Quality Mark Award Ceremony
It's Official
Caldicot Sandy Lane Infant school and Nursery Unit have officially been awarded the Quality Mark from the Basic Skills Agency.
What does this mean you may ask. Well there are ten elements that each school must meet:-
- Have a strategy and action plan to improve children's reading, writing and numberwork.
- Assess children to find out if they need extra help.
- Have a target for improving basic skills in the school.
- Have plans to help children improve their reading, writing and numberwork.
- Review the progress made by all the children.
- Provide training for staff so that they can teach better.
- Use different ways of teaching based on what each child needs.
- Have good books and other material to help their children improve.
- Encourage parents to help their children with reading, writing and numberwork.
- Monitor whether we are becoming better at teaching basic skills.
We are proud to say that Sandy Lane School meets all of these criteria.
The ceremony began with a powerpoint presentation by Miss Dykes, where she explained all about the Quality Mark and how we had achieved this coveted award.
Then the children took over, doing what they do best - entertaining everyone with their singing.
Each song had a numerical theme and the Nursery began with "One, Two, Three, Four, Five". This was followed by Reception singing "Over in the Meadow" and then Year 1 sang their favourite song about "Dr. Knickerbocker" counting to number nine. Lastly Year 2 really showed what they have learned in their years at Sandy Lane by singing a song about the "Calculator" we have in our heads and then working out some difficult sums to prove how clever they are.
After this came the serious part when Mr. Malcolm Morris, Head of School Improvement for Monmouthshire, stood up to say a few words and to hand over the plaque to Mrs. Richards, with an added extra!!
You could tell Mrs. Richards was pleased as she then opened a bottle of champagne which all our honoured guests were invited to share.
The day ended with parents being invited into the classrooms to observe children doing their literacy lessons and I feel sure I speak for everyone when I say it was a wonderful day and I feel very proud to be part of a great school like
Sandy Lane
