All Saints C of E Primary School
ALL SAI NTS
C of E PRI MARY
HEAD TEACHER APPLICATION INFORMATION PACK
THE VALUES OF ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL
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Every child will be challenged to be the best that he or she can be.
Everyone who is part of the school; parents/carers, staff and governors will have the highest
aspirations for what the children can achieve.
The curriculum should be rich, challenging and age appropriate. It should celebrate the diversity and
benefits of growing up in a multi-ethnic society and world.
All children will be well prepared to meet the challenges of secondary education, the world of work
and become positive members of society.
Every child’s spiritual journey is valued. Children will be introduced to the study of Christianity, and
also helped to understand and acknowledge the integrity of other faiths and the ethical codes of
those who do not subscribe to any faith or creed.
A high priority is given to good manners and respect and the rejection of bullying and aggression. All
adults; staff, parents and governors, sign up to these values and are accountable for their behaviour
with each other and the examples they set for children.
These values were drawn up after wide consultation with governors, staff, pupils, parents and the Church
Council of All Saints’ Church in 2012 to mark the creation of the new school.
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LOCATION OF THE SCHOOL.
All Saints is located in the Upper Norwood district of The London Borough of Croydon. It stands within a
triangular area of open land bordered by Beulah Hill the A215, Church Road the A212, and Upper Beulah Hill.
The school benefits from having access to a large grass landscaped playing area between itself and All Saints’
Church. The Crystal Palace TV tower is nearby. The immediate area around the school is mainly residential
housing made up of blocks of flats, detached and semidetached buildings. The school is a 5 minute walk away
from the Crystal Palace shopping area, which contains a wide range of shops, cafes and restaurants. The area
is well served by public transport, numerous buses go past the school and the Crystal Palace Railway Station is
within walking distance. The Crystal Palace Park and The Crystal Palace National Recreational Centre is nearby
and the children use the swimming baths for their swimming lessons.
THE SCHOOL.
All Saints is a two form entry Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School within the Diocese of
Southwark and is supported by the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education. The school has good relations
with Croydon Local Authority and uses a number of its resources.
For many years the school was divided into two, a separate nursery and infant’s school with Community
status and a junior school with Voluntary Controlled Church of England status. The first move to bring the two
schools together was through creating a federation with the schools retaining their original status. This meant
that both schools had the same governing body and the same headteacher but still remained separate
through having separate budgets and subject to separate Ofsted inspections.
The final step in creating one primary school was achieved in September 2012 when the two schools were
merged under the status of a Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School. This change was celebrated
by the new school adopting a common set of values, see page? These values were drawn up after a
consultation exercise that included staff, governors, parents and pupils. This was made visible by a new school
uniform and a new school motto “All Believing. All Achieving”.
The benefits of becoming one school were quickly apparent, staff who could now work across the one school,
better use of resource through having one budget and the whole school having a clear Christian ethos
allowing all the children to come together for assemblies and services in All Saints Church. To mark the union
a new larger staff room and school entrance were created.
The building although on one site still has the structures of the two former separate schools. The Nursery
benefits from a separate building with a large classroom and excellent outdoor facilities. The two Reception
Classes are linked to the Nursery by sharing similar outdoor facilities. The classrooms for Years 1 and 2 border
a separate infant playground and have good access to an infant hall. The infant and junior buildings are linked
together through a shared indoor space which joins the infant hall to a larger junior hall. The junior
classrooms are contained within two separate units which are linked to the main building. The school has
separate rooms for the school office, senior staff, group work, after school club, a breakfast club and a
computer suite. The school has its own kitchens.
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There is a separate junior playground with recently installed play equipment. An outstanding resource for the
whole school is the large outdoor grass area. Presently this is used for games, a play area and a nature
resource. On the school site there is an empty house that used to house the school keeper. Since the present
two school keepers live off-site this is a potential resource to the school.
A priority for the new headteacher will be to work with governors, the diocese and the local authority to
create and resource a building plan that will adapt and re-structure the building to improve the
management and learning environment of staff and pupils.
LINKS WITH ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH.
All Saints Church of England Church, the school’s founding church, stands in the same grounds and has strong
links with the school. Father Leonard, the parish priest, is an ex-officio governor and provides a chaplaincy
service to the school staff. He regularly visits the school and is used as a resource for class R. E. lessons.
The school visits the church to celebrate All Saints Day, Christmas, Easter and the Year 6 Leavers’ Service. In
2011 the church went through extensive internal works and is now very child friendly with good views and
good acoustic systems. Another visible link between the church and school is the junior choir drawn from
pupils at the school, who meet once a week lead by the All Saints’ clergy and regularly take part in services at
the church. One of the challenges facing the new head teacher will be to strengthen and develop this
partnership.
THE SCHOOL WEB-SITE. There is a large amount of information about the school on the web-site.
www.allsaintsschoolcroydon.org.
Under the Our School tab you will find information on; admissions, the school prospectus, staffing structure,
the recent Ofsted report, (essential reading) the last church school inspection, performance data, school
awards and uniform.
Under the Our Curriculum tab information on the new national curriculum, the early years foundation stage
curriculum, the key stages 1 and 2 curriculums, advice to parents about supporting their child’s reading, the
sports premium, enrichment, and the wider curriculum
Under the Inclusion tab information on the pupil premium, more able provision, special needs and English as
an Additional language.
Under the Year Groups tab examples of learning from the nursery to year 6 and advice on homework
Under the Governors tab information on the structure of the governing body and minutes of recent meetings
Under the Parents tab information on the PTA, the recent parents questionnaire and parent view
Under celebrating success tab information about events celebrating the life of the school.
Under the clubs tab information about the breakfast club, after school club and other school clubs.
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In a recent questionnaire to parents the majority of parents said they didn’t use the school web-site. One of
the challenges for the new head teacher will be to make the web-site more attractive to parents and the
wider community.
THE PUPILS.
The school admission policy is structured so that it draws pupils from its immediate neighbourhood and this
result in a richly diverse intake that is typical of many South London Primary Schools. In 2014 the number on
roll was 443 of which 49.5% were eligible for free school meals. This figure generated £260,000 for the school
budget. 42.5% of pupils have another language other than English as their first language, regarding special
needs 9% are at school action and 11.3% at school action plus or with a statement of SEN. Stability is in line
with the national average while social deprivation is higher than the national average. The ethnic diversity of
the pupils is a strength of the school with significant children from White British, White Other Background,
Shared Background, Black British, Black Caribbean and Black African groups. Figures taken from the Raise on Line
Report 2014.
THE GOVERNING BODY.
When the school was merged in 2012 a new school governing body was created to reflect the school’s new
status. However many of the previous governors stayed on providing the school with continuity. Excluding the
head teacher position there are 13 governors. As part of the recommendations of the Ofsted report a review
of the governing body was carried out and presently the governors are putting in place an action plan to make
themselves a more effective body. Another recommendation was to improve the governors’ skills at using
data so in the past term a number of governors have received training on how to interpret and “Raise on
Line”. Also a group of governors have received training on how to be more effective in monitoring the
spending of The Pupil Premium budget.
PARENTS.
The vast majority of parents actively support the school by attending parents’ evenings to discuss their child’s
progress and attending events such as Christmas productions, class assemblies, prize giving’s and talent
shows. Last term 70 parents completed a questionnaire with very positive answers, such as 97% of parents
felt that they had a clear picture of their child’s strengths and areas for development (49% of these parents
strongly agreed) after meeting their child’s teacher at parents evening. Also 93% valued the school having a
Christian foundation. For further replies see the parents section on the web-site.
However a small but significant number of parents have difficult relations with the school. A number have
been supported through the work of the school’s family support worker. However one of the challenges of
the new head teacher will be to engage with these parents so that home and school work together for the
benefit of all the children.
OFSTED.
The school’s recent Ofsted placed the school in the “Requires Improvement” category with each of the four
sections; Achievement of pupils, Quality of Teaching, Behaviour, and Leadership all being graded as “Requiring
Improvement”. However there are many strengths in the report. Colin Powell, The Director of Education for
the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education commented
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“The report lists many strengths to be proud of and on which the school can build. The leadership and
management section is particularly encouraging…The eradication of inadequate teaching the rigorous systems
of appraisal, pupil tracking and improved consistency as well as the work reaching out to parents are all
praised”. He also wrote. “The quality of teaching, as it is now, reads very positively. It is unfortunately judged
as requiring improvement because of historical issues. The report identifies the good progress in the Early
Years, Foundation Stage and KS1, progress is improving in KS2 and for pupils eligible for pupil premium
funding. The good progress of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is also
commented on”.In October 2014 we had our first monitoring visit by an HMI. See the school web-site for a complete copy. He
stated, “Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvements
identified at the recent section 5 inspection” And “The governing body, leaders and teachers have acted
quickly to address the key issues. They have wasted no time in getting started on their journey of
improvement”.
One of the challenges facing the new headteacher, will be to build on these strengths so that in future
inspections the school is judged to be good and ultimately outstanding.
RECENT STANDARDS.
Key Stage 2. The SAT results of 2014 were disappointing. 70% achieved level 4 or more in math’s, 74%
achieved level 4 or more in Reading and 84% achieved level 4 or more in Writing. For the English Grammar,
Punctuation and Spelling 70% achieved level 4 or more.
The pleasing outcomes were that we maintained our strong position in writing and that 6 pupils, 11%
achieved level 6 in maths against a national average of 6%. However only 60% of pupils gained a level 4 in
math’s, reading and writing combined so were below the government floor target of 65%. This was due to 8
children gaining level 4 or more in reading and writing but failed to get a level 4 or more in maths.
Key Stage 1. The SAT results of 2014 were very pleasing. In reading 83% gained level 2B or more, national
81%. In writing 70% gained level 2B or more, national 70% and math’s 78% gained level 2B or more, national
80%. Also the higher ability pupils did well with levels consistent with the national average.
Year 1 Phonic Screening, Here 66% of pupils met the required standard, considering the low level of
attainment of a significant number of pupils on entry this was a satisfactory achievement compared with a
national average of 74%. It was noticeable that only 54% of FSM pupils gained the expected standard
compared with 76% of non FSM.
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