Latest News
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Cherry Orchard nominated for British Animation Award
Thu 31 Mar 2022‘Up the River’ a short animation created by Cherry Orchard Primary School pupils in conjunction with Unlocking the Severn was nominated for the Social Good Award at the British Animation Awards.
Unfortunately, ‘Up the River’ was not the final winner, however, it was a great achievement to be recognised.
The film was produced with the creative input of the children. Over 4 days, over 180 year 5 and 6 children took part in the workshops for Unlocking the Severn a conservation & river engagement project. The whole school of more than 600 children was involved in colouring pictures of the shad fish and contributing sound effects.
The children’s animation tells the story of two young twaite shad (an endangered species of fish) migrating into the River Severn from the sea and facing challenges on their journey to reach their spawning grounds. The 7-minute animation explains the problems that weirs cause as a barrier to fish, and how a fish pass can be the solution to get them back upriver to spawn.
Thanks to the new Diglis fish pass in Worcester, after a gap of around 170 years, endangered fish will finally make it up the river once again.
The animated short film will spread awareness for the project and be shown at the fish pass visitors’ centre.
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Apprenticeship achievements
Thu 31 Mar 2022Congratulations to our apprentices who have recently passed their apprenticeship qualifications and exams.
- Barty Williams, Trainee Maintenance Technician has passed his Level 2 Property Maintenance Operative Apprenticeship.
- Hattie White, Finance Apprentice has passed her Level 3 Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) qualification. Hattie will be going on to study for her Level 4 AAT as part of the apprenticeship.
- Joe Dallaway, Finance Apprentice has passed his Elements of Costing exam as part of his Level 2 AAT qualification.
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Summerhill pupil wins road safety competition
Wed 30 Mar 2022Year 4 Summerhill Primary Academy pupil Laila-Mai created a comic strip superhero poster to promote road safety for a Sandwell council competition and won!
Laila-Mai highlighted the dangers of being distracted by a mobile phone while crossing the road.
With one of our STARS values being Safety, this incredibly important message is one we are proud of Laila-Mai for highlighting!
Signs featuring her superhero namesake will now be put up around the roads near the school and the wider community.
In addition to her artwork being turned into a poster, Laila-Mai also won prize money for herself and £1000 for the school to spend on new resources!
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St Clement’s Pre-school merges with St Clement’s CofE Primary School
Tue 29 Mar 2022St Clement’s Pre-school has been on the site of St Clement’s Cof E Primary School for many years but had been registered as a separate organisation with Ofsted. The decision was made to merge the pre-school with the school to enable the school to offer high-quality education for children aged from 2 to 11 years old and to allow for a holistic approach to Ofsted inspections encompassing all aged children. The merger will now allow pre-school to become part of the school’s governance structure and expertise.
Like the school, the pre-school is currently rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted and has a full team of experienced staff and qualified Early Years Practitioners.
Pre-school will continue with strong leadership and will now work even more closely with the school management including collaborating with the reception team and coming together as an expert early years team. There is already much in common between the curriculum for pre-school and reception age children with both following the Early Years Foundation Framework. Children will continue to receive high-quality care and education.
What will not change
The pre-school team will remain the same continuing to offer your children the same high standard of education and experiences.
The merger will not disrupt the children’s experiences, with the pre-school carrying on as normal and the strong relationship with parents continuing as before.
Funding of pre-school places will remain the same for children aged from two to four years old who are entitled to 15 or 30 hours of free childcare per week, and we will continue to welcome children from their second birthday. The merger will not change the way children apply to pre-school.
Children will not automatically progress from pre-school to reception class. Applications for a place in Reception class will continue to be made through Worcestershire County Council’s school admissions.
If you would like to find out more about the pre-school or arrange a visit, please call Mrs Jenny Rouse, Pre-school Manager on 01905 423861, ext 3 or email JRouse@riverscofe.co.uk.
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Trainee Teacher Recruitment Day
Thu 17 Mar 2022As part of our school direct teacher training programme, we offer trainee teachers an opportunity to gain valuable interview experience with the possibility of a teaching job at the end of the process.
This year there were 11 applicants on the recruitment day, 9 currently on the Rivers school direct teacher training programme and 2 on undergraduate placements in Rivers schools.
The recruitment day consisted of 4 assignments, the first being to submit a portfolio about themselves as a developing teacher, which was to be reviewed by all heads. Secondly, the applicants prepared and delivered a lesson based on a poem. The lesson had to be appropriate for the year group they were teaching and was observed by two heads. Next came the interview with two heads before finally completing a written task that involved communicating to parents and children.
All applicants put in a lot of effort and performed well.
Since 2016, 89 trainees have completed training with us, and 22 trainee teachers have been recruited through the recruitment day.
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Cranham’s Family Support sessions
Wed 02 Mar 2022For a number of years Cranham Primary School has worked in partnership with Matt White from Platform Housing who is a Life Coach. Matt and Cranham collaboratively support parents with debt, housing issues, mental health and also help parents get into the workforce.
This has been so successful that Cranham and Matt now host fortnightly Family Sessions for the community where representatives from housing, police, mental health, the NHS and local councillors offer guidance to families in need of support. So many people attended that the school had to find an additional three rooms to accommodate everyone!
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Cranham’s exemplary Early Help Offer
Wed 02 Mar 2022Sue Turner (Nurture Lead and Family Liaison) and Charlotte Barnett (SENDco and Deputy Head) at Cranham Primary School, were asked by Worcester Children First to present Cranham’s Early Help offer to a wider audience which included police, The Youth Justice Team, RGT support workers, Youth Inclusion Team, Fire Service, GPs and the Virtual Schools Team.
Cranham’s Early Help offer is incredibly effective and ensures that families and pupils receive support well before a crisis point. In spite of Cranham being in an area of significant deprivation there are no families on Child Protection or Children in Need and the last pupil exclusion was 7 years ago!
Hayley Doyle, Area Safeguarding Officer commented on Sue and Charlotte's 'Fantastic presentation' stating "Huge thank you for taking part and sharing the amazing practice at Cranham. I’ll be signposting other schools to your Early Help page.’
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Professional development courses available this term
Wed 02 Mar 2022There are still a few spaces available on the following training courses running in March, April and May:
- Risk Assessment - 8th March,08.30-13.00
- Positive Handling - 22nd March, 08.30-16.00
- First Aid for Mental Health Level 2 - 29th March, 08.30-14.30
- Fire Marshall - 30th March, 08.30-13.00
- Safer Recruitment - 5th April, 08.30-16.00
- First Aid at Work - 3rd and 24th May, 08.30-14.30
If you require further information or you wish to book, please email Natalie Lea, Rivers Teaching Alliance Administrator: nlea@riverscofe.co.uk
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Primary Mastery Specialist
Wed 02 Mar 2022Gemma Jenkins, Cranham Primary School’s Maths Coordinator, is training with the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics to become a Primary Mastery Specialist.
We are confident that in the very near future Gemma will be further enhancing the teaching of maths not only at Cranham but across the MAT.
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NPQSL success
Wed 02 Mar 2022Congratulations to Miss Nicki Allmark, Year 6 Maths Teacher at Summerhill Primary Academy who has recently passed her NPQSL course.