Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Thank you for on behalf of all our staff for the gifts and cards that you have given to us. Your good wishes and generosity are greatly appreciated. As we come to the end of 2013, it is worth taking stock again of how far the school has continued to move forward. For too long it has been assumed that pupils from Harold Hill won’t achieve, that they can’t be as good as the kids from Upminster or Gidea Park. This year we showed again that our pupils can make outstanding progress and achieve outstanding results. We had double the number of children reach Level 6 in Maths than the national average. Our school was second in the whole of Havering for progress and 9th in terms of attainment for maths and literacy. In KS1 we exceeded the national expectation for reading and our Year 1 pupils beat the national average by 10% in their phonics scores. It isn’t just academics where we have seen great progress. When your children go into the community, or we have visitors in, the feedback is always incredibly positive about their behaviour, politeness and attitude. Our vision has been to ensure that we are the Best School on the Hill, but now we need to think beyond RM3. We will be relentless in our search for continued improvement so that your children get the very best possible start in life and can leave us equipped to make the very most of their undoubted potential.

I couldn’t be prouder as a Headteacher of the effort you have made as parents to raise aspirations and support your children; the hard work of our teachers to ensure your children get the good and outstanding quality of education they deserve; the pupils who have risen to every challenge that has been given to them. Christmas is a time where you are to count your blessings and I am very aware of how blessed I am to have Broadford Primary as the place where I get to come to work every day. We should all be very proud of what we have done so far together and what we can go onto achieve from such a position of strength. 2014 brings us the chance to show Ofsted what a good school we have become again and I couldn’t be more excited to tell them about our children, families, teachers and Governors.

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you all again on January 6th to start the Spring term. Enjoy the break and see you in 2014!