands! School starts tomorrow at usual time, so please make sure the children arrive promptly for 8.50am.

Our SEAL theme this term is 'Getting On and Falling Out' - time to think about how we get on with each other and how to work together positively. We will be focusing on this in assembly and the children will follow up this work back in their SEAL Buddy groups.

Season's Greetings to everyone at Fairlands and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

We trust you will all have a peaceful break and return safely to school on Wednesday 5th January!

We have just received the final, published version of our Ofsted inspection report and we are very pleased!

The overall outcome was satisfactory, with many good features. The new inspection framework, introduced in 2009, has 'raised the bar' and it is a great achievement to have sustained this overall judgement from when we were last inspected.

Pupils acknowledge the growing success of the school. One expressed the views of the overwhelming majority, saying, ‘We like this school - it helps us learn. We like all the lessons and the activities. We feel very safe in school; we know our teachers care for us.

Parents are positive about the school. One parent reflecting the views of many said, ‘Staff at this school are a very approachable and hard working team of people who really have the best interests of the pupils at heart. My child has jst finished two years in the Foundation Stage and has had a fantastic experience.’

Please take time to read the report carefully. There is so much to celebrate in the report about our wonderful school: indeed, the word 'GOOD' is mentioned 30 times, and there are some OUTSTANDING elements!! Click here to read the whole report, but I have drawn out the main strengths below:

The school has some good features, and the headteacher, senior leaders and governors are particularly successful in improving the Early Years Foundation Stage, links with parents and safety.

The headteacher and senior management team have a clear vision for its future improvement and have made many good changes in recent years.

The school ethos is friendly, warm and welcoming and relationships are good.

As a result of rigorous monitoring by senior leaders, teaching is improving rapidly and the proportion of lessons where progress is good is increasing.

A significant number of lessons observed during the inspection were of good quality.

Aspects of safeguarding are good because senior leaders rigorously ensure attention to detail. Parents appreciate the meticulous systems in place to keep their children safe.

Links with partners are good and contribute to the improving provision.

Pupils show good awareness of how to stay safe & healthy.

Curriculum enrichment is good and pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs and activities.

The provision for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage has improved dramatically in the last two years and is good with OUTSTANDING features.

Good progress was observed in a Year 6 literacy lesson, where high expectations, brisk pace and rigorous use of challenging questions ensured all groups of pupils made significant gains in understanding enabling them to compare and evaluate newspaper articles.

Links with parents are good.

The school has good capacity to improve further.

As you know, Ofsted inspectors visited us last Thursday and Friday and I am pleased to report that the inspection went very smoothly and successfully.

Thank you to all the teachers and staff who worked so hard to make it such a success – you were as brilliant as you always are! 

We will be able to give you more precise details when the full report is published on 18th November and we will be sending out a copy to all parents/carers in the school. Next month’s Parent Forum on 9th December will also be an opportunity to discuss the report, so do come along.

In the meantime, thank you to everyone who returned their questionnaires, and also to the large number of parents who came to meet the inspectors during the Friday coffee morning. They were very impressed at the turn-out, and thank you for the lovely things you said about us!

The Friends of Fairlands would like to thank everyone who attended our Pamper and Shopping evening on Friday 24th September!

It was a great night and we raised £148.00, so again thanks to everyone who helped and came out on a damp Friday evening to have an evening of girly pampering!

Look out for more FOFs events on the community pages...