Tel: 02920 807070 | Email: CwrtRawlinPrimary@sch.caerphilly.gov.uk
Cwrt Rawlin Primary School
Headteacher: Mrs T Lloyd BEd Hons NPQH
Our School: Learning & Teaching
Reporting to Parents
In the autumn and spring terms you will be invited to discuss your child’s progress with individual class teachers. In the summer term you are invited to view your child's work at an informal open evening.
An annual written report is sent out to all parents in July, together with teacher assessment levels at the end of Year 2 and 6. Each child in Year 2–6 will undertake national literacy and numeracy tests in May of each year. The reports from these will be sent out to parents in the late summer term.
If you feel your child has any problems whatsoever that are likely to affect his/her life in school, please contact us immediately rather than wait for a parents' evening to discuss the problem. Serious matters of concern should be referred to the Headteacher immediately.
Communication with Parents
Monthly newsletters are emailed or sent home to keep you informed of events in school. The latest newsletter is available to download from the Home Page and previous editions can be downloaded from the Newsletter page.
In addition, the Teachers2Parents texting and email system ensures parents can receive information electronically.
Please ensure we have up to date contact details for you at all times.
Children make progress in learning more effectively when there is continuity of teaching between year groups and key stages. In Cwrt Rawlin, common principles and approaches exist for the following:
Learning and Teaching
Teachers take considerable care to ensure that they achieve a sensible balance between teaching children as a whole class, teaching them in small groups and teaching them individually. They choose the teaching style to fit the purpose of what is being taught and to meet the learning needs of the children. A combination of direct and indirect techniques are used to foster children's learning so that they have opportunities to learn through investigation and exploration, as well as through receiving instructions.
When appropriate, demonstrations by the teacher and children are used to illustrate ideas or concepts, and to reinforce particular teaching points. Children’s demonstrations are often used to develop their evaluation skills especially in physical education. Teachers intervene at strategic stages in lessons to make essential teaching points, to keep children focused on their work and to maintain a suitably brisk pace to the learning. At all times, children are given clear instructions of what is expected of them, especially to help them understand the quality and quantity of work expected to be completed by certain deadlines.
In addition to using talk as a medium for teaching, teachers give careful consideration to making appropriate use of books, a range of IT equipment, visits, first hand experiences and tasks that require children to handle materials. These strategies and techniques help ensure that teaching is varied and enriching. Through systematic monitoring of the work in their classes, teachers know when to intervene and when to allow children to work on their own.
Classroom organisation
Space, furniture, resources and materials are organised to ensure that the three broad styles of whole class, group and individual teaching take place efficiently and effectively. Great care is taken to present and display children’s work attractively.
At the summer term parents' evening, teachers share the information about the class that their child will be in for the following year. Due to the admission number of 46 and financial constraints, there are a number of mixed age classes within the school, which has many positive effects upon social and academic progress.
Pupil groupings and group work
Various grouping strategies are used to organise teaching and learning. A good balance is achieved between children learning as a whole class, as small groups and as individuals. When children work together in pairs or small groups they do so collaboratively.
Testing and Assessments
Most of the assessment undertaken by the school is teacher assessment of the child. This is recorded in a range of ways and is developed by the Authority and the school, and held in teacher’s folders. Also held is a sample of the child's work as she or he develops in their own assessment folder. This information ensures progression through the school.
When a child enters school in Nursery, we undertake the LA recommended Baseline Assessment, directed by Welsh Assembly. This enables us to provide a clear picture of each child’s abilities as they enter school. The school adopts the approach of “Assessment for Learning” and encourages the child and teacher to work in partnership to improve learning and teaching opportunities.
The school is developing procedures to reinforce peer and self-assessment from Foundation Phase to Year 6. The school has two tracking systems in place which allow the school to identify progress on a termly basis and also identify areas for improvement for each child. National maths and reading tests are done annually for all years from Year 2 to Year 6 and non-verbal intelligence tests from Year 2 to Year 6. These enable the school to form profiles of each child and of the year group. This information is passed to the Local Authority.
In addition to this, we administer the SWST spelling test twice/three times in the year to gauge progression. Subsequently, parents are informed of their child’s results. At the end of Year 6 and Year 2 progress in English, Maths and Science in KS2 and Language Literacy and Communication, Mathematical Development and Personal Social Development, Wellbeing and Cultural Diversity is assessed and reported upon to the Local Authority.