Friday 25th April 2025
New research by the School Cuts coalition shows that the vast majority of schools – 76% of primary schools and 94% of secondary schools – will not be able to afford their costs next year. This follows the Government's remit letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) which recommended a 2.8% rise in teacher pay for 2025/26 but provided no new funding to cover this.
The government have admitted that most schools will not be able to cover the cost of staff pay rises next year but expect schools to make efficiencies. However, this research lays bare the scale of the problem with the majority of schools needing to make further cuts to balance their budgets.
Schools’ costs are expected to rise by 3.4% next year, but mainstream funding will increase by just 2.2%. This leaves a gap of £700million that the Government would need to increase school funding by to fully fund staff pay awards.
This cut in funding will see overall per pupil funding drop to the lowest levels in England in real terms for at least 15 years. Every local authority in the country will see a reduction in real terms per pupil funding, with an average cut of 1.2%.
The situation is particularly worrying given the current financial position of schools. In December 2024, the government published the accounts of local authority maintained schools for the financial year 2023-24. This showed that 1 in 7 schools are currently in deficit. This is an increase on the year before and the highest rate since at least 2010.
Fortunately we are not one of these schools. Our Finance Governors rigorously monitor our school budget and Mrs Hyde, and the whole school team, work tirelessly to keep costs low.
We continue to have some of the best educational outcomes nationally and to offer our children a rich and varied curriculum with a wide range of opportunities (a huge thank you to The Friends for funding much of this).
The governors and senior leadership team are working on classes for September 2025. Our primary aim is to have single year groups and as many teachers as we can possible afford.
We will be sending a letter home on Monday 30th June 2025 informing parents of their child’s new class and teacher.
Schools are certainly battling through some extremely challenging times.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 4th April 2025
‘One in five children has speech and language problems, according to almost half of primary school teachers.’
We have definitely seen a huge increase in this in our Early Years classes over the past few years.
Some 47% of 500 teachers surveyed said increased screen time was the cause while 58% said there was a decline in conversation at home.
89% thought that the situation had become worse since the pandemic and 76% said that parents are ‘often in denial’ about the extent of their child’s speech problems.
The YouGov survey commissioned by GL Assessment found it is making teaching more difficult for 92% of teachers, with the same proportion saying parents do not realise the impact on literacy:
“If children lack the ability to communicate effectively, every aspect of their school experience suffers.”
As a school we completely understand this research and agree that we must work closely with parents to ensure that all of our children can communicate effectively. This will help them with every area of the curriculum and life in general.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 28th March 2025
We are conscious that many of our children play games and use digital platforms.
Manipulative marketing in games has been highlighted as an issue for children.
Children’s online experiences increasingly intersect with potential financial and psychological risks. Manipulative marketing tactics are commonly employed in digital platforms, games and apps that target children. Understanding these tactics is crucial for safeguarding professionals and parents as they can lead to unauthorised spending, privacy breaches and impact on mental well being.
There are 3 important areas to consider: persuasive features (such as ‘dark patterns’; and variable rewards), subscription traps and produce placement. As digital safeguarding becomes increasingly complex, children need support to recognise and respond to manipulative online marketing strategies.
To learn more about this please visit:
https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/learning-corner/parents-and-caregivers/marketing-games
Catriona Williamson
Friday 21st March 2025
All of our children will have a visit from a Coram Life Education Specialist next week.
The governors have funded this input for many years now. The Life Education Bus used to come to school and the children had their specialist lesson inside the bus – which was very exciting and memorable for the children.
Sadly due to budget cuts the bus is no longer in operation and this is the last year that these specialists will be coming into schools. This is a huge loss to our children.
These PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, Economic) workshops are led by specialist educators and address children’s knowledge, skills attitudes and values. They have been created to meet children’s changing health and well being needs and all workshops support the DfE statutory requirements for RSHE (Relationship, Sex and Health Education) and are aligned with the National Curriculum.
Their approach is designed to give children a voice and for them to feel empowered, able to identify and articulate their feelings and needs, and enable them to make healthy choices. Harold, the healthy-living giraffe mascot, helps convey these messages to children in a magical, learning environment.
This is what the focus of the visit for each class:
BLUE – Bouncing Back
YELLOW – Taking Care of our Feelings
SILVER – Gratitude
GOLD – Acceptance
GREEN – Protecting Myself – Body and Mind
RED – The Brain, Calming the Busy Mind
PURPLE – Going for Goals.
We hope our children will experience fun, engaging and memorable workshops.
Mr Rich is on the ‘look out’ for organisations who might be able to provide these workshops for our children next year.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 14th March 2025
We are conscious that many of our children play games and use digital platforms.
Manipulative marketing in games has been highlighted as an issue for children.
Children’s online experiences increasingly intersect with potential financial and psychological risks. Manipulative marketing tactics are commonly employed in digital platforms, games and apps that target children. Understanding these tactics is crucial for safeguarding professionals and parents as they can lead to unauthorised spending, privacy breaches and impact on mental well being.
There are 3 important areas to consider: persuasive features (such as ‘dark patterns’; and variable rewards), subscription traps and produce placement. As digital safeguarding becomes increasingly complex, children need support to recognise and respond to manipulative online marketing strategies.
To learn more about this please visit:
https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/learning-corner/parents-and-caregivers/marketing-games
Catriona Williamson
Friday 7th March 2025
I wanted to use my message this week to update you on our catering.
Our aim this year has been to reduce food waste and as a consequence of this reduce costs, as our catering is running at a financial loss.
We have made tremendous progress with this with a significant reduction in food waste. We have done this by listening to the children and adjusting menus, reducing the amount of food for KS1 children – the younger ones were being ‘over-faced’ by what was on their plates and new serving arrangements for our KS2 children.
The staff and children are constantly talking to the children and observing how they are enjoying their meals. This then enables us to make even more little tweaks to improve our lunchtimes further.
One of our governors has been in to monitor lunchtimes. He was impressed with how calm lunchtime was.
We have a great team of staff producing and serving meals to our children. Mrs Gulliver cooks delicious and nutritious meals based on the National Food Standards. She spends hours planning menus and thinking about different meals that our children might enjoy.
We are also now cooking for the clients at the Mere Day Centre of 2 days/week.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 28th February 2025
“Parents are letting their children take Fridays off school for no reason because of casual attitudes towards attendance,” the Education Secretary has warned in a recent speech. She reminded parents of their responsibility and said that such absences impact the whole school community. She also noted that the pandemic had exacerbated the enormous challenge in terms of attendance.
Her comments are based on research by Bath University which found that absence rates are 17% higher on a Fridays in primary schools.
OFSTED are due to implement ‘report cards’ in their inspections shortly. These will rate schools on a 5-point scale across 9 areas and will be more rigorous and more demanding to raise the bar on school performance, particularly attendance.
Good attendance has always been a high priority at Mere School and our attendance rates are above school nationally for all groups of children. A huge thank you to our parents for supporting us with this. Our good attendance is key to our good outcomes.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 14th February 2025
Mere School is proud to be training teachers for the future.
We have welcomed and trained 2 Early Career Teachers in the last few years who are now integrated and valued members of our teaching team. We are currently training a Graduate Apprentice Teacher and have a student teacher working with us from Bath Spa University this term and another one next term. Two members of staff in our support team are also considering a teaching career and may well train with us in the near future.
We love having trainee teachers at Mere School. They are an integral part of our learning community. We are proud of our provision and it is important that we share our expertise and knowledge with the next generation of teachers. Mr Rich and Miss Santry in particular, dedicate many hours to supporting, encouraging and guiding our trainees.
There are many advantages to welcoming student teachers:
Mr Rich, Mrs Shannon, Miss Hanby and Miss Fletcher all completed part of their teacher training at Mere School and chose to return!
Our plan is to continue to ‘grow teachers’ for the teaching profession. It is a wonderful vocation which is highly recommended.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 7th February 2025
The Friends have had an incredible year so far raising a huge amount of money for our children. Thank you so much for your support.
This money is hard earned so it is really important that we have a plan to ensure we can use it for the benefit of all of our children.
The Friends have met to look at spending priorities. They have already paid for:
After their last meeting they have agreed to fund:
These are all things that our diminishing school budget cannot ‘stretch to’.
The Friends have already started planning the 2025 Fireworks Event on 8th November and have the following organised:
Non-School Uniform Day – Thursday 13th March 2025
Beetle Drive – Friday 14th March 2025
Disco – Friday 28th March 2025
Wine Tasting – Friday 25th April 2025
Sports Day refreshments – Friday 27th June or Friday 4th July
Disco – 11th July 2025.
Help at any time with any event is always appreciated. ‘Many hands make light work’!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 31st January 2025
We are back into the routines now with our weekly events all up and running – clubs have now started.
The Speech and Language team are coming in to school weekly to support some of our children.
An advisor from the Local Authority was in school on Tuesday morning to look at our French provision. They are looking to share our expertise across the county.
We were so grateful to The Friends who funded a hands-on science day for all of our children. This brings learning to life for our children.
I met with my cluster colleagues on Thursday morning and Green and Gold Classes had their final swimming session of the year on Friday.
We held our annual emergency drill and the children were so mature when responding to this.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 24th January 2025
During the Christmas break there was some excellent press coverage about our KS2 SATs outcomes.
Government figures were released revealing the best-performing primary schools in the county based on the number of year 6 children who reached the expected standard across reading, writing and maths when assessed at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.
The latest performance figures show 61% of children across England reached the expected standard across those subject areas. In Wiltshire this was only 57%.
The national figure is a small increase on the 60% who reached the expected level in the 2022-23 academic year. However, both represent a decrease on attainment pre COVID when 65% of the 2018-19 cohort attained the expected level of reading, writing and maths.
Girls continue to outperform boys at the expected standards in all subjects except maths, where boys outperformed girls by 1 percentage point.
Mere School’s outcomes were excellent with us being in the top 5 Wiltshire schools with 91% of our children meeting the required standard in maths, reading and writing.
A huge well done to our children and teachers!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 17th January 2025
The media have been highlighting the ‘shocking grip’ mobile phones are having on our children.
I have been watching the Channel 4’s 2-part documentary series ‘Swiped – The School That Has Banned Smart Phones’.
In the programme, 26 pupils, aged between 12 and 13, agreed to take part in a smart phone ban for 21 days.
The children reported that they were getting an hour’s more sleep each night during the study, while also claiming to been substantially less anxious.
Data from the whole school showed that 17% of pupils spent more than 6 hours daily on their device. Nearly 40% were found to be on their phones for 4 hours or more each day and 65% were on them for at least 2 hours.
Professor Henderson and Dr Sullivan from the University of York said:
“the effects of smart phones on the likes of sleep are particularly notable.”
Australia’s parliament has approved a social media ban for under-16s but the British Technology Secretary of State told the programme he was open minded to the smart phone ban for under-14s but said that it was not currently ‘the right way forward’.
It is a very interesting watch!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 10th January 2025
I was delighted to read a positive headline about our schools just before Christmas:
“our pupils in world top 5 for science”.
A UCL Institute of Education analysis of tests from 64 countries highlighted that children in England have improved dramatically against other countries over the past 4 years, moving into the top 5 in the world for science despite the pandemic.
The previous Government implemented a series of reforms to enable this.
Shadow Education Secretary, Laura Trott said:
“These results are testament to the hard work of teachers and pupils but are also underpinned by a knowledge rich curriculum and high school standards.”
At Mere School we try to ensure that our children receive a balanced and exciting curriculum with every child being challenged in their learning. They also need to have fun!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 20th December 2024
We have just completed my favourite week of the whole year. I believe that it is a real privilege to work in a primary school during the festive period.
Even though it is exhausting it is wonderful to share the excitement of our children and it is lovely to watch them enjoy all of the special activities that have been organised by the staff and The Friends. They are lucky children!
Our children are so grateful for all that is organised and given to them. I am always so proud of them and our visit to the pantomime is one example of many, of the excellent behaviours our children exhibit.
This week has been a special way to end another very successful year at Mere School. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this.
Wishing our whole school community a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 13th December 2024
We are really looking forward to our Christmas productions and sharing all our hard work with you.
I have detailed below the arrangements as a reminder. As there are so many adults and children involved it is really important that we are all clear on what to do so that everyone is safe.
Thank you for your patience in advance!
Christmas Production Arrangements
The School Council will be collecting at the end of each performance for their chosen charity – Mere Foodbank.
KS1 Afternoon Performance
Please exit from the side door, AFTER THE CHILDREN HAVE LEFT, if you are not staying for the KS2 performance. If you are staying please remain in your seats.
You can take your children home early if you are not staying – please collect them from the normal place (outside their classroom door).
NO KS2 CHILDREN WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH THE KS1 PLAY AS THEY HAVE ALREADY SEEN IT AND THERE IS A RESTRICTION ON NUMBERS IN THE HALL.
KS2 Afternoon Performance
Please exit, AFTER THE CHILDREN HAVE LEFT, from side door after the performance. Children can be collected from the normal place (main hall door).
We will be sending the children home in their costumes and ask that KS1 (Blue, Yellow and Silver Classes) return to their classrooms at 5.45 pm, through the main entrance.
The teachers will supervise the KS2 (Gold, Green, Red and Purple Classes) children, if they have siblings in the KS1 production, in Gold Class and the Music Room and we ask for the KS2 children to return to school, through the main entrance, and go to these classrooms for 6.30 pm.
KS1 Evening Performance
Please exit from the side door, AFTER THE CHILDREN HAVE LEFT, if you are not staying for the KS2 performance. If you are staying please remain in your seats. The children will be looked after in Silver Class by the teachers until the end of the KS2 performance. Please collect them from here when the KS2 play is over.
If you are leaving after the KS1 play, please collect the children from the normal place.
NO KS2 CHILDREN WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH THE KS1 PLAY AS THEY HAVE ALREADY SEEN IT AND THERE IS A RESTRICTION ON NUMBERS IN THE HALL.
KS2 Evening Performance
Please stay in your seats and we will send your children to you class by class – starting with the youngest children. Please exit through the main school and collect any belongings from the Music Room/Gold Class on the way out. Please note the playground gates will be locked at this point.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 6th December 2024
We are waiting to hear details about the new OFSTED framework.
We understand that we will be judged with a new 10-point ‘report card’ system after the new Labour Government scrapped the single-word ratings.
This shake-up with see OFSTED give schools a colour-coded rating on each area, ranging from purple for ‘exemplary’ to red for ‘causing concern’.
Inspectors stopped judging schools overall performance with the judgements ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ in September. Many teaching unions lobbied the Government as they felt that these ratings contributed to the suicide of head teacher Ruth Perry. Some parents have found this useful while others thought it was subjective and unrepresentative.
Schools will be judged on the curriculum, teaching, achievement, leadership, behaviour and values, attendance, preparation for next steps, opportunities to thrive, inclusion, belonging and safeguarding.
This new system is due to be implemented in September 2025.
Some teaching unions feel that these changes are overcomplicated.
It will be interesting to see what will happen.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 29th November 2024
CHRISTMAS!
I thought I would use my message this week as a ‘heads up’ for Christmas – which is rapidly approaching.
This is my favourite time of year in school and we love sharing the excitement of the festive period with the children.
Friend’s Christmas Fair – SATURDAY 7TH DECEMBER 2024
In The Lecture Hall from 12 noon to 3 pm – raffle, lots of stalls, teddy tombo9la, café, lucky dip and lots more.
Friends’ Christmas Raffle
Thursday 12th December 2024 – non-school uniform day in exchange for a confectionery prize.
Monday 16th December 2024 – Friday 20th December 2024 – raffle tickets on sale, 50p each.
Friday 20th December 2024 – raffle is drawn.
Christmas Disco – FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER 2024
Please note the adjusted times for this disco only – KS1 5.45 pm – 6.30 pm, KS2 – 6.45 pm – 7.30 pm.
Christmas Performances – TUESDAY 17TH DECEMBER 2024
KS1 – 1.15 pm or 6 pm
KS2 – 2 pm or 6.45 pm
All welcome!
Pantomime Visit to Salisbury Playhouse – WEDNESDAY 18TH DECEMBER 2024
Full school uniform please to see Sleeping Beauty
Christmas Lunch and Grotto –THURSDAY 19TH DECEMBER 2024
All children will visit Father Christmas in his grotto and will enjoy a traditional Christmas lunch (if ordered).
Carol Service – FRIDAY 20TH DECEMBER 2024
9.15 am in St Michael’s Church – all welcome.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 22nd November 2024
Following the recent budget it has been announced that the Department for Education will end its grant scheme for schools to become an academy at the end of this year. We understand that there are no plans to continue to give money to schools who want to become part of an academy trust.
Trusts have been told that those schools who have applied during the summer will not receive any funds either.
The new Labour Government want to rationalise the dual school system that we currently have (Mere School being a community school funded by the Local Authority).
A new bill will seek to bring the 2 parts of the sector closer together requiring academies to follow the National Curriculum and co-operate with councils on admissions and pupil place planning.
Before this decision, schools voluntarily converting to academies could get up to £25,000 to spend on the process of converting to an academy.
The governors at Mere School have, over the past few years, spent a lot of time looking into the benefits of becoming an academy. Their annual decision has been to remain as a community school.
The future looks very interesting. We have a ‘broken’ system which needs to be ‘mended’ but funds are extremely tight.
Let’s see what happens!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 15th November 2024
We frequently have parents asking us for help to manage their children’s behaviour and/or emotions at home. It is frustrating for us that we cannot help more as our primary focus must be the education of our children. The management of children at home is the responsibility of their parents/carers.
Our governing body fund a Related Childhood Counsellor for one day/week and this is available for all children if needed.
The All Together website is a valuable source of support for parents:
Wiltshiretogether.org.uk/AllTogether
When children are really struggling they are sometimes referred to CAMHs (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service). As you can imagine this service is overloaded and a referral can take almost 2 years to be processed.
We are extremely lucky at Mere School as CAMHs have agreed to run 6 information sessions for parents during this academic year. These sessions are run by experts who have a wealth of knowledge and support to offer to parents.
Unfortunately our first session was poorly attended. We must have better attendance to ensure that they continue to run these sessions throughout the year – their time is very precious and must have the biggest impact possible.
Please make a note in your diaries for the rest of the meetings:
Understanding and Supporting Emotional Regulation – Wednesday 20th November 2024 at
2.20 pm
Supporting Your Child with Their Worries – Wednesday 15th January 2025 at 9.15 am
Supporting Your Child with Their Worries and Building Resilience - Wednesday 12th March
2025 at 9.15 am
Building Resilience – Wednesday 21st May 2025 at 9.15 am
Supporting Transitions – Wednesday 18th June 2024 at 9.15 am.
Parents who have attended these meetings previously have found them invaluable.
We look forward to seeing you!
Friday 8th November 2024
We had another very useful Class Parent meeting at the end of last term and I am extremely grateful to this group who give up their time to help the school.
This is what we discussed:
Early Years – Parents are really grateful to the staff in Blue Class for helping their
children to settle in so well. They are enjoying using Tapestry and
really value the feedback from the teachers.
The parents would like a factsheet to help then with hearing their
children read at home.
Photographs - The vast majority of parents were pleased with the individual
photographs. We will be booking the same photographer for class
photos next year.
Cold Lunch Option - This is something we cannot offer as there is a Department for
Education expectation that we provide a hot lunch for children.
Sweatshirts - One parent complained that they are too tight to get over their child’s
head. As this is the only complaint the group suggested that the child
might like to try a cardigan instead.
More Clubs - Unfortunately staff are unable to commit any more time to clubs. The
school would welcome any parent volunteers who might like to run
one.
Friday Assembly - Parents would like this to be earlier in the day. Unfortunately the
school cannot do this as it would impact negatively on pupil learning.
Photo Orders - Some parents would like more than one order form for split families.
We will investigate this.
Sporting Events - When we can, we will publish sporting events and tournaments in the
newsletter.
Drop-Off Zone - The group would like more parents to use this facility to ease
congestion. We will remind parents about it in the newsletter.
Photographs - Some parents wanted staff to check jumpers and hair before the
children had their photograph taken. Our band of volunteers did their
best but the children did re-adjust themselves! We cannot do hair for
safeguarding reasons.
Book bags - Some children are finding that their book bags are heavy. We ask
children just to carry their reading book and record and library book
only in them.
Sports Day - Some parents were unhappy it had been cancelled. It was too
dangerous to go ahead but we were pleased to be able to continue with
lunch. The children who did not have their parents there were
supervised on the playground as this was the safest place for them.
Next year sports day will be earlier and we will pencil in a reserve
day.
Parents Evening - More notice for this event was asked for. We do publish key dates like
this in the first newsletter of the term.
Secondary School - The school will remind parents about the closing date for secondary
Applications school applications.
Food Waste - The group discussed ways to encourage our younger children to try
their lunches and were fully in favour of getting children to try before
they had their pudding. The school will send a hard copy of the menu
and an accompanying letter to KS1 parents.
Social Media - Mrs Read asked this group if there is anything she could help further
with in terms of social media. The group thought it might be valuable
to advertise our desire to reduce food waste and perhaps tag the Class
Facebook pages into her posts.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 25th October 2024
Over the last few months we have been analysing our statutory data and I thought I would use my weekly message to give you an update.
Early Years
Our reading outcomes at the expected level are well above the national average and writing and maths outcomes are above the national average.
Year 1
Attainment in phonics is in the top 6% of schools nationally.
Year 2
There were no SATs at the end of KS1 as the tests have been discontinued. Mr Rich has used our internal tracking data to come to a final assessment. Our expected standard reading attainment using last year’s data would put us in the the top 9% of schools, writing significantly above the expected standard and in the top 3% of schools nationally and in maths well above the national average – in the top 12% of schools nationally.
Year 6
Our oldest children sat the KS2 SATs in May this year. Attainment at the expected standard in reading is in the top 3% nationally, writing top 5% nationally and maths top 3% of schools nationally. Our overall attainment in the KS2 SATS in reading, writing and maths is in the top 1% of schools nationally.
As you can imagine we are extremely proud of our children and teachers with these impressive results. Our KS2 outcomes reflect 7 years of hard work from the children and staff.
Academic outcomes are extremely important but we continue to ensure that our children are receiving a good all-round education so that they are well prepared for their next stage of education and life in general.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 18th October 2024
We are looking forward to seeing you at our Parent Interviews on Thursday 24th October 2024 from 3.30 pm -7 pm. We gave plenty of notice about this as it was published in our first newsletter of the new school year.
I hope you have all received an e.mail about booking an appointment with your child’s teacher – please do contact the office if you have not.
If you are unable to meet your child’s teacher on 24th or all of the appointments have been taken, please do contact them to make alternative arrangements.
There should be no nasty surprises for parents during the evening – it is a time to celebrate your child’s achievements. Your child’s teacher would have been in touch earlier if they have any concerns.
All of the meetings will be in the main hall. If at all possible we ask parents to make child care arrangements so that your discussions can be uninterrupted. If you do need to bring any children we ask them to sit quietly on the benches in the middle of the room.
Entry and exit are through the main entrance please. The playground gates will be locked.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 11th October 2024
MERE SCHOOL FIREWORKS, SATURDAY 9th NOVEMBER 2024!
The Fireworks Committee are meeting regularly now and planning a great event.
Mr Bloomfield has managed to gather up a huge amount of sponsorship which helps us to make as much money for the school as possible.
Funds raised will pay for the transport and visit to the pantomime in Salisbury in December (Sleeping Beauty) and a day with a scientist in January for all of the children. We have additional plans if we manage to raise more than this.
There will be lots of food vendors on site ranging from burgers and hot dogs to fish and chips to pizzas. Visitors will be able to buy hot drinks and alcohol from the bar and for the very brave the ice cream van will be here as well.
We look forward to seeing the fire engine and a selection of steam engines as well.
The Friends will be selling glow toys and sweets and candy floss.
We are hoping there will not be too much congestion in Mere. There will be no parking on Hazards Hill and the police will be enforcing this. Please walk to the event if you possibly can.
Everyone is welcome – we ask for a donation on entry or exit. We look forward to seeing you!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 4th October 2024
At Mere School we are so lucky to have a team of professional and highly skilled TAs and our teaching team could not maintain the high standards our children achieve without their expertise.
The focus for our General Governor Monitoring this term has been looking at the work undertaken by our TA team. Mr Lee Tibbit spent a morning in school shadowing a TA in KS2 and a TA in KS1.
He documented the wide range of work the TAs were involved in that morning, for example:
All of our TAs work from a complex daily timetable to ensure that nothing is missed during the school day.
Mr Tibbit made the following observations to share with our Full Governing Body:
Our governing body have made it a priority for each year group to have a dedicated TA, but this is not the case in the majority of schools. For as long as our budget allows we will continue to do this.
A huge thank you to all of our TAs for everything that they do for the school and children.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 27th September 2024
The Local Authority and their building contractors have been very busy in school over the summer holidays. None of the staff (apart from Mr Stafford) were allowed to come into school as it was classed as a ‘building site’.
It was a bit of a rush towards the end as the work was delayed by health and safety requirements and delayed materials but we managed to open on time.
We have had a new fire alarm system throughout the building installed. We now have sirens rather than bells and this is so much more pleasant on the ears and less frightening for the children. There have been some ‘teething’ problems with the fire doors but these have now been resolved.
All of our lights have been replaced with LED ones which will reduce electricity costs for the school and many are now on sensors. While the contractors were completing this work it was noted that our emergency lighting was not compliant which resulted in all of our emergency lighting being replaced and half of the school rewired.
There are a few snagging issues to be resolved but we are extremely grateful that this work has been completed with no cost to the school.
The Local Authority are now surveying the fire doors, windows and hall and stage floor. As well as a new boiler we are hoping that the hall floor will be re-sealed and new windows and fire doors installed where necessary.
We will keep our fingers crossed!
Catriona Williamson
Friday 20th September 2024
It has been a very difficult summer holiday for our country with some tragic events followed by some terrible rioting with children taking part in these riots, fuelled by online extremists.
The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson is calling on school to help with this problem.
She said:
“It’s more important than ever that we give young people the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge what they see online … That’s why our curriculum review will develop plans to embed critical skills in lessons to arm our children against the disinformation, fake news and putrid conspiracy theories awash on social media.”
We do a lot of work with our children on considering what is ‘real’ online and the dangers of believing everything that they read and we will continue to do this.
Sadly our annual visit from Mr Karl Hopwood, international internet safety expert, has had to be postponed until Monday 31st March 2025. I am sure he will be reinforcing this message when he comes supporting our work in school. It would be good if parents could also talk with their children at home about it as well.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 13th September 2024
The new Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, has ‘hit the ground running’.
We had a letter from her on the first Monday she was in post and she has held a webinar for head teachers.
Education has always been a ‘political football’ and we always wait anxiously to see what changes there will be.
It is clear that she is keen to work closely with professionals and she is determined to work in partnership with us as educators.
She has stated that a child’s background should not be a barrier to their achievements.
The new Government is determined that standards must continue to rise and OFSTED will continue with a few changes.
There will be a review of the curriculum and assessment so that they keep pace with changing times and our children are prepared for life and work.
There are significant financial pressures on schools and this is recognised.
The huge issues with Special Education Needs is recognised and there does not seem to be an appetite to forcing schools to become academies – she said:
“I am not interested in the name above a school door; we just need to drive up standards.”
The Government are very keen to remove some of the pressures school are having to deal with – housing, health and mental health and are going to consider the workload of staff in schools.
Interesting times – we will wait to see what changes are ‘around the corner’.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 6th September 2024
SWIMMING
Our children entered a swimming gala at Riversmeet at the end of last term and came back to school ‘laden down’ with medals.
We are attributing a lot of this success to the high quality swimming lessons our children are experiencing at Port Regis School.
I have taken the children swimming on several occasions and I am so impressed with the care of the staff and quality of teaching our children are receiving. Watching a child take their first few strokes is incredibly rewarding and quite moving.
We are also able to combine these sessions with 30 minutes of gymnastics in the incredible gym at Port Regis.
When our current year 5 class started swimming there were 18 out of 40 children who were non-swimmers. By the time they had finished their lessons 38 out of 40 children could swim 25 metres.
The costs associated with swimming are extremely high. The bus alone costs us nearly £200/week.
The parental contribution to swimming is £60 for 18 sessions. This is extremely good value but a considerable expense for parents.
We were in the predicted position that the school had to fund £8,500 to cover the costs of swimming. We were unable to do this in our current financial position so the governors and I ‘had to put our thinking caps on’!
The governors were determined that that the children will receive 18 weeks of high quality swimming provision.
We have been able to halve the bus costs by using a bigger bus and taking both Gold and Green Classes swimming this year. One class will swim while the other one goes in the gym for gymnastics. After half an hour the classes will swap over. Both classes are still receiving 18 weeks of swimming.
Miss Santry will teach with the Port Regis team and Miss Glendenning and Mrs Cripps will accompany the children as well as a volunteer parent.
We are hoping that this is a good solution and is a much smaller financial burden for the school.
Catriona Williamson
Friday 19th July 2024
We have come to the end of another successful year at Mere School.
It is at this time I start to reflect on what a year it has been.
We are a busy school and we pride ourselves on the rich and varied experiences we offer to our children from swimming to music lessons to trips to first aid training ……and so much more
Alongside this our children achieve extremely well academically – we are so proud of them.
Our attendance is significantly higher than most schools nationally.
We are grateful for the support we receive from our governing body who give freely of their time to ensure our school is safe, run effectively and the children are achieving high standards.
The staffing team at Mere School is of the highest calibre. Every member of staff wants every child to achieve their very best in a fun and caring environment.
Our partnership with parents is strong and we thank you for your support and help throughout this year. There might be ‘bumps along the road’ at times but working together these are resolved quickly. We work so effectively together for the benefit of our children.
Mere School is a unique and very special place and we look forward to another exciting year ahead.
Catriona Williamson