Nicol Mere and the Local Community
Nicol Mere is at the centre of the community. As a result, mutual respect is built between the school and the surrounding area. The children learn to become active and respectful citizens
Links with high schools
Local care home - Garswood House
Universities
Local businesses
Fieldwork linked to curriculum
School trips - people, companies and places
Visitors
Links with High Schools
Nicol Mere has strong links with the two local high schools: Cansfield and Byrchall. When pupils leave Y6, approximately 90% of them attend one of these high schools.
What are the benefits?
Makes transition to high school less daunting for children
Curriculum expertise - DT, French, PE
Improves reputation of school
Use of their grounds and equipment - cross country, art and DT facilities
Creates strong relationships between staff to work together
Link with Local Businesses and Organisations
Nicol Mere has built strong relationships with local businesses and organisations along the years to benefit the school and the children
Garswood care home
Tesco
Sainsburys
Ashton Bowling and Social Club
Local Church and Vicar
Councillors of Ashton
Kids Kingdom
Christmas Time in the Community
Nicol Mere strives to ensure all children enjoy the whole of December by putting on lots of activities. It is just as important for the children to make sure members of the community love Christmas just as much.
Local care home - Garswood House
Nicol Mere choir goes to Garswood House to perform Christmas carols for the residents of the care home. Because the children do such a good job at cheering them up, the residents buy each choir member a selection box. They also make them Christmas cards
Ashton Bowling Club
Nicol Mere's choir also performs at the bowling club at Christmas
Nicol Mere and the Local Area
As much as possible, Nicol Mere uses the local area to enhance the children's learning and the curriculum
Geography
Y1 explore Ashton and the Three Sisters as parts of their Geography unit 'our local area'
Y2 compare the features of the local area to an area in Australia
Y4 carry out a river study on a local river
Science
Children use the bird watching area and the two ponds at the Three Sisters to look for wildlife
History
Y6 look at Ashton in late 1800's as a part of their Victorian unit as it was known for coal mining
Visitors to Nicol Mere
During the school year, Nicol Mere has a wide variety of visitors come in to school. This creates trust and builds relationships between children and the wider community
Local Councillor - local elections / British Values
Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue - talks with different year groups
Bikeability Trust - road safety training for Y5 & Y6
Educational history groups - Egyptians, Romans, etc.
Local newspaper reporter
Vicar from Bryn Methodist Church
RNLI
Doctor Scapens
Mobile farm
Hawks R Us
Dylan's reptiles
Universities
Every year, Nicol Mere welcomes students from Edge Hill University across both Key Stages and Reception to coach and mentor them ready for their own teaching careers
Nicol Mere has also has SCITT (school-centred initial teacher training) students who have completed their intense training at Nicol Mere
8 of Nicol Mere's current teaching staff have been student teachers from Edge Hill which shows how important it is to have these links with local universities
How do teachers contribute to the wider life of school?
School trips
Reward trips
Evening theatre trips - Philharmonic, Cinemas, Operas
Residential trips - Y4 Lake District, Y6 Shropshire, Y2 London
Christmas Fayre
Mother's Day and Father's Day shops
Fundraising
Curriculum days
Discos, bingo and tombola (termly)
Before and after school catch up clubs
Specialist clubs (summer terms)
Dressing up for engaging learning opportunities
How does Nicol mere communicate with parents / carers?
Nicol Mere believe it is important to work in partnership with all parents and carers and that a strong communication between home and school helps the children benefit as much as possible from their time at Nicol Mere. Parents should also feel more at ease knowing what's happening in school and seeing the activities on Facebook.
Due to COVID, school has been looking at more efficient ways to increase communication with parents and carers:
New text messaging service set up for each individual year group
Reception will continue to use Dojo as messaging service between them and parents
Y1-4 will continue to use Dojo to communicate messages
Y5-6 will send emails to communicate messages
Brand new website with key information on
Occasionally, letter is sent out for whole school information
Weekly newsletter
Facebook change used to share achievements and activities of children
Reducing School Workload
Contents
School workload reduction toolkit
Tips from school leaders
Initial teacher education
Supporting early career teachers
What has worked in schools
Reports from independent groups
Research and analysis
Department for Education policy
How has Nicol Mere adapted practice to incorporate this document?
Feedback and Marking
Reviewed feedback and marking policy
Think about how beneficial the marking is to the child an what kind of feedback is best to move the child on, e.g. written / verbal
Marking policy is printed on the inside page of all the children's exercise books for each subject
Letters are used to mark most pieces of work - A = achieved, D = discussed, MW = more work, SP = spelling error (teacher corrected), SPC = spelling correction (corrected by the child)
Planning
Weekly planning meeting as a year group to discuss following week's timetable
Ideas are discussed and finalised by all present teachers
Plan collaboratively - plan together
Share the planning out after the discussion, e.g. one teachers plans / resources History, another Science, etc.
However, it's difficult to plan collaboratively for maths, writing and reading because different groups will be working at different paces and abilities. Focus on children's needs
Effective Interventions
Plan effective interventions throughout the week - this catches any struggling children up
Allows struggling children the opportunity to access the curriculum with the rest of the class
Targets certain children's specific needs that can't be covered in the classroom lessons, e.g. fine motor skills activities, social stories, etc.
Be flexible with the interventions - different children might need access to additional support based on what's being taught in the lessons
Review Staff meetings
Staff meetings are lunch time or after school on Tuesday depending on what's being delivered that week and how long it will run for
There's a staff meeting timetable for each half-term, so staff know what is being delivered and can be prepared
CPD is sometimes delivered during staff meetings based on teacher's needs of the school
All staff meetings are beneficial and focussed. Any quick messages are sent on whole school messaging service Slack to avoid over meeting - particularly this year with staff bubbles.