The following is the Annual Report given by Nick King (Headteacher) on 11th April 2022
“Over the last two years the staff and wider school community have risen admirably to the challenges presented by the pandemic. At the time of writing, school life is pretty much back to normal. Essentially the experience for the children since September has been fairly untroubled by Covid, except of course when the children themselves have had had it, or when their teacher or the wider class team have been sick.
We have had peaks and troughs with this – arguably our most challenging time staffing wise occurred in the weeks before this Easter break. We look forward to more settled Summer Term as regards staff and pupil sickness.
The school roll is now 420 and we remain popular with an intake of 60 anticipated in September. This is effectively our capacity. Growth in the future is not anticipated.
We are very far from the time when legend has it the entire school could fit on to one coach. Indeed, one of our staff reckons this may have occurred as relatively recently as 30 years ago. Drop off and pick up times continue to prove problematic from a parking and congestion point of view. We have staggered slightly these parts of the day and hopefully this does have some impact.
The police have attended from time to time to re-inforce sensible parking practice, and we are in touch with them when we need to be.
Whilst the overall staff has grown – in keeping with growth in roll – we have seen very good staff retention. This is very useful in ensuring standards remain high, behaviour good and practice consistent.
The governing body has continued to provide invaluable support to the leadership of the school. They have been worried about low governor numbers, but happily, two new governors with much experience have recently been co-opted on.
Since I last wrote a report to you (2019) our Early Year Foundation Stage have grown to love life in their new, purpose built classrooms. It has provided them with a gentle start to school life, away from the relative hustle and bustle of the main school. We feel it offers a good half-way house between pre-school and the national curriculum that, for them, starts in Year 1.
I note in my last report to you in that we had made use of the Church for Christmas and Easter services. It is our intention that these return next academic year, with a Christingle for the younger children – an event to look forward to. Sports, arts and cultural activities have continued to take place throughout the year.
Highlights since my last report have included:
- · The continuing success of the Children’s University at Scarning.
- · 47 external sports events scheduled to have been completed by the end of the year
- · ‘Inspire Days’ based around a variety of themes e.g. ‘Comedy’ and ‘The Jubilee’
·Our re-vamped curriculum delivering a broad and balanced curriculum to the children with many exciting features e.g. Forest School for Reception, the Key Stage 2 Lecture programme The school has continued to enjoy great support from the Secker Trust. During the pandemic they supported us in many ways e.g. funding extra lap-tops for children who did not have access. Finally, despite the trials and tribulations of recent times, it remains an absolute pleasure to lead the school, as well as to work within the welcoming and supportive community of Scarning.”
Nick King, Headteacher
head@scarning.norfolk.sch.uk
