Creating a Vibrant Whole School Learning Environment

The school is well above national in reading, writing and maths progress figures.

We were graded as RI and had a falling roll, which needed to change if the school was to remain viable. We moved to good in October 2014 and our results have vastly improved.

We have created a whole school learning environment in the following ways:

• Our website is an important window into what we do, and therefore we have used it to upload videos that explore methods of learning; 
• We use programmes such as Aurasma to support speaking and presentation skills, as children prepare interactive ‘auras’ to share projects and information;
• Our outside areas are more like a garden than a typical playground, with children able to interact with the pond, with growing plants, mud areas, wildlife, and flower borders.  We utilise any offers of support from the local community to make these areas as homely and child-focussed as possible;
• We place a lot of emphasis on science to support our maths and English curriculum, with dedicated science and technology corners within the school, which include science equipment and are interactive;
• Our outside classroom areas include a writing shed, with every type of chalk, pen, pencil available for children to write whenever.  We encourage writing to be a fun and exciting activity, especially in the early years;
• We encourage children to learn outside, and interact with outside, as often as possible, regardless of the weather;
• We emphasise the importance of learning musical instruments and insist that whole classes learn an instrument.  This provides the children with resilience and a sense that practice and hard work yields results;
• We have a collaborative approach to learning across the school, with children having many opportunities to share their learning experiences.  We go out on whole school trips regularly, to encourage and support social skills, and we use every opportunity to interact with the local community, including fund-raising activities.

With a small school and tight budgets, we try to make use of free apps, the generosity of the local community and we re-use and recycle as much as possible! We do, however, prioritise spending on resources that will really impact on childrens’ learning.

Somerleyton’s Ofsted report states that “The headteacher, ably assisted by staff and governors, has been effective in improving teaching and achievement significantly over the past year. She is highly ambitious for the continued success of the school.