Parent Forum
Today was the first parent forum meeting of the year, and it was great to see and hear from parents who gave their views on different aspects of school with lots of praise and constructive criticism.
One area that came up was around behaviour in school.
The behaviour of children in Manor has always been exemplary but staff have noticed an increase in the low level disruptive behaviour at the start of this year. This is something that was picked up in our Fierté review recently and staff have made a concerted effort across school to clamp down on this to prevent it getting in the way of learning or causing accidents. This has meant a reduction in tolerance to behaviour such as repeatedly talking in class, moving around the classroom without permission, rough play such as grabbing hold of each other etc. Children still get warnings and final warnings before getting a yellow card but teachers are following through more with giving yellow and then red cards if it continues.
Staff have also worked on the small routines and expectations such as how we get children's attention, how children enter a classroom or transition from carpet to chairs etc. We have agreed more consistent approaches so we have the same high expectations of all children anywhere in school.
This raising of expectation has seen more teachers following through with yellow cards and parent forum reported noticing this at home. Our yellow cards are not necessarily reported to parents but red cards are. This is partly to make workload for staff manageable and also to maintain a clear differential between the level of a yellow (warning) card and a red card. If there is behaviour that we feel parents need to know about, teachers will have either spoken to you already at parents' evening or will let you know in the future, so if they haven't spoken to you, rest assured that there is nothing of concern to communicate.
This new approach over the past few weeks has had a clear impact in all classes and with most children.
Behaviour at Manor overall is still excellent and the children are all kind and caring. There is no malicious or worrying behaviour. We just want to keep those very high standards so all children are able to learn and be safe at playtimes.
Another topic at Parents Forum was around parking, especially at events such as the discos this week. Parents agreed there was little the school could do on a day-to-day basis, but some parents did then volunteer to put some cones out which worked really well to keep the access clear from the church to behind New Row. Please do continue to park considerately as Mrs Everett has to field regular phone calls from disgruntled neighbours who can't get access to or from their houses. Thank you.
If you have any items for the Parent Forum agenda for the next meeting which is to be held at 9-10am on Friday 7th February 2025, please either drop a note in to the school office or email Mr Robson on headteacher@manor.fierte.org
