Welcome to Ladysmith Junior School

We have been a junior school a whole year now. It has been a busy and exciting year, and we have worked hard to make our school an exciting, learning community for pupils and staff. During the year 2005/6 we have:

Settled in 240 new children
Built new toilets for boys, and for staff
Redecorated every classroom
Recarpeted every classroom
Redecorated the hall and improved the floor
Painted the railings and improved the front of the school grounds
Designed and fitted new school signs
Bought, fitted and are using 17 interactive whiteboards for learning
Bought and are using 96 laptops - 6 per class
Cleared the quad and repaired the pond, with a fountain presented to us by the parents
Bought new furniture for Y6 and Y5
Survived OFSTED and improved our SAT results
Got better at Maths and writing across the school
Talked with children in Brest, in Britanny, - Ecole St Jean Mace, and their head teacher Catherine St Jalme
Children have been on residential activity weeks
Had a wonderful Christmas concert and end of year Y6 play
Supported many charities including our link school in Uganda
Developed Shakeawake - fitness activities before school
Developed Take Ten, brain gym activities
Developed our school council
Worked closely with Ladysmith Infant School
Offered children a counselling service
Called on the school nurse, mental health support and educational welfare to support parents and children
Worked hard to identify, and get rid of bullying
Developed a cross curricular theme based curriculum in Y3
Took netball and footie teams to matches
Took part in cricket and athletics celebrations
Had a wonderful, hot, sunny set of sports days, which parents, staff and children enjoyed
Took a choir to the Exeter Singing Festival
Teachers have learned even more about assessment for learning, learning styles, emotional literacy, and much more

Thank you children - thank you teachers - thank you learning support assistants and meal time assistants- thank you our wonderful caretaker, and his cleaners and most of all thank you parents for the support and care you have given to children and staff.

What will happen in 2006 - 7? Watch this spot!

Ben Bradshaw, our local MP is impressed with Year 3's work on recycling. He enjoyed their retelling of the story "The Paper Bag Prince" and gave them a worm composter to help them to be even more effective recyclers. Year 3 have also been recycling Yellow Pages!

As a school, we understand that the learning of both the children and adults in our school community is interlinked so we make sure that everyone is given the opportunities to develop and extend their learning and knowledge.

All of our children are valued for their uniqueness and have different strengths and interests. We celebrate success, and build on strengths, but we also encourage and support people so that they grow in the areas in which they are not so strong. We want children to develop a real sense of self and to have high self-esteem so that they are happy and motivated at school and home and achieve their best.

Lots of research is going on into how the brain develops and how teaching and learning can be better, and we are always interested in finding out about this. Our children and staff value the way that we make the curriculum hands on, exciting and motivating and especially develop opportunities for music, drama, sport and art. We have high expectations of our children and believe this encourages them to succeed not just academically, but also spiritually, socially, emotionally and physically.

School We look forward to meeting you in person, and hope that you will enjoy finding out about us here online.

Jackie Jackson
Headteacher