 | Occold School Term dates are in the Village Diary |  |
| 28 Feb 11 - Spring Update | |
| 2 Nov 10 - Half term report | |
It has been a very busy first half term here at school especially as on most mornings in the week we have got 69 children in school. Our number of pupils, when theoretically full is 70! We have appointed additional support staff to help with maintain our high standards. We also have 4.28 full time teachers and a mature degree holder on the Graduate Teacher Programme who is with us for the whole year….and by the end of June will be a qualified teacher. Early in September the Friends held another very successful Ball at Athelington Hall which raised over £2,700 which will be used to support additional activities for all the children in school. We are always very grateful for the massive amounts of support the Friends and parents which we get in school. It is not all about fund raising though as 120 breakfasts were provided on the morning of the Big Breakfast during British Food Fortnight and lots of help with ingredients and during the actual cooking the children did. Food Fortnight is a national event and we tailor it to enable all children to prepare fresh ingredients for a two course meal which the ‘chefs’ then eat! We have supported the Macmillan charity through the coffee morning, and donations from the Big Breakfast too this term. The community coffee mornings are being very well supported in school when all the school goes swimming on Friday morning. We now need two coaches to transport all the children to the pool at Diss and we thank everybody in the village community for their patience during pick up and drop off times. I must also thank Charles at the Beaconsfield Arms for his kindness in allowing the use of the car park at the start and end of our school days. | It does make it much safer in the vicinity of the school for all our children and parents too. We have changed our end of school routines to help as well with the children now being collected from the playground and all parents coming in to get them. We have held two meetings with parents this term. Firstly when teachers spoke with every parent about each child’s next steps in learning and then an open evening when we explained about levels of attainment, target setting and tracking children’s progress. We want the best for the children in Occold at all times and the partnership with parents is very important to that goal. There have been some visits out with Class Two to Colchester Castle linked to their work on the Romans. A really well organised and supported visit from which the children gained a great deal and have been inspired to work very hard with their learning for the last seven weeks. The year six children went to Debenham High School for a science day and had a brilliant time all round. There have been many clubs run through the half term including cheer leading which has been very enthusiastically supported by the children. And our Year 3, 4 and 5 children have all begun to learn a brass instrument with a peripatetic teacher each Wednesday morning. They are making great progress and hope to perform at Christmas-a small piece! Please keep up to date with school events on the village and school websites…and we hope to see as many of you as possible in the next few weeks. |
| Autumn Term 2010 | |
| This term we have started with sixty two children across the three classes with an additional seven children due to start during the year so by the end of this school year we may well be FULL! We have employed additional support staff to ensure we are able to help all the children within school as much as we can during their time at Occold. I have become concerned about safety at the end of the school day with so many children and adults around the school gate so when the children are being collected from the school playground instead of them just walking out to meet adults. Thank you to all drivers in the village who take such care driving past school at our busiest times as well. We will be very busy in school this term with Food Fortnight, Macmillan Coffee morning, The Big Breakfast, residential trip to North Norfolk, usual coffee mornings and all the traditional activities in the build up to the Festive Season. Of course the children will be learning all the usual subjects as well as English and maths. Class One are studying Houses and Homes, Class Two the Romans and Class Three are also studying a history project-Britain after 1948. If you think you can help in school-with a topic, helping with a club after school, or help with reading in class please contact us in school and we will sort out any checks that need doing. | As well as Mrs Batley teaching our older children how to play the recorder, guitar and ukulele our Year 3, 4 and 5 children –the 7 to 10 year olds will be learning brass instruments on Wednesday mornings as part of the Extended Opportunities Fund. This means that those children will receive one hour’s free tuition on a cornet, baritone-or possibly another instrument- throughout this school year. We will try to keep the Village Website up to date with information about events at school-we are having a few problems with our website at the moment due to having installed a new server in school and various pieces of information didn’t get transferred. Hope to see some of you in school during the term or around the village for a chat. |
| Apr 10 - Update | |
In September 2010 I will be returning to Occold in a fulltime role, as the partnership between Occold and Worlingworth has been terminated by the governors after very serious consideration. It has been a challenging few months for the school and I would like to publicly thank everybody for their continued support of the school and staff. We fully intend to make our community school as good as the children deserve it to be - which is fantastic! We now have 60 children on roll which is the highest number since 2002 and looks set to increase further in the next year. The success of Occold Primary school is down to the children, staff, parents, governors and community and it is important that we continue to work together. It is also true to say that the children from the Pre-school are also well prepared for the move to our setting and we are grateful to the staff in the Village Hall for all the hard work they do with the children. We have a new teacher, Miss Pearse, in Class One as Miss Ridd decided that teaching may not have been the right path for her. Mrs Batley and Mrs Crame continue to provide a great learning environment within their two classrooms, while also looking after the school while I am at Worlingworth. The children have had a great deal of fun with their learning since the New Year and made good progress. All the children had a parent, or parents who attended the Parent Consultations. | The children all took part in the Science Week in March and had a tremendous time just focussing on one subject -but lots of different aspects of it. The decision of the government to drop Science from the Tests at the end of Primary School, will not have any effect on how much time we spend focussing on the subject. Science is a very important subject within our timetable and will remain so in the future. The annual Celebration of Suffolk School’s Music, also took place during March and we took 32 children along to perform two songs, written by Mrs Knights especially for Snape, and an instrumental piece which the children composed themselves. The theme was around the environment and the applause the performance received was reward for all the hard work that went into the 12 minute show! Many other schools performed during the week and we were pleased to have been selected. Next term looks like another busy one for everybody at school and we look forward to seeing as many of you as we can at coffee mornings, other events, or within the village. Happy Easter to everybody in our community Kevin Knights |
| The Origins of Occold School | |
| A Parish School was built in 1849 by the rector. A SCHOOL BOARD for the united district of Occold and Rishangles was established in 1879, and consists of Edward Deek (Chairman), George Harris (vice-chairman), Rev. H. L. Todd, | Hy Wells, and James Breeze. Mr W. Cook, of Rishangles, is the clerk. The school was built in 1879 at a cost of £700, to accommodate 120 children. White’s Directory of Suffolk 1885. |