Governors

We are very fortunate to have an enthusiastic and highly committed Governing Body who take a keen interest in all aspects of school life. Governors are drawn from the local community, parents of children at the school, the LEA and from the staff.

At present, there are 11 members of the Governing Body:

Mr Peter Vernon, Chair (Parent Governor) Tel: 01756 730606

Mr Phil Dukes (Community Governor)

Mr Andrew Fortune (Parent Governor)

Mr Jonathan Haggas (Foundation Governor)

Mrs Susan Hirst (Staff Governor)

Dr Sara Humphrey (Parent Governor)

Mrs Margaret Lancaster (LEA Governor)

Mr Jonathan Padgett (Community Governor)

Dr Jinous Tahmassebi (Parent Governor)

Mrs Margaret Taylor (Headteacher)

Rev. Thomas Wharton (Foundation Governor)

Here are some recent Governor Visit Reports:

Governor Visit to Cracoe and Rylstone Primary School on 14th November 2007 by Dr Sara Humphrey

Following a wonderful day visiting the school recently, I feel privileged to have children who attend the school. In summary the children were well behaved and the teaching excellent. The school was bright with fantastic and motivational displays of the children’s work and some very good resources. The children are encouraged to do their best and also supported to think of others with charity work.

(1) Behaviour

-The children were well behaved and all the teachers maintained an appropriate learning environment with good discipline.
-The discipline while good was not excessive and small misdemeanours were appropriately overlooked, which allowed children to challenge and stretch their development with out fear of reprisal.
-Teachers allowed some levity when appropriate to lighten the moment, which again encourages children to try their best with out undue discouragement.
-Good concentration was evident and insisted upon in all the lessons I attended.
-Good behaviour was rewarded and praised and teachers made good use of the house point system.
-The house point system was well developed and children were pleased to gain rewards and they were all clearly motivated to do their best.
-Children were encouraged to be self reliant and responsible for homework
-During the lunch break the older children were encouraged to be responsible and served and supervised meals for the younger children while supported by teaching and lunch time staff.

(2) School Environment and Resources

-There were some excellent displays of the children’s work on the walls which were bright, engaging and current. The school seemed to make an attempt to display different children’s work and to be inclusive to all.
-There were also displays of imaginative words, current topic resources, as well as motivational sayings.
-The school seemed to have some good resources with up to date computers, library books, group reading texts, and posters.
-The children were encouraged to use resources well and there was good evidence of care for the environment with recycling of used paper and the use of reusable white boards for maths work.
-The school has recently expanded but as always the school could do with more space. It would be lovely to have a quiet area for reading but I suspect this is really is not going to be achieved in the near future.
-The school seems to motivate children to think of others and there was good evidence of children taking part in charity work for the Children in Need fund raising appeal. Alot the ideas and execution of plans seems to come from the children themselves but were well supported by staff.
-My only negative comments of the day centre around some untidiness and clutter in the cloak rooms and the lack of storage up in the computer suite. I wonder if it is worth the school council addressing the cloak room issues while the lack of storage is more difficult to sort out.

(3) Teaching

-The teaching was excellent despite mixed aged groups.
-The mixed aged groups were actually used to advantage with the group reading so that children were reading with children of similar ability rather than age.
-There was excellent time management on the day I attended the school with every moment of each class used to maximum advantage.
-All the classes I attended were well structured but at the same time in Art the children were allowed choice in choosing art projects and a less structured setting, which is an excellent way to increase engagement of pupils and to allow imagination a free rein
-There was excellent use of support assistants in several classes, which allowed the teacher to divide their time very effectively between the different age groups.
-All the support assistants appeared to function at a high level and seemed more than competent in assisting the teaching staff.
-The children were pushed to try their best in a very supportive setting.
-There was clear evidence of good verbal and written feedback and encouragement with regards written work in literacy, science and history
-The school seemed to welcome support from parents and used this support appropriately as an extra and useful resource.
-The school very interestingly used topic themes through several classes. For example this terms history Topic in both Key Stage 1&2 was the Victorians. This topic was used to inspire art work, in music to produce a Play and in literacy to write the play. It seemed a very good way for children to get a really good feel and in depth knowledge of the subject.

(4) Children with Special Educational Needs

-The children appeared well supported and there was evidence of regular teacher assessment, which was used to provide a supportive educational framework for each child.
-There was evidence of an educational plan for each child and regular feedback to the support services.

-Extra time was found through the day to provide time for assessment and extra teaching. The children were made to feel special rather than signalled out when these extra sessions took place.
-Teachers made good use of their mixed aged classes to allow children to be taught with others of a similar ability. This worked especially well with children who needed extra support but also with children at the other end of the ability range
-The special needs register was used as a tool to provide support for several children who had very focused problems.
-There was good evidence of questions aimed at children of lower ability which were answered and praised appropriately, which was clearly a good way for children to gain confidence and feel valued.

(5) Gifted and Talented Children

-Though there are no children that clearly fit in to this group the school seems to cater very well for children at the top of the ability spectrum
-Mixed age groups were used to great advantage to stretch those children of ability.
-There was evidence of children with special ability in one subject actually being taught with children in the next mixed age group up. This must have been very difficult to organise logistically and shows the school commitment to this group of children.
-There was evidence that talented children were stretched in several classes and was particularly evident in the Maths class in Key Stage 2 that I attended.
-Teaching seemed well structured and several teachers had questions and resources ready for children who finished tasks early or who needed stretching to do their best

In summary I think the school clearly ‘lives out’ it ethos as a Christian environment full filling its aims that are clearly laid out in our Aims and Vision Statement. It is a school community which allows children to enjoy learning and helps them to become independent, self discipline and self motivated learners, striving to reach their full potential. She children and staff care for one another and understand the society in which we live and their obligations towards it. It is a privilege to be a governor at the school

Governor Visit to Cracoe and Rylstone School by Margaret Lancaster : 21st April 2008

Although it was a grey, dull morning I could see the children arriving smiling in the Car Park, no Monday morning blues or sad farewells to parents but eager to be inside and ready for what the day had to offer.

Assembly was taken by Rev. Thomas Wharton, a story about Stan, Fran and Sam. These names immediately appealed to the children. The children listened well and were involved in the story. A prayer and a new song ended a valued time of worship.

Literacy with Mr Baines was obviously a special time, homework carefully explained and then the exciting part; a continuation of a Dick King-Smith story. This was enjoyed by all. Later the children told me about the book and the characters.

An effective way for learning tables was shown to me by Mrs Taylor and her group of Y3 and 4s. Fractions followed, folding strips of paper into quarters and eighths. This was explained thoroughly and then the children happily set to work. Everyone on task, carefully planned and challenges set for the more able.

Foundation/Key Stage 1 enjoyed answering the register in a variety of languages. Then concentrating on spelling with a range of different activities worked well. Y2 wrote sentences including their spellings. They worked unaided, needing no prompting.

Mrs Benson had divided her group into story writing and outside play. This worked extremely well. How did Foundation/Key Stage 1 manage before the extension was built?

I had a most enjoyable morning in school. The children were polite, friendly and very well-behaved. They clearly enjoyed their work.

It is evident how hard the staff work, and how much they care for their pupils.

As always, school was bright and cheerful, with the children’s work displayed to full advantage.

Thank you for a lovely morning.

Margaret Lancaster

Governor’s Inspection Report

Governor Visit by Chair of Governors Peter Vernon: Thursday 25th September 2008

I arrived at Cracoe School on one of this autumn’s rare sunny days to be welcomed with a smile by the school’s new secretary.

It is very easy to take the new school office for granted, because it looks so well arranged, but it is not so long ago that it was in a vestibule entrance, and is a good example of how the recent improvements and extension have enhanced the school’s physical ability to deliver high quality education.

I started my day in the Infants/Key Stage 1 (KS1) Class with Mrs Hirst.

The morning began with register, but rather than the usual response of ‘here Mrs Hirst’ they each responded in different languages!

This was followed by School Assembly joining with the Key Stage 2 (KS2) children.

The Year 6 (eldest) children were away from School on the annual York residential course (including visits to the Yorvic Centre, Railway Museum, York Eye, Murton Park, Viking Workshop etc), staying at the International Youth Hostel with the other Cluster Y6’s.

On this day, Mr Green took assembly with prayers and hymns, and an opportunity for one of the pupils that had made a model dinosaur skeleton to show this to the other children - the Children were very impressed. One of the Year 1 pupils even correctly identified the type of dinosaur - Mr Green & I were very impressed.

Following assembly, I returned with the children to the KS1 classroom.

Here lessons began with all the children using individual marker boards to spell out words that the teacher read out. This was then followed by the teacher setting the morning’s work, which was for the children to write up instructions to tell someone how to make a scary face mask. This task made the children learn various things, from spelling, writing sentences, planning what they where going to do, and the order in which they were going to do it, yet also encourage them to be creative.

The children had to work with partners, and illustrated very well how through careful partnering the teacher is able to ‘stretch’ each child’s progress according to ability and not just age. Doing this in a small class where the teacher knows each child’s ability means that progress can be individually maximised and personally planned.

Lunch was taken with the children, and following a short prayer, I was ‘served’ by the allocated servers on each table. It is still very impressive to see children of such young age caring and helping others.

The afternoon allowed me to spend time with the KS2 teacher, Mr Baines. His class were taking a comprehension class. This saw passages of English being read, understood, and questioned, before being turned into poems that pupils had to type out on the school computers under the assistance of the Teaching Assistant.

Again, a highly personal education seemed to be enjoyed by the class, and included great variety.

Spending time in the KS2 classroom gave me more time than usual to look at the wall displays of students work. I was particularly impressed by the studies that the pupils had made of David Hockney art including pictures, and photograph murals. Some of these were of a very high standard.

The behaviour of the pupils was very good.

This years intake of infants is two girls (compared to a cohort of 12 children last year), who the Teaching Assistant took for the whole morning. Whilst looking after two children may be more demanding (intensive) on the Teaching Assistant, it would suggest that they are children that will benefit from a quality of personal education that money couldn’t otherwise buy.

In terms of opportunity to improve, one of the computers didn’t seem to be able to print to the network printer, so needs looking at.

Thank you to the teachers, teaching assistants and staff.

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