Archibald First School, Gosforth, Newcastle Upone Tyne | Having fun, learning together

Dear families,

Thank you for your responses to our annual parents’ questionnaire. We were really pleased to receive 89 responses from parents and carers of 114 children in our school and a 4.78 out of 5-star rating!

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive; this is shown through the array of comments you included in your responses and the numerical data.

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with you as a school community. Thank you for the time taken to share your voice with us.

The Archibald Team

WHAT IS THE SCHOOL DOING WELL?

Makes my child happy

Enhancing the curriculum, providing support to families, being inclusive, continually developing, communicating with parents and going the extra mile!

The kid love going to school and it is a wonderful environment for them to learn, make friends and grow. The teachers are all lovely and really take the time to get to know the kids as individuals.

This is an exceptional school. Sense of pride, inclusion, personal responsibility, care, championing others, trying hard shines on in Archibald children long after they move on. School cares about the whole child not just academic ability. I feel a strong sense of commitment not only to the individual children but also their families to ensure they get the best possible foundation on which to build. This isn’t just a school, it’s a community. The forest school & playtime opportunities are fantastic. All staff consistently go above & beyond. Communication is timely & clear.

Archibald is a wonderful school. The ethos strikes the right balance between academic support and pastoral care.

Welcoming staff in the morning, encouraging and really nice with the children.

The school is always offering lots of activities for children and
families to be involved in, which makes us feel a strong community.
It keeps a good communication between school, family and students.

The school is very inclusive and caring, and I feel like these values are demonstrated by all the staff from the head teacher, office team, lunchtime staff and teachers. My child feels very supported and loves school, she often mentions how much she likes her teachers and how much fun she has learning at school.  Their approach to motivate children to learn is very good and my child strives to do the best in all aspects of her learning. I am very happy with the school.

Creating a community; teaching in memorable and effective ways; personalising teaching to different abilities; developing the playground very well; creating a nurturing and safe environment; nurturing my child as an individual; forest school; exciting trips and visitors; welcoming families; providing a nurture group and selecting children who’ll benefit; excellent PTFA!; encouraging active travel and being vocal about dangerous / antisocial parking issues; and overall exceeding our expectations of what school can be! Thank you for everything.

Everything. My children have been happy and well looked
after and enjoyed both the school work and the extra-curricular
activities and friendships.

Archibald is such a caring, nurturing and happy place. All 3 of my boys
are thriving at school and absolutely love it. I couldn’t ask for more.

The school is very nurturing and includes parents and carers in all aspects of education and learning.

Great awareness of children’s mental health and well-being 

Children well cared for, happy to attend. Rounded curriculum. Good use of limited outdoor facilities. I feel teachers are available if needed. School office has always been helpful. There are still a lot of communications but it feels like the different channels for these have been rationalised this year.

They are there for both children and parents/carers and help in the best way they can

Incredible attention to the needs of individual children. Constant efforts to improve the learning experience.

Good range of curriculum, great trips, great outdoor space, learning about different cultures.

I find all teachers and all staff are very welcoming and approaching I would recommend the school to everyone!

Friendly staff!

Teaching staff put a lot into interactive sessions – e.g. Titanic day – which is much appreciated by children.

Lots of clubs and activities

We have two kids in Archibald, and feeling very grateful for the teachers of caring and
 educating them. They respect them as a different individual, but observing and
helping them to develop their own characters.

WHAT COULD THE SCHOOL CONSIDER TO IMPROVE?

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

• Provide more extra-curricular activities after school. I just don’t think there is a lot on offer.
• Offer more extra-curricular activities during the school day.  Whilst the clubs offered before/after school are great, some children do not wish to attend these/ parents unable to make arrangements for this.  Therefore, having things offered during the day allows children to experience new things and new interests with new people.
• Offer Art Classes each morning.

We are really proud of our extra-curricular offer and continue to add to the list as we work to provide a variety to cater for all ages and interests.

The table below shows the extra-curricular activities in place this year 2022-23.

Our larger hall is in use over lunchtime whilst the lower hall currently hosts the library, yoga and taekwondo. As our children use the entire school grounds at break and lunchtimes, we sadly do not have the space to increase the number of clubs offered during the school day. In addition, the staff need to set their classrooms up for the day ahead which restricts the use of these for clubs.

Next Steps:

• We will look for a provider for a Spanish club.
• If you have a company which could run a club for Archibald, please do get in touch with us.

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COMMUNICATION

78% of the replies indicated that we communicate well with you which was a positive response. However, when we looked at the comments for how we could further develop, communication was the common theme.

• Too much
• Too many different platforms
• Just need key dates
• Regular reminder texts the day before are needed
• Newsletters nice but not essential
• Lots of information is irrelevant to us
• Need to know the PE days

Our range of communication is in a bid to reach the families of all 352 children at Archibald but we recognise that this can be too much. We know ourselves from the number of emails, calls and letters we receive that there is a lot that we share, however, it is shared with the best of intentions to keep you informed.

Next Steps:

• Please use the website for key dates and events.
• No letters/messages/updates/reminders will be shared via Seesaw or Tapestry.

• Letters will continue to be emailed and added to the school website.

We have endeavoured to make this easier to use by creating a ‘Whole School’ letters page and one for EYFS, Year 1, Year 2 Year 3 and Year 4. Hopefully this will make it easier for our families to check which letters are most relevant to you and your child/children.

• All letters will require a digital return form and no paper forms will be sent out.

Our email and text message service provides us with the information of when letters and messages are sent, received and read. Going forwards we will post the date the letters are emailed out next to the letter for your reference.

• PE days will continue to be added to the front page of the year group curriculum booklets.

TOP TIP FROM MRS MCGURK
1. Create a new email address for the family to register with school e.g. McGurkschoolinfo@hotmail.com.
2. Ensure all parents/carers with parental responsibility have access to this email address.
3. Update your email with the school office.
The result – ALL school emails are in one place; they do not get lost amongst work or personal emails and all grown-ups have access too!

The school admin team are more than happy to help with any queries regarding the addresses / numbers registered on the system.

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HOMEWORK

In every questionnaire we undertake, homework continues to be the element that provokes conversation: too much, too little, too easy, too hard, online, offline…

Please see the Homework letters for information about what to expect: Whole School Letters – Archibald First School Please scroll to the bottom of the page.

As a school we are about to review how we approach spelling homework in school.

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