Spring term 2020 Bulletin from Governors

 

A warm welcome to children, parents and staff at Bedfont Primary!  As we start the Spring term we wanted to send this bulletin to update parents on the food trial which we trialled last term. 

 

The aim of the food trial was to provide all foods for children in the school so that we could serve the whole community. The trial introduced a 3-day menu with halal, pork, beef, non-halal and vegetarian options.  In the remaining 2 days, the children were served their regular menus. The school conducted the trials on 2 occasions. 

 

Prevention of cross-contamination

The kitchen was able to prevent cross-contamination during the food preparation. This was constantly monitored and required extra staffing. There is only one oven in the kitchen, which had implications on the cooking time, and the equipment needed to keep food warm for the lunch service. 

 

Impact on Staff workload

The increase in food options had an impact on staffing in terms of the co-ordination of food orders to ensure that each child ate the correct food option. The logistics of assigning the meals, serving the food and supporting children with allergies required additional staff, which would mean the school, would have to employ more staff.

 

Maintaining the quality of the food

There was an increase in food options – halal, pork, beef, non-halal and vegetarian.  This had an impact on the hours worked by the kitchen staff to maintain the quality of the food.  The increase in food options also increased the working hours of the Olive catering team and this would have financial implications for the school, catering company and in the long-term cost of meals.

Governors visited during the food trial days to review the process and spoke to staff and children to get feedback. Whilst the feedback was positive in relation to having more food options, it was evident that the impact on food quality, staffing workload and the risk of contamination were the areas of concern. We had a lengthy discussion at our Governors meeting in December 2019, and support the School leadership team in exploring other options of introducing new food options for the children.  These can include the re-introduction of special occasion days were different options will be available for the children. The school is committed to celebrating the diversity of cultures within the community and will continue to explore options of providing a range of food options. 

 

We hope that you will take advantage of any opportunities offered to visit the school this term to share in your children’s education, as the School recognises the importance of working in partnership with families to promote the learning experience of the children. 

 

New School Vision Statement

During autumn term, the school council with the views of their classes, staff and governors developed a new mission statement. It has now been approved by governors and can be found below. We would really welcome any views you have.

 

Bedfont Primary School

 

Believing is achieving

 

We believe that Bedfont Primary School children are uniquely talented individuals. No matter their starting points, we will nurture their love of learning so they can reach their full potential. We believe that by recognising and celebrating our diverse community, we will create global citizens that can improve their local community and the world around them. We believe that our children should be taught how to be effective team players and excellent leaders. We believe that through challenging learning experiences, our children will develop the resilience to succeed. We believe every child deserves equal opportunities of experience both in and out of school.

We believe our parents have a key role in pupil learning and development. Through school-parent workshops, a resource-rich website and parent-pupil learning experiences, we give our community of parents the skills needed to further enhance their child’s learning.

To reflect the diverse needs of our children and the community they live in, we have created a curriculum that is both broad and balanced. We believe that focusing on oral skills from entry to Bedfont Primary School leads to the language dexterity needed to succeed in our increasingly media-driven society. We believe that learning must have a purpose and that purposeful, intended outcomes motivate children. 

Our teachers take a creative approach when planning learning experiences. Learning experiences are challenging opportunities where experimenting, investigating, expressing opinions and making informed choices allow our children become happy confident learners. These experiences can occur in school or out of school.

Bedfont Primary School’s aim is to create a safe and happy learning environment. The children learn the importance of morals so they can be responsible citizens within our community.  These are rooted in morals such as honesty, tolerance and respect. We expect our children to be ambitious and trustworthy, taking personal responsibility for their actions.

The staff at Bedfont Primary School put the child at the centre of all they do. We believe that a culture of learning must exist throughout our school so we put a heavy emphasis on staff development and creating school leaders of the future.

We celebrate our successes through the following core values

• Courage – to try again if you fail
• Confidence – to try something new and believe that you can achieve
• Creativity  – to imagine things differently and better
• Calmness – to be healthy in body and mind
• Co-operation  – to work with others in school and our community
• Curiosity – to wonder about the world around and develop a love of learning

 

Curriculum Intent

We believe our children learn through our core values of courage, confidence, creativity, calmness, co-operation and curiosity. Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and develops skills that lead to independent learners and thinkers. We believe that verbal skills are key to the early success of our children. Speaking and listening skills are found throughout our curriculum, with opportunities given to develop these in a variety of ways.

Our curriculum is driven by expected knowledge at the end of units of learning and the complementary skills that are fundamental to individual curriculum subjects.

We believe that enhanced learning opportunities take place outside the classroom and so we take every opportunity to learn locally and within the London area. Where opportunities can be enhanced in school, we invite learning experts in to our school.

We believe that learning needs to be driven by purpose so we endeavour to drive our learning through a clear purpose. Inspiring outcomes lead children to think in an aspirational way.

Our curriculum has been designed to encompass knowledge and understanding of the world in which we live, as well as the events that have shaped it in the past to make it what it is today. The topics have been designed to complement and build on one another with clear progression and links so that in subsequent year groups, they will be able to explore concepts deeper, applying their knowledge in different contexts.

 

Governors value your feedback and can be contacted through the school office. We will be available on the upcoming Parent’s evenings if you would like to meet and talk to us.

 

Bedfont Primary School Governors.