Mr Choueke’s Newsletter – July 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

With the end of the academic year fast approaching, I am writing to inform you about staffing for September 2022.

Firstly, I would like to say that I am very proud of all the work and learning that has taken place this year and how enthusiastic and positive the staff team and children have remained, even when there have had to be changes, often last minute, due to ongoing issues with Covid. After the success of the wonderful summer fair, which was such a busy and vibrant coming together of the school community, I was very sorry not to be able to be at Sports Day this year, due to having Covid. I have heard many great reports about how good it was, and I would like to thank the staff for working so hard to ensure it was an enjoyable day. I am so pleased that, this year, we have been able to hold these community events; feeling a part of our friendly, respectful and caring school community is a big part of what makes Coleridge the special place it is.

As always, our staff team have been incredible; they have worked diligently throughout the year ensuring that our children learn, feel safe and love being in school. It has been a challenging year at times, with Covid often getting in our way, I cannot thank them enough for what they have done.

Curriculum – historically and currently, we have always prided ourselves on the creativity within our curriculum. I have been especially pleased with the progress we have made developing the curriculum this year; conversations with the children highlight how much they have enjoyed their learning, in particular children spoke very highly of their new history topics, art and PE. This year, we have worked diligently to enhance our music offer. Teachers throughout the year participated in a number of training sessions, all Year 3 children had an opportunity to learn the ukulele, and there have been numerous concerts for children to enjoy. Earlier this week, our orchestra and choir performed the most incredible concert for the rest of the school and their parents. Highlights from the concert will be available on our website. We also have a special Cultures of Coleridge assembly tomorrow afternoon, when year groups will be singing songs from a variety of countries.

Parent meetings – from next academic year, we will be trialling a hybrid format for Parent Consultations. This will involve a mix of SchoolCloud appointments and some in person meetings, with the aim of offering the most appropriate format for parents and staff. There will also be other opportunities for parents to visit their child’s classroom and attend curriculum workshops, talks and events.

Staff plan – we have now finalised the staff plan, and your child’s class teacher will be telling the class who their new teacher(s) will be in September. The Senior Leadership Team, in conjunction with the teaching staff, spend a lot of time looking at the classes, the children and the dynamics of the different classes, when deciding which teachers and teaching assistants to allocate.

Job-sharing – with more staff requesting flexible working and some necessary changes to the leadership team, we have more staff who are job-sharing. For class teachers, the model is highly effective, both teachers work collaboratively, have excellent communication channels, have a handover each Wednesday and both attend year team planning meetings. Their expectations and teaching strategies are consistent and aligned.

Rainbow Class was opened last September, and has been a real success; we will be continuing to offer this provision next year, as it enables us to offer a robust and sustainable model of SEND support moving into the future. We will also continue with the model of having a SEND TA and an Intervention TA attached to each year group. The SEND TAs support EHCP children, and other children with additional needs, within their year group. The Intervention TAs run a variety of interventions within the year group, tailored to the needs of each year group cohort.

This year’s, ‘meet the teacher’ session, when children will go to their new classroom to meet their new teacher, is on Friday 15th July during the afternoon. For classes where the teacher isn’t in school that day, this will be arranged for a different day.

To those families and children who are leaving us, either because your child is in Year 6 or you have decided to relocate, we wish you all the very best for the future and we will miss you.

Update on other staffing

We have appointed three new teachers, Phoebe Soteriades, Emma Nashaat and Grace Ludlow; Elma Balkwill is also returning to teach at Coleridge on a part-time basis. We hope they will be very happy with us at Coleridge and we are looking forward to welcoming them here. We’re pleased to say that Matt Skrein will no longer be leaving, but he will be teaching in Year 1 with Lizzie Davies for the first half term, until Rebecca Godfrey returns from maternity leave. We are also pleased that support staff Alisha Williams and Sissily Waite will be continuing to work with us at Coleridge, next year.

Amy Bridgman, who has worked here as a teaching assistant and an art teacher, will be leaving at the end of this term to pursue her new career as a design and technology teacher. We will miss Amy and wish her the best of luck. Dee Atkin, who has worked in the nursery’s extended day provision, will be retiring at the end of term; we wish Dee a wonderful retirement, we will miss her.

Isabel Richert will be working part-time from September; therefore Gemma Curtis will become our other part-time art teacher and Davorka Andjelic will be teaching art one day a week in Year 1.

Simon Shiel will be still be working full-time, but only teaching a class part-time, as he will continue his work on the wider curriculum. Kirstie Henry will be the new Well-being Lead practitioner; therefore, she will also be teaching a class part-time.

The full staff structure will be shared in September with an overview of Senior Leadership Team roles, middle leadership structure, admin team, ICT manager and site team.

Although there maybe a little bit of sadness about leaving their current year group, I am sure the children are looking forward to moving into their new classroom and year group.

If I don’t see you before the end of term, I would like to thank you for all your support this year and wish you a wonderful summer break.

Yours sincerely,
Leon Choueke.

Click here to see next year’s Teacher Plan
Click here to see next year’s Support Staff Plan