What a year it’s been! Thank you to all of our children and families. This video should give you an idea of the things we got up to in 2016-17…

Have a fantastic summer. See you on the other side!

Have you ever wanted to know how we teach letter formation in school? Mrs. Forbes and Mrs. Taylor have created a handy guide to show you exactly how we do it! Click here to visit the Letter Formation page, or find it under Learning Links in the menu bar.

Here’s an example of what you’ll find there:

We hope you find this useful!

Good news – we’ve been presented with an attendance award by Rotherham Local Authority for achieving a fantastic 96.7% attendance last year! Well done everyone!

The children had a very exciting assembly this morning, when a mad scientist came to visit! He made water disappear (by soaking it up with a special powder called Sodium Polyacrylate) and even made some children hover! I’m sure he will have inspired some future scientists – mad or otherwise…

Do you have the skills, dedication and commitment required to serve your community as a co-opted school governor at Anston Greenlands Primary School?

The Governing Body, school leadership team and staff have a shared vision for the future of Anston Greenlands Primary School – a future that puts children at the heart of all we do, transforms children’s lives and gives them the very best foundations in life as they continue their journey into secondary education. Our ambition for our school is not limited by achieving an Ofsted outstanding rating, but aims for every aspect of the school experience to be outstanding. As Governors, we are “guardians of the vision” and are proud to serve on the Governing Body of our very special school.

The role of a school Governing Body has never been more important – rightly, the government and Ofsted have high expectations of us. Our role is strategic, not operational, with 3 key aims:

• Ensuring the clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school;
• Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and ensuring money is well-spent.

In summary, governance is about overseeing the success of the school, not running or managing it – that is the job of paid professionals. It is about agreeing strategic priorities and monitoring progress towards them.

We already have a strong and effective Governing Body at Anston Greenlands Primary School but are looking to develop and further strengthen our team. We now have a vacancy for a co-opted governor with the skills, dedication and commitment to contribute to our school.

We are looking for a local person with a mix of skills and experience; someone who works well within a team of like-minded, diligent people who are passionate about helping children achieve their very best in an exciting and welcoming school. All Governors are expected to undertake training and development and to comply with our Governing Body code of conduct, including acting in strict confidence and applying Nolan’s Seven Principles of Public Life.

A Governor should expect to volunteer for the equivalent of six to ten days per year, depending on their specific roles; this includes training and development, meetings, preparation for meetings (eg reading papers in advance) and other responsibilities as required (eg as a named governor on one of the school’s strategic priorities). Some of this time will be during the day, but much will be in the evenings – for example we hold full Governing Body and Committee meetings each half-term usually on Wednesday evenings at 6pm.

You can find out more about our school and its governance at www.anstongreenlands.org. In addition, more general information about school governance can be found at:

• www.inspiringGovernors.org – an alliance working together to improve school governance; and
• www.nga.org.uk – the National Governors’ Association is an independent charity supporting and promoting outstanding governance to improve educational standards and well-being of children and young people.

If you are potentially interested in applying to become a co-opted school Governor, or would just like an initial chat, please get in touch with me, on a confidential, no obligation basis, at kbottomley@anstongreenlands.org

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kim Bottomley
Chair of Governors, Anston Greenlands Primary School

Dear Parents, Carers and Friends,

Welcome to the new school year! I am writing to introduce myself as the new head teacher. I’d like to let you know a little about myself and my beliefs, as well as the future I see for our school.

As many of you may already know, until last year I was the year 6 teacher here at Greenlands. What you may not know is that I first worked at the school as a teaching assistant a decade ago! For the last ten years, this fantastic school has been at the centre of my professional life: it has shaped my beliefs about education and its fabulous children and staff have driven my desire to take on the role of head teacher.

I hope that my beliefs will be familiar to those of you with children at Greenlands, as they are very much in line with the school’s ethos. First and foremost, I believe that children have a right to feel safe and happy in their environment. After all, everybody should enjoy coming to school! From there, it is our challenge as a school community to ensure that every child makes progress; by the time they leave they leave Greenlands, we want our children to be well-rounded, well-educated young people who are ready to take on the world! Our enterprising curriculum is designed with this aspiration in mind.

The most effective schools are those with a sense of community, where the children, staff, parents and governors all work together and pull in the same direction. I believe we have that at Greenlands, and for that reason the future looks very bright! With your support, we will continue to strive for the best for our children and to provide the most innovative, engaging and inspirational education we can.

Finally, it’s over to you! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about anything to do with our school, please don’t hesitate to come in and see me. My door will always be open.

Many thanks,

Mr. A Wirth

The fashion capitals of the world: Paris, Milan, New York and… Anston!

For Golden Golden Time this term, the children worked in teams to create and model an incredible array of hats! As always, the teams were made up of children from every class in school, which meant that effective teamwork and communication were very important. Those were certainly not the only enterprise skills on show though – all resources had to be bought or hired, so the groups had to decide how to spend their Greenlands Gringotts wisely…

Have a look at these pictures of the catwalk, alongside the prizewinners with their fabulous winning design!