Iver Village Infant School - Caring, Growing, Learning in the Heart of the Community

Welcome to our school newsletter - Issue 23

Wednesday 20th July 2016
As we move towards the close of another school year at Iver Village Infant School, I would like to give my
heartfelt thanks to you for your continued support. We have made great progress again and it has been wonderful to
receive so many positive comments from parents, carers, the local and wider community which reflect the growing
confidence in our school. We are hugely proud of the children who are a real credit to our school and to you as parents and carers. Our EYFS and Year 2 data is above the Bucks figure for children achieving the expected standard in all
three individual subjects of reading, writing and mathematics. This represents an incredible achievement for the children, especially given the new curriculum which has raised the standards required, considerably. The work year on
year to improve the quality of education is evident in your childrens success and is a testament to their hard work and
the skill and dedication of all the staff.
It is a joy to see happy children every school day, achieving and succeeding every step of the way. This year, we have
increased; the number of school trips, clubs and strengthened our support of childrens emotional well-being and
resilience and worked very hard to ensure that academic success reaches new heights. We have been truly amazed at
all the compliments from members of the public about the exemplary conduct of our children. You have supported
our FISA events raising funds which have been ploughed back into resources across the school. We have been very
grateful to parents who have attended the Parents' Forum. Their feedback, detailing both our strengths and areas for
development, has such a positive impact on the success of the school.
On behalf of the Iver Village Infant School Staff, I would like to wish you all an enjoyable and safe summer holiday. We
wish all the very best to staff leaving us Mrs Monk and Miss Rakki and thank them for their commitment to the school
and their relentless focus on making sure your children have the very best education. We also wish our Year 2 pupils
all the very best for a bright and successful future we hope they look back at their time at Iver Village Infant School
with fondness and happy memories. I will see you all as school opens at 8.45 am on Monday 5th September 2016.
I look forward to seeing our pupils in their smart Iver Village Infant School uniform, ready for the challenges of a new
academic year!

Forest School is an inspirational process that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to
achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a
woodland or natural environment. The setting up of our Forest Schools continues with Miss
Styles having successfully completed the 5 day, Forest school training. Is it possible that any
Parents or family member can help us with contributing to the setting up of our forest school
site? The specific equipment below do not need to be new just in a safe workable order.
We will need things like:
Cut off logs to create a bug hotel/ logs for a log seat circle/Big logs/Sticks/kindling
Old pots/pans/ utensils/ kids workbenches for the mud kitchen
Tarpaulins/Garden string/Bird feeders
Spare children's clothes (long sleeve tops/trousers etc for the sessions)
Paintbrushes/ Buckets/trugs
Large metal basket or Fire basket
Spades/ trowels/buckets/ wheelbarrow
Old wooden pallets/ bricks with holes/ bamboo bits etc for a bug house.

Headteacher : Ms Sam Woodcock

office@iver-inf.bucks.sch.uk

www.iver-inf.bucks.sch.uk
01753655104

A message from our Chair of Governors

As Chair I would like to say on behalf of all the Governors a very big thank you to all of you for supporting us
so amazingly over this last year as we move to a new chapter in the life of our wonderful school. The result of
our consultation with you about lowering our age of admission to 2 years old and merging the nursery in
Richings Park with our school was overwhelmingly positive. We are now waiting for agreement from County
that they formally approve the arrangement from Sept. All the present nursery staff will be joining us and we
have appointed a nursery teacher who joins us in September. We are very excited about this move and look
forward to a rewarding venture for all and we are sure it will be a positive benefit to our school.
The Governing body would also like to thank Ms Woodcock and her amazing staff for the way they have
coped brilliantly over the year with what seemed like constant external changes to what we need to do as a
school. They have had to incorporate these into their already expert knowledge and understanding of
childrens needs.
The primary curriculum changed in September 2015. Who would have thought our reception children now
know what an algorithm is and debugging means? They do! There was a very big change in how we should
assess children so we can report childrens achievements to the DFE and you, with no real advice as to how to
do this. It has been a difficult exercise but Ms Woodcock, her Deputy Ms James and the staff have coped with
this amazingly.
Becoming an academy or being part of a Multi-Academy Trust was to be compulsory by 2020 and then this
requirement was withdrawn after concerns from school and local authorities., We have started looking into
what it would mean for the school but there is no rush and we want to make sure we do what is right for OUR
school. Before doing anything we would fully consult with parents and the wider community. We want to
thank all of the parents and carers who have contributed ideas and suggestions at the Parents' Forum sessions
this year. We continue to value your contributions and comments and we look forward to meeting more parents throughout next year's programme of meetings. Information on dates and venue will be published in the
school newsletter.
We are very sad to report that Rick Kightley has resigned as a full Governor. He is our Vice Chair and has been
an amazing support to me over the years he has been a Governor. He also kept us on our toes as Chair of our
Health, Safety and Premises committee. Luckily we have managed to persuade him to stay as an Associate
Governor where he will offer us advice and support in health and safety issues and I think he still plans to
come to our parent forums. Thanks again.
We have welcomed a new Associate Governor this year. David Martland joins us with a wealth of experience in
Finance and we hope he will become a full Governor after a year.
We will be advertising for a parent governor when we come back in September so if you want to know more
about it, please ask Ms Woodcock or arrange to meet with me to find out what it means.
We would also like to say a very warm and heartfelt thank you to the fabulous children of the school. At our
governors day in April when most of us spent a day in school and on our regular visits to the school, we are
all welcomed into the school like old friends. They chatted to us about what they were learning and how
teachers were challenging them to do their very best work. Their behaviour in and around the school was exemplary! We really enjoy coming into school to see what is happening.
Our exit poll with year 2 leavers parents has been very positive with many of you saying lovely things about
the school and how you would recommend us wholeheartedly to other parents. Thank you.
I hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday and we look forward to welcoming you back in September
for another exciting year at Iver Village Infant School.
Joyce Young

Headteacher : Ms Sam Woodcock

office@iver-inf.bucks.sch.uk

www.iver-inf.bucks.sch.uk
01753655104