Best In Class
Choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions any parent must make. The time a child spends at school helps shape them emotionally, socially, and academically, and their experience of school, whether entering primary education into Reception or Secondary Education into Year 7, has a huge effect on their understanding of themselves.
Reception Class is the most important individual year of a child’s journey through school. In the words of Sir Kevan Collins, Education Endowment Foundation CEO, “The early years are a crucial time for development, and we know that quality of teaching has the single biggest impact on how well children do in school.”
It is vitally important that parents of children entering Reception class in September spend time visiting potential settings for their children and that they feel confident the school is supporting their staff, that the children have access to well-resourced high quality teaching and everything required to develop the ability to read, write and use numbers: these skills are fundamental to all future learning.
By Year 7 pupils should have a love of school, and of learning, one fostered through excellent pastoral care and a sense that pupils are known and respected by those who have taught them, and who have supported them on their journey through their primary years.
In transitioning to Secondary School, this must not be lost: your children should continue to be known, and staff working with them should have the chance to know them as individuals. They should not feel lost in an increasingly data driven system: pastoral support is so important in maintaining a child’s sense of self, and of individual wellbeing.
This support must be coupled with excellent teaching and feature relationships between staff and pupils that are built on mutual respect.
Parents should take time to visit potential schools with their children and to see the school in action both at Open Days and for individual tours whenever possible. It is important to make sure that the school offers facilities that allow each child to make the most of their talents, whether these lie in the classroom, on the sports field, in the music room or the art studio.
Just as no two children are the same, so no two schools are the same. Just as teachers can only get to know a child by working with them and finding what makes them tick, so parents should not make decisions about schools until they have visited them, stepped through their doors, and felt their unique atmosphere.
At St Joseph’s, we know that for every child they will only have one Reception class, one Year 7, and for every child we must get that transition right. I also know that while we might not be right for every child, every child should have the right to a school like ours.
Oliver Scott, Headteacher
St Joseph’s School, Launceston