It would be fair to say that the year 2003-2004 has been a taxing one for everyone at the school Teaching and Non-teaching staff, Governors, Pupils and Parents. But in the manner which has become the norm here, everyone has risen to the challenge and largely overcome the difficulties which have beset us.

You will know that as a result of changes in the funding of schools, managing the budget has become almost a full-time occupation for our Headteacher, Judith Apps. We were originally looking to have a small surplus but even with that, it would have meant moving into next year,2004-2005, facing the real prospect of a deficit. That would have meant that we would be spending more than we had coming in from the County Council and other sources. Although that would be allowed, legally we should  have had to manage the following years in such a manner as to reduce that deficit to nil. Happily, matters have improved sufficiently that our budget for the coming year is in balance- although we shall still have to manage our finances very carefully in the coming years.

Reviewing the pervious year is not easy- so many events spring out. You will be aware of the building  work on our site. This is to provide accommodation for the Sure Start Initiative and the Neighbourhood Nursery. Severe problems in terms of car parking have been an inevitable result and this will only be eased when the contractors have left the site. Even then, increased traffic will still mean a shortage of car  parking spaces but there is little we can  do to  improve that.

You  will also have noticed the construction work on the other side of the school boundary. While we vigorously opposed the application by British Rail to build these engineering workshops, our objections were over-ruled. But when a subsequent application to  change the permitted noise levels was submitted, I am happy  to say that it was refused.

On the academic front, our SAT results were in line with expectations. Looking at these results in isolation would suggest that there has been a slight deterioration but when set in the context of the school catchment area and the make-up of the pupil roll, we are satisfied that our performance is well in line with other schools in similar situations. There is always room  for improvement however, and the head teacher and staff will be working as hard as ever to make sure that we build on our current successes and improve results in the next year. So a bit "thank you" for what has been done to date by staff and pupils alike!

The development of housing on  the former George Fischer site is proceeding apace and although we were led to understand that this would be unlikely to increase our numbers, we have already received applications for places from intending residents on the new estate. As you  will have seen, our accommodation is already stretched and to accept new pupils will mean that we need to have another classroom built. The temporary classroom in the portakabin is near the end of its design life, which adds urgency to our need and we are hopeful of a good ooutcome within a comparatively short period of time. Happily, we are in the fortunate position of having the space to build without losing to much (if any) of our sports/playing field.

Within the existing building, we plan to make several improvements. The staff facilities are  long overdue for enhancement/upgrade, we plan to provide a disabled lavatory and refurbish the children's toilet area. the wooden window frames are in need of replacement and a few other, minor works, are planned to  improve security and general tidiness.

Leslie Bush    Chair of Governor.

Assessment Results-------2003/04

The National Key Stage 1 tests were taken by year 2 in May,2004. The result are the % of children achieving level 2 or above.

Attendance

Our attendance continues to be good with authorised absence at 5.8% and unauthorised absence at 0.3%.  Punctuality has improved, but continues to be a concern.

Writing   81

Writing   82