FARNEY CLOSE SCHOOL
PARENTS AND CARERS
NEWSLETTER No 5 v2
Autumn 2022
I hope that this finds you and yours well. I write to bring you up to date with what has been a very busy term.
Ofsted
We welcomed Ofsted education in October. We only receive Education Inspections approximately every three years. Our last inspection was in December 2018 where we found ourselves being placed in “Requires improvement to be Good”. This was quite a blow, given our previous positive inspections, however we embraced the challenge and worked hard to address the identified issues and move ourselves forward. COVID meant that our next inspection was delayed but we welcomed two Inspectors for three days on the 4th October. I am pleased to say that we were judged as Good in every area (Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, and Leadership and Management) resulting in an overall judgement of Good. It was made clear to us at feedback that we are close to being Outstanding in all areas.
On the 1st of November we then welcomed our Ofsted Social Care Inspectors, who visit each year to review our residential provision. Again, there were two Inspectors in school for three days. We await the report from this inspection so are not allowed to share our outcome yet but rest assured that we are happy with how the inspection
went.
Thank you so much to all parents and carers that responded to questionnaires or/and spoke to Inspectors on the phone. Your feedback clearly helped us to achieve these positive judgments. Your children all did you, and us, proud, talking to Inspectors about their views of the school day, the residential provision and more generally
about their experience of attending Farney Close. Unfortunately, the Inspectors visited during a period when we had lost telephone lines and emails etc due to a tree falling in the storm the evening before. We apologise for the disruption this may have caused you in contacting the school. Ofsted took the decision to randomly contact a number of parents direct as we were unable to send out the usual notification letter.
Copies of the Education report is attached to this letter. I will forward the care report to you once we receive it. Both report will be published on the school’s website www.farneyclose.co.uk|
These judgments and supporting reports are the result of the hard work and commitment of an excellent staff team here at Farney Close. We have been on a journey, and this has clearly been recognised in both inspections. I am honoured and proud that the Directors selected me to take the school on this journey back in April 2019.
The Farney Close main building and grounds.
Unfortunately, due to various unforeseen circumstances, our main building is still surrounded in scaffolding with work continuing. It is now likely to be well into the new year before we say farewell to our builders, but I am sure that when we do they will be leaving us with a fantastic looking building that is repaired and refreshed.
The woods and fencing on the other hand have been completed ahead of schedule. We are now a completely secure site as well as having grounds that are safe and far clearer for the children to play in. Where once we were shrouded and could not really be seen from the road, we are now more visible. We are seeking mature trees to fill the gaps so that our presence, once again, is discrete.
The therapy suite
This is now totally refurbished and looks amazing. Sue, our school therapeutic counsellor and Lucy, our Art Therapist work out of this area with the use of the third room to be decided.
The cookery classroom
The refit is complete and also looks amazing as well as being far more fit for purpose.
Fundraising
This has been in full swing this term with events such as a Farney Charity Football Tournament organised by Dom with funds going towards his Movember challenge and also towards more items for our Sensory room (The Hush).
https://movember.com/m/dominichaycock?mc=1
Enrichment day
This is taking place on the 7th December for our Primary pupils and the 8th for our Secondary school. Primary are off to the Panto whereas secondary are undertaking a range of activities, most with a Christmas focussed.
Goodbyes and Hellos
This term we are saying Goodbye to Andy (Maintenance), Corrie (Performing Arts teacher) and Elizabeth (Day pastoral worker). At Christmas we are also saying Goodbye to Leslie who has worked at Farney since 2014 as one of our Maths teachers, Jinny (Music teacher) who has worked with us since 2018 and Caron who works in our school kitchen and leaves us after 7 years. I wish them all the very best with their future plans.
We have welcomed Eva who has just joined us this term as a Teaching Assistant on Primary and James, Dawn, Katie, Nick, Vish and Chris, who are all members of teaching staff, that joined us at the start of term. Jodie has joined our cleaning department. They have all settled in really well and love being here as much as we value having them on board.
End of term reports
These are busily being prepared and will be with you prior to the end of term. With regards to any questions, observations or general queries that you have can I ask that you place these on the comment section and send them back into school or email our Head of Education (James Mills) on jmills@farneyclose.co.uk as there will not be a formal parent / carer consultation until the new year. As previously, our teachers will go through these reports individually with their tutor group.
Attendance postcards are going out to those that have 95% attendance or over. Principal postcards will also go out to those that I have identified as doing really well over the year.
Christmas
Due to poor weather we had to cancel our Firework night so plan to let them off during our Farney Christmas week. More details concerning this will be shared nearer the time as it will continue to be weather dependant. Other details are as follows:
• Wednesday 7th December – Christmas Jumper / T-shirt / dress day – please
support your child in taking part with this. All proceeds go to the ANKOMA
charity that we support.
• Tuesday 13th December:
o Farney Close children and staff Christmas lunch
• Wednesday 14th December:
o Carol service which parents and carers are invited to join us for
(details below). Last year (due to Covid) we did this outdoors which was hugely
successful so our hope is that the weather will be kind and we will be able to
do the same this year, else it will be held in our conference room.
o School closes for the Christmas and New Year break returning on
Wednesday 4th January 2023.
I would like to invite you all into school on the morning of Wednesday 14th December 2022 to join us for our carol service. This will be the first time that we have felt able to invite people into school on mass since prior to COVID. It will start at 11am but we would love you to join us for coffee and mince pies from 10.30am.
This will be the children’s last morning in school prior to the Christmas break so those parents and carers that are able to join us for the morning would be taking their child home with them after the carol service whilst all others will travel home via their normal mode of transport at 12 which is when we are anticipating that the service
will end. We will be in contact to see if you can join us on Wednesday 15th.
I hope to see many of you at our carol service but for those that I don’t, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy 2023.
Thank you
I hope that you will join me in thanking all of the staff that work at Farney Close for their comment and hard work. Without every member of our team we could not provide the service that we do. Thank you for the support you have offered the school and for the dedication that you show your child that makes our job that much easier.
Have a wonderful break and we look forward to seeing your child back with us in January.
Kindest of Regards
Sara
Should you require support or advice, please follow the links below.
If you wish to contact us about a Safeguarding issue please email
dsl@farneyclose.co.uk
The Senior Leadership Team (Sara, Ray, Steve and James) will also be accessing
their emails at points over the break.
A member of staff will be in contact with parents and carers on Tuesday 3rd
January.
The school reopens for children on Wednesday 4th January 2023.
If you require further support, please consider the following links:
Childline – 0800 1111 – https://www.childline.org.uk/
NSPCC – 0808 800 5000 – https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/ourservices/nspcc-helpline/
NHS mental health support – https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/mentalhealth-services/how-to-access-mental-health-services/
Action for Children –
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Internet Safety –
https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/internetsafety.htm?utm_source=bing&utm_med
um=ad&utm_campaign=pp-online-safety
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