School Awards

We are very proud of the awards and recognition that our school has gained.  Find out what we have done to acheive these awards.

Artsmark

Artsmark is the creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. This accreditation is awarded to schools which demonstrate a wide range of arts opportunities to their students. It requires schools to go above and beyond the current curriculum expectations and push for arts to be taught throughout all areas of the curriculum. Artsmark describe their award as being hugely beneficial to schools as it ‘encourages the children to have the opportunity to create, compose and perform, as well as visit, experience, participate in and review extraordinary arts and culture.’     

We have had to work hard to obtain our Artsmark ‘Silver’ award. We self-assessed our practice to ensure we met the necessary criteria by planning, developing and evaluating our arts and cultural provision. We dedicated an entire week to ‘everything arts’ and hosted an ‘Arts Week’, where different key stages focused on an artist and took part in a week of arts-themed activities based on that artist. The children worked in groups and on their own and learnt drawing and painting skills. The children also took part in ‘Art History’ sessions and visited an art gallery where paintings and information on the artists were displayed. The children also participated in workshops and used music, drama, literacy and art skills in each of the activities. At the end of the week, we created our own art gallery and opened the school to the public where we were able to showcase our work.

In addition to this, we have further embedded the arts into our everyday teaching across the school and within extra-curricular opportunities, such as whole school theatre trips, trips to museums and galleries, sending our Young Voices Choir to the O2 and our range of after-school clubs, including the use of ICT.

When accrediting our Silver award, Arts Council England commented,

the panel commends your ongoing commitment and development of the arts, which has resulted in bringing the school and wider community together. The benefits of developing creative curriculum with a range of opportunities for pupils to share, and in some instances, lead, appear to have had a positive impact on the motivation of staff and pupils. In the future, the panel would hope that you can sustain this positive momentum by developing further partnerships and embedding a wider range of opportunities within the curriculum. Congratulations on your Artsmark Silver Award!’

Clay Animal Sculptures

Clay Animal Sculptures

The Reception children became ‘artists’ and thought about the question - Can we begin making a 3D clay sculpture using the designs created last lesson? The children listened to the instructions and explored the clay. The children were asked to create an animal...

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School Sports Games Mark

The School Games Mark is a government led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. Participating in this process allows schools to evaluate their PE provision and assists them in developing an action plan for future progress.

    As a school, we continue to work really hard to ensure we maintain our Gold Mark achieved in 2018-2019. 

    Netball County Final

    Netball County Final

    On Wednesday 21st June, a group of children represented our school in the netball county final. They played really well demonstrating good team spirit and skill. Thank you to Mrs Wyncoll and Mrs Allum for coaching and accompanying them to the tournaments. [gallery...

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    Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSO’s)

    A JRSO is a pupil, chosen by their Primary school, who promotes road safety to pupils, parents, and the whole school community. They work with a named adult from the school staff (Miss Jones) and their local Road Safety Officer.

    The JRSOs keep a scrapbook and record details of the road safety activities that they have been involved in during the year. Based on the scrapbook submitted, gold, silver or bronze certificates are awarded (in June) by Suffolk County Council Road Safety Team.

    So far this year, the JRSOs have organised: Walk to school, Brightness Day, Crossroads (learning how to cross the road safely) , Crossroads with Kingfishers Class, Road Safety Week and Speed Checks with the community.

    For the academic year 2020-2021, our JRSO’s were awarded the Gold Mark.

    Road Safety Week

    Road Safety Week

    During the week of Monday 20th – Friday 24th November 2023 the children participated in Road Safety Week. The JRSOs encouraged parents and children to walk to school during this week. On Friday 24th November 2023 the children and staff wore their brightest socks...

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    Clean Air Day

    Clean Air Day

    On Thursday 15th June, the children took part in Clean Air Day. The children were encouraged to walk to school and leave the car at home. Miss Jones also told the children about Clean Air Day in assembly. The children learned about the source, affect and solution for...

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    Walk to School Week

    Walk to School Week

    During the week of the 8th of May the children were encouraged to walk to school. Parents parked their cars at the end of Strickmere and walked to school. In the classroom, the teachers displayed a wall chart which showed the class’ participation in Walk to School...

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    Eco-Schools

    We are very proud to have achieved the Green Flag for our Eco-schools work.

    We now have an established and hard working eco-committee and have an eco-code; we have made vast improvements in the way we re-cycle and compost as well as making small changes such as educating children and adults on saving energy (for example, switching lights off and making sure the taps don’t drip!) We have also ensured our grounds are well maintained, tidy and free from litter.

    Chitting Potatoes

    Chitting Potatoes

    Miss Bailey showed the children a bag and asked the children to guess what was inside. They opened it to find potatoes. Miss Bailey read the instructions and the children looked and helped Miss Bailey to place the seed potatoes on the chitting tray. Miss Bailey said...

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    Fire and Bread

    Fire and Bread

    Mrs Martin told the children they were going to help make a fire. They discussed the fire triangle and how they need fuel, they needed to ignite the fire and they needed air. The children were asked to sort the sticks they had collected last week by the thickness of...

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    Conker Caterpillars and More…Forest Fun

    Conker Caterpillars and More…Forest Fun

    Mrs Martin talked with the children about the season and sent children on a leaf hunt around the area collecting different coloured leaves. The children worked together to sort the leaves by colour and size. The children were introduced to the activities - mud...

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    Linguamarque

    The Linguamarque programme is devised by language professionals and provides a targeted approach to teaching modern foreign languages in primary schools.

    We are very proud of our Bronze Linguamarque which was achieved by raising the profile of French language teaching throughout the school. All classes in Key Stage 1 and 2 receive at least one hour French teaching each week and there are French language displays around the school including examples of the children’s work. In addition to this, the teaching of French raises the children’s knowledge of the French culture as well as other languages through learning different songs and celebrating European Day of Languages.

    We are now in the process of aiming for our Silver Linguamarque.

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