Wednesday 1st April (camberwellpark Admin)

I hope this message finds everyone safe and well 

It is a difficult time at the moment as we all face the challenges of the COVID19 virus

I am so appreciative of the support of our families working with us to limit the spread of the virus 

I also wish to commend my staff team who are working really hard to keep connected with oour families who are at home and there is some fabulous home learning going on! Most of our home learning is via our secure class dojo online system however do check out our 'Home Learning Page' on the school website too

During this period I will not maintain this regular blog however will keep the home page of our website updated with any new informatiion

Our children may not be in the school building at the moment but they still remain very much at the heart of the school and are in our thoughts as we continue our home learning programme

With my very best wishes to everyone to keep safe and well

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th March (camberwellpark Admin)

We find ourselves in a strange and challenging time regarding the spread of Covid19 and how we can best mimise the risk to pupils and staff whilst trying to keep the school open and 'business as usual' as far as possible.

We have a comprehensive risk assessment which we update when we receive any new advice and we have a statement on our website which we will keep updated too.

Please be assured that the children remain at the heart of the way we are responding to and managing the situation in school.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 9th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a very exciting week for our year 6's as this week several of them are going on a residential visit to The Children's Adventure Farm . Some children are going today until Wednesday and others on Wednesday until Friday. We know they are going to have a fabulous time!

This afternoon the governor recruitment panel are meeting to shortlist for the headteacher post in September 2020. The interviews for the post are at the end of March 2020. I look forward to working with who ever is successful in the summer term to make the transition as smooth and supported as possible for everyone involved. 

On Friday this week I am meeting with my special school headteacher colleagues. We meet each half - term and work collaboratively on a range of issues including challenge and supporting each other to ensure we are all being the best we can be for our pupils and their families. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 3rd March (camberwellpark Admin)

We are already on Tuesday lunchtime as I write this blog on another busy but exciting week!

Yesterday we acknowledged St David's Day in school which included a special St David's day lunch of Chicken and Leek stew - It was delicious!

This evening is the community consultation event for our new building. The school will be open from 3.30 - 7 p.m. with representatives from Manchester City Council and the architect / building team for members of the community to view the plans for the new building and chat to school staff. We are looking forward to welcoming people here later.

Thursday this week is World Book Day - always a special day in the school calendar! There are alsorts of activities planned for the day including a book character hunt around school and dressing up as a book character. This year I am also going to read a story to every class in school which I am very much looking forward to!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 24th February (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a rainy morning in Manchester but never the less a warm welcome back for all of our children this morning as they return after the half - term break.

It is the start of Fair Trade fortnight and as an ECO school  it is something we will be doing lots of work on in school over the next couple of weeks. 

Today we are having an external safeguarding audit. Keeping our children safe is fundamental to our school and we have clear and rigorous policies and procedures in place to ensure our children's safety. As with all things about our school however, we always feel it is good to have external checks on aspects of our work in order to challenge and support and have external moderation on our school systems. To that end we have  commisioned the safeguarding audit for today which will include a review of documents and discussions with parents, children, staff and governors. 

As you know, I am retiring at the end of the summer term and this week we have invited any potential headteacher candidates to visit the school. It is a real opportunity for applicants to meet staff and children and to find out more about what we are about as a school. I look forward to welcoming them.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 10th February (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half - term at Camberwell Park School

We return after the weekend when Storm Ciara has affected lots of areas around here with heavy rain and strong winds but the caretaker has already checked the buildings this morning and we are pleased to report that everything is fine here at Camberwell Park and we look forward to welcoming the children into school this morning.

We have a really exciting day on Tuesday in school as we have  https://www.magicoftheatre.com/ coming to do a performance of Cinderella. They came to us last year and were amazing! The children loved it last time so we are very excited about tomorrow!

Tuesday is also 'safer internet day' . It is really important that we teach our children to be safe online as whilst there are so many benefits of the internet there are also many many risks. We will be doing some focussed activities in school this week and on Wednesday our assemblies will be on the theme of 'safer internet'.

Friday is Valentines day and some of the children from Gold and Silver Butterfly class are going to have a special Valentine's breakfast with some of the residents from Each Step care home next to our Belthorne site. We have a lovely relationship with Each Step with lots of shared activities and mutual benefits. As the manager there told us 'The community partnership we have with Camberwell Park Nursery is hugely important to both our service and the people we support at Eachstep Blackley. Its proven what a positive impact intergenerational work has on someone living with dementia. The people we support benefit massively from the activity sessions we hold together, from gardening to baking… even some singing! Camberwell Park is an integral part of the community we share and we are very proud of the work we do with them.'

I wish everyone a happy and healthy half term break and will resume my blog when school re-opens on 24.2.2020

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 4th February (camberwellpark Admin)

This week is Children's Mental Health Awareness Week. Considering the mental health and emotional wellbeing of all of our children and staff is really important to us at Camberwell Park and it is a focus area for our School Improvement Plan this year. We are doing lots of activities across school this week and building up to a non - uniform day on Friday with a theme of 'what makes us happy'!

On Wednesday we are joining in an inter - special school swimming gala! These events are always great fun so we are sure the KS2 children who are going will have a great time!

Wednesday evening is our staff meeting time and we have a rolling programme of training and meetings. One of the things we do each term is a 'sharing good practice' staff meeting on a different theme. There is so much expertise in school it is important that we use it to share good practice and 'be the best we can be' across the whole school. The theme this time is 'sharing good practice in the curriculum' and subject leaders will be setting up resources, work samples etc for everyone to see and have an opportunity to discuss. 

On Friday we are also supporting the NSPCC Number day 2020 with fun activities such as a number hunt and a number lottery! We are looking forward to joining in 'Who wants to be a Mathionaire!'

This week is also National Apprenticeship week. I am PROUD to have three members of staff who are currently engaged in apprenticeship programmes in order to further their career. Two staff are completing the apprenticeships as Teaching Assistants and the School Business Manager is completing the apprenticeship as a Chartered Manager. You can find out more about apprenticeships including those I have mentioned on the Institute for Apprenticeships website.  I am also delighted to support the development of apprenticeships by chairing the Childcare and Education route panel for the Institute for Apprenticeships which is part of their quality assurance process. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 27th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Good morning and welcome to a new week!

This afternoon I am really pleased that we have our next meeting with regards to our new building. The school is expanding and we will have a new building next to our existing one at the Moston site, scheduled to be completed in July 2021. This is a really exciting development for the school and will enable us to offer more places to children who need specialist provision. Once the plans are agreed I will publish them on our website

On Tuesday 28th it is our Full Governing Body meeting.. All the governors meet each term as part of their role to challenge and support the school with all aspects of our development. To find out more about our governors have a look at the Governors page on our website. 

On Wednesday morning we are hosting Attendance Management training at our school on behalf of the LA. It is really important we work positively and proactively with families regarding ensuring our children attend school whilst also working within the LA guidance so we can challenge the small amount of families who do not ensure their children attend school as much as they should.

Part of our role as a National Support School and my role as an NLE is to work with other schools in a challenge and support role. On Thursday this week I am working with a special school in a different Greater Manchester special school as part of their programme of quality assurance

A  busy but interesting and positive week ahead!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 20th January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a frosty start to the week in Manchester! A warm welcome will still be waiting for the children when they get here though!

During this year I have been having 1:1 meetings with every member of staff to talk to them about their work in school and their aspirations for the future. Our staff team are the biggest and most important resource in school and it is really important to me that we invest in our staff to ensure that our children are getting the best experience when they are with us. We are a strong team and I am PROUD of the knowledge, skills and experience we have across the school and how everyone works together so that we can be the best we can be for our children and their families. Today I will be meeting with the lunchtime staff at our Belthorne site. 

On Thursday this week I will be delivering the last 'face to face' training day for the National Qualification for Middle Leadership ( NPQML ). As part of supporting our staff with accredited leadership training, 3 of  our teachers are on this course togehter with 8 teachers from other schools. 

On Friday this week, two of our governors are joining the leadership team to complete an update on our School Self- evaluation form ( SEF)  which is our position statement about all areas of the school. We have been working on updating the SEF in the light of changes to the Ofsted inspection schedule from September 2019. It is important that we are clear as a school on our strengths and areas for development to ensure that we remain Outstanding in the provision we offer to our children and their families. 

An interesting and busy week ahead!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 13th January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of a new week at Camberwell Park School and we are pleased to welcome two new children to school who are starting with us this term, one at our Belthorne site and one at our Moston site. This brings us to a total of 146 pupils on roll. Plans are still developing for the new, additional building at our Moston site which we hope will open during 2021 enabling us to offer places to even more pupils who need specialist provision.

Today and tomorrow we have 8 of our staff who are updating their paediatric first aid training. The safeguarding, health and wellbeing of our pupils is central to our school and part of this is ensuring all of our staff are trained to the highest level in all matters relating to the care of our pupils. The immunisation teams are in school this week administering the flu jab to pupils - it is great that as a school we can support our families with ensuring our pupils are as prepared for viruses and infections as they can be. 

Our after - school club starts again this week and we are delighted to be able to offer families a place on a Tuesday and Thursday this term. The club runs from 3.30 - 4.45  and the children enjoy joining in lots of sports and other fun activities

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 7th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Happy New Year!

Yesterday we had a really good staff training day where we spent the morning doing refresher training on all the strategies that support positive behaviour management and behaviour for learning. In the afternoon, curriculum teams met to do further curriculum development work including a review of what educational visits we do as part of our curriculum Implementation to enhance the learning of our pupils

It has been great welcoming the children back into school today - lots of smiling faces and busy classrooms!

We continue our programme of annual reviews for children throughout the school and look forward to the opportunities that gives us to chat to our parents / carers about the progress their children are making and to set new aspirational targets for the year ahead. 

Here's to a fabulous Spring term!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Thursday 12th December (camberwellpark Admin)

We can hardly believe it is nearly our Christmas holidays at Cambewell Park School!

Holidays are a good time to reflect on what has been another very busy and very successful term with happy staff and children all making excellent progress with their learning!

Today I am delivering NPQML training ( National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership) to a group of teacher both from my own and other special schools across Greater Manchester. It is always a privilege to work with aspiring leaders as they learn and develop their skills and the NPQML as an accredited course is an excellent framework to work with.

Tomorrow will be our Christmas Concert with a theme chosen by school council of 'A very Happy Christmas at Camberwell Park School'. All classes are performing a song and or a dance about something that makes them happy at Christmas. We always have a great turnout of parents / carers and friends of the school who come to see our concert - one of the highlights of the year for everyone involved!

Next week will be our last week in school before the holidays filled with Christmas events including a party and visit from Santa and on our last day a Christingle service. 

School will be closed from 20th December and re-open to children on Tuesday 7th January 2020

I wish everyone a happy and healthy Christmas

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 23rd September (camberwellpark Admin)

We are into our 4th  week of the term and school is settled and busy, displays of children's work are appearing round school and we are already seeing lots of progress and achievements and getting really positive feedback from families about how well the children are doing which is great!

This week the school photographer will be on site which is always exciting. I really enjoy being able to see all the photos when they come into school and know how proud the families are when they see them too. Lots are ordered for Christmas presents!

I am on training as a Dedicated Safeguarding Lead on Thursday this week. All schools have at least one named person in the school who has the lead role in ensuring that all aspects of safeguarding policy and practice are in place in line with the DfE guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education . We currently have 4 staff trained as DSLs and are training an extra 2 staff this term so that 6 of us are fully trained as safeguarding leads. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 9th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Last week was our first week back in school after the summer break. We had 2 purposeful and productive training days followed by 3 fabulous days with our children back in school. School was calm and busy and lots of happy smiling faces from both children and staff happy to be back!

This morning we welcome Andrew Farren to school who is our School Improvement Partner. He is an independent consultant whose job it is to quality assure our school standards -  an important challenge and support role! it is important as part of our accountability as a school that we have external verification of our school standards. Today Andrew will review our performance data and also our self evaluation form and school improvement action plans - all important documents which ensure we maintain and build on our high standards as a school. 

Later this week we will meet as a leadership team  to continue to work on our self evaluation form to update it in the light of the changes to the Ofsted framework from September 2019. The self evaluation form is our position statement - where we are up to as a school in the key areas of Quality of Education, Behaviour and attitudes, Personal Development, Leadership and management and Effectiveness of Early Years provision.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 2nd September (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is 2nd September 2019 and it marks the start of a new school term at Camberwell Park School

Today and tomorrow are both staff training days. Today we are focussing on our curriculum in the context of Intent, Implementation and Impact in line with updated Ofsted guidance. There are really valuable discussions taking place all around school!

Tomorrow we will be having a full staff meeting to confirm our School Improvement priorities for the year and ensure all essential and relevant information is shared. The class teams will then have time to finish their class preparations ready for the children coming in

On Wednesday we welcome our children back to school - always so good to see them!

We have lots of new children starting school with us this year who will be joining us on a phased admission programme to support  them to feel happy and settled in school

We look forward to another hard working and successful year ahead!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 16th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term at Camberwell Park School and lots of exciting events this week

Today is sports day! We are looking forward to lots of fun together with various activities planned that everyone can join in with

Tomorrow we are having a whole school picnic outside in our fabulous playgrounds - fingers crossed for the nice weather to hold!

Thursday is a most special day as it is our Celebration assemblies - every year we have an assembly where each of the children are presented with their 'Year Books' with lots of photos in showing the various things they have achieved during the year. The Year 6's do a performance for everyone which is always amazing! We also have two special awards for year 6 pupils each year - 1 is the Harry Lyons Award for a pupil who has been a positive school ambassador supporting our Rights Respecting ethos and the other is the Margaret Hulme award for a pupil who has achieved lots in the face of challenges and adversity. The recipients are kept under wraps until the day!

We finish our school term on Friday 19th July although have a 2 week playscheme during the holidays which some of our children will be attending

We will be back in school with the children from Wednesday 4th September

We wish everyone a happy and healthy summer break

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 2nd July (camberwellpark Admin)

As a school, we try to support our children and their families beyond the school day and this includes our breakfast club which is 8.30 - 9 a.m. each day. It means our families if they need to can drop their children off early. We are delighted to have had the support of Magic Breakfast for the last year which enables our children to have a choice of different breakfast cereals and bagels as well as toast. Breakfast club also provides the children with the chance to develop their communication and personal independence skills - using signs / symbols where needed to request breakfast and make choices as well as pouring their own drinks, spreading butter on their toast etc.

Blue Butterfly class are on their last transition visit to Northridge High School today. The children have had lots of visits over the last term to prepare them for their move to their new school. It is great to see how their confidence has grown and that they are ready now for their next stage of education

Our summer educational visits continue this week with today, Pink Butterfly class going on a visit to Smithills farm. We know they will have a good day and learn lots!

As a group of staff we are all engaging in a programme of end of year appraisal meetings. It is important that we all strive to be  the best we can be for our children and as part of that all staff have appraisal targets linked to our school improvement plan priorities. We all have professional standards in place to which we adhere and appraisals are a good opportunity to celebrate the success of staff as well as the children. We were delighted to learn last week that following an annual review, we have retained our Gold Investors in People Award - an important recognition of how all staff are fully engaged in the success of the school

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 24th June (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is our school dog, Dora's 2nd birthday! That time has gone very quickly! I am sure she will get lots of fuss today

This week our pupils in year 6 have their last transition visits to Northridge High School. Over the past weeks the children have been going on visits, gradually increasing the time they spend there each time. This week they will spend the full day there. It has been nice talking about the transition visits and how well they have been going as well as celebrating the achievements of our children at the year 6 annual reviews which have just been completed. Our year 6 children fully supported and ready for their next steps to high school. 

We are also well into a programme of pre-admission meetings for the children who will be starting at our school in september. It is always sad to say goodbye to the year 6 pupils we have got to know but really exciting to meet the new children who will be joining us and starting their Camberwell journey. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 20th May (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half term - lots of lovely things happening this week before we have our half - term break!

This afternoon Pink Butterfly class is having a dress reheasal for their 'circus event' which they will be performing to parents / carers tomorrow morning. I have been invited this afternoon and am really looking forward to it

This afternoon is also a transition visit for our Year6 pupils in Purple, Gold and Silver Butterfly class to Northridge High school. The pupils have been going on weekly visits, building up the time they spend there each week to support them with the big change from primary to high school at the end of this year. It is great to see how confident they are becoming in their new school

Our programme of annual reviews for year 5 pupils is continuing this week. It is really good to have one of the senior team from Northridge at each of our annual reviews for year 5 pupils so that they can start getting to know our pupils and their families early on. It is always a joy to hear about the progress our pupils have made during the year and to set new learning targets for the forthcoming year

We wish everyone a happy and healthy half - term break. School will re-open after half - term on Monday 3rd June 2019.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 1st April (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term before our Easter break at Camberwell Park School 

This week is World Autism Awareness week  which we are marking by wearing blue in school. There is lots of information on the National Autistic Society website which you can read when you follow this link 

On Tuesday this week we are having our Easter assemblies which this year include an Easter bonnet parade. We can't wait to see all the fabulous Easter bonnet parade! We hope lots of our parents / carers will come and join us.

On Wednesday this week we are pleased to welcome the 'Cheeky Charlies Jazz band' back to school to perform for our children. They have been to us before and the children love the music!

We are putting the finishing touches to our Easter newsletter which will go on our website at the end of the week where you will find lots of news and photos and other information 

School will be closed from Monday 8th April and re-open on Tuesday 23rd April 2019

We wish everyone a happy and healthy Easter break

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 18th March (camberwellpark Admin)

I am pleased to be able to share with you a photo of what was a very special day at Buckingham Palace  on 26th February 2019 where I was extremely PROUD as the headteacher of Camberwell Park School to accept an OBE from the Queen. I have always and will continue to work hard and advocate for our children and their families when ever I can.  

This week we have lots of parents / carers visiting the school for the first time who are considering sending their child to our school. I recognise for many parents / carers they may have never visited a special school before and will have lots of questions about what we will be able to do to support their child so it is important I give that time, information and reassurance.

Thursday 21st March is World Downs Syndrome Day  which we will be marking in school to raise awareness by wearing  #LotsOfSocks -  brightly coloured or mis-matched socks. We also look forward to welcoming colleagues from some of our local mainstream primary schools to Camberwell Park on Thursday to join us for a learning walk around school - an opportunity for us to share good practice of strategies and resources they can put in place in their own schools to support their children who have special educational needs. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 11th February (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half - term already and a busy week in school

This afternoon is our Governing Body Standards Committee. The governors have an important role in challenging and supporting the school. This afternoon the Standards Committee will have a presentation from Mrs Aminah Choudhury who leads on us being a Unicef Rights Respecting School. We were delighted and proud to achieve the Silver RRSA last week and are now working towards the Gold Award. In addition this afternoon the governors will join a learning walk around school focussing on Spiritual, Moral, Social  and Cultural Education ( SMSC) .

At the end of the school day on Tuesday all staff are staying for a refresher training session on Sensory Processing / Sensory regulation led by our Occupational Therapist. Many of our children struggle with sensory regulation and it is important for us to be fully aware of how we can support them to be ready for learning. Tomorrow will be a useful reminder of  the things we can do to help. 

Wednesday afternoon / evening is parents' evening. It is always a great opportunity to chat to parents / carers about how the children are getting on in school with their learning.

On Thursday I am delivering day 6 of NPQML training ( National Professional Qualification of Middle Leadership). Two of our teachers are on the training together with teachers from other schools in Manchester and Salford. Following the face to face training all participants will complete a school based project to implement their new knowledge and skills and will complete and evaluation of their project which will be externally assessed in terms of achieveing the qualification. As a school we think it is important to invest in all of our staff to ensure we are all the best we can be for our pupils

Wishing all of our families and friends of the school a happy and healthy half - term

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 4th February (camberwellpark Admin)

As we enter February in school the snow we had and enjoyed last week is dissapearing and is replaced by rain!

Tomorrow we welcome an Rights Respecting School assessor visiting the school for the day. We have held the Rights Respecting School Award  ( RRS) for many year now and held the highest level, level 2 award. Since RRS is now restructured into Bronze, Silver and Gold levels we are being reassessed against the new standards. Tomorrow is our silver award assessment. 

Being a Rights Respecting School is a core part of our school mission and ethos. Giving our children access to their rights and making them aware of their responsibilities as well as learning about children around the world is really important to us and is threaded through all of the work we do as a school. For this reason we very much value being part of the RRSA assessment process and are looking forward to the day.

Tomorrow is also Chinese New Year and as well as assemblies on this theme and work in the classroom our children are looking forward to a special Chinese New Year menu for lunch!

This week is also Children's Mental Health Awareness week. It is good for us to take the opportunity to focus on being healthy inside and out. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 7th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Happy New Year!

It is always a joy seeing the children coming back to school after a holiday and this morning was no exception! School has been happy and settled all morning...a busy start to the new term

I am humbled and proud to share the news that I have been awarded an OBE in the New Years Honours list 2019.

'Mary Sheila Isherwood, Rochdale: Headteacher at Camberwell Park School, Mary will receive the OBE for services to children and young people with special educational needs.'

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/queens-honours-list-who-2019-15606524

I have been privilged to learn from and work with so many children with special needs and their families over the last 30 years. Working in with children with SEND is what I have always want to do so feel humbled and proud to receive this honour. I am also delighted that Camberwell Park School has been named in the official record as I could not do what I do without all of the fabulous staff team I work with here and have worked with over my career. A huge well done and thank you to all my colleagues past and present

It is business as usual now here at school with us being the best we can be for the children whom we work with and I look forward to another great year in the life of the school. Onwards and upwards!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 17th December (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term before Christmas and lots of lovely things happening in school this week.

Some classes are out on their Christmas Educational visits - a special chance to go out as a whole class and enjoy visiting places of interest linked to the curriculum. 

This afternoon we are having a Christmas sing and sign packed full of Christmas songs!

Tomorrow is Christmas dinner for everyone

On Wednesday the children at our Belthorne site are singing their Christmas concert songs for parents / carers and holding their Christingle service

Thursday is Christmas party day with a special visit from Santa 

Friday is the last day of term and we are having our  annual Christingle service at our Moston site in the morning

We close on Friday the 21st December for two weeks holiday.

School will re-open on Monday 7th January

We wish all of our children, their families and friends of the school a happy and healthy holiday

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 11th December (camberwellpark Admin)

it is a  busy time in school in the run up to Christmas!

This week lots of classes are going out on Christmas Educational visits - today Silver Butterfly class have been to see The Grinch at the cinema.

Tonight we are having a fundraising event in school - 'Supper with Santa'.  We have santa here telling a Christmas story and giving gifts to the children that are coming as well as a raffle, tombola and some snacks on sale. We hope to raise some funds for school as well as having a lovely time together

Later this week it is our Christmas concert which this year is A CAMBERWELL PARK christmas with each class taking a different letter and singing a song using the letter as their theme. We have invited our parents / carers to come and watch the concert on Thursday and our link schools to come and watch the concert on Friday. We can't wait!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 26th November (camberwellpark Admin)

It is National Tree week this week so there is lots of work in school focussed on trees! This morning one of the classes went out for a local walk to look at trees and during the week all of the classes will be joining in 'Tree dressing' using ribbons and prayers to decorate one of the trees in the grounds. We will take some photos when it is done and post them on our school twitter account @CamberwellPark. 

This week our Finance and personnel committee of the governing body will meet. They have a really important role in the oversight of the budget as well as staffing matters across school. There are a range of governor reps on the committee as well as the School business manager who presents information to the governors at each meeting.

We have planned our Christmas concert for this year. The theme is a CAMBERWELL PARK Christmas with each one of the 14 classes taking a letter from the school name as their theme. We will peform to parents / carers on Thursday 13th and to our link schools on Friday 14th. We will decorate the school for Christmas after the children have gone home on Wednesday this week so it is a nice suprise when the children arrive on Thursday morning

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 19th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Last Friday was Children in Need day and we had a 'wear spots' for a £1.00 day in school as well as selling Pudsey Bear biscuits. Thank you to everyone who supported. We raised £190.00

This week is Road Safety awareness week so there is lots of work going on in school to remind and support our children about keeping safe when they are out and about. 

We have planned and are preparing our Christmas concert which will be performed for our families on Thursdsay 13th December. Our theme is a CAMBERWELL PARK christmas with each of our 14 classes taking a letter from the 14 letters of Camberwell Park for their class theme. Invitations will go out to families, friends of the school and our link schools nearer the time.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 12th November (camberwellpark Admin)

This week is anti - bullying week so whilst it is important for us to do work on this all of the time, there is a particular focus on anti - bullying this week and lots of activities going on in classes about being kind to our friends. This is an important feature of us being a Rights Respecting School -  respecting and celebrating the diversity which we have in school.

This afternoon is our Governing body Standards Committee. Ms Bond, our Science lead is doing a curriculum presentation for the governors today as well as Ms Dovaston, assistant headteacher talking to governors about our pupil outcomes. I will also be presenting an updated School Improvement plan sharing the actions and progress already taken with our 2 key priorities of complex learning needs and curriculum and assessment. 

Later this week we will have a visit from Andrew Farren who is an experienced headteacher and Ofsted inspector. He is coming to carry out a Quality assurance visit on our school standards. He will produce a report which will be shared on the self - evaluation page on our website

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 5th November (camberwellpark Admin)

It is an exciting week for our year 6 pupils as they have set off for a residential visit to Bendrigg Lodge this morning. One group of pupils have gone this morning until Wednesday and the other group are going Wednesday until Friday. They will have a fabulous time engaging in activities including caneoing, caving, zipwire and abseiling. I will post updates of their activities on our twitter account @CamberwellPark 

This week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, we are holding assemblies to mark the festival of Diwali. Diwali is the five-day festival of lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world. The festival, which coincides with the Hindu New Year, celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 30th October (camberwellpark Admin)

it is the start of the first week back after half - term and it was lovely to see the children back at school yesterday

Today is an exciting day as we are having the 'official opening' of our new playgrounds. This afternoon we will be welcoming parents, governors and other friends of the school to see our fabulous playground equipment. School council are prepared and ready to show our visitors round and demonstrate how much fun it is!

On Thursday we are welcoming representatives from the Department for Education ( DfE) who are coming to film some of our children reading as part of evidence of assessment for Pre- key stage standards, the national assessment tool which is now used to assess outcomes for pupils working below the national curriculum assessment standard. We are pleased and proud to be involved in sharing our good practice. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 15th October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half - term already!

This week we have our Harvest assemblies. The theme of our harvest assemblies is Harvest around the world. Each class has chosen a different country to learn about and will be sharing their work at assembly time. Parents / carers have been invited and everyone has been asked to bring in packets or tins of food for our harvest table which we will donate to a Manchester homeless charity.

It is our parents' evening on Wednesday this week. We are looking forward to meeting with our parents / carers and sharing how well the children have already settled into school and the learning they have achieved so far.

On Thursday this week we have a parent / carer workshop on healthy eating / healthy packed lunches - we hope lots of our families will be able to attend for this useful and practical workshop. 

School will be closed for half - term from Monday 22nd - Friday 26th October 2018.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy half - term break and look forward to seeing all of our children back in school on Monday 29th October 2018

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 9th October (camberwellpark Admin)

Yesterday and today I have the priviledge of completing a full learning walk of the school with members of the leadership team. Yesterday we spent time in every class at our Moston site and this afternoon in every class at our Belthorne site. It is a joy to see children motivated, engaged and happy in their learning and to see such lovely interactions between staff and pupils and such lovely friendships between our pupils. So PROUD to be the headteacher of such an outstanding school!

We have begun our cycle of annual reviews in school. All of our pupils have an Education, Health and Care plan which outlines their needs and how they are best met. We set targets for our pupils in each area of education, health and care and these are reviewed each year. Our reviews include pupils sharing their own views about what is important to them now and in the future. You can read more about Education, Health and Care plans and our annual reviews in our SEN information report on the website 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 1st October (camberwellpark Admin)

Good morning!

October already and a cold but bright late summer morning here in Manchester

We are very excited today as we have a new school minbus which is being used for the first time today! Having a minibus to enable our pupils to access educational visits is really important to us and we have been struggling for a while with our old one which has kept needing various repairs so having a new, reliable bus is great!

Today our new school council meets for the first time. Each class has chosen their class representative and this afternoon they will all meet together. One of their first jobs is to plan how they will support our visitors  to see all of the fabolous new equipment in our playgrounds when we have the official opening of on 31st October.

It is important we work with all other agencies to support the holistic needs of our children and this afternoon nurses will be here on site to give flu vaccinations to our children.

Tomorrow afternoon is the meeting of our governing body Finance and Personnel committee. You will have picked up from the press that there is alot of pressure on school budgets and it is important that we are held to account for the public money we hold as a school so having a regular committee where we look at all aspects of funding and personnel issues and are challenged as well as supported on how we allocate our money to ensure the best for our children is essential. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 24th September (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a dry and bright Autumn morning in Manchester and school is already settled and busy on this Monday morning.

It is the closing date for the teacher vacancy we currently have advertised this morning. We are increasing our pupil numbers from January 2019 and therefore need another teacher as well as covering a teacher maternity leave which is coming up. We are looking forward to interviewing and welcoming new staff to our Camberwell Park School team.

Today and tomorrow staff across school are participating in First aid training to ensure we are fully equipped with supporting our pupil's first aid needs whether in school or when off - site on educational visits. It is also a busy time at the moment for staff appraisals with all staff meeting their reviewers to set targets in relation to our school improvement plan for the coming academic year.

On Friday this week it  is my first meeting of the year with the other Manchester special school headteachers. We meet each half - term to share good practice, share information and to collaborate on a range of issues which affect all of our schools. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 17th September (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of a new week at Camberwell Park School and all of our new pupils have now started at school. It is so nice meeting our new pupils and seeing how quickly they settle into school. School is quiet, calm and busy!

I start this week with my Headteacher appraisal. To ensure we are all working towards the same high standards in school, all of our staff are part of an appraisal process. Targets relating to our school improvement plan are set for each member of staff at the start of the school year and these are reviewed in the Spring term and then the summer term. We all have standards framework we use as a benchmark which supports our staff with their career progression as well as making sure we are the best we can be for our pupils. I am no exception and I am accountable to the framework of the Headteacher standards . My appraisal is carried out my an external adviser and a panel of governors. 

We are also pleased to be working with the Star Institute to deliver training in the National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership ( NPQML). The first of 6 face to face training sessions starts this Thursday, 20th September and I am really pleased that 2 of our teachers are taking part alongside teachers from other mainstream and special schools across Greater Manchester.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 10th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Hello and welcome to a new school year at Camberwell Park School!

The children returned to school last Thursday and we were really pleased to see them! Over the holidays we had lots of work done on our school grounds - lots of new exciting play and outdoor learning equipment and we couldn't wait to see the children's faces and responses to it all. They did not dissapoint! Amongst the words we heard them use were  'wow', 'fabulous' and 'amazing'! There are so many new learning opportunities out there now including spaces linked to our Forest Schools work such as a mud kitchen and beams for tent making. Fantastic!

We are also starting to welcome lots of new pupils to the school on a phased admission to support them being settled when they join us. Already the new classes are happy, settled and working hard - it is a privilege to be able to walk round school and to see all of the children.

I am also busy meeting parents of children who may join our school with two appointments this week and others booked in for the weeks ahead. I understand it is a big decision for parents to decide to send their child to us so it is important for me to give parents the time to see the school and answer all of their questions.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 16th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term at Camberwell Park School before the summer break and we start our week with a 'Shoe share' . We are proud to be a Unicef Rights Respecting school and support all elements of the UNCRC . Joining in the shoe share supports Articles 28 the right to education and Article 24 the right to the best health. 

Tomorrow is our sports day - lots of fun for all of the children as they engage in a range of sporting activities throughout the day. 

On Wednesday we are launching our Forest School - we have invited our parents / carers and governors to come to school between 10 - 11 to join us round the campfire to toast marshmallows and see some of our forest schools work. We are also having our whole school picnic outside in the playgrounds on Wednesday - always a nice time together!

Thursday is the last day for the children in school. On Thursday morning we have our celebration assemblies where all of the children receive their year books which includes photographs of lots of things they have done during the year in school. The year 6's always perform for us as part of the assembly. A very special day!

We are still in school on Friday - it is a training day for staff which includes some work on our curriculum as well as some preparation time for next year

We wish everyone a happy and healthy summer. Our pupils return to school on Thursday 6th September and I will resume my blog on the following week. Please keep your eyes peeled on our twitter account @CamberwellPark for updates over the summer

Best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 9th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is our penultimate week in school and the sun continues to shine in Manchester! It has been great for our children to take advantage of the nice weather for their educational visits - today is the turn of Brown Butterfly class! 

This is the last week of our year 6 annual reviews in school. I have led most of them and it is a priviledge for me to chat to parents / carers at the point the children are leaving us and to celebrate their achievements not just this year but in all the time they have been with us at the school. 

On Wednesday this week it is the second of our transition visits for new pupils coming into school and all of our children being in their new classes. The transition visit last week was fabulous and we can't wait to meet everyone again on Wednesday morning. 

Wednesday evening is parents' evening and again such a great opportunity to share the achievements this year of our pupils with their parents / carers. We know that England are playing their World cup semi final on Weds evening which is something else to celebrate but don't worry - all appointments will be finished in time for everyone to be home to watch the match!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 2nd July (camberwellpark Admin)

Good morning from a sunny and hot Manchester!

We have been doing our best to keep cool including extra drinks of water and ice lollies and making sure the children play out at times which are not as hot and keep under cover as much as possible.

The transition programme of our year pupils moving to Northridge High School continues. We have just waved goodbye to some of the pupils from Gold and Purple Butterfly class who have set off to Northridge and will be having their lunch there today. I have been doing year 6 annual reviews over the last couple of weeks and it has been great talking to families about the transition programme and hearing that the children are telling their parents how much they are enjoying their visits to high school too!

Tomorrow morning we welcome the children who will be starting with us in September into school for the first of two transition mornings. All of the children will move into their new classes tomorrow with the staff that they will be with - it is going to be a busy but exciting morning for everyone.

On Wednesday our 'design group' of pupils are attending a launch event for the Bee in the City trail in Manchester. It is super exciting as they get to see the bee scupture that we decorated in situ in the North Manchester library which will be it's home over the summer. They also get to see some of the other school bee sculptures and they will attend a session of sensory story telling with some of the other schools involved in the People's history museum. We can't wait to see the photographs!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 25th June (camberwellpark Admin)

Yesterday was our school dog Dora's first birthday!  She got some lovely cards and presents from the different classes around school and yesterday went off to the beach for a day out. It is hard to believe she is a year old already!

Our programme of year 5 and 6 annual reviews continues in school as does our transition programme of pupils moving to their high schools. It is a busy and exciting time for our year 6's as they have lots of opportunities to meet their new teachers and friends and the annual reviews give us a great chance to chat to families, to capture and celebrate the achievements and progress of our children whilst we update their EHCP ready to move to high school.

We are really pleased to see sunshine again this week too as lots of classes are going out of school on educational visits. Tomorrow is the turn of White butterfly class who are going to Stockley Farm, Violet are out on Wednesday and on Thursday Blue butterfly class are at Heaton Park and Orange at Smith Hills Farm. We hope they all have a lovely time!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 18th June (camberwellpark Admin)

From this week we are into a progamme of annual reviews on Education, Health Care Plans for our pupils in Year 5. These are really important reviews as we are starting to think about and prepare for year 6 and transition to high school. We work really closely with the high  schools our children go to - most of them go to Northridge High School.  A member of the leadership team from the high schools attend our year 5 reviews so that they can start getting to know the children and their families. 

The transition programme to Northridge High school continues with regular visits for our year 6 pupils. Today pupils in Gold and Purple Butterfly class are visiting Northridge and staying for their lunch. The visits really help our children to feel happy and confident about their move to high school. 

This week we also have Bike right joining us back in school to work with our pupils in Key stage 2 on their cycling confidence. We are looking forward to seeing them here tomorrow!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 11th June (camberwellpark Admin)

This week our finished Bee sculpture will be collected ready to be photographed and placed as part of the Bee in the City Bee trail.  We haven't yet been told where our bee will be situated but will let you know as soon as we can. it is very exciting! Our bee includes handprints made into butterflies and caterpillars from every class across school. It is also fully interactive with sign, symbols and switches saying 'PROUD TO BEE ME' , which is the name of our bee. The children were involved throughout including sticking the handprint butterflies onto our bee scupture. 

We are so PROUD of our finished bee

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 4th June (camberwellpark Admin)

It is our first day back in school after the half - term break and as always lovely to see lots of happy faces coming back into school this morning

Last week we held our half - term play scheme for our pupils and their brothers and sisters. What a lovely time everyone had together! Activities included swimming, sports, cheer leading and time in the interactive room. Roll on the summer break and then we can do it again!

This week will be an exciting week as we are decorating our bee sculpture ready for it to be collected during next week. We have our design which includes butterfly handprints done by all of the children and are looking forward to seeing the finished product. We will keep it under wraps though until it is on display alongside all of the other bees during the summer!

Our programme of transition visits to Northridge high school for our year 6 pupils continues with the pupils spending a little longer there on each visit. It is such a big step for many of our pupils so important that we do it in as supported  a way as possible. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Friday 25th May (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the last day of half - term. School will be closed today and will re-open on Monday 4th June

I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on our 'Manchester day' which we held on Tuesday 22nd May, the anniversary of the Manchester bomb. We wanted to mark the day in school with special events. It was a lovely day for staff and children. We all wore clothes that made us think of Manchester - there were lots of bee t'shirts and football tops! We held our own bee trail in school with bees made by each class, we watched the 'One Love' concert, held the 2 minutes silence to remember the 22 people who lost their lives last year and we all ate an ice- cream at the end of the day.

I wish you all a happy and healthy half - term holiday and will resume my blog on our return to school

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 14th May (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a sunny start to the week here in Manchester and all the children are busy with their learning in class. 

Our Monday schedule includes a steel pans / drumming session involving some of our pupils in Key stage 2 and led by a teacher from the Manchester music service. Great fun!

We are proud to be able to offer our families after - school clubs on 3 evenings each week . In addition to our long - standing Tuesday evening after - school club we also now have a regular Monday and Thursday evening sports club, all of which are well attended. This is also in addition to our daily breakfast club from 8.30 a.m. each day. We appreciate the positive feedback we have had from our families about the value of our breakfast and after school clubs. 

This Friday is the deadline for us to submit the design for our bee sculpture which will form part of the 'Bee in the City' bee trail. Our design has been chosen by a group of staff and pupils together based on ideas submitted by all classes across school. We will keep our design a secret for now ...may be give some hints and clues on our school twitter feed @camberwellpark over the coming weeks as we start to paint it ready for the start of the bee trail in July ;-)

On Friday this week we are also celebrating the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle in school with a whole school picnic outside the school and Royal wedding themed Friday fun clubs. Fingers crossed the sunny weather continues for us!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 8th May (camberwellpark Admin)

We are welcoming our children back into school today after a very sunny bank holiday weekend......we hope everyone has had a good time!

We start our working week with an Early Years moderation visit today. It is important that we have external challenge and support on the work we do as a school to ensure the highest standards and this includes a visit of an exernal moderator to review the assessments of our pupils in their Reception year. This morning, the external assessor will spend the morning looking at assessment evidence and talking to the teachers. I will share the report when it is published on our school self - evaluation page alongside all of the other external consultant reports 

I am proud to have been asked to the Chair of the 'Childcare and Education' route panel developing standards for apprenticeships in this area of work. I am delighted and proud to take on this role ensuring that SEND is considered as part of all apprenticeships for people working in any job in childcare and education. I will be chairing my first meeting in this new role on Friday at the Institute for Apprenticeships in London. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 30th April (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the closing date for applications for the teacher post we currently have advertised. We are looking forward to recruiting a new teacher to join our enthusiastic and hard working staff team from September 2018. The interviews are next week.

All children across school have now done their pictures suggesting a design for the bee sculpture which will form part of the bee trail across Manchester in the summer. This week a small team of staff and pupils will be getting together to decide what our shared design will be and then our work on decorating our bee can begin!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 23rd April (camberwellpark Admin)

We start this week witn St George's Day and in school the children will be joining in St George's Day themed activities in class and enjoying a St George's day school lunch of fish, chips and mushy peas!

Today I have a visit from our external adviser, Andrew Farren who is carrying our a Quality assurance visit in the school. It is really important that we continue to build on our strengths that were identified in our Ofsted inspection of January 2018  and review all aspects of our work and as an external partner, Andrew can challenge and support us to do this. We will post his report once it is complete on the self -evaluation page on our website.

Last week we had a delivery of our 'bee sculpture' as part of the Bee in the City programme. We are proud and privileged to be one of 125 schools who will be decorating a bee sculpture which will then be on display in city centre venues over the summer. The children and staff are all involved in helping to design the decoration for our bee and doing lots of learning about bees in the classroom. It is very exciting! Keep an eye on our twitter account @Camberwellpark for updates!

This week is an ECO week in school to link with 'Earth day 2018' . Lots of classroom and practical activities across school including recycling and litter picking. Busy week!

We are currently recruiting for a teacher to join our class team from September. The advert is on the staff vacancies page on the website. If you know anyone who may be interested in joining our hard working and supportive staff team then please do let them know!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th April (camberwellpark Admin)

it is the afternoon of the first day back of term as I am writing this and it has been fantastic to see the children happy and settled back in school today. 

We are delighted to be taking part in the Bee in the City project  and are very excited as our blank bee sculpture will be arriving some time this week ready for us to decorate. The children and staff will be involved in designing and decorating our bee. I am attending a meeting this week to find out more about the project and hopefully we will find out soon where our decorated bee will be placed in Manchester during the summer break! There is lots of learning our children will be able to do linked to bees starting on Thursday this week with a bee themed learning day. Exciting times ahead! I will keep our twitter feed @CamberwellPark updated with news and photos. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 26th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last 3 days of term before our Easter break and we are really pleased to see some sunshine in Manchester at last!

We are excited to be one of the schools who will be decorating a giant bee as part of the 'Bee in the city' project this summer. We are attending a meeting just after the Easter break to find out more about it and our bee arrives in school that week so we will keep you posted of developments!

I am pleased and proud to have been appointed as Chair of the  'Education and Childcare' Route panel who are developing standards for this area of apprenticeships as part of the Institute for Apprenticeships. This will involve me in meetings approximately every 6 weeks working with colleagues across all areas of education and childcare in order to ensure appropriate standards for all apprentices entering this area of work.

In school this week we have our Easter assemblies. On Tuesday at Moston assembly for KS1, Wednesday at Moston KS2 and on Wednesday morning at Belthorne, assembly and Easter bonnet parade. We hope parents / carers are able to join us.

We wish you all a very happy and healthy Easter break

I will resume my blog after the holidays and keep our Twitter account @camberwellpark updated with any news

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 19th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of 'Happiness week' at Camberwell Park school where we invite children from lots of our link schools to come and join in activities with our pupils. 

On Monday we welcome a group from St Mary's Moston into Gold butterfly class and a group from Moston Fields primary school into Silver butterfly class.

On Tuesday we welcome a group from Bowker Vale primary school into Pink Butterfly class

On Wednesday we are having an open afternoon for staff from our link schools to come and learn about how they can support children with additional needs in their own schools

On Thursday we welcome a group from Mount Carmel school into Yellow butterfly class

On Friday we welcome a group from Moston Lane school into Brown butterfly class

Thursday this week is also a very special day for us as it is the official opening day of our second site on Belthorne Avenue. We are taking a group of Key stage 2 pupils from our Moston site to visit there in the morning - they will join in an art activity together and enjoy a snack with their friends. In the afternoon we have invited parents / carers, governors and members of the local community to come and visit the school. We are really proud of how well the children have settled into our new site and the progress they are making so we look forward to celebrating with our visitors.

On Friday this week we have a visit from Andrew Farren who is a consultant carrying out a quality assurance visit checking our school self evaluation policy and procedures. Whilst we have been inspected recently, it is important that we continue to move onwards and upwards with all aspects of our school self evaluation and school improvement. The report when it is completed will be shared with governors and put on the school website under the 'About our school' branch  here. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 12th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of Science week in Camberwell Park School and so all classes have got lots of exciting science activities planned. We have a whole school science assembly on Tuesday 13th March where the children will watch some interesting and exciting science experiements. 

It is also our parents' evening this week, on Wednesday 14th March. Parents' evening is a great opportunity to chat to parents / carers about their child's progress at this mid - point in the year. 

School council have been planning sponsored activities for Sports relief which is coming up on 17 - 23rd March - letters will  be going home to families this week to tell everyone what is being planned and to ask for support with sponsorship.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 5th March (camberwellpark Admin)

We return to school today after having to close school on Thursday and Friday following the severe weather. Closing school is a difficult decision and not one which is ever taken lightly however the safety of our pupils and staff has to take precidence and it was not safe to be out on the roads following the snowfall over night on Wednesday / Thursday morning or to be in school with the amount of glass doors etc in the signficant winds on Friday. We apologise again for any inconvience caused by the school closure and appreciate all of the support we had from families in making the decision.

It has been great seeing the children back in school this morning!

We were dissapointed to have missed World book day last Thursday when we had to close so have re-arranged it for this Thursday, 8th March - lots of book based activities and all of the children and staff dressing up as book characters!

On Friday this week we are looking forward to welcoming a small group of visitors from Belarus who are  visiting England with Chernobyl Children's Project.  We are pleased and proud to be able to share our expertise with others who are supporting developments over in Belarus. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 26th February (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the first day back in school after our half - term holiday and it has been lovely seeing all of the children back this morning.

It is lovely and sunny in Manchester but bitterly cold and we are bracing ourselves for the snow that is forecast for later this week!

We were delighted as we finished for the half - term break that our sucess story of a 3rd successive outstanding Ofsted judgement has been picked up by the Manchester Evening News and reported under the headline 'A school full of smiles and laughter' . We are so PROUD of our whole school community.

As headteacher it is really important that I keep up to date with national developments and expectations and that I work closely with colleagues in Manchester and Greater Manchester on developments in relation to children and young people with SEND. Tomorrow I am meeting with headteachers from a range of special schools across Greater Manchester. I am the Chair of the GM SEND strategy group which is a group of us working together to collaborate on a range of issues in relation to SEND to ensure we are giving our children and young people the best opportunities. 

On Wednesday I am attending a conference on assessment with my assistant headteacher. How we measure the progress our children are making is a really important issue and one which is changing quite a bit at the moment so it will be a great chance for us to hear from other experts in the field and have chance to chat together about our own school situation.

Thursday in school is World Book day so all classes will be doing lots of work about books and reading and we will all be dressing up as a book character - one of  our favourite days of the year!

Friday is National school clean - up day so we are all making sure we play our part in keeping our school and the school grounds clean and tidy.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 12th February (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before our half - term break and we are waking up to lots of snow in Manchester. This will be an exciting playing out opportunity for the children - time to  have fun!

This morning Pink Butterfly Class are holding a coffee morning for the parents of the children in their class. They will join in an activity with the children and then have time to chat to each other afterwards. We look forward to welcoming them into school. 

Governing body Finance committee are meeting tomorrow evening. It is really important the governors are involved in challenging and supporting the school on how finances are allocated and spent and what the impact of spending is. We are making decisions at the moment on the best company to develop our outdoor play areas ( work which will be scheduled for the summer break) so tomorrow's agenda includes consideration of the different plans and quotes we have received to ensure best value for the school. 

On Wednesday morning the governors are visiting our Belthorne site. Some of the governors have not had chance to see the more recent developments at Belthorne so it will be a great opportunity to see the school and to meet and talk to staff and pupils there.

We finish our half - term with a 'PROUD TO BE ME' morning. A chance for us to celebrate how proud we are of the school with our children. We have lots of nice things planned including all children decorating their own butterfly to make a large butterfly collage, a whole school sing and sign session and special snacks for the children chosen and voted for  by school council. ( see voting record here) . If you have not had chance to read our Ofsted report it has now been uploaded on the Ofsted website here

School closes on Friday 16th February for our half - term break. We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday. I will resume my blog when we return on Monday 26th February 2018 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 5th February (camberwellpark Admin)

We were really pleased to have been able to send our final Ofsted report home to our parents / carers last week. If you have not had chance to see it here it is! It will be on the Ofsted website on 8th February 2018. I am a very PROUD headteacher. Well done and thank you to everyone in the whole school community for their support for our school

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 29th January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of another busy week in school and only 2 weeks off half - term now!

This week I have a number of parents of prospective pupils visiting the school. It is a hard decision deciding on a school placement and particularly when your child has special needs so it is important we give the time for parents to visit, see the school for themselves and ask any questions of us that they have. 

On Thursday this week we are having a whole school ECO / Forest schools day! We have been an ECO schools Green Flag holder for a number of years. Becoming a Forest school is in this year's School Improvement Plan so is still in development. On Thursday we are all going to wear green clothes and have a range of activities planned for all of the children throughout the day.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher  

Monday 22nd January (camberwellpark Admin)

Good morning!

I am going to start my blog today with a reflection of last week in school - when I wrote my blog last Monday I was unaware we were about to get a phone call from Ofsted to say that we were going to be inspected the following day. We had the call at lunchtime on Monday and then welcomed Sue Eastwood, HMI and Elaine White, Ofsted inspector the following day. We are unable to share the outcome yet however we are really pleased with the feedback we have been given. We anticipate the report will be available to be shared in a couple of weeks and will be published on the Ofsted website. I will share it in my blog and on the website as soon as possible.

Last week was a great opportunity to share the work we do every day at school with the inspection team and this week we carry on with everything we do.....

I am PROUD to be the headteacher of Camberwell Park School

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 15th January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a wet and rainy Monday morning here in Manchester but all of the children are happy and settled and busy working in school. 

This morning I have been shortlisting for teaching assistant vacancies in school. It is really important that we have a clear and fair recruitment process which includes us following safer recruitment practices. We use the teaching assistant job descriptions issued by the LA and ask people to demonstrate how they have met the person specification in their applications. In line with safer recruitment policy and the DfE guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education, we request references at the time of shortlisting for interview. All members of staff must have 2 positive references and a completed DBS check before they can start work with us. We have shortlisted 4 applicants this morning and the interviews will be held later this week. We are proud to be a Gold award Investor in People as staff are our biggest and most important resource and we want to make sure they have the best and most up to date knowledge, skills and experience to work with our pupils. 

On Friday this week I will be meeting with my colleague Manchester special school headteachers. We meet as a group of heads each half - term in order to share information, collaborate on LA related projects and offer challenge and support to each other on school matters. It is really important that as a school we do not work in isolation to ensure we are always engaging in self - review and being the best we can be for our pupils and their families. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 8th January (camberwellpark Admin)

We start this week at school with a staff training day. It is really important we keep all of our staff up to date with training on the full range of school issues. Today we are using the expertise of the speech and language therapist to provide refresher training on use of PECS ( Picture Exchange communication system) as well as a range of workshops led by different school staff. I am leading a update / refresher session on 'British Values' which are embedded into our school through Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education. There are lots of examples on our website  such as through our assemblies which are focussed around the themes for SEAL ( social and emotional aspects of learning). We have an early years / KS1 assembly on a Tuesday and a KS2 assembly on a Wednesday. I am leading this week's assembly on the SEAL theme for this half - term  which is 'Going for Goals'. This week children from each of the classes will be sharing one of their targets with everyone. At each assembly we also have a 'star of the week' from each class which is an opportunity to celebrate achievements. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 18th December (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term before Christmas and lots of nice things happening for the children in school this week

Over the last few weeks each of the classes have been going out on Christmas Educational visits. Today it is Pink Butterfly class who are out on a visit to Sky high Adventures. 

Tomorrow it is Christmas dinner day for everyone! The classes have made decorated place mats  and table decorations for the dining room to add to the festivities. Once the children have had their lunch then the staff will also enjoy having a christmas lunch too!

Wednesday is party day! Santa is coming to visit the children in the morning and then they will be playing party games in the afternoon

On Thursday, our last day of term, we are having our annual Christingle service. All of the classes will make a Christingle which they will bring to the service and we will enjoy singing together some of our favourite songs like He's got the whole world in his hands, Love Shine a light and Away in a Manger

School is closed from Thursdsay 21st December 2017 until Thursday 4th January 2018. I wish everyone a very happy and healthy Christmas and will resume my headteacher blog in the new year.

Best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 11th December (camberwellpark Admin)

It is our last full week in school before the Christmas holidays and we are feeling very festive here at Camberwell Park School.

Today Blue butterfly class are off on their Christmas visit to Clayton Hall . It is a fabulous day out so we know they will have a great time!

Tomorrow is the dress rehearsal for our Christmas Concert, 'Dora's First Christmas'. We have two performances on Thursday and Friday this week, one for our parents / carers and the other for our link schools. The children have been practising the songs and signs and we are very much looking forward to performing for our visitors at the end of this week. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 4th December (camberwellpark Admin)

I wonder if anyone reading this was watching BBC breakfast during last week when they had a focus on Special needs every day? If you did you may have seen some of the children from Yellow Butterfly class together with the parents of one of our children during the feature they did on Wednesday's programme when they shone a spotlight on autism. https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/935812750844071936. I am very proud that our school was showcased as a good example of provision. 

It was our Christmas Fayre on Saturday. We appreciate all the support we had from people including local businesses who made donations of raffle prizes and items for the stalls as well as everyone who came and supported. It was a lovely day in school. We raised lots of money for our school fund - the total is being added up today and I will tweet the total raised from our school twitter account asap ( our twitter feed can be seen on the front page of our website)

Today both Yellow Butterfly class and Violet Butterfly class are out of school for their Christmas educational visits. They have gone to Skyhigh adventures in Tameside. We hope they have a lovely time.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 27th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Rehearsals have begun for this year's Christmas concert which is 'Dora's first Christmas'. All of the classes have planned the songs they are singing and this afternoon in Sing and Sign they have been practicing together for the first time. Sounding great! invitations have gone out to our parents and to our link schools to come and see the final performances.

Classes are all preparing for next Saturday's Christmas Fayre too raising money for our school funds. Each class is organising a different staff and things to sell e.g. baking cakes, making Christmas decorations etc. We hope you can join us between 12 - 3 p.m. on Saturday 2nd December - would be great to see you!

This Wednesday Green and Red caterpillar class at our Belthorne site have invited parents into a coffee morning they have organised. It is an opportunity for families to see their children in school and to chat to other parents / carers. I am looking forward to being there and joining them.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 20th November (camberwellpark Admin)

I want to start my blog today with a thank you to everyone who supported us last week to raise funds for Children in Need. We all enjoyed dressing up in our spotty clothes and joining in the whole school walk around the school grounds. I will post how much we raised on our school twitter account @camberwellpark once it is all counted up. 

It is only two weeks now until our school Christmas Fayre when we are raising funds for our own school. We hope you can join us on Saturday 2nd December between 12 - 3 p.m. - lots of stalls, cafe and santa 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 13th November (camberwellpark Admin)

On Friday this week Camberwell Park will be acknowledging Children in Need. School council met and have decided that they would like everyone to dress in spotty clothing on that day and to donate £1 to Children in Need which they will stick on pictures of Pudsey in the school. We are also going to have a whole school walk around the school grounds which will be really good fun!

We are also busy preparing for our Christmas Fayre which will be on Saturday 25th November, 12 - 3 p.m. We hope you can come and support us! The classes are all busy taking charge of different stalls and will be preparing things to sell as part of school enterprise. 

Classes are also planning their contribution to the Christmas Concert which this year is entitled 'Dora's First Christmas' to celebrate us having our new school puppy, Dora . You can find out more about Dora and her work with the school here. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 6th November (camberwellpark Admin)

It is week 2 of Bikeright  - such an enjoyable activity and so valuable for our pupils to develop their confidence and skills on a bike. We are grateful to everyone at Bikeright for giving our pupils this opportunity and for the  positive way they are working with our pupils.

It is important that we work collaboratively with other schools and colleagues and this week I am pleased to welcome the Headteacher of Manchester Hospital School for a visit. Janet Doherty, the headteacher is a relatively new appointment to the school and has not yet had a chance to visit us. As some of our children can be hospitalised for long period of time with health challenges related to their condition it is an important link. 

We are currently recruiting for a new teacher to join us from the summer term. If you know anyone who might be interested to join our outstanding staff team please do let them know. The information can be found here on our school website. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 30th October (camberwellpark Admin)

It was a cold and frosty start to our new half - term this morning but that did not deter our year 5 and 6 pupils who are involved in Bikeright this week and next. Bikeright is a great opportunity for our pupils to practice their balance skills and confidence in riding bikes whether they are 2 or 3 wheelers. Good fun too!

This afternoon has been our governing body standards committee and has been a great opportunity to discuss our school standards in depth with governors.

Our programme of annual reviews continues in school and we are enjoying useful discussions with parents / carers about the achievement of their pupils and set new targets for the year ahead

One thing I must share with you is our absolute pride of winning a NASEN award in the category of Excellence in Special schools.  We were shortlisted for the award along with 2 others and got to know we had won at the awards ceremony just before half - term on 19.10.17. It is a real acknowlegement of the impact of the work we do with children who have special needs in mainstream schools and we are very proud. Well done to the whole staff team!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th October (camberwellpark Admin)

it is the last week before half - term and it is an exciting week for a few different reasons

This afternoon we are hosting a group of visitors from Belarus. We are proud to be hosting the visit as part of the work of Chernobyl Children's project who do lots of work to support the children of Belarus and their families including visit of professionals who work in the field of special educational needs in Belarus who want to make a difference and come here to learn about how we do things. I was privileged to visit Belarus myself a number of years ago and was able to see first hand the work going on out there

Later this week I am proud to be representing the school at the 2017 NASEN awards ceremony in London where our school has been shortlisted for an award in the category of 'Excellent Practice in Special School' . We are very proud to have been shortlisted for such a prestigious national award.

I will keep everyone updated on our school twitter account  @Camberwellpark which can be seen on the front page of our school website. 

I wish everyone a happy half -term holiday and will resume my blog after the half - term break

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 9th October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is an exciting week this week as our year 6 pupils are off to Bendrigg Lodge for a week of adventure. We know they will have an amazing week where they will experience lots of things including zip wire, camp fire, abseiling, walks in the woods, caneoing and much more. We look forward to hearing about the fun they are having

Back in school, this afternoon it is the governing body finance committee meeting. It is really important that the governors challenge and support the school on all issues including how we plan for and spend the budget and also measure the impact of what we are spending. 

Thank you to all of those parents / carers and friends who have returned the questionnaire we have sent out in relation to the current Free school application we are planning to submit in conjunction with Big Life. We are welcoming the opportunity to bid for extending the work we already do at Camberwell Park to more children with special needs across the north of the city. If you have any further questions about this then please do not hesitate to ask.

Letters are coming out to families this week with regards to parent governor vacancies we have at the moment. We very much value having parents as part of our governing body - it is really important to us to have the voice of our parents in our school planning and decision making. This is what our parent govenor Tony Jenkinson says about his role. This is what our parent governor Debbi Cloran says about her role. We look forward to receiving nominations from new parent governors and welcoming them onto our team

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 2nd October (camberwellpark Admin)

Monday morning and school is busy with children working in their classrooms

Today is also the first meeting of the school council for the year - each class has chosen their representative and they are meeting today to draw up rules for when they are working with Dora our school dog as well as choosing a new song to learn in sing and sign and sharing our school improvement plan focus for this year.

This evening is also the first session of our new after school sports club. We have 12 children staying behind tonight to do football skills which is great!

This week is also our parents' evening.  We look forward to the opportunity to welcome our parents / carers into school on Wednesday evening - a chance for our families to meet with their child's new class teacher and to talk about the plans for this term and how they can help at home.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 25th September (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of September already!

School is busy but everyone is settled and working hard.

Today and tomorrow all of our new staff are engaging in initial Team - Teach training. Team teach is a behaviour management system based on positive support and reward for children's behaviour and de-escalation strategies for children who are in crisis and their behaviour becomes more challenging. The training includes some safe holds (positive handling) for children if they are in danger to themselves or causing a risk to others but use of holds is only ever as a last resort. It is really important that we are all consistent in the way we support our children's behaviour in order to achieve effective behaviour for learning across school. To find out more about behaviour management at our school check out our website here

Our programme of annual reviews on our children's Education, Health and Care plans has already begun and I have enjoyed meeting with parents and carers over this last couple of weeks. Annual reviews are scheduled in throughout this term and different members of the leadership team will be taking the lead in the meetings. It is such a great opportunity to review progress of our pupils and set new targets. To find out more about our EHCPs have a look at our website here

On Wednesday this week some of our KS2 pupils are joining in an inter - special school football tournament - they are very excited! We wish them good luck!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 18th September (camberwellpark Admin)

We are in week 3 of the new school term already!

Lots of things to share with you all...

Today is the first day of having children in our new site at Belthorne ( Belthorne Avenue, Blackley,  Manchester, M9 7DD). Over the next couple of weeks we are gradually admitting an additional 24 children onto our school roll based at this site bringing our total numbers to 130 in the school. It is very exciting!

The new children at our Moston site have settled in really well. I have just been all round school and it is calm, quiet and busy :-)

We also have Dora, our school dog with us in school every day now. Dora is only a puppy yet and has lots to learn but she is great with the children. You can find out more about Dora and the work she will be doing with the children here

We are also excited and proud to have been shortlisted for a NASEN award in the category of Excellent Practice in Special School. We find out who has won at an event in London on 19th October but a huge well done to everyone in school for being recognised in the list of those shortlisted. 

I look forward to meeting up with parents / carers in the fortcoming weeks as we start our programme of annual reviews.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 17th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term and the last week of this school year!

As well as an opportunity to celebrate the achievements this year we also have some goodbyes to say or at least farewell to some people - both staff and pupils

Our year 6 pupils have been engaging in a transition programme to their high school over the past number of weeks. This is their last week at Camberwell Park School. It is always sad when we have to say goodbye to pupils who have been part of our school for so long however we know they are ready for the next stage of their education and we wish them every success as they move on. 

On Friday we have our 'Celebration assembly' when all of our pupils across school receive their 'Year books' celebrating their achievements. The year 6's also  do a singing performance for us which we are very much looking forward to. We always invite all of our parents / carers and it is always well attended - a highlight of the year!

As well as saying goodbye to some of our pupils, we are also saying goodbye to some of our staff. We would like to wish both Mrs Pat Hallam and Mrs Sue Ryan a healthy and happy retirement. Sue has worked at the school for 17 years as a lunchtime organiser and teaching assistant and Mrs Hallam has been a class teacher at Camberwell Park school for 20 years. We would also like to wish Mrs Alison Randall every success in her new job as Head of School at Samuel Laycock. Mrs Randall has been a teacher and then senior leader at the school for 14 years. Thank you to all 3 staff for their significant contribution to the school. They will all be missed!

I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday. I am a very PROUD headteacher!

I will keep our twitter account @camberwellpark updated with news of our play scheme activities over the holidays and return to this weekly blog when school re-opens in September

With all my warmest wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 10th July (camberwellpark Admin)

On Saturday we held our summer fayre which was a super afternoon. We were delighted to see lots of our pupils and ex - pupils there with their families and are grateful to have raised just over £1400! Thank you to everyone who supported us with donating items for the fayre and who came on the day. A huge thanks also to members of my staff team who gave up their Saturday to help run stalls. All money will go into our school funds to help to develop our outdoor play and learning areas. 

I am continuing with a programme of annual reviews this week  for pupils in year 6. We have been able to share how well the transition programme to Northridge has been going for our pupils. Tomorrow is the last of the transition visits for the year 6 pupils who are going all day. They will enjoy staying at Northridge for their lunch!

Wednesday this week parents' evening and we are looking forward to meeting with parents and carers to discuss and celebrate the pupils' achievements this year. 

Thursday is our sports day which this year we are combining with a Carribean Carnival complete with steel drums and dancing! We are also delighted that pupils from Mount Carmel primary school are joining us for the day. 

On Friday morning this week we are having a transition morning which includes a visit from all of our new pupils are well as all our current pupils going into their new classes. 

A busy and exciting week!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 3rd July (camberwellpark Admin)

I am starting my blog this week with a huge thank you to the Co-op customer team who not only have donated £1000 from their own fundraising to our school but also have sent a team of 6 of their staff here today to help us out with preparing our outdoor gardens - they are currently filling our huge planters with soil and are going to do some painting in a while. Thank you them!

Our classes continue with their summer term off-site visits. Today, Green Butterfly class are going to Heaton Park for the day. We hope they have a lovely time. 

Annual reviews for our year 6 pupils start this week. A celebration of everything they have achieved whilst being at Camberwell Park as they prepare to move onto their high school in September. I look forward to meeting with the children and their families.

Tomorrow we have our external Quality Assurance visit - each term having an independent consultant coming into school to review our strengths and areas for development as we continue to strive to build on our outstanding practice. We publish all of the reports we receive online on our website so do have a look!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 26th June (camberwellpark Admin)

I would like to start my blog this week by wishing Eid Mubarak  to all of our children, their families and staff who have been celebrating this weekend. All of our children have been learning about Eid as we learn about the key festivals of all religions and our assemblies this week will be focussed on Eid.

Summer term educational visits continue and we are lucky to have continued nice weather in which to enjoy them. Today, Red Butterfly Class have been out to Heaton Park for the day. All good fun!

I am in the middle of annual reviews for our year 5 pupils - every day this week I am leading their annual reviews which is a chance to review the outcomes of their Education, Health and Care Plan, celebrate the progress made this year then think and plan ahead not just to year 6 but beyond to their High School as we invite a representative from Northridge High School to join us to start to get to know our children and so that we can begin to support the children and their families with a supported transition. I enjoy being part of the reviews very much - particularly when the pupils themselves come in and share their reports on the year. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 19th June (camberwellpark Admin)

It's a very sunny day in Manchester and classes are taking advantage with lots of outdoor learning going on. 

We have a new swing which was bought from our fundraising in memory of Margaret Hulme, a longstanding teaching assistant at the school. As well as good fun it is also great for learning concepts e.g. Pink butterfly class who have been doing 'push' and 'pull' out there.

Classes are also busy planning their summer term educational visits. Tomorrow for example Blue Butterfly class are going to Stockley Farm.

All of our classes continue to fundraise for the 'One Love Manchester' campaign. We loved these Bee biscuits made by Yellow Butterfly class last week!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 5th June (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the first day of the new half - term and we are starting with a whole staff training day on safeguarding. Keeping our pupils safe is core to who we are as a school so it is essential that all of our staff receive regular up to date training and we follow up to date statutory guidance from the DfE

Our pupils return to school tomorrow and it is always great to see them after a holiday!

All of our teachers take it in turn to lead assemblies and it is my turn this week. All of our assemblies are themed on Social and Emotional aspects of Learning and calendar events. As most of our pupils are moving to new classes in September and our year 6 pupils are moving to high school the theme for this half - term is 'changes' . In addition, each class nominates one of their pupils for a 'special mention' for something they have done that is extra special. They are very proud to receive a star, sticker and a round of applause from their friends. Assembly for EY / KS1 is on Tuesdays and for KS2 on Wednesdays. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 22nd May (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half - term again already and the sun is shining in Manchester.

This morning I am welcoming a group of prospective parents to visit the school. Deciding on a school placement for your child is a big decision so it is important that parents / carers have a chance to visit the school, meet the staff and pupils and ask any questions they have. As we have lots and lots of requests to visit school I have a date in my diary once a month to see a group of parents together. I look forward to meeting with them this morning.

All of the classes are organsing a summer term educational visit and today it is Silver butterfly class who are visiting Sky High Adventure . We are sure they will have a fabulous time. 

School will be closed next week for half - term. On Monday 5th June we are closed to pupils for a whole school safeguarding training session. School re-opens to pupils on Tuesday 6th June 

We wish everyone a happy and healthy half - term holiday

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 15th May (camberwellpark Admin)

We start this week with a 2 day visit from an Investors in People assessor. Being an ' Investor in People' is very important to us as a school - staff are our biggest resource and really make a difference to what we achieve with our pupils so it is essential to me as headteacher that we invest in staff in terms of training, involvement in school improvement etc. The process of considering all aspects of Investors in People is the important aspect - gaining the award is a by-product. We are already an Investors in People Gold award holder - this week is about renewing that standard. We will find out in about one month when the assessment is complete and we receive the report.

This afternoon is a meeting of our Governing Body standards committee. The standards commitee meets each half term to look in depth at different areas of school standards. This afternoon will focus on our school curriuclum and includes a presentation from two of our teachers who are subject leaders to the governors. The school counsellor will also report on the impact of her work in school during this year in supporting targeted pupils who have needed additional support in terms of their health and wellbeing. 

The transition programme for our year 6 pupils to Northridge High school continues in order to prepare them for their next stage of education . After a successful first visit last week, the group will be visiting on Tuesday morning this week.

On Wednesday afternoon this week Mrs Taylor, deputy headteacher will be leading an 'attendance prizes' assembly. We take the attendance of our pupils at school very seriously and have gold, silver and bronze certificates for attendance. Pupils who get a gold certificate can also choose a prize e.g. bubbles, crayons. The children get very excited and are pleased for each other when they receive their certificates.

We are hoping for good weather on Thursday as we are holding an Outdoor classroom day. Classes have been busy organising lots of fantastic activities so it promises to be a really fun day with lots of exciting learning. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 8th May (camberwellpark Admin)

Another busy week in school has begun...

This morning was our weekly drumming session for a group of our pupils in Key Stage 2. Pupils from various classes work together with a music teacher to learn and enjoy various drumming rhythms. It is great!

We have lots of links with our local mainstream schools. Where appropriate groups of pupils attend each week for different lessons. This afternoon a small group of our pupils attends Moston Fields Primary school where they participate in  an English lesson.  Another group of pupils come down to Camberwell Park this afternoon and join in our weekly  whole school Sing and Sign session. On Wednesday a small group of pupils attends Bowker Vale Primary school where they participate in dance and ICT lessons. On Thursday a small group of pupils attend Mount Carmel school where they participate in a PE lesson. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 2nd May (camberwellpark Admin)

We return to school on a 4 day week this week after Bank Holiday Monday and the sun is shining in Manchester!

This week marks the start of the transition visits for our pupils in year 6 to their high school placements. It is really important that we support our pupils as they prepare to move on to their next stage of education. We have strong links with Northridge school where most of our pupils will move on to and all of our pupils will join in a series of visits starting on this Friday where they will go for a first short visit to the cafe at the school. Over the coming weeks they will join classes and meet and get to know Northridge pupils and staff. They are all excited about going!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 24th April (camberwellpark Admin)

This is our second week of the new term and school is happy and busy

It is Monday afternoon as I am writing this and everyone is on their way to our weekly sing and sign session - a whole school highlight of the week!

We continue to make plans for expansion of our school numbers. We have already recruited new teachers and Level 3 teaching assistants. This week our recruitment continues with appointment of level 1 teaching assistants. Our plans for refurbishment of our additional building the current Belthorne children centre site have also been agreed so are plans are developing nicely. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 28th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term before Easter and this week we are having our Easter assemblies. Today is the turn of EY / KS1 and tomorrow will be KS2. Every pupil has decorated an egg which they will share at the assembly. There will be chocolate egg prizes too! We are pleased to be joined by our local vicar Jess for both assemblies.

Thank you to everyone who supported our Marie Curie coffee morning and our fund raising for comic relief last week. We raised £129.69 for Marie Curie and £76.60 on Red Nose Day for comic relief. 

School will be closed to the pupils from Friday 31st March until Tuesday 18th April 2017. I wish everyone a happy and healthy Easter break.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 20th March (camberwellpark Admin)

This week is 'happiness week' at Camberwell Park and we have lots of activities planned including visits from a number of our local mainstream schools. This afternoon pupils from Moston Fields are joining us for our Sing and Sign session, tomorrow morning pupils from Cheetham community school are joining Brown Butterfly class for the morning and in the afternoon a year 2 group from Moston Fields are spending the afternoon in Pink Butterfly class. On Wednesday we are having an open afternoon when we have invited colleagues from all of the mainstream schools we offer outreach support to visit so we can share our work with them.  On Thursday morning a group from Bowker Vale school are joining Orange Butterfly class and in the afternoon a gruop from Mount Carmel are joining Gold Butterfly Class. 

Friday this week is Comic Relief day and school council have decided that everyone should wear red clothes and bring a £1 to donate to comic relief. Classes will be planning their own fun activities and have found the Red nose day website really useful for ideas http://www.rednoseday.com/schools

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 7th March (camberwellpark Admin)

This week we are interviewing for new teachers. Making decisions about appointing new staff are really important so we work really hard on getting the process right in order to get the appoint the right people. We have shortlisted 11 candidates who will be interviewed tomorrow and the process will include an unseen lesson planning task, a panel interview and a teaching task. The pupils are also involved involved in the process as they have provided a pupil person specification which went out with the application pack in terms of the sort of qualities they want in a teacher. 

On Thursday evening all of the staff are staying for a twi- light training session with Paul McGee . It is really important that we support the staff with training and it will be an evening of solution focussed thinking which will really help the staff in their day to day work in school. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 27th February (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the first day back after half term and it is the start of FairTrade Fortnight. Over this next couple of weeks the children will be learning about FairTrade and of course sampling lots of FairTrade produce in class.

On Thursday this week it is World Book Day . We have started the week with a World Book Day themed Sing and Sign session and classes are doing world book day activities all week. On Thursday this week all pupils and staff will be dressing up as book characters and we will have a 'show and tell' assembly to share the good work done in classes. How exciting!

We have been recruiting for new teachers for our school expansion. I am delighted that we have received 24 applications. We will be shortlisting later in the week and interviewing for teachers on 8th March 2017. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 13th February (camberwellpark Admin)

I am starting this week with exciting news! We have been given permission to expand our school numbers in order to take up to 24 additional pupils who are currently waiting for a place at our outstanding school. We are taking over the current site of Belthorne Children's Centre (30 Belthorne Ave, Manchester M9 7DD) which will be re-furbished to meet the needs of our pupils. We are very much looking forward to linking with and getting to know the children and families who will be joining us on our new site.

In order for us to recruit  staff for our new site, we have begun to advertise for teachers https://www.eteach.com/microsite/jobdetails.aspx?vacno=745601We will be advertising for teaching assistants, admin staff, cook and cleaning staff in due course. Exciting times ahead!

This morning I met  Emma - Louise Merva from the Tauheedul Education Trust with regards to Camberwell Park becoming a partner who can deliver some of the National Professional leadership Qualifications such as NPQML / NPQSL / NPQH ( National Professional qualifications for Middle Leaders, Senior leaders and Headship). This is another exciting opportunity for us as a National Support School to share our expertise with others across the north west and to deliver highly thought of accedited training. 

It is important for me to give parents / carers of pupils who may come to join the school a  chance to visit and to chat to me about what the school offers. In order to accomodate the high number of requests I have for parents visiting, I have now put a date in my diary once a month to meet groups of visiting parents together. On Wednesday morning this week I am meeting a group of 6 families who will be given a tour of the school and a chance to ask questions about the school. 

We finish school on Friday this week for our half  - term holidays. School is closed to pupils from 20 - 24th February. School will re-open to pupils on Monday 27th February 2017. 

Wishing you a happy and healthy half - term holiday

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 6th February (camberwellpark Admin)

I have just returned from a lively Monday afternoon sing and sign session - the children  ( and staff I might add) enjoy it so much. It is a lovely social time for all of the school to get together but at the same time learn new song, practice signing and develop confidence with performing in front of others.

Later today is the governing body finance committee. It is essential that the governors have an oversight and provide challenge and support around how the school uses the funding we get and how resources are deployed. To find out more about the work of the governors including the Finance Committee then take a look at our website

Tomorrow is 'Safer Internet Day'. . We take e-safety very seriously at our school and have run parent / carer workshops as well as doing work in the classroom with our pupils and making sure all of the firewalls etc on our IT equipment in school are in place. Find out more about our work on e-safety on the safeguarding page on our website. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 30th January (camberwellpark Admin)

I am going to start my blog this week with some something to celebrate! We have been proud to be an Open Futures Flagship School for the last 3 years. We are one of 25 schools nationally. You can read more about being a flagship school on this link  . The Flagship status  remains for 3 year and we learned last week we have successfully had our flaghip status renewed. I am really proud of the whole school community for keeping Open Futures embedded into our work - the children gain so much from all the 4 strands of Grow it, Cook it, Film it and Ask it to support their learning across the curriculum.

This afternoon is our Governing Body Standards commitee meeting. The standards commitee looks in depth at different aspects of our school in order to challenge and support the work of the school and ensure we are being the 'best we can be'. This afternoon we have the role of subject leaders / curriculum teams, pupil attendance and Education, Health Care plans / annual reviews on the agenda. Some of the pupils are coming in to share their pupil voice booklets  and tell the governors how they share their views about their learning at annual reviews. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 23rd January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is Monday again and breakfast club is underway with children enjoying their cereals or toast. We started an 8.30 breakfast club last term and it is proving very popular. The children are supported to communicate their choices for breakfast using the symbols / signs they use in class and are encouraged to develop their independence skills eg spreading the butter on the toast or washing up afterwards. They all have some of their favourite things to do when they have finished their breakfast e.g. a story book or a jigsaw puzzle.

This afternoon is our 'attendance prizes' assembly which one of the deputy head teachers, Mrs Taylor leads. Pupil attendance is really important to us and the children receive  bronze, silver and gold attendance certificates each term. If they have a gold certificate for 100% attendance they can also choose a prize - e.g. bubbles, a book, crayons etc. The children get very excited and the choosing can take some time!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 16th January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is another busy week at Camberwell Park School and this week we are pleased that our mainstream links are starting up again after the Christmas break. We have a group of pupils who go to Bowker Vale school each week to do English and a group of pupils who go to Mount Carmel School each week to do P.E. 

Each week we a group of our pupils go the Donkey Sanctuary at Debdale Park https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/visit-us/manchester. This term it is the turn of White Butterfly Class. It is a great opportunity for the children to learn about caring for animals as well as having the experience of riding on a donkey. You can read about our children's work at the donkey sanctuary here  ( pages 20 - 21)

On Thursday this week it is our Full Governing Body meeting. The governors have an important role in challenging and supporting the leadership team on the work of the school. You can find out about our governors and their work by reading the information on our website here 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 9th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the first day back in school after the Christmas holidays and it has been great seeing how happy the children all were to be back when they arrived this morning. I had a walk round school just before lunch and classes were calm and settled with lots of focussed and busy children. 

It is lunchtime at the moment. Each day the children get a choice of either a jacket potato with filling, pasta and sauce or cooks choice which today is cheese whirl, chips and beans. Our cook Becky makes fabulous school lunches so everything will be eaten up I am sure! They will be all ready for the whole - school sing and sign session in the hall this afternoon which they enjoy very much. 

One of the things that is really important for me as headteacher is to ensure that I have up to date safeguarding and child protection training so I can work alongside colleagues in ensuring we keep all of the children in school safe. This week I am attending training about domestic violence and on Friday I am attending training on substance abuse. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 19th December (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of term at Camberwell Park School and it is a week of fun Christmas activities.

A few classes are out on educational visits this week. Today Yellow Butterfly class are off to Sky High , on Tuesday Red Butterfly class are going to Boomerang and on Wednesday White Butterfly class are going to Boomerang.

Tomorrow is Christmas dinner day for the children and also 'Christmas jumper day' for everyone - it is great seeing everyone dressed up and in their Christmas jumpers - such fun!

Wednesday is Christmas party day so party outfits all round! Party food for all of the children at lunchtime followed by party games and then Santa is coming at 2 p.m. to bring presents for all of the children.

Thursday is our last day of term and we are having a whole school Christingle Service on Thursday morning. The classes have made their Christingles and we will enjoy singing our Christingle service songs of Whole World in his hands, Love Shine a light and Away in a Manger. A special time for everyone in school. 

School re-opens on Monday 9th January 2017.

I wish everyone a very happy and healthy holiday and look forward to a fabulous 2017 at Camberwell Park School 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 12th December (camberwellpark Admin)

Christmas activities are well underway in school now.....

This week several of our classes are out on their Christmas educational visits. Gold Butterfly class are out today seeing Pinnochio Pantomime at the theatre. They have been reading the book in class so seeing it at the theatre will be great! Violet butterfly class are also out this morning at Sky High Adventure  and later this week Purple Butterfly class are at Boomerang 

This week is also the week of our Christmas concert 'The 12 Camberwell Classes of Christmas' . The school council chose the theme of the concert and each class will perform their own song. We have a rehearsal this afternoon and on Wednesday afternoon and then have two performances on Thursday and Friday this week. We are delighted that the Lord Mayor has accepted an invitation to join us along with parents / carers and friends to the school on Thursday morning. We have children from our link schools of Moston Fields, Bowker Vale and Mount Carmel joining us on Friday morning

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 5th December (camberwellpark Admin)

I am going to start today's blog with a note about our Christmas Fayre which was held on Saturday 3rd December. It was fantastic! We were overwhelmed with the support we had from parents / carers bringing their children and from local residents in Moston. We really appreciate everyone's support. We know everyone had a good time and we have raised lots of money for our school fund. We haven't finished totting up the final total raised but will post it on our school twitter account when it is all added up. We still have some raffle tickets for sale in school with lots of fab prizes so do get in touch if you want any tickets. The raffle is being drawn on Friday 16th December.

Rehearsals are also underway for our Christmas concert 'The 12 Camberwell classes of Christmas'. Each class has chosen a different song to sing and sign. The performance for our parents / carers will be on Thursday 15th December and we are delighted that the Lord Mayor of Manchester is joining us for the performance.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 28th November (camberwellpark Admin)

This week heralds the start of December and lots of Christmas related activities are already being planned

Next Saturday, 3rd December is our Christmas Fayre from 12 noon to 3 p.m.. There are lots of stalls and things going on for both children and for adults so we hope you can join us and help us raise money for our school funds.

Our plans for our Christmas Concert are all underway. This year we are performing 'The 12 Camberwell classes of Christmas' and each class are performing a different song. Our performance for parents / carers is on Thursday 15th December at 10 a.m.. We are delighted that the Lord Mayor has accepted and invitation to the concert and will be joining us on Thursday 15th December.  On Friday 16th December at 10 .am.  we are doing a second performance for some of the schools we link with - pupils from Moston Fields Primary, Bowker Vale Primary and Mount Carmel primary schools have been invited. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 21st November (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a cold and rainy start to the week in Manchester but all of the children are settled in classes - school is calm and quiet and everyone is working hard. 

The school photographer is in this week on Thursday - it is lovely seeing the children all smart in their uniform for their school photograph. Some of the brothers and sisters of our children come in to have family shots done which is so nice. Many of our parents / carers buy school photographs as family Christmas gifts. I love it when the photos come into school before they are sent home and I get to look through them all - you can imagine lots of 'aahs' as the children look so fabulous!

On Thursday this week we also have one of our regular parent / carer workshops. This week it is a workshop on communication led by one of our teachers, Mr Coates. We have lots of replies saying which parents / carers are attending so we are looking forward to it. 

We enjoyed our Children in Need day last Friday in school and collected lots of money from donations and from our sale of Pudsey biscuits. I will post our collection total on our twitter account @CamberwellPark as soon as it is all added up.

We are still busy preparing for our Christmas Fayre which will be held here in school on Saturday 3rd December. Thank you for all the donations of gifts, bottles, raffle prizes etc. We hope you can join us on the day :-)

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 14th November (camberwellpark Admin)

There are lots of things going on this week!

It is 'anti-bullying week'. Ensuring our pupils understand and are safe from bullying is something that is important to us all the time and we do lots of work on friendship. Our work on being a Unicef Right's Respecting School also includes the Rights of our Children to be safe from bullying and the responsibilities they have for each other to be kind, supportive etc.... It is also important we teach our children about E-safety - being safe online. There is lots of information and good resources on the anti-bullying alliance website. . This year's theme is #PowerForGood

It is also the start of 'Switch off Fortnight' with a focus on saving energy - making sure we switch electrical appliances off when we are not using them. As an ECO school we think this is really important. There are lots of useful resources for primary aged children on the EDF education website 

In school, the Science, Maths and Technology ( STEM) curriculum team are leading a STEM enterprise week with classes all engaging activities and making things for our Christmas Fayre which is fast approaching on Saturday 3rd December

We finish the week with Children in Need day in school. School council have decided that all children and staff should dress as superheroes - better get my costume sorted!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 31st October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of Autumn term 2 and we begin with two staff training days. In a school like ours it is essential we keep our training for all staff up to date on both Health and Safety / moving and handling as well as on positive behaviour management. A whole school approach to keep our pupils and staff safe is essential and this is what we are doing on these 2 days - refresher training for all of our staff day 1: health and safety, day2: Positive behaviour management.

We are looking forward to welcoming the children back into school on Wednesday - always good to see how happy they are to be back after a holiday! It is a busy half - term in school in the run up to Christmas. I will keep you posted with what is happening in school in my blog and on our school twitter account @CamberwellPark

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 17th October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a sunny Autumn day in Manchester and the children are just returning to class after the weekly Sign and Sign session. 

Last week we had a visit from colleagues from other Greater Manchester special schools together with an external consultant as part of the SSAT Peer review programme . Wi invited them into school to review how much the enrichment aspects of our curriculum are embedded into every day practice and what the impact on our pupils is.. We are delighted with the positive report we have received which you can read on our website at the bottom of our Self - evaluation page ( report from our Peer Challenge and Support Review day October 2016 ). 

This week our assemblies  for EY/KS1 on Tuesday and KS2 on Wednesday will celebrate the Hindu Festival of Diwali which will be celebrated by the Hindu community when we are on our half - term holiday on 30th October. As part of our RE curriculum and our acknoweldgement of British Values in school we respect and acknolwedge all faiths. 

Each week now on a Friday, one class is chosen by the kitchen staff to have a VIP lunch table. This week Yellow butterfly class have been chosen as the children have been very settled over lunchtime and have been trying new foods. 

We are on our half - term holiday during next week. The school remains closed to pupils on 31st Oct / 1st Nov for staff training and re-opens to pupils on Wednesday 2nd November. I will resume my headteacher blog on Monday 7th November. 

I wish everyone a happy and healthy half - term

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 10th October (camberwellpark Admin)

I want to start off my blog today by saying what a fabulous time our year 6's had at Bendrigg Lodge last week. If you haven't had chance yet do have a look at the tweets and photographs on our school twitter account which can also be seen on the front page of the website

Everyone is back in school this week and school is calm and busy :-)

We start the week with two governor committees: Pay and Finance Committee. It is really important that the governors are fully aware and involved in all information and decisions in relation to the school budget and how it is used. To find out more about the work of our governors have a look at our school website 

This week we are also holding our Harvest assemblies. On Tuesday 11th october it is our Harvest assembly for EY / KS1 and on Wednesday for KS2. All donations of food brought into school will be given to local homeless charities.

On Thursday this week we welcome some colleagues from other special schools who are visiting to carry out a peer challenge and support visit looking at the work we are doing as a school to enrich our curriculum. We very much value the professional dialogue we have with our colleagues and look forward to the day we are going to spend with them to make the outstanding work we do even better!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 3rd October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is an exciting morning at Camberwell Park as a group of our year 6 pupils prepare to travel to Bendrigg Lodge today until Friday.

Every year we offer our year 6s the opportunity of a residential visit to Bendrigg Lodge. It is a fantastic opportunity for them to engage in a range of activities including canoeing, rock climbing, abseiling, zip wire as well as singing songs and toasting marshmallows by the campfire in the evenings! We are sure they will have lots of fun. I will tweet news and photos from our school twitter account @CamberwellPark during the week. You can see our twitter feed on the front page of our website.

Today we have a full day visit of an external consultant who is coming as a quality assurance visit on our work as a school on safeguarding and school standards / pupil progress. It is really important as a school that as part of our school self - evaluation we have external verification of our work. Maggie Parker who has worked as a school improvement officer for Tameside LA for many years and is also an Ofsted inspector will spend the day with us reviewing documents, talking to different members of staff and governors as well as spending time around school. We will publish her report on our website on our self - evaluation page as we have done with all previous reports. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 27th September (camberwellpark Admin)

At Camberwell Park School we have an agreed set of staff professional behaviours  - to be Passionate, Respectful, Organised, Understanding and Dedicated to ensure Camberwell Park is a school to be PROUD of. Staff appraisal forms an embedded part of this and during this first half term all staff will be meeting with their appraisers to set targets for their work during this year which support the outcomes we have set in our School Improvement Plan. 

Today I have the priviledge of spending the day around school together with members of the senior leadership team and two of the governors as we are doing a learning walk. It is important as a leadership team and as governors we know the school well and we have chance to celebrate all the strengths of the school with staff and work with  and support them to further develop any areas we are working on in our school improvement plan. It is a joy to have the opportunity to spend time in all the classes seeing the children enjoying their learning.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 19th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Good morning and happy Monday 19th September to you all!

Today we are interviewing for the two vacant teacher posts we have. It is an exciting opportunity to bring new teachers into the school and it is important that we appoint the right people to come and work at our school. We want someone who is Passionate, Respectful, Organised, Understanding and Dedicated to continue to ensure Camberwell Park is a school to be PROUD of.  We are including a maths lesson planning written task, a pupil panel as well as asking the candidates to teach a phonics lesson. The panel interview gives a good opportunity for professional discussion - getting to know the candidates better and for them to find out about us and our school. We also follow safer recruitment policy and procedures in ensuring we collect references and have enhanced DBS checks for anyone coming to work for us as well as asking about safeguarding and e-safety on interview.

Tomorrow is my Headteacher appraisal with an external consultant and a panel of 3 governors. It is only right and proper that I am held to account in my work and have a rigorous process of ensuring high standards are maintained. I reference all my work to the headteacher standards . Tomorrow we will be reviewing the work I have done as headteacher during last academic year and setting some new targets for my work during this academic year.

On Thursday this week we are working together as a leadership team to review  and update our school self- evaluation form. As a self - improving school it is important that we reflect on our practice as we go along as well as monitor and evaluate key aspects of our work. Our self- evaluation form is the document which summarises our position statement as a school and helps us to focus on what our next steps should be. It is helpful to get together as a leadership team so we can all contribute to discussion relating to our areas of responsibility. Two of the governors are joining us for part of the day too as they also have a significant role in leadership and management and need to know the school well in order to challenge and support effectively. The summary headlines for our self evaluation form is on our website  

On Friday of this week I am meeting with my special school headteacher colleagues. We meet together each half -term in order to share information and work together on issues we are all facing. It is an important collaborative group of colleagues.

Our annual review programme is also starting this week. All of our pupils will have an annual review meeting to discuss their EHCP ( Education, Health and Care Plan), to review the work they have done last year towards targets set and to set new targets for this year. We then make sure these new targets are met by turning them into MLTs ( my learning targets) in the classroom. We look forward to seeing parents / carers in school for these important discussions as our annual review programme progresses. To find out more about our EHCPs / annual reviews have a look at the SEN Information Report on our website. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Wednesday 14th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Hello and happy new school year to everyone!

We started our new school year with the pupils on 2nd September and we are delighted to be back!

Over this last week our new pupils have been gradually joining us on their transition programmes into school and are settling in really well. As well as welcoming new pupils to the school. this term we have also welcomed some new staff. We have two new teachers - Ms Sophie Galvin and Ms Amy Tatton as well as two new teaching assistants - Ms Rebecca Balmforth and Ms Sian Williams. We warmly welcome them to our hardworking school team. 

Now we are back in school full time I will resume my weekly headteacher blog each Monday to keep you up to date with news and events in the school. Don't forget you can follow us on twitter @CamberwellPark too which you can see on the front page of our website.

Over the next few weeks we will be updating our website and including some new exciting developments such as a slide show of photos around school on our front page - look out for the changes which we hope you will enjoy!

Our new school year has got off to a fabulous start and I continue to be a very PROUD headteacher 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 18th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of the summer term at Camberwell Park School and today is also the third morning of transition visits for our new pupils. All of our pupils are spending the morning in their new classes and our year 6s are off out on a sponsored walk around Heaton Park. 

It is always a fun week but slightly sad week in school on the last week as we say good bye to our year 6 pupils and some  of our staff. We are saying goodbye to two of our teachers this summer - to Mrs Karen Conroy and Ms Alison Little. We thank them for their contribution to the school and wish them every sucess in the future. We look forward to welcoming two new teachers to the school next year - Ms Amy Tatton and Ms Sophie Galvin. 

On Thursday is our annual celebration assembly for all of our pupils. At this assembly, all of our pupils are presented with their 'Year books' celebrating their achievements this year and our year 6 pupils give a very special performance. We always have a really good attendance from parents / carers so we look forward to it very much!

During the summer holidays we have a playscheme in the school to which many pupils will attend so I will continue to tweet news as it happens from our school twitter account @CamberwellPark. and will resume my weekly blog in the new term

School reopens to pupils on Friday 2nd September

I wish you all a very happy and healthy summer

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 4th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the first week in July and classes are well underway with their summer term educational visits. Gold Butterfly class are off to St Annes today, Brown Butterfly class are also going to St Annes on Wednesday and on Friday, White Butterfly class are going to Tatton Park.

Being a Unicef Rights Respecting School is very important to us and our school ethos and on Wednesday we are having a Water Fun Day with lots of activities to help us learn about Global Water issues. There is lots of information on the Water Aid website. 

We are also starting our preparations for our Olympics themed Sports Day which will be held on Monday 11th July. Each class have been allocated a country to represent on our sports day and this week they will be involved in research about their country. It will be fun!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 27th June (camberwellpark Admin)

Its the last week of June and our annual reviews for year 5 and 6 pupils are still underway and going really well. We involve staff from the high schools to which the pupils are moving to in these reviews - a really important part of information sharing and ensuring the transitions run smoothly for the pupils and their parents / carers.

Tonight is our full Governing Body meeting. It is the last one this year and an opportunity for governors to reflect on our work this year and to talk with us about plans for next year. I will be discussing our work on SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education) and British Values with the governors. As a whole school staff we have recently updated our school statement about these important aspects of our work which underpin our ethos and the way we work as a school. Once discussed and agreed with governors this information will be shared on our school website. Our current statement is in the school brochure which is online in the 'About Our School' section of the website. 

On Wednesday this week, some of our pupils are taking part in an inter-special school football tournament hosted by Grange School. They are really looking forward to it - we hope they do well. Our football team have been training each week so we are sure they will do their best and make us proud!

We are in the process of planning our next residential visit to Bendrigg Lodge which will take place in the Autumn term. Each year we take our year 6s - it is a special opportunity for them. We are meeting with the parents / carers this week to share information with them about the hoiday and what their children will be doing. 

Monday 20th June (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of June and we are well underway in ensuring all tasks for the end of the school year are complete and planning for next year has begun.

Annual reviews for pupils in year 5 and year 6 continue this week. It has been lovely to have the opportunity to spend quality time with parents / carers and our pupils hearing from them about the achievements of the year as well as sharing how proud of the pupils we are in school. 

As well as annual reviews for pupils who are leaving us this time, we have also begun pre-admission meetings for the pupils who will be starting with us in September. It is sad to say bye - bye to some of our older pupils but we know they are ready for moving on and we look forward to welcoming lots of new pupils into school. 

Summer term educational visits are also beginning this week with Orange Butterfly class going to 'My Sensibility' in Manchester on Wednesday morning. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 13th June (camberwellpark Admin)

This week is the start of annual reviews for our pupils in year 6. I am really looking forward to them! Annual reviews are an opportunity for real celebration of achievements as well as looking forward to the future. For our pupils in year 6 this is particularly poignant as they get ready to move to their high schools in September. All of our year 6 pupils are very much involved in their transition programmes to their new schools now so it is a busy and exciting time for them.

We have our list of pupils who are starting with us in September and are finalising our class lists. Over the next few weeks we will be having pre-admission meetings for our new children and organising transition visits for them to come into school to spend time with us before they start.

We have an exciting launch of our VIP lunch table on Friday of this week. Becky, the cook and her lunchtime team are choosing one class each week to have a VIP lunch table with special table cloths, cutlery, glasses and treats! How exciting!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 6th June (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the first day back in school after the half term holiday today and a very warm and sunny day indeed in Manchester. Classes have been outside today enjoying learning, on local walks and watering our very thirsty plants after all the half term sunshine! This afternoon is our weekly sing and sign session and we enjoy being joined each week now by a group of pupils from Moston Fields Primary School. 

Tomorrow we are interviewing for teaching assistants to join our hard working and committed staff team. We received 30 applications for the posts and are interviewing 10 people. Recruiting new staff is something I enjoy very much - welcoming new people to the team! 

Tonight is our Governing Body Finance and Personnel Committee meeting - a really important discussion time for governors with me and my business manager to discuss all matters about the school budget and resources. The governors have a really important to role to unerstand what we spend our money on, why decisions about spending are made and what the impact of our spending is on school standards. The school ensures we keep up to date with all aspects of the Schools Financial Value Standard, an accreditation followed by all schools to ensure high standards in all issues of school finance.

I am proud to have been asked to speak at the 'Improving Behaviour and Attendance in Schools Briefing' conference in Salford on Thursday this week, giving a case study account of our work at Camberwell Park School. It was really nice that one of the reasons I was asked was that it had been noted how the children are at the heart of everything we do at Camberwell Park. I will be proud to represent our school when I speak.

On Friday, Camberwell Park is celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday with a special celebratory picnic lunch. Keep your fingers crossed the sun shines for us otherwise indoor picnic it is 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 23rd May (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half term already  - school is calm, quiet but busy....

I was delighted and proud when one of the visitors emailed me after visiting last week and said this...

"What a wonderful school you have created. It looks good and more importantly it FEELS good....calm where there should me calm....noise where there should be noise...always care and challenge....lots of smiling children and adults....a perfect place for children to learn!"

I think that sums up everything we have been trying to establish here for our pupils!

This afternoon our  Governing Body Standards Committee are meeting. As well as an update on curriculum, assessment and teaching and learning, the main focus of this afternoon's meeting will be our standards in 'Behaviour and Safety'. It is important that the governors have full opportunity to discuss and ask questions about behaviour and safety in school when we meet as well as see it for themselves when they come into school linking to classes, on learning walks and on school events. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 16th May (camberwellpark Admin)

Good morning from Camberwell Park and welcome to the new week at school.

I have just had a walk round school - busy children having fun doing lots of fabulous learning for example Silver butterfly class who were doing gymnastics in the hall practising their 'egg rolls' and showing me the photos of each other they had taken using their 'Film it' skills.

This afternoon is our weekly 'Sing and sign' session. We have now developed our sing and sign so rather than a whole school activity, we have two sessions, one for each key stage, meaning we can make the songs more meaningul and relevant to the different age groups.

This week our school council will be considering our 'School Charter' which is linked to being a Rights Respecting School. We are proud to have the Unicef Rights Respecting school award ( RRSA) believing that we should respect and support access to all of the rights in the United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child ( UNCRC). It is important that our children are involved in discussing our school charter and checking it is still up to date. To find out more about RRSA and see our current school charter follow this link  . Our new school charter will be published on our website as soon as it is agreed. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 10th May (camberwellpark Admin)

We had a very sunny start to the week here at Camberwell Park. It is so lovely to see the different classes able to take advantage of the outdoor spaces we have in our new building - lots of outdoor learning going on now as well as outdoor play - fabulous!

Yesterday the results were in for the election of a new parent governor to fill the vacancy we had. We are grateful to Bernie Woodier who has been a committed and supportive parent governor for many years and whose term of office recently ended. I have been really proud that 4 parents nominated themselves for the role and after voting slips going out to all parents / carers,  Lauren Riley has been elected. To find out more about our governors and their work click here 

The transition programme for our pupils in year 6 to their high schools is well underway. It is really important that we work collaboratively with the high schools to support our children prepare for the next stage of their education - a group have just returned from their morning visit to Northridge and it was lovely to see them being confident, happy and smiling. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 25th April (camberwellpark Admin)

I want to start today by telling you some exciting news from last week - that is that our Rocket Seeds have arrived in school  https://twitter.com/CamberwellPark/status/722742536352219136. Have a look at the information on the RHS schools website which will tell you more about the Rocket Science experiment . We will keep you updated of their progress on our twitter account 

One of the things it is really important we do as a school is to be sure the assessments we make of the children's learning and progress are accurate. In order to do this we discuss our assessments with each other in school to check we are all being consistent. This is part of our 'moderation' process. To add extra checks in that we are being consistent with other schools we also moderate our assessments with other Manchester schools and also with schools across Gtr Manchester. On Wednesday this week we are pleased to be hosting the Gtr Manchester cross moderation event so are looking forward to welcoming teachers from across the Gtr Manchester special schools to Camberwell Park.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 18th April (camberwellpark Admin)

It is our first day back of the summer term today and it has been lovely to see all the smiling faces coming into school this morning ( staff and pupils!). It will be the first full term in our new school building for the pupils - whilst there are stil things to do, we really feel like we are settled and at home now!

Here's to a happy summer term!

Monday 28th March (camberwellpark Admin)

This is a very special week for us because on Wednesday 30th March we are having an event to mark the 'Official Opening' of the new school building. The children and their families were involved in an official opening activity on World Book Day to make it meaningful for them when they all made books on the theme of 'A New Chapter' which they presented at a show and tell assembly. This week we have invited representatives from the Local Authority, our Governing Body, colleagues from other schools, representatives who from the Education Funding Agency and Carillion who were involved in planning and construction of the new school building, some past staff representatives and lots of other friends of the school.

Our visitors will be treated to a tour of the working school, a choir performance and will share a buffet and some speeches with us. When we considered who should open the school, we agreed that the most important people in the school are the children and therefore one of the children will officially open  the school at the end of the choir performance. Aiyza, a pupil in year 5, has been chosen by the school council and her name will appear on the official opening plaque. 

The school closes on Friday 1st April for our two week Easter break. I will resume my blog when we return on Monday 18th April. Don't forget you can keep up to date with events in school on our twitter account @CamberwellPark which you can also find on the front page of our website.

Sincere best wishes from me and everyone at Camberwell Park School

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 21st March (camberwellpark Admin)

Yesterday was International Day of Happiness and we are marking this at Camberwell Park with #HappinessWeek!. Learning about our feelings is an important part of Social and Emotional Aspects of learning and our work on SMSC ( Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education). Today is a Superlearning day focussed on being happy and we have lots of activities this week which encourage all the pupils to think about how they can be happy and make others happy too. 

To make this week extra special we have groups of pupils from some of our mainstream links joining us for activities. This morning we have had a group of pupils from Mount Carmel School joining in with Silver Butterfly Class. They had great fun learning sign language together! This afternoon, pupils from Moston Fields are joining our Sing and Sign session and pupils from St Dunstans are spending time with Yellow Butterfly Class. Tomorrow, pupils from Bowker Vale are in Pink Butterfly in the morning and in the afternoon pupils from St Mary's school are in Orange Butterfly Class. On Wednesday afternoon we are having an Open afternoon for staff from all of the mainstream schools we link with to come and visit, see the school, find out about our work and learn about things they could do to help pupils with SEN in their own schools. On Thursday, pupils from Crab Lane will be joining Purple Butterfly class. 

Lots of things that make us all happy!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 14th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is a sunny Monday in Manchester and having just had their lunch the children are enjoying playing out. We have just had a delivery of lots of new outdoor play equipment so they are having a great time! We have been discussing further plans to develop our outdoor play areas with some fixed equipment too e.g. climbing frames as all we brought with us from the last school was our wheelchair swing and wheelchair roundabout. 

We are delighted that this afternoon for the first time we are welcoming the first group of pupils from Moston Fields Primary School, our new neighbours, to our Monday afternoon Sing and Sign session. They are going to join us each week which is great!. We have been discussing lots of ways the two schools can work together including children from Silver butterfly class joining them for a Sports Relief sponsored walk on Friday and establishing a 'Park and Walk' scheme for some parents and children from both schools in order to ease traffic congestion on our road. 

We are really proud to have received a copy of a joint publication we have done with the Open Futures Trust about Open Futures and our curriculum at Camberwell Park School. An electronic copy of our book is on the curriculum page of our website - why not take a look!

MaryIsherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 7th March (camberwellpark Admin)

Monday morning again and school is settled and busy. It is the second week of fairtrade fortnight and classes have been learning about aspects of fair trade in different ways such as the story of Pablo the Banana  . 

As a headteacher it is a responsibility I have to ensure I know the school well in terms of teaching and learning in every class. I do that in lots of ways both formally and informally. It is a real priviledge to spend time in the classes and I enjoy opportunities to get out of the office very much! This morning I am spending time with White butterfly class when they do their cookery and at the end of this week when they are in the hydrotherapy pool. It is great to see the specialist facilities in our new building being put to such good use and to see the positive impact on the learning for the children. Some of the classes have been using our new Interactive room to help them learn about Fair trade. Take a look at our twitter account @CamberwellPark and you will see some photos of the room all set up and ready. 

As a school it is important we work with other schools to challenge us and support us on different aspects of our work. In this way we can work towards better outcomes for the children in all of our schools - sharing our knowledge and expertise. During this week I am lucky to be able to do this in a couple of ways: 

This afternoon, myself and my deputy are meeting with senior leaders from our partner primary schools ( Temple, Irk Valley, St Augustines and Heald Place) to challenge and support each other about we promote British Values in the context of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education. We are all presenting the work we do in our own schools and have opportunity for discussion. 

On Thursday I am spending the day at a mainstream primary school in Cleethorpes with a colleague headteacher with whom I have worked with on a range of aspects of school improvement - mutually sharing our knowledge and resources. A great opportunity for collaboration and learning from someone outside of our own Local Authority. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 29th February (camberwellpark Admin)

Its the first week in March already and the start of 'Fair Trade Fortnight' . As a Unicef Rights Respecting School and an ECO school we will be engaging in activities relating to Fair Trade Fortnight over the next couple of weeks.

Lots of other things going on this week including Silver Butterfly Class who are joining in an Inter-special school Boccia Tournament today. We are sure they will have lots of fun.

It is Parents' evening on Wednesday. It will be the first time many of our families have seen our new building so we are looking forward to showing them round and to the opportunity to share and celebrate the work of their children in school

Thursday is World Book Day. Our theme this year is 'A new Chapter' as we thought it fitted in really well to starting at our new school building this year. We have invited parents / carers to our show and tell assembly at 2.15 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 22nd February (camberwellpark Admin)

It's Monday 22nd February and the start of the second half - term in our new school building. It will be a busy and exciting few weeks as we continue to settle in. Our new Interactive Room is up and running and later this week our hydrotherapy pool should be ready for pupils too - lights and sounds have been added and the pool re-filled with water getting it ready for use. 

We are turning our attention to the school grounds - planning some new outdoor play equipment for the playgrounds. We are also having the top field next to the school site - tested to check out our options for development e.g. possible MUGA ( Multi-Use Games Area) and / or horticulture  ( getting our crop growing re-established ) 

We have set a date for an 'official opening' event just before we finish for the Easter holidays, on 30th March. It will be such a lovely time to celebrate our achievements wth lots of different people who have been involved along the journey of the school

Mary Isherwood 

Headteacher 

Tuesday 9th February (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before our half term break and a busy week it is too!

It is the second week of 'bike right' for our pupils in key stage 2. Seeing them develop their cycling confidence and skills and having so much fun whilst doing it is just great!

Yesterday we all received initial training for our brand new Immersive learning room. If you have not had chance to look yet check out the photos on our twitter account @CamberwellPark  which is also on the front page of our website. It is amazing! It offers our pupils endless learning opportunities. It will be in use from first thing this morning with our pupils as the first class go in to do a Chinese New Year activity in there. I can't wait to see their responses

At the end of the school day tomorrow we open our door to local residents who have been invited to come and join us for a coffee and tour of the school. We value being in a strong local community here in Moston and want to involve the local residents in the life of the school where we can so we are really looking forward to it. Many of of pupils have met and had a warm welcome to the area from local residents whilst out of local walks so it will be nice for us to return the favour and make some invaluable connections.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 1st February (camberwellpark Admin)

This week brings the start of 'Bike Right' sessions for our pupils in Key Stage Two. Groups of our pupils will receive tuition and support on cycling confidence and safety over this week and next. We are looking forward to being able to use our fabulous playground space at the back of school for the sessions. 

On Tuesday we have a photographer in school all day taking photos of the children throughout the day as they move around school and in the classroom. We want to have new canvas photos for our corridors of the children in our fabulous new building so we can't wait to see what pictures we get!

Today we have had a Governing Body 'Standards Committee' meeting focussing on our school curriculum and assessment. As well as discussion in the meeting the governors also met two year 6 pupils who talked about how they have weekly sessions in their first language in Urdu as part of their personalised learning plans. The governors also went into school and saw one class delivering personalised learning activities for individuals and small groups. Thursday this week is the Governing Body Finance + Personnel Committee meeting. To find out more about the work of our governors see the governor page on our website  

We are delighted that the work on our new Interactive room has now been finished and staff training has been scheduled for Monday 8th February. We will soon have it up and running - so exciting!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 25th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Week 3 of the children being in our lovely new school building and it is like we have always been here!

Work is well underway on our new Interactive Learning room - we saw the interactive walls and floor being tested out at the end of last week which was very exciting. A photo is on our twitter account @CamberwellPark. This link to a video on the 4DImmersive website gives you a good idea about what it will be like when it is finished and how it can be used to support learning. Work has also begun on making our hydrotherapy pool interactive too - lights and sounds being added. It is going to be fantastic!

Today we are interviewing for teaching assistants for Brown Butterfly class - our new class which we will be opening after half - term. It is great to be able to take some additional pupils from our waiting list. Our official number in our new school is 100 pupils on roll. We are able to take an additional 2 pupils making our total number of pupils 102 once they are all in school. We have pre-admission meetings planned for this half term to make sure we are all prepared. We are looking forward to welcoming Alison Little as a new teacher to our school once our new class opens. Alison is spending the day here on Wednesday this week which will be great!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 18th January (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start of the second week back at Camberwell Park for our pupils and school is calm, focussed with lots of fabulous learning going on. We were all so proud of how well our pupils settled into the new building last week - it feels like we have been here much longer than we have!

Now we are here we are able to start to think about how we bring our building even more alive in terms of displays of the children's work. This week display boards are being put up in the classrooms and we are planning our class and curriculum display boards for the corridors. We have also booked a photo shoot day for the start of February so we can have lots of photos of our children around the new building to be used for canvas prints. 

I am proud to be showing the first group of prospective parents round school since we have moved tomorrow. I am concious it is a big thing for a parent of a child with special needs to visit a special school for the first time and to think that is where their child might be going - showing them our lovely building and making sure they get a warm welcome from the whole school community I am sure will give some reassurance. 

We have our first governing body meeting since the move here on Thursday this week - the governors will have their opportunity to see our finished school too.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 12th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Yesterday was a very special day in the life of the school as we opened the doors of our amazing new school building to pupils for the first time!

We learned back in 2012 we were going to get a new building - our old building was in such a bad state of disrepair and with limited facilities so our new building could not come soon enough. 

The whole school community has been involved in the planning and preparation towards yesterday making sure the school meets the needs of all of our learners. You can read a bit more about how the staff, pupils, parents and members of the multi-agency team in the blog I wrote here. 

You can read the press release from the DfE about our new school here

We have done lots of work with the pupils in preparation for the opening yesterday and needless to say we were so proud of them all! It was a joy to see so many happy children, smiling faces and to see how confident they all were in the new school. It is just great! You can see a few photos of yesterday on our school twitter site @CamberwellPark which is also on the front page of our website. 

It is the start of a new and exciting episode in the life of the school and I look forward to sharing our journey in the new school with you all. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 7th December (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week that our children are in school at our Bank House Road site. We are closed to the children next week as we pack up all of our belongings and move them to our new school site. 

The children are starting their last week here in style with a performance by 'The Charlestown Charlies'   , a  band that have played for our children in school several times now. I have just walked past the hall where they are performing and there is lots of dancing and smiles all round! 

Different classes are out on educational visits again this week starting with Purple Butterfly Class who are at The Boomerang Centre in Bury. Tomorrow, Green Butterfly class are also visiting the Boomerang Centre - such a great place for our children to enjoy! On Wednesday, Silver Butterfly class are going to see a pantomime version of 'Red Ridinghood' at the theatre and Red Butterfly class are off to 'Snakes and Ladders'

Lots of other special events and treats in store for this last week with the children including a 'Christmas Jumper day' where we are all paying a pound towards school funds to wear our Christmas jumpers, Carol sing and sign together on Wednesday afternoon, Christmas party at the donkey sanctuary for Red Butterfly class on Thursday morning and Santa visiting here for our school Christmas party on Thursday afternoon. Friday will be very special as we are all at St Andrew's Church for our annual Christingle. It will be a particularly special occasion as it is the last time we will be able to walk there are a whole school before we move to our new site. We are very much looking forward to that time together on our last morning at Bank House Road.

This week at our new site it is 'training week' as various staff attend to learn how to use the alarm, the heating, lighting, pool controls etc. The business manager and I took lots of photos on our visit to the school last Friday which we have posted on the twitter account@CamberwellPark. Do take a look - it's looking great!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 30th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Thanks to all the parents / carers and friends of the school who attended our special assemblies at school last week where we celebrated our memories of Camberwell Park at the Bank House Road site and shared our hopes and dreams for our new school building. Both assemblies on Wednesday and Thursday were very special. At the end of the assembly on the Thursday all of the children released a balloon in their class colour into the sky - there are some fabulous photographs on our twitter account @CamberwellPark if you get chance to look. You can see our twitter feed on the front page of our website 

It is such a busy but exciting time for us in school at the moment!

Classes are starting on their Christmas educational visits - today Pink Butterfly class are out at Clayton Hall, tomorrow, Orange Butterfly class are out at Sky High Adventure , on  Wednesday, White Butterfly are at Boomerang  and on Thursday Gold Butterfly are at Clayton Hall too.

We are also really proud that our school choir will be performing for delegates over the lunchtime at the SSAT national conference in Manchester. They have been practising singing and signing different songs - it will be great!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 23rd November (camberwellpark Admin)

This is a very special week in the life of the school as on Wednesday and Thursday this week we are holding two assemblies to mark the end of Camberwell Park School at the Bank House Road, Blackley site and share our hopes and dreams for our new school site in Moston when we re-open there in January. On Wednesday we have invited our governors, some past staff, pupils and friends of the schoolto join us. On Thursday the parents / carers and families of our current pupils have been invited. It will be a true celebration of the work of the school so far as we prepare for our next steps.

The new building is only a few weeks of being ready for us now. Floor finishes are being fitted and fixtures and fittings being put in place, tiling to walls and handles on doors. It is very exciting! Tonight is a full governing body meeting which will be held at our new site. The governors are having an opportunity to have a tour of our school building prior to the meeting. The new furniture for the classrooms has now been ordered and will be delivered straight to the new school.

Tomorrow we are interviewing for a teacher to join us at the new school - we are able to increase our number of pupils and add an extra class which is great news!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th November (camberwellpark Admin)

We start this week in school with the knowledge of the tragic events in Paris over the weekend. As a Right's Respecting School and in this week which is 'anti-bullying week' we wanted to find a way of acknowledging the events in a way that is meaningful and accessible to our pupils. We are therefore sharing the slide show of the 'Tri- colour tributes' in school and talking to the children about respect for our friends around the world. 

Classes will be doing lots of work on friendship during anti-bullying week using some of the resources on DBprimary platform and on Espresso. 

This morning we have shortlisted for the vacant teacher post in school for when we move into our new building and extend our pupils numbers. It will be great to be able to open our new class and add 'Brown Butterfly' to the Camberwell Park butterfly class list! Interviews are next Tuesday, 24th November.

On Wednesday morning I have the privilege of going into another Manchester special school where I am carrying out joint lesson observations of teaching and learning. It is always useful for schools to have an external perspective on their work and also helpful for me to see quality of teaching in other schools and benchmark my judgements against other headteacher colleagues. Lots to learn for all involved.

On Friday I am delighted to be able to welcome three headteacher colleagues to Camberwell Park to spend the day here with me. They are all primary headteacher colleagues from different parts of the country and we have been collaborating on a range of school improvement issues and sharing our knowledge and expertise for the good of all of our schools. On Friday we are going to challenge and support each other on how we assess and make judgements about our school ( our school self evaluation strategies) and how we use what we learn to improve aspects of our work ( school improvement). We will also all have an opportunity during the day to visit the new school site. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 9th November (camberwellpark Admin)

One of the important things I do as headteacher is make sure I am aware of the quality of teaching and learning across the school. This includes observing teaching and learning in the classroom, talking to the children, looking at their work, looking at teacher assessment records and talking to the teachers and teaching assistants about their work in class. To make sure all the leadership team are consistent in their work, during the autumn term, we do our observations in the classroom and work scrutiny in pairs. Over the next few weeks I will have the privilege of observing every class, starting today spending time in White and Yellow butterfly classes.

This week in our assemblies we are  marking the Hindu festival of Diwali, the Festival of Light. It is important that we extend our pupil's awareness of all faiths within our school and local community in a way that is meaningful to them. Sharing artefacts, songs and stories in assemblies as a school community is always a nice time together. 

On Thursday this week, our external consultant, Chris Beswick will be visiting school to carry out an external quality assurance visit. We have an external consultant visit each term to have an independent judgement on different aspects of school. On Thursday, Chris will be reviewing our school standards with a focus on looking at our pupil progress information. All of our external consultant reports are published on our website. To read them follow this link. 

We are currently advertising for a class teacher ready for our new school. We are increasing our pupil numbers and having an additional class when we move so it is an exciting time for someone to join our school team. The advert is on our website here, and the closing date is on Friday. I look forward to welcoming someone new to our fabulous staff team!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 2nd November (camberwellpark Admin)

It's the start of November and the last half term in our current building! The work on our new building continues at a fast rate to get everything ready for the move and our thoughts are starting to turn to packing up our belongings from here. We are certainly in for a busy but exciting time ahead!

This week is Bendrigg week for our year 6 pupils. One group of pupils are going to Bendrigg Lodge today until Wednesday and a second group from Wednesday until Friday. They will have a great time joining in activities such as rock climbing, abseiling, canoeing etc. Look out for news about what they are up to on our twitter account @CamberwellPark 

Our programme of annual reviews continue - they continue to be a really good opportunity to share information about the pupils, celebrate achievements and plan next steps. We were delighted with the positive feedback we had recently about the success of our EHCP reviews as described in this report following an independent review.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 19th October (camberwellpark Admin)

Its the last week before half term....

Thanks to all parents / carers and friends of the school who sent harvest gifts into school last week and who came to our harvest assembly. It was lovely! All of the donations of food have been given to a Manchester homeless charity. 

Work on our new building continues - groups of staff have been visiting each week and bringing back lots of photographs to share with the children. We have ordered new furniture for the classrooms - it is all very exciting! 

This afternoon is our governing body finance commitee meeting. It is really important that the governors are fully aware of the school's finance and spending plans. This includes the spending from the school budget on furniture and equipment for our new building as well as the budget for our current school. The finance commitee meets each term. 

On Friday this week the school photographer is in. We have the photos of the children taken each year around this time as we know that lots of families like to buy school photos for Christmas presents. It is always an exciting day when the prints arrive in school!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 12th October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is important as a school we reflect on our what we do well and what else we could do to improve. We do this in lots of ways within our school e.g. through observing lessons, looking at work books, talking to the children, doing questionniares etc. It is important though that we look beyond our own school to check what we are doing in relation to other schools - there is always lots we can learn from other schools. one of the ways we are doing this is to have joined with other special schools across Greater Manchester as part of a 'Peer Challenge and Support Programme'.  Tomorrow, we are having a full day visit of leaders from 2 different special schools together with an educational consultant who will spend the day evaluating the impact of the work we have done over the last year implementing the SEN reforms and introducing Education, Health and Care Plans ( EHCPs). They will meet with the school council and some parents as well as spending time in school looking at our documents and data on pupil outcomes. It should be a really interesting and valuable day and we are really looking forward to it. 

On Wednesday this week is our annual Harvest Assembly. This year's theme is 'Fruit and Vegetables'. We are delighted to be joined this time by not only Reverend Ian Fellows from St Andrew's church local to us here, but also Reverend Matt Calladine from St Mary's Church in Moston who is near to our new school site. Parents / carers have been invited to join us. We will be collecting harvest gifts of tins and packets of food which as previously we will be donating to homeless charities.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 5th October (camberwellpark Admin)

A rainy Monday morning in Manchester but lots of smiles from the children arriving at school this morning.

This afternoon is our governing body Standards committee meeting - the discussion this afternoon will focus on the outcomes for our pupils from our assessment data from the end of the summer term. This will include looking at the progress made by all of our different groups of learners in school. To find out more about our governors take a look at our website

This afternoon, our senior teaching assistants are meeting together with their colleagues in Heald Place, St Augustines and Temple as part of partnership work with them. They are working together on how they ensure the biggest impact of teaching assistants on pupil outcomes in all of our schools.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 28th September (camberwellpark Admin)

We are in the last week of September and having some lovely sunny autumn days here in Manchester.

Our new school building continues to be on track for completion and new furniture for the classrooms has been ordered. Groups of staff are visiting the school each Thursday so they can see for themselves how fantastic our new building is and what it will offer our pupils. 

We have started planning a 'farewell to our current building' event - two dates chosen in November, one for staff, governors, ex-staff and friends of the school and the other, an assembly for our current families. Our children will be involved in both events. More details to follow in due course. 

As part of the work we do as Camberwell Park School, we have close partnership working with a number of different schools. This afternoon, my deputy ( Mrs Taylor) and myself are attending a meeting of our MC2SP ( Manchester Challenge to Support Parternship). This is our collaboration with 4 other Manchester primary schools who share good practice, challenge and support each other on a range of school improvement issues. Later in the week I am attending a conference together with one of my assistant heads ( Mrs Randall) about assessment for our learners with SEN - how we can make sure we have accuracy and rigour in measuring the progress and achievement of our pupils, particularly since changes in the National Curriculum and assessment. An interesting and busy time as always - couldn't be better!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 21st September (camberwellpark Admin)

We are already in our last full week of September - Autumn is upon us!

We are well into our programme of annual reviews for all of the children. This week it is the reviews for some of the children in Violet Butterfly class and some of the children in Pink Butterfly Class. 

We currently have an advertisement out for lunchtime organisers - the closing date is on Thursday of this week so if you know anyone who would like to come and join our hard working but happy school team then please share the information with them http://www.eteach.com/microsite/jobdetails.aspx?vacno=564894

An important part of my role is to network with colleagues in other schools. During this week I am out a few times including meeting with the other Manchester special school headteachers on Friday and the day before, on Thursday, representing Manchester when I meet senior leaders from special schools across the 10 Greater Manchester Local Authorities. There is so much we can learn from each other and share together that we can bring back into our own schools.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 15th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Our second full week back is already underway and school is busy!

We have started our programme of annual reviews last week and they run right through this half term. During last year all of our pupils were transferred from 'Statements of Special Educational Needs' to 'Education, Health and Care Plans' as required in the new Code of Practice. It is lovely this year hearing about the progress towards and achivement of outcomes which were set last year and  to have the opportunity to set new aspirational targets for our children. To read more about our work on Education, Health and Care plans have a look at the SEN Information report on our website

Work on our new school building continues at a good pace. During this week our staff are starting a programme of visits to the new school site. Lots of excitement amongst the staff! We are seeing if we can organise getting groups of children to visit making sure we keep them safe on what is still a building site. 

On Thursday this week we have our first Full Governing Body meeting of the school year. The Governors have an important role in challenging and supporting the school. At this first meeting they will be looking closely at our school improvement plan. To read more about the work of our governors have a look at the governor page on our website

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 7th September (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the first full week back in school this week  and we have some  lovely autumn sunshine here in Manchester.  Monday morning lessons are already underway in school.

We continue to welcome our new pupils who are starting school on a gradual admission programme. Lots of new characters for us to get to know.

Our steel pans music group starts again this morning. A small group of pupils work with a tutor from the music service each week to do drumming and steel pans. They are fantastic!

Our programme of annual reviews also starts again this week. All of our pupils have now got an Education, Health, Care Plan so it will be great to start hearing from parents / carers about how they have achieved the outcomes which were set during our discussions. 

On Thursday of this week I am going with two of the assistant headteacher team, Johanne and Alison, to meet with colleagues from other special schools across Greater Manchester and from the SSAT (specialist schools and academies trust) as we launch a special school programme of school to school challenge and support. During this term we will be involved in visiting each other's schools together with an external consultant in order to learn from each other and share good practice. We are really looking forward to it. 

Friday this week is the day of my Headteacher performance management which is with a panel of governors and an external consultant. I have annual targets set in relation to my roles and responsibilities as headteacher and it is an important that I report on and discuss my work as part of being accountable to others. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Sunday 30th August (camberwellpark Admin)

We are really looking forward to welcoming our pupils into school at the start of the new school year on Wednesday 2nd September 2015.

It is a busy and exciting year for us as we move into our new school building in December.

Read about my thoughts in preparation for the new school year in this blog

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 13th July (camberwellpark Admin)

I need to start with a huge 'well done' to our school choir who had a fantastic first performance as part of 'The tale of Mr Tumble' at the Operal House on Saturday. https://www.mif.co.uk/event/the-tale-of-mr-tumble . We are participating in 3 more performances on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday this week. I am delighted to be joining them on both Wednesday and Sunday.

It's the last week of term for the pupils this week and some very special things happening!

Today, I am pleased to be joining the year 6's who are all going out on a walk around Dove Stone reservoir http://www.visitoldham.com/attractions/dove-stone-reservoir-p102871. We are all doing it as a sponsored walk to raise funds towards the year 6's residential visit to Bendrigg Lodge  in November http://www.bendrigg.org.uk/

This morning, whilst the year 6's are out walking, it is the last transition visit for the children who will be starting with us in September. It has been really good starting to get to know them over the last few weeks and we know the visits have helped the children and their families very much. It's a big thing starting school and we want to make it as supported as possible for everyone involved!

Thursday is a very special day as it is our annual Celebration assembly. All of our pupils are presented with their 'Year books' with photos of their year in school. Each year our Year 6's do a performance for the parents / carers and friends of the school who are all invited to attend. It is a highlight of the school calendar!

Our last day on Friday is a non uniform day - 'Bright colours' is the theme. Should be fun!

Whilst our pupils finish school for their summer break, staff are in school on Monday and Tuesday next week for training days. 

I will take a break from this weekly blog over the summer break but will keep the school twitter account @CamberwellPark going over the holidays with news and events as they happen. You can find our twitter feed on the front page of our website. http://www.camberwellpark.manchester.dbprimary.com/manchester/primary/camberwellpark

The pupils return to school on Wednesday 2nd September 2015

I wish you a very happy and healthy summer

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 6th July (camberwellpark Admin)

Tonight we have a fundraising event at school - it is a fashion show with high street brands at much reduced prices - if you are able please do come and support us. It is 6.30 - 9.30 with all funds raised helping us to pay to get our year 6's to Bendrigg Lodge for an adventure holiday in November. Your support would be appreciated.

Lots of exciting things happening in school this week! This afternoon we have a visit of a music group 'The Charleston Charlies' who will be performing for all of our children. They have been once before - the children loved it!

Tomorrow is our sports day. The morning is sports events for children in Early years / Key stage one and in the afternoon it is the turn of pupils in Key Stage two. Let's hope we can keep the sunshine a few more days!

Wednesday is our parent's evening. An opportunity for us to meet, chat to and celebrate the achievements of the children in school during this year. 

At the end of this week there is a dress rehearsal for our choir taking part in the Tale of Mr Tumble as part of the Manchester International Festival. They will be off to the Opera House in Manchester for that. 

On Friday morning a small group of pupils are off to St Augustine's primary school to spend the morning there alongside pupils from Temple and Heald Place.

Saturday is our first performance at the Opera House for the Tale of Mr Tumble!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 29th June (camberwellpark Admin)

Supporting transition for pupils coming into our school and moving on to high school is a big theme for us at the moment. The visits of year 6 pupils to Melland and Northridge High continue and are going really well. The pupils are getting to know the new school environment really well and building relationships with staff and other pupils at their new schools. Great!

On Friday last week we had a first really positive first visit of the pupils who are starting with us in September into our school. All of the staff and children moved to their new class groups for the morning. They will be joining us again this Friday morning for a second visit - we look forward to it!

It will soon be time for our performances as part of the Manchester International Festival alongside Mr Tumble! This afternoon is our final choir practice here alongside the other schools who will be joining us on stage. It is very exciting!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 22nd June (camberwellpark Admin)

This week we start our annual reviews for our pupils in year 6. These reviews are very special as it gives us an opportunity to celebrate the progress and acheivements of our pupils not just this year but in all the time they have been at Camberwell Park and an opportunity to finalise their next steps as they move to their high schools in September. The transition visits they have all been participating in have gone really well - they are all getting to know their new schools and the staff that work there to help them settle in quickly next term.

End of year reports have now been written for all of our pupils in school. I am in the process of reading through them and adding on my head teacher comment. They will then be sent home ready for parents / carers to read before parents' evening which is scheduled for Wednesday 8th July 2015.

I was delighted to be invited to be interviewed about the school for a 'Business lunch' radio programme which was recorded last week. Here is the link where you can hear me talking about the school and our work https://soundcloud.com/thebusinesslunch/interview-with-mary-isherwood-head-teacher-at-camberwell-park-school

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 15th June (camberwellpark Admin)

After lots of practising in school, our choir are on their first visit to the Opera House today where they are performing alongside Mr Tumble as part of the Manchester International Festival http://www.mif.co.uk/event/the-tale-of-mr-tumble . Our children are singing as part of the performances on Wed 15th / Friday 17th and Sunday 19th July 2015. They will be singing and signing 3 songs along with choirs from 3 other Manchester Schools. Their singing sounds great - It is very exciting!

On Wednesday morning this week we are interviewing for a vacant Level 3 teaching assistant post in school. The teaching team are an important and valued part of the school in supporting the teachers and the children to achieve their best. We had 30 applications for the post and are interviewing 7 really good candidates. Making sure we get the right people to work with us at the school is really important and in return, as an Investor in People, staff who work for us are very well supported too. 

Other things going on this week include some of our children participating in a Manchester Sensory service sports day for chidlren with a hearing impairment on Tuesday Blue Butterfly who are going on an Educational visit to Hollingworth Lake on Wednesday and Gold Butterfly class on an educational visit to St Annes on Thursday.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 8th June (camberwellpark Admin)

The sun is shining here in Manchester at the start of our busy second week back at school

Our transition visits for our pupils leaving us at the end of this year to move to their high school continue. It is really good hearing from the pupils when they come back to Camberwell Park how much their transition visits are helping them prepare for moving. 

This afternoon I will be attending a meeting with the heads and senior leaders from Heald PLace, St Augustine and Temple schools. They are the Manchester primary schools we work closely with as part of MC2SP ( Manchester Challenge to Support Partnership). We do lots of work together to support school improvement in all of our schools. We meet together regularly as a group of senior leaders to review the impact of the work that has been done and to plan our next steps together. 

Later this week we are shortlisting for the vacant post of Level 3 teaching assistant. There have been 28 applications for the post so lots of application forms to read. The interviews are next week. Recruiting high quality staff is really important to us as a school and as an Investor in People at Gold level, in turn, the staff we appoint will be very well supported in our school. 

The Governing Body standards committee will meet on Thursday afternoon this week. The committee has an important role in discussing in depth various areas of our school. On Thursday this week part of the agenda will focus on pupil attendance and a small group of pupils are coming to talk to the governors about how important it is to be at school and how it helps them learn. They will also tell governors about how they receive certificates to celebrate their school attendance. 

As headteacher I take my own professional development very seriously and do my best to make sure I am as up to date as possible. On Saturday I am attending a one day conference in Leeds at which various signficant leaders in education will be speaking. I am really looking forward to it and to sharing back at school what I have learned from others.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 1st June (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the first day of June and the first day back at school after the half term holiday.

As the end of the academic year approaches and our pupils in year 6 prepare to leave our school, the transition visits to their high schools continue. The pupils are starting to increase the time they spend on their transition visits as they become more familiar with the school and get to know the school staff more. We want to make the transition to high school as smooth as possible for everyone concerned.

On Wednesday afternooon this week we have our Open Afternoon for the children and families who will be joining our school in September. Most of the families have already visited but it is a nice opportunity for them to meet together, have a tour of the school and ask questions. As part of supporting our new children into school we also have 'pre-admission' meetings for each of them for school and families to share up to date information and we have three transition mornings planned for our new children to spend some time with us this term. 

Our choir rehearsals and preparations for the Manchester International Festival and the  performance of 'The tale of Mr Tumble' continues http://www.mif.co.uk/event/the-tale-of-mr-tumble. Our choir are joining in the performances on Sat 11th July, Wed 15th July, Friday 17th July and Sunday 19th July.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 18th May (camberwellpark Admin)

It's our last week in school before the spring half term break already!

Today we are having our regular pupil attendance celebration assembly. We hold one each term as a way of recognising and celebrating pupil attendance. The children receive attendance certificates and those who have had 100% attendance can choose a small prize.

This afternoon is also our weekly whole school 'sing and sign' session. We continue to practise our songs for the Manchester International Festival and our performance alongside 'Mr Tumble' in July.

I am out of school this afternoon attending a meeting alongside a small group of mainstream and special school colleagues in London with Mr Sean Harford who is the National Director for Ofsted. Ofsted is going through a big programme of change at the moment and I am privileged to have been invited to be part of a discussion about the future direction of school inspections. It is really positive that Mr Harford wants to hear the views of colleagues like myself who are practitioners in school.

Later this week, the governing body and senior leadership team are meeting together to begin to review and update our school vision for the next few years. We are proud to be an 'Outstanding' school and want to remain that way and become 'even more outstanding'. Moving to our new school brings us more opportunities to develop and grow in our work within and beyond school so having the opportunity to start our discussions together is really important.

Don't forget you can keep up to date with news and information about the school on twitter @Camberwellpark

I will resume my headteacher blog on Monday 1st June 2015

With best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 11th May (camberwellpark Admin)

Having high standards of achievement for all of our children is really important. As assess their progress throughout the year. This is 'formative assessment'. Today is the start of SATs week for mainstream schools, the end of key stage tests. Whilst our children are not able to access SATs, we also will be assessing their achievements in all areas of learning during this week and next. This is 'summative assessment'. We use PIVATS ( Performance Indicators for Value Added Target Setting)http://tinyurl.com/o8fj2qo for our pupils who are working within P levels http://tinyurl.com/k6zx6go. We are able to assess some of our children using National Curriculum levels which we are still using this year for our children in year 6. 

We are proud to be an ECO school and have held the ECO 'Green Flag' Award for a number of years now. On Tuesday we are being visited by the ECO school's assessor as our Green Flag is due for renewal. The assessor will talk to me and other key staff, will look round school, look at our records and most importantly will talk to the children. 

We are also thrilled to have been invited, alongside the other special schools and some mainstream schools in Manchester, to participate in a performance at the Opera House with 'Mr Tumble' as part of Manchester International Festival in July. Children from different classes who are in our school choir will all be involved. We have 3 songs which are all supported by makaton signs which we are practising. It is very exciting!

Other things also going on in school this week include Violet Butterfly class who are out of school today on an educational visit to the Sealife Centre at the Trafford Centre and a Parent / carer workshop on Play skills on Thursday morning

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 27th April (camberwellpark Admin)

It is week 2 of having our hatching eggs in school. The children were fascinated watching the baby chicks born last week. Having the chicks in school supports the children's learning in lots of ways. At the end of this week the chicks will be returned to the farm. Today Blue Butterfly class are out of school on an educational visit to the Sea life Centre at the Trafford Centre. Life and Living Processes is an important aspect of our learning in Science so their visit will be fun and interesting way of supporting their learning in this area.

This week we begin to consider our September admissions. In order to agree which pupils will be joining us from our waiting list and where children will be best placed to support their learning we meet as a group of headteachers together with representatives from the Statutory Assessment Team. As soon as we know which children will be joining us we can organise our class groups for the new term and plan the transition visits to support our new children into school. Our year 6 pupils have begun their transition visits to their high school. All of them have the opportunity to make several visits in order to familiarise themselves with the school and meet the teachers and their new school friends. 

This week I also have my interim appraisal meeting with a panel of the governing body. All staff in school are part of the school's performance management programme and as head teacher I have my performance managed by the governing body together with an external consultant. Tomorrow's meeting is a mid year meeting to discuss progress so far on the targets set and my overall work as the head teacher. It is such an important and privileged job it is essential I am accountable for the work I am doing. I am looking forward to the opportunity for really useful professional discussion with the governors. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 20th April (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the first day of the summer term for us at Camberwell Park School. The sun is shining and we were delighted as always to welcome the pupils back after their Easter break.

Today we are receiving our delivery of 'hatching eggs' which will be cared for by pupils in Silver, Gold and Purple Butterfly Classes. Having the hatching eggs gives our pupils the opportunity to interact, care for and learn about chickens and their life cycle, from incubation, hatching and finally growth. We will keep the eggs and chickens when they are born for 2 weeks. We receive the fertilized eggs, which are just two days off hatching in an incubator. We also get a brooder box, heat pad and food so we can watch our chicks develop to the next stage. It's very exciting! let chicken watch commence! we will post photos on our twitter account  @CamberwellPark - look out for them!

On Thursday this week we are having our coffee morning in aid of Marie Curie https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/get-involved/organise-activity/blooming-great-tea-party. The classes are baking cakes ready to sell. We have invited parents / carers and visitors from the local community. We hope lots of people will join us for a nice morning together. 

The summer term is a busy but lovely term in school - please keep reading each week to find out what we are up to.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 30th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It's the last week of term before we finish for Easter and a busy week ahead it is - lots to look forward to!

There are lots of Easter themed activities in the diary for this week. Both Silver and Gold Butterfly Classes are visiting St Matthew's church this morning to learn more about Easter. On Wednesday afternoon it is Easter assemblies in school. We are hoping lots of parents / carers and governors will join us for the assemblies - invitation letters have been sent.

School closes for the Easter break on Thursday 2nd April and re-opens on Monday 20th April. 

I wish you a very happy and healthy Easter break and will resume my blog at the start of the new term

Don't forget you can keep up to date about school events on our twitter page @CamberwellPark which is also on the front page of our website

With my very best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 24th March (camberwellpark Admin)

As a school we are always pleased to be involved in sports activities with other schools. This includes our football team, our cheer leaders and our swimmers. Today we are proud of 2 of our pupils who have been chosen to represent Manchester in the Greater Manchester special schools swimming gala. We know they will do their best and we look forward to hearing how they have got on later today. Last year one of our pupils was chosen - the team did really well and Manchester won!

Across school all of our staff are involved in interim appraisal meetings this week and next. All staff in school have performance targets based on their job descriptions and school improvement priorities and meet with their appraiser to discuss their work in school, their training needs and their health and wellbeing. These are really important discusssions to ensure that our staff are supported, achieving their best and in turn and most importantly that the children are receiving the best!

Many schools / LAs finish for the Easter break at the end of this week however we do not finish at Camberwell Park until 2nd April. We look forward to welcoming parents /carers into school during next week for our Easter assemblies

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th March (camberwellpark Admin)

During this week the pupils from Silver Butterfly Class and their families will be involved in their annual review meetings. They will be discussing the transfer of their current Statements of Special Educational Needs over to Education, Health and Care Plans. To find out more about this take a look at the section on the SEN Information report on our school website.http://tinyurl.com/kjp9p22

As a school we have lots of ways we check that the things we are doing for our children and what they are achieving is still outstanding. One of the things we do is regular 'Learning Walks' involving staff, governors and where appropriate the children too. Tomorrow is a learning walk on 'Guided reading' which we have trained all of our staff to do as part of our school improvement plan priority on curriculum. http://tinyurl.com/nrlyn29 The learning walk will focus on what is working really well in this area and anything we can do to make it even better. 

We have weekly meetings in school on a Wednesday after school. This week is our 'moderation' meeting, another way we check on our standards in school. During this meeting we discuss individual pupils as a team, checking their assessments, their work and the progress they are making to ensure we are all doing everything we can to make sure our children are making outstanding progress. 

It is important for us to work collaboratively with other schools which we do in lots of different ways. On Friday this week, I am attending a meeting with the Manchester Special School Headteachers. We meet each half term. Our meetings are a really good opportunity to ensure we are all up to date with issues that affect us and that we work collaboratively together to ensure all of the children across our schools receive the best possible outcomes.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 9th March (camberwellpark Admin)

This week we have groups of children from various local mainstream schools coming to spend time with us at Camberwell Park. This morning a group of pupils from St Clare's joined Orange Butterfly Class and later in the week we have groups from Mount Carmel and Bowker Vale coming to join Gold and Pink Butterfly Classes. Whilst we have children who attend weekly sessions at mainstream schools it is always a valuable learning opportunity and an enjoyable experience to have groups of children from mainstream schools spending time with us here.

This morning I had the exciting opportunity to visit our new school site. I wore the full hard hat, steel toe cap boots and high visability jacket and was able to have a tour of the whole site. I will post a couple of pictures on our twitter account @camberwellpark. The building is going to plan and is on schedule to be completed in December 2015 for us to move in durnig January 2016. A holiday list which allows a few additional closure days to support our school move around the Christmas holidays will be going home to parents /carers this week.

This week our external adviser, Chris Beswick, will also be visiting school to monitor and evaluate our school self evaluation policy and procedures. To find out more about our school self evaluation have a look at the page on our website: http://tinyurl.com/ptnuf39. Our report from the external adviser will be published alongside the others on this page in due course.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 2nd March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the start a new month, the days are getting lighter so it was a surprise to wake up to snow in north Manchester this morning!

This evening we have a full governing body meeting scheduled and we welcome Mr Gary Copitch as our new Chair of Governors. The Governing Body have an important role to play in both challenging and supporting the school in all aspects of work. In addition to our full governing body meetings we also have two active Governor committees: Standards and Finance. To find out more about the work of our governing body take a look at the page on our website http://tinyurl.com/k5so99d

Thursday is World Book Day and as in previous years all the staff and children are dressing up as book characters. There will be a range of literacy activities going on throughout the day in school and we will have a 'show and tell' assembly in the afternoon. On that day Silver butterfly class are going to Sainsburys to join in World Book Day activities there and Gold butterfly class are joining pupils from St Augustine and Temple schools to spend a World Book Day superlearning day together at Heald Place. 

A busy and exciting week all round!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 23rd February (camberwellpark Admin)

As we start this new half term we are also noticing the lighter mornings and spring flowers starting to appear - exciting times ahead for us as a school.

Our new school building continues to develop - you can see up to date photos posted on our school twitter account @CamberwellPark. We are starting to think about new furniture and equipment to order for our new building as we want to make our move as special as possible for all of our pupils and staff.

Meanwhile - business as usual for us in our current building! 

Our programme of annual reviews continues this week as we transfer our pupils currently on Statements of Special Educational Needs over to Education, Health and Care Plans. This week we are also sending home evaluated Individual Education Plans ( IEPs) for all of our pupils. We are replacing our IEPs with 'My Learning Targets' ( MLTs) which will include the outcomes agreed at annual reviews making sure our focus areas for all of the children are based on discussion and decisions from the multi-agency teams working with the children and including parents / carers.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 9th February (camberwellpark Admin)

Monday 2nd February (camberwellpark Admin)

Start of a new week and it is the turn of the children in Purple  and Pink Butterfly class and their families to have their Annual Review meetings as we continue to transfer the children's Statement of Special Educational Needs over to Education, Health and Care Plans.

An important part of our school ethos and part of our British Values is to respect and learn about other cultures, faiths and religions. This weekend has been Chinese New Year and to mark the occasion it will be the focus for our assemblies this week. EY/KS1 assembly is on Tuesday and KS2 assembly is on Wednesday.

On Thursday we have the Governing Body Finance Committee meeting. A group of our children are attending the meeting to present finding from a survey they have done about pupil views on our school meals. 

We also have really important news to share about our new school building which is that we have an agreed completion date for the new school. The building will be handed over to us on 18th December 2015 so we will be able to move into our new school building in January 2016. I will keep our 'Building News' page on the website with information about the move as it develops.http://tinyurl.com/pfnh3yw  It is very exciting! 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 26th January (camberwellpark Admin)

This week we continue with Annual reviews transferring our children who have Statements of Special Educational Needs over to Education, Health, Care Plans. The meetings continue to be a really valuable opportunity to share the views of the family, the child themselves and all those working with them in order to establish a comprehensive action plan for next steps.

On Wednesday, I have a meeting about our new building. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the completion date for our new building so that we can begin to plan when we will transfer our equipment across. It is still looking like completion is scheduled for December 2015 so we should be able to move in during January 16. Exciting times ahead!

We had some other exciting news we were able to announce last week, that is that we have been selected as one of the 650 schools Nationwide to be represented in the Parlaimentary Flag Project http://tinyurl.com/k5coznx. We are representing the constituency of Blackley and Broughton. I have had a letter from the MP for Blackley and Broughton, Graham Stronger MP, to say how pleased he is we are involved. We are not yet able to share our flag design publicly until March but will be sure to do so as soon as we can. We are really proud to have been nominated for such a presitigious project. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 19th January (camberwellpark Admin)

We start this week with a visit for some of our pupils to Temple school to join their friends from St Augustines and Heald Place there for a superlearning day. We work closely together with the other three schools for lots of reasons in our Manchester Challenge to Support Partnership ( MC2SP). Different groups of our staff meet regularly to challenge and support each other on different aspects of school improvement so it is really nice for the children from each of the schools to have an opportunity to meet together to. Today they are all doing activities based on the book 'The Gruffalo'

We continue with our programme of annual reviews this week so are looking forward to meeting with lots more parents /carers discussing the progress of the children and their goals for the future. 

We have our Governing Body Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday this week. Some of our children are attending this week's meeting to present the findings from a survey they have done into pupil views on our school meals.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 12th January (camberwellpark Admin)

This week is the second week of bikeright for our pupils in years 5 and 6. It is a really important opportunity for them to develop their confidence and skills of riding a bike safely. They have been having so much fun too. Despite the rain that we have had nearly every day they can't wait to get out and start!

This week I am leading a number of annual reviews. It is an interesting time for us as we transfer our pupils from Statements of Special Educational Needs over to Education Health Care Plans. We have had some really useful and interesting discussions at the annual reviews we have held so far with parents / carers and other professionals and I look forward to those continuing this week. This week's reviews are all for pupils in White Butterfly Class. You can read more about our annual review process and EHCPs in our SEN information report http://tinyurl.com/mgj2ana

This week I also welcome to school three new prospective members of the governing body. The governing body has an important role in school to challenge and support the leadership team and make sure our pupils are receiving the best. We are lucky to have governors with a really good blend of knowledge, skills and experience which they can all bring to our discussions. The three governors are visiting this week to talk more about the school and our vision and most importantly have an opportunity to meet the pupils and staff. You can read more about the work of our governing body on our website: http://tinyurl.com/k5so99d 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 6th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Happy New Year!

Yesterday all of the school staff returned to school for a staff training day. We were focussing on updates to our school curriculum with a particular focus on how we support our children's pre-writing and writing skills. 

Today we welcomed back the children to school. It is always lovely to see the children return - they are the heart and soul of the school after all! Lots of smiles as we greet them and they see their other school friends.

It is a busy first week back. Years 5 and 6 are all participating in 'Bike Right' all this week. Each day they are practising their bike riding confidence and skills and having great fun at the same time.

Tomorrow some of our children are participating in a special schools swimming gala and we are also hosting a visit for some staff from the Open Futures Trust who will be observing our children doing Cook it, Grow it, Film it and Ask it activities.

On Thursdays this term it is White Butterfly class who will be visiting the donkey sanctuary each week.

There are also lots if annual reviews scheduled for this term so we will be looking forward to meeting with parents and carers to discuss your children and how we are working together to ensure they achieve their best. To find out more about our new ECHP annual reviews and our school offer do take a look at the information on our website: http://tinyurl.com/kjp9p22 

We look forward to a busy and exciting term ahead and I will share with you what we are all up to in my blog each week. Don't forget you can also see regular updates and news on our twitter account @camberwellpark which is also on the front page of our website. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 15th December (camberwellpark Admin)

It's already the last week of term - this term has gone very quickly!

This week there are lots of Christmas events for our children and their families. 

This afternoon is the first of our two concert performances on this year's theme of 'A Christmas Feast'. This afternoon we perform for our parents / carers and friends of the school. Tomorrow morning is our second performance and this will be a children's audience of children from the various mainstream schools that we regularly link with.

We have a strong and important friendship with the residents from the Byrons Sheltered accommodation next door to our school and tomorrow afternoon our school choir is visiting to sing Christmas Carols and  songs for them.

We are looking forward to our annual visit of the pupil's band from the Co-operative Academy of Manchester on Wednesday morning - always a special treat for our children. Wednesday is also Christmas dinner day for our children and staff - yum yum!

Thursday is party day! We cant wait to see the children dressed up in their party frocks! With a bit of luck Santa may be visiting on Thursday afternoon!

On Friday, our last day of term we are on our whole school visit to St Andrew's Church for our very special Christingle Service.

It is a busy but special time in school and as head teacher I am privileged to be a part of it.

I will resume my blogs in the new term in January but will continue to tweet on our twitter account @CamberwellPark with any updates and news as it arises. You can also access our twitter feed on the front page of our website.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas.

School re-opens for pupils on Tuesday 6th January 2015 

With my warmest wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 8th December (camberwellpark Admin)

All of our classes go on an educational visit each term linked to their curriculum topic. Today two classes are out: Green Butterfly class are visiting the Boomerang Centre http://www.boomerangcentre.co.uk/ and White Butterfly Class are visiting Clayton Hall living museum http://claytonhall.org/

Our annual review programme continues this week with all of the children from Red Butterfly Class. We are continuing to work on converting the children's assessments from Statements of Special Educational Needs to Education, Health and Care Plans. To find out more about our provision in school and about how we support our EHCP reviews see our School SEN Information Report on our website http://tinyurl.com/mgj2ana

Our Christmas events are coming round very quickly and whilst all classes have been practising their songs, on Thursday we will have our first whole school rehearsal. The theme of our concert this year is 'A Christmas Feast'. We are doing two performances, Monday 15th December for parents / carers and friends of the school and Tuesday 16th for our link mainstream schools. 

On Friday we are supporting 'Save the Children' by all wearing our Christmas jumpers and paying a £1.00 donation. Let's hope we can raise lots of money for this worthy cause http://tinyurl.com/llmmc5v. 

Monday 1st December (camberwellpark Admin)

As part of ensuring we have the highest of standards in our school, all of our staff are part of an Appraisal / Performance Management system. Targets are set linked to our School Improvement Plan at the start of the academic year, an interim review in the Spring term and a final review in the summmer term. As head teacher, my appraisal involves a panel of 3 governors and an external adviser. My appraisal is today! The govenors and adviser have had reports and supporting evidence from me each term and today we are meeting to discuss my performance in relation to targets set and overall performance all linked to the Headteacher Standards. Rightfully so it is a rigorous process. 

This week is National Tree Week and we are engaging in a whole school activity to decorate one of the trees at the front of school. I will post a picture on our twitter account @CamberwellPark when it is done. You can also view our twitter feed on the front page of our website.

On Thursday we are also holding a whole school Interfaith day with a range of activities to find out about lots of different faiths. Ian Fellows, the vicar from St Andrew's Church is joining us for part of the day to join in activities with different classes across school. 

Many classes are also out on educational visits linked to their curriculum topic this week, for example, Silver Butterfly Class are visiting Shri Swaninaryan Hindu Mandir, the Hindu Temple in Oldham. It is really important and valuable for our children to experience visiting places they are learning about. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Tuesday 25th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Last week our Year 6's had a residential visit to Bendrigg Lodge http://www.bendrigg.org.uk/ where they were able to participate in a range of activities including archery, caving, zipwire, rock climbing and abseiling. They had a fantastic time! Everyone back in school has enjoyed seeing their photographs and listening to them telling us about their adventures. I visited them for the day on Wednesday and had a lovely day!

This week I have begun to engage in a programme of joint observsations of teaching and learning of teachers across the school with different members of the leadership team. Making sure the children receive the highest standards in the classrooms is a core purpose of our school and in order to ensure that our outstanding provision is maintained and we continue to build on and develop our existing practice, as headteacher, I observe all of the teachers in the classrooms and also look at work samples and assessment records etc to consider the children's learning over time and the progress they are making. During this term all of our observations are joint with other members of the leadership team to ensure we are consistent with our judgements. It is a privilege to be able to sit and observe in the classrooms and something I enjoy very much.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 10th November (camberwellpark Admin)

We have been back in school a week already and our minds are turning towards planning for Christmas!

The theme of our concert this year is 'A Christmas Feast' and as usual all classes will perform songs relating to the overall theme. Our school choir are going to begin practising this afternoon. There will be 2 performances of our concert. On the afternoon of 15th December we will perform our concert to parents / carers  then on the morning of 16th December we will perform our concert to groups of children from the mainstream schools we link with. It is all very exciting!!

This week our after-school club starts again with a group of children staying behind on Tuesday evenings from 3.30- 5 p.m. to join in a range of fun activities. Our after - school club is always very popular and is a really good time for our children to spend with their friends outside of normal school hours and also for families to quality time with other family members. 

Friday brings us Children in Need day! We always make a collection in school to contribute to the Children in Need collection so please send your donations into school on Friday which we can stick on our Pudsey pictures! I will let you know how much we have collected next week.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 20th October (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week before half term already!

This afternoon both our Governing Body Finance and Pay Committee will meet. It is really important that the Governing Body have a full understanding of all of the financial matters of the school and are involved in developing school policy and procedures. They will have read relevant documents before the meeting and during the meeting are able to ask questions and discuss all of the items on the agenda in order to fully challenge and support the work of the school.

Wednesday is parent's evening. All families have been  invited to attend with appointments being made from 2.30 p.m. onwards. It will be an opportunity to talk to class teams about your child's Individual Education Plan targets, their work in school so far this term and to see some of their workbooks. 

In other news, I visited the site of our new school building last week and was pleased to see that demolition of the old school building is now nearly complete. I have put a few photos on our school Twitter account @CamberwellPark which can also be viewed on the home-page on our website. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 14th October (camberwellpark Admin)

As Autumn settles in it is time for us to celebrate Harvest in School. This year's Harvest Assembly is on Wednesday 15th October. As always, Ian Fellows, the vicar from St Andrew's church in Blackley will be joining us for our assemblies which this year are on the theme of fruit and vegetables. Thank you to all those who have donated food for our harvest table which will be donated to homeless charities after our assembly has finished. We hope as many parents / carers as possible will come and join us tomorrow afternoon. 

We are all preparing our best smiles for Thursday as the school photographer is in! It is always a really nice day in school and great to see the children with their best poses for the photographs. 

Thursday brings us our first full Governing Body meeting for the year. An opportunity for governors to set out their vision and intentions for the year to challenge and support the school. This will include the different ways they are involved in the life of the school making sure they  know the school very well and so are making any plans and decisions on an informed basis.

Friday is our first school council meeting of the year. All classes have chosen their class representatives. Lots of things to discuss!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 6th October (camberwellpark Admin)

This week brings us the start of our Year 5 annual reviews. They will be a little different from now on as we implement the changes of the SEN Reforms and begin the process of conversion from Statements of Special Educational Needs to Education Health Care Plans. The pupils have been preparing for the reviews by completing their 'pupil voice' booklets supported by classroom staff and parents / carers have been also asked to think about things that are working well and what other areas they would like to work with us on ahead of the review discussion. 

This afternoon is a meeting of our Governing Body Standards Comittee where we will be discussing the achievement and progress of our pupils during last year. This will include discussion about outcomes for pupils at the end of each key stage, , outcomes in different subject areas and outcomes for different groups of pupils. The information about our school standards will be published on our website which is in the process of being updated.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 22nd September (camberwellpark Admin)

The start of another week in school and a number of interesting things in this week's diary

We work very closely with 3 local primary schools sharing good practice and challenging and supporting each other about a range of school issues. Work so far has included self evaluation visits to each other's schools, meetings of English, Maths and ICT leads, collaborative working of senior teaching assistants and the children have been involved in joint singing and sports activities. This afternoon, our work together is developing further with a meeting of Headteachers, Chairs and Vice Chairs of Governors looking together at best practice, roles and responsibilities of governing bodies.

As you know we are proud to be a Flagship school for Open Futures http://www.camberwellpark.manchester.dbprimary.com/manchester/primary/camberwellpark/site/pages/curriculum/openfutures. Tomorrow we are hosting a meeting of Manchester schools who are interested in joining the Open Futures Programme. They will get a chance on the visit to see Open Futures in action with classes engaging in activities relating to the Open Futures Strands of Cook it, Grow it, Film it and Ask it.

On Wednesday I am pleased to be representing the good work of our school when presenting a workshop on the SEN reforms at a Primary Leaders Conference in London. It will be an opportunity for me to listen to up to date information during the conference on a range of topics plus share our good practice when leading the workshop

On Thursday, we are holding the first of  our programme of parent / carer workshops for the year. This one is on Internet Safety. If you have not already booked your place do get in touch!

All teachers have now completed Individual Education Plans ( IEPs) for the children so those will be coming out to you this week. You will have an opportunity to discuss the plans and your children's work in school at the parent's evening which has been organised for Wednesday 22nd October. In the mean time, if you have any queries about the IEPs or any aspects of school, as always, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Mary Isherwood

Tuesday 16th September (camberwellpark Admin)

This is our 3rd week in school now and all classes are settled and busy. By the end of this week teachers will have written the children's Individual Education Plans (IEPs) which are the three priority targets which are barriers to learning for the children. They are things the children will practice every day. All of our children have at least one IEP target relating to commmunication as it is such an important area of learning. The IEP targets will be sent home to parents / carers and the class teams will talk to you about them at parents evening with regards to how you can help at home.

On Friday this week all of the leadership team are doing Person Centred Planning training. This is in preparation for the Education Health Care Plan Annual reviews which start in the first week of October. Following the implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 and the revised Code of Practice, all children with Special Educational Needs who would previously have received a Statement of Special Educational Needs will now receive an Education, Health, Care plan. At the annual reviews we will talk through the transition process with you. If you have any queries about this, as with all aspects of school, do not hesitate to ask. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 8th September (camberwellpark Admin)

This week we continue to welcome new children into school who are on a phased transition. By the end of this week all of our new children will be in school full time. It has been lovely going round school to see how well all of the children are settling in, making friends and eager to learn.

This afternoon our weekly 'sing and sign' sessions resume. We have favourite songs we sing and learn new songs - all supported by signing. It is great fun!

We are having a new visitor management system installed on Wednesday this week so when you visit us next time you will notice a difference. It is a touch screen system which will also take your picture and print out your visitor label. The safety of our pupils is paramount and we are sure that this system will work well for everyone involved.

I'm off into school now to visit all of the classes and see how everyone is doing!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Wednesday 3rd September (camberwellpark Admin)

New School Year

New Opportunities and Possibilities

We are already on Wednesday of our new school year and it's great to be back!

On Monday 1st September all staff were in school. We met as a whole school in the morning - an important opportunity to share our School Improvement Plan priorities and share important information we all need to prepare for the busy year ahead. Our school improvement plan priority this year is 'Curriculum'focussing on all aspects of developing our school curriculum including implementing the new National Curriculum and making sure all of the other things important to our children are still included. You can find out more about all the things we are doing in this area in our action plan which is published on the website http://tinyurl.com/nrlyn29 

We welcomed the children back into school yesterday and was great to see them all. School is already happy and settled with all classes getting to know each other and doing some good learning together. We have lots of new children starting this year, most of whom are starting on a phased return over this week and next to help them settle in.

I will blog at the start of each week to keep you updated about school news and events.

Don't forget you can keep up to date by following us on twitter @CamberwellPark. Our tweets are also shown on the front page of our website. 

Here's to another Outstanding year!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

3rd September 2014 

Tuesday 15th July (camberwellpark Admin)

It is hard to believe it is already the last full week of the school year  and very busy it is too!

On Monday we held a special celebration assembly led by Ian Fellows, the Vicar of St Andrew's Church. All of our children have joined children from Bowker Vale and Crab Lane School doing art entries for a calendar competition marking 150 years of St Andrew's Church in Blackley. The children have done alsorts of pictures relating to Blackley including pictures of the church and other local buildings. Some of their pictures will be published in a calendar to be sold later on in the year. All of their pictures will be displayed in school. 

Various classes are still out on their summer term educational visits at various points during the week including Purple Butterfly Class who are out at Boggart Hole Clough cycling on Wednesday. 

On Wednesday and Thursday this week some of the children are going to Tatton Park with staff to plant our garden for the RHS Flower Show which is next week. Our exhibition this year is one 3 metre x 3 metre garden based on the book  'Our Senses'. Some of the staff took plants at the weekend ready - I have posted the photos on our school twitter account @camberwellpark and I will continue to post photos next week during the show on the twitter account.

On Thursday we have a 'Switch on Sound' Performance by some of our children who will entertain the rest of the school with songs and music on a Carribean theme. 

On Friday morning this week we are holding our 'Transition morning' for all of our pupils moving into their new classes including welcoming the new pupils into school who will be starting in September. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 7th July (camberwellpark Admin)

Lots to share in my blog today!

First of all, I am delighted to announce that following our three day reassessment during last week, we have retained our Investors in People Award at Gold level and also our Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Award. This is a significant achievement of which we are all very proud.

Summer term educational visits continue for all classes. Today Pink Butterfly class are out at the Manchester Aviation Centre and White Butterfly Class are out at St Annes. By the end of term all classes will have been out on an extended educational visit.

This morning we have enjoyed a performance of our children drumming and on steel pans. It was fabulous! We use some of our music grant to pay for groups of children to access weekly drumming and steel pan lessons. This morning they were able to perform some of what they have learned to us. Several parents and carers came to enjoy the concert too.

During this week, I begin training as an school inspector. I am attending my first 2 days training tomorrow and Wednesday so have been busy reading the Ofsted inspection handbooks in preparation. It will be very valuable training to help understand more deeply the requirements of being an outstanding school which I can in turn use to support the children at Camberwell Park and at other schools we support.

On Thursday and Friday this week I am attending and speaking at a National conference for the SSAT ( Specialist Schools and Academies Trust). It is a special educational needs conference and I was pleased to be asked to speak  about our curriculum at the event. I am attending with one of the assistant head teachers, Mrs Randall who is delivering the workshop presentation with me. The fantastic work of Camberwell Park will be shared on a national stage!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 1st July (camberwellpark Admin)

As the summer term continues and the weather improves we are able to take advantage by organising outdoor activities and events.

Today is Sports Day in School and all classes are currently enjoying a 'World Cup' football themed sports day. There is much cheering and laughter going on around school as I am writing this blog. Classes are also planning their summer term offsite visits to various places all linked to the curriculum including visits to the coast and the park.

We are proud to have an article in the July edition of NASEN 'Special' magazine entitled ' Donkey Days'  co -written by us and staff at the Donkey Sanctuary in Manchester about our visits there and how it supports the children's learning in all areas of the curriculum. I have requested an electronic copy of the article which I will include on our website as soon as possible.

During this week we are also being re-assessed as an 'Investor in People'. We are proud to hold the Investor's in People Gold Award and also the Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Award both which recognise how we invest in our staff in the school - all working together to make sure our children receive the best possible standards. The assessor will be in school for 3 days - Wednesday to Friday, talking to individual and groups of staff about various aspects of their work in school including training, involvement in school improvement planning, their appraisal targets, communication systems in school etc.

Mary Isherwood

1st July 2014

Monday 23rd June (camberwellpark Admin)

The sun continues to shine in Manchester as we begin another busy week in school.

This weekend a group of staff walked up Loughrigg Fell in Ambleside to fund raise for taking some of our children to Bendrigg Lodge for an outdoor adventure holiday in November. It was a hot day and a tough climb but everyone had fun too. We have raised around £1,000 towards the holiday which is a great help towards the overall costs. If anyone reading this would be willing to donate we would be very grateful - every little helps! See a picture of us at the summit on our twitter page @camberwellpark

This is the start of our 'Inclusion week' in school where we welcome groups of pupils from a number of local schools to join in a range of activities with our classes. 

Monday - a group from St Augustines joining Silver Butterfly Class

Tuesday - a group from Crab Lane joining Pink Butterfly Class a.m. and Pink Butterfly class going to St Augustines for a sports event p.m.

Wednesday - Open Afternoon welcoming staff from all of the schools which we support for outreach to take learning walks around school

Thursday - a group of pupils from Mount Carmel to join Gold Butterfly class

Friday - a group of pupils from Bowker Vale to join White Butterfly class

It is a busy and exciting week ahead for everyone!!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 22nd June 2014 

Monday 12th May (camberwellpark Admin)

In maintream primary schools this week and next the children are taking their end of Key Stage 2 SATs tests. At Camberwell Park, we also use these two weeks to measure the progress our children have made over this year and assess them using PIVATS ( Performance Indicators for Value Added Target Setting). These are the P Levels and early National Curriculum levels broken down into smaller steps so we can value and celebrate the progress the children in school have made. The progress of the children is assessed in the core subject areas of English, Maths, Science, ICT and Personal and Social Development.

It is an exciting time for our pupils in year 6 as they begin to prepare for moving to their high schools. All of our children participate in a transition programme to the schools they will be moving to and the visits have just begun. They initially visit for an hour and build up the time they are there to full days. The visits are important to make sure the children feel comfortable and happy with their move.

Dont forget you can keep up to date with all of the news in school by checking our school twitter feed @CamberwellPark, which is also on the front page of our website

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 28th April (camberwellpark Admin)

Spring is defintely upon us now and the sun is shining in Manchester this morning. We are delighted that we are once again planning to exhibit at RHSTatton in July so as well as planting for our cooking sessions in school, classes are also planning what they will plant for the exhibition at Tatton. We will be creating one garden this year which all classes will contribute to based on the book 'My Five Senses'

One of the privileges I have as headteacher is to welcome colleagues from other schools to Camberwell Park and also to visit other schools myself. It is important to share and learn from each other to improve outcomes for all of our children. Tomorrow I am welcoming a senior leader from a school in Leeds who is spending the morning with us and on Thursday I am spending the day at a special school in Blackpool - another school that is in the Priority Schools Building Programme so it will be interesting and useful to share our experiences.

We are also recruiting at the moment for a teacher ready for September. This is due to the additional class we have established in school. We will be interviewing in the next couple of weeks for this post.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 22nd April (camberwellpark Admin)

A new term - new possibilities

This morning we welcomed the children back into school after the Easter break.

All of the classes settled back into learning in their classes straight away - as I walked round school was quiet and busy - lots of concentration!

The children in Year 5 have started a week of learning safe cycling skills with 'Bike right' this week. Each morning they will be working with staff from Bikeright developing their confidence and learning about being safe on trikes / bikes and having good fun whilst they do so.

Tomorrow is St George's day which we will be marking with a special whole school assembly on the school corridor as if we were in a street party....waving flags and singing songs together - the bunting will be going up later!

Tuesdays is after school club evening where many of our children stay from 3.30 - 5 pm and join in with a variety of fun activities. It is always very popular.

It is a shorter week in school this week with returning after Bank Holiday Monday but is has already got off to a fantastic start!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 31st March (camberwellpark Admin)

It is the last week of our school term before the holidays and this week all classes will be doing some work about Easter. Our assemblies this week will be based around Easter - on Tuesday for Early Years / KS1 and on Wed for KS2. Rev Ian Fellows from St Andrew's church will be joining us for our assemblies where the children will 'show and tell' about the work they have done in class.

A special event this week is that one of our year 6 pupils has been chosen to represent Manchester in the swimming event for the Greater Manchester Disabled Games on Tuesday 1st April. I am very much looking forward to going with him to the Manchester Aquatics Centre and cheering him on!

All classes have written articles for our Easter newsletter which will be sent home to families at the end of the week. I hope you enjoy reading all of our news.

Wishing you a very happy and healthy Easter

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 24th March (camberwellpark Admin)

Another nice week ahead in school which has already started with classes busy and getting on with learning.......

This afternoon we have a return visit of the 'Cheeky Charlies' jazz band. The children had a great time when they visited last, clapping, singing and dancing to the music so it promises to be a fun afternoon all round!

As a school we endeavour to ensure all staff engage in ongoing professional development and as part of that all staff have annual performnce targets set in the autumn term linked to the school improvement plan. During this half term, we are holding mid term reviews with all staff to review performance and make sure all staff are on track to meet their targets. All part of making sure we continue 'to be the best we can be' for the children ensuring Camberwell Park is a school to be PROUD of....Passionate, Respectful, Organised, Understanding and Dedicated. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 17th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It's  the start of another week in school and today is St Patrick's Day - Happy St Patrick's Day

I want to start this blog by thanking everyone who supported our coffee morning in aid of Marie Curie last Thursday. We raised the great total of £222.18. It was lovely to not only have parents  and carers at the school but also to welcome residents from The Byrons sheltered accommodation next door and members of the congregation at St Andrew's Churchincluding Ian Fellows, who are always so supportive of our school. 

This week is national STEM week in schools across the country ( Science, Techonology, Engineering and Maths). In Camberwell Park we are having a Science day on Tuesday 18th March...lots of fun science based activities and learning!

I am lucky this week to be able to visit another school that is part of the new building programme that we are involved in. On Wednesday 18th I am visiting HighFurlong Special School in Blackpool. I am looking forward to talking to the head teacher there so we can learn from each other about the next steps with our new buildings and also share our common good practice in lots of other areas of school development. It  is a priviledge to visit other schools like this and one which I am very much looking forward to.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher  

Monday 10th March (camberwellpark Admin)

It has been a sunny weekend and promises to be a sunny week......great opportunity for the children to be able to enjoy working and playing outdoors!

This week is exciting as we are welcoming the new children into school who are joining our new class - Green Butterfly Class, on a phased admission programme. We are looking forward to meeting them, getting to know them and supporting their learning.

Later this week, on Thursday 13th March, is our Marie Curie coffee morning. Plants and cakes will be on sale between 10 - 11 a.m. We do hope as many people as possible can join us.

Just a reminder - as part of our work as an ECO school we do lots of recyling, including recyling clothes and have a clothes bank based at the school. Please support us to raise funds for the school by donating your unwanted clothes, shoes and bags. You can send them into school at any time!

Don't forget - you can keep up to date on all school news and events through our twitter feed @camberwellpark which is also on the front page of our website.

Mary Isherwood

10th March 2014 

Monday 3rd March (camberwellpark Admin)

We are officially into Spring and our school week is starting off with some lovely Spring sunshine!

Our vegetable growing for this year has begun - starting with our potatos which have already been chitting to estbalish their new roots. During this week and next classes will be planting them out in their potato grow bags. Last year we grew lots of different vegetables and used them in our cooking so it will be exciting to see how this develops this year!

This week also brings us World Book Day. On Thursday this week, we will be celebrating World Book Day with reading related activities throughout the school. This year's theme is traditional stories so all classes will be basing their work on traditional stories and books. All the staff and the children dress up each year as book characters. I have my outfit ready and this year will be Snow White!

It promises to be a busy and exciting week!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 24th February (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the first day back at school after the half term holiday and as always it is lovely to welcome all of the children back in. The school is calm and busy - lessons are underway.

Refurbishment of our new classroom was finished just before half term so this week and next we are holding pre-admission meetings for the new children that will be joining us. 

One of the priveleges of my job is to meet the families of our children, including those who have not yet joined us and who are visiting the school for the first time. We receive lots of requests to visit the school and it is important for families to have the time to visit and find out all about us. It is such a big decision families make about which school their child goes to and often it is the first time families have visited a special school so giving the time needed, listening to families and answering their questions is essential. This week I will be meeting the families of two different children who are looking for an appropriate school place for their children. 

Tonight is our full governing body meeting. Our governors meet all together once each term and discuss a range of school issues including progress on the school improvement plan, finance and building issues. It is the role of the governors to both challenge and support the school. As headteacher, I provide the governors with a written report for each meeting which includes up to date information on school standards, staff issues, buildings and other whole school issues. To find out more about our governors see the governors page on the website http://tinyurl.com/k5so99d

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 10th February (camberwellpark Admin)

We are nearly at half - term already .........school will be closed all next week and will re-open on Monday 24th February.

February half term is time for all classes to evaluate the children's IEPs and set new targets for the second half of the year. All children in school have three IEP targets which are 'barriers to their learning'. The IEPs may be curriculum focussed or may relate to behaviour or self help / independence skills for example. Teachers have produced written evaluations and set three new focus areas. They will be sent home to parents / carers by the end of this week with a section on how parents / carers can support at home in the bottom section. The children's IEPs are also on each child's blog page on 'Camberlink', our Virtual Learning Environment. 

The new classrom in our current school building is now complete so we are holding pre-admission meetings in the first coupple of weeks after half term in order to bring our additional class of children into school as soon as possible.

It is business as usual across the school this week - as I am writing this all classes are doing English lessons and after break will be doing Maths. The school is quiet and all of the children are focussed on their learning.

Wishing everyone a good week and a very happy half term holiday. My blog will resume on 24th Feb.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 3rd February (camberwellpark Admin)

Our week in school this week starts with music.......

This afternoon we are lucky to have a visiting harp player performing for the children from the Hospital Schools Music Service. We have had a few different musicians from this service and they are always amazing! We have not had a harpist before though so this will be a new and interesting experience for the children.

After school tonight representatives from the school choir are attending the Young Voices event at the Manchester Arena. It is an event where school choirs from schools across the north west meet and sing a range of songs which all of the schools have been practising. There are similar Young Voices events held around the country. We went last year for the first time and it was great! We are having a pizza tea at school then setting off! We have a Camberwell Park School banner to make sure we get noticed!

The work on adaptations to our current school building is progressing well and the new classroom will be ready for after half term. On Friday this week the recruitment of staff for the new classroom continues as we interview for lunchtime organisers. We hope to be able to admit our new class of children into school during the second half of this term.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 20th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Today is the closing date for applications for the posts of teacher and teaching assistants for our new class. The shortlisting is tomorrow and the interviews on Thursday. We hope to be able to appoint so that we can get the additional children into school as soon as possible. The building adaptations on our current building to accommodate the additional class continue and we are hoping will be completed by half term.

As our new building plans have reached the stage of choosing colours for walls, carpets, blinds etc I have been involving the staff in sharing their thoughts and ideas. The staff had time to look at all of the various plans and proposals at last week's staff meeting and are going to have more time for discussion at this week's staff meeting. The old school building on the Moston Lane site should be being demolished very soon and then the work on our building will begin - exciting!!

As a school we are also responding to and planning for the changes which are ahead of us relating to the reforms to the SEN Code of Practice. The revised Code of Practice is still in draft form but will become statutory from September 2014. All Local Authorities and schools will be required to publish their own 'Local Offer' detailing what provision is available. The Local Offer for our school has now been published on our website - see the page labelled 'Local Offer' http://www.camberwellpark.manchester.dbprimary.com/manchester/primary/camberwellpark/site/pages/ourlocaloffer

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 13th January (camberwellpark Admin)

This week gets off to an exciting start as today we are hosting an awards ceremony:

In July we were lucky to be recognised as an Open Futures Centre of Excellence in relation to the work we do as a school to support the children around the Open Futures Curriculum Strands of Cook It, Grow It, Film It and Ask It. The presentation of the award will be made this afternoon by John Edwards, the Director of Education and Skills for Manchester, to us and the other Manchester and Birmingham schools who have also achieved this standard. Each school has 15 places for the event and I am pleased that those involved from Camberwell Park include the leadership team. teachers, teaching assistants, lunchtime organisers and a parent governor reflecting how at Camberwell Park, Open Futures and the success of it is a whole school, shared experience. We are proud to be an Open Futures School - incorporating the strands into our curriculum has really supported the children's learning outcomes - and it is great fun!

Also this week, applicants interested in the teaching and teaching assistant posts which are advertised have been invited to visit the school on Tuesday afternoon - I look forward to welcoming them into school and showing them round.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher 

Monday 6th January (camberwellpark Admin)

Happy New Year!

It is the first day of the Spring term and I have already enjoyed seeing the children coming into school....it is so nice to see them return and to see their smiles as they are happy to be back! They are all settled into class now ready for learning!

We are supporting the local authority by establishing an additional class in school as there is such a long waiting list for places so today work starts in earnest to make some adaptations to our current building to accommodate 5 children. We are also therefore recruiting for teaching and non teaching staff for the new class - the adverts are on e-teach from today. We hope to bring the new children into school by Easter at the latest!

We are also continuing with our planning meetings for the new school building.......lots more details such as  ceiling, wall and floor finishes to be signed off...we are even starting to look at colours of paint etc.....things are moving on fast!

I plan to resume  my blog each Monday so look forward to updating you each week with news and events. Don't forget you can also follow us on twitter @CamberwellPark for news and updates as they happen.

With my very best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th December (camberwellpark Admin)

The last week of term before Christmas each year is always a very special week for our children and this week promises to be no exception!

Monday:

The first performance of our Christmas concert. This performance is for parents , carers and friends of the school. The theme of our concert is 'The Colours of Christmas'and each class will perform a song based on the colour of their choice

Tuesday:

Our second Christmas concert performance - this time for the children from the mainstream schools in our local area that we link with

Wednesday:

Christmas party afternoon - including a visit from Santa

Thursday

Christmas dinner

Friday:

We all visit St Andrews Church for a Christingle visit in the morning

School closes on Friday 20th December for the Christmas holidays and will re-open on Monday 6th January 2014. I will resume my blog from that day.

On behalf of all of the children and staff at Camberwell Park School I wish you a very Happy Christmas

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 9th December (camberwellpark Admin)

Christmas preparations and events.....

Today we are looking forward to welcoming Councillor Sheila Newman to visit the school. As part of her visit she will be spending some time in Silver Butterfly Class who have prepared questions to ask her as part of their work on democracy.

Tomorrow our school Choir is singing at The Byrons Sheltered accommodation which is next door to us. We enjoy reciprocal visits with them as our neighbours...they will soon be coming to see our Christmas concert performance.

On Wednesday we have a special assembly where we are welcoming some of the trainers from Open Futures who supported us Film it, Cook it and Grow it.....together with two people from the Manchester Allotment Society who donated a large amount of gardening equipment to the school. We have cards and small gifts which the children are going to present to them.

Whilst classes have been practising the Christmas concert songs, we have a whole school rehearsal on Thursday and the dress rehearsal on Friday ready for our two performances next week!

Busy busy busy! - wouldn't have it any other way!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 2nd December (camberwellpark Admin)

It is really important for our children to have a range of experiences to support their learning and this includes educational visits. 

There are a range of regular offsite visits in which our children participate including local walks, inclusion links to mainstream schools, visits to the supermarket to buy ingredients for food technology, visits to the donkey sanctuary and to the swimming baths. In addition, once each term all classes go on an educational visit linked to their class topic. Over the next couple of weeks, all classes are out on visits to a range of places including Manchester Cathederal and Christmas markets, Clayton Hall and My Sensibility.

Mary Isherwood

Head teacher 

Monday 25th November (camberwellpark Admin)

This week is National Tree Week! We are marking this by all classes engaging in a whole school tree dressing....

The theme of our tree dressing is 'The tree of life' and all classes will be drawing / creating animals for the tree which we will use to decorate a tree at the front of the school later this week.............look out for the photo on our twitter account @CamberwellPark which you can also see on the front page of our website.

Our meetings about our new building continue....as well as discussing room layouts ( e.g. sink, radiator positions etc) we are now starting to consider finer details such as signage and wall, ceiling and floor finishes................

Christmas is an exciting time in school and planning has begun..........Classes are currently booking their class Christmas trips linked to their topic, the Christmas concert script has been written and last week we recorded the children singing Christmas carols ready for a 'Camberwell sings Christmas' CD which will be on sale soon.

With all my very best wishes,

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 18th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraising for Children in Need last Friday....we wore spotty clothing for which we donated and also sold Pudsey biscuits made by the school cook. The total we raised has not yet been added up - I will tweet the total when it has been counted later today!

Last week and this week we are welcoming two new members of staff to our school team. During last week our new caretaker Jimmy Walker started working with us and today we welcome Safina Yunus, our new school administrator who you will soon be speaking to if you phone or visit school. 

Our work in school planning for the new building continues.....Now we have agreed the floor plan, we are currently focussing on making decisions about fixed furniture around the school e.g. where sinks, cupboards, shelving etc will go. Lots of decisions to make!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 11th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Representing our school in London....

We were delighted some time ago to be invited to speak to the Trustees of the Open Futures Trust about our successful work as a school implementing the Open Futures Curriculum. That visit is scheduled for this Wednesday, 13th November. I will be travelling to London along with Allison Taylor( deputy head)  and Alison Randall ( assistant head) where we are privileged to attend the house of Lady Helen Hamilyn. We are doing a presentation about our work and answering their questions. I am really proud to be asked to represent the outstanding work of our school in this week and look forward to sharing our successes with them.

Back at school here...our busy timetables continue as normal....

Friday is 'Children in Need day'. School council have discussed and agreed we will raise funds by all wearing 'spotty' clothes and donating money to Children in Need for doing so. The school cook is also making Pudsey bear biscuits which we will sell. Should be good fun! Last year we raised £177.00. Let's see if we can beat that this year!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 4th November (camberwellpark Admin)

Back to school today for the second half of the Autumn term and it was lovely to see the children coming in with smiling faces and to hear the buzz of the classrooms whilst walking round school this morning!

It is business as usual in school with all classes engaging in their full timetable. Monday afternoon is time for our whole school sing and sign session.......a favourite time of the week!

You may not know this but this week is National Sausage week! We are having a special sausage menu for lunch tomorrow to acknowledge this! 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 21st October (camberwellpark Admin)

Approaching half term

This is the last week in school before half term holiday - Hard to believe we will have completed 8 weeks in school since the start of term!

Our meetings about the new school building start again this week. Now the ground floor plan has been agreed, phase 2 is where we start to look at room layouts......looking in more detail about what will be going where in each room across the school. I will continue to keep the Building News page on the website updated with any new information. 

The school will be closed to the children on Thursday and Friday this week for staff training. As a school we take staff training very seriously and are recognised as an 'Investor in People' at Gold level. It is really important to ensure that all staff are trained to the highest standards to make sure the children receive the best teaching, care and support. The two training days on Thursday and Friday are focussed on Behaviour Management and Health and Safety.

I am really PROUD of the way all of the children have settled straight back into school and how focussed all of our school community is on building on our Outstanding Ofsted inspection back in June. 

I hope all of our families have a really nice half term break and I look forward to resuming my blog on 4th November when we return. Don't forget, if you are not already doing so, you can follow us on twitter @CamberwellPark for regular news and updates.

With sincere best wishes,

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 14th October (camberwellpark Admin)

A week of allsorts!

It is another busy and varied week in school this week.

I am continuing my programme of lesson observations across school as part of the important role I have in monitoring the quality of teaching across school. I also have a visit from an external adviser planned in for Tuesday who visits school once each term to challenge and support the school on a range of whole school issues. Tomorrow he will be reviewing our school standards in pupil achievement and looking at the targets we have set for this year.

This afternoon I am visiting a special school in Blackburn on a 'fact finding mission' - I am going with Mrs Widdall who has responsibility for ICT in the school and Mr Andrews, our technician, to see the multi-sensory room at the school as we consider and plan for our new school building!. Phase 2 of our building plans begin next week as we start to consider room layouts. I will keep you informed on the new building page on the website. 

Wednesday evening is parent's evening in school. Class teams have been busy making appointments with parents / carers. It is a good opportunity at the start of the year to talk about how the children have settled into their new classes and to discuss their Individual Education Plan targets and how parents / carers can help at home.

This week is Eid Ul Adha and Eid will be the theme for our assemblies this week. 'Eid Mubarak' to all of our families!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 7th October (camberwellpark Admin)

A very exciting week in school

This is a very exciting week in school for two main reasons:

Our pupils in year 6 are going on an activity residential to Bendrigg Lodge in the Lake District. There they will get chance to engage in a range of activities including abseiling, canoeing, climbing and caving. Bendrigg Lodge is purpose built activity centre which specialises in catering for children and adults who are disabled meaning all of our children can participate in the week. I will keep in touch with them during the week to find out how they are getting on and keep everyone informed via twitter @CamberwellPark. To find out more about Bendrigg Lodge take a look at their website www.bendrigg.org.uk. On Wednesday I am joining them at Bendrigg Lodge for the day - I am really looking forward to it.

Today and tomorrow we also have Zoolab in school. Zoolab provide animal handling workshops bringing in a range of unusual and exotic animals for the children to experience including snakes, spiders, rats, snails, millipedes etc. We link it to our Science work in school on Life and Living Processes. Over the 2 days Zoolab are in school, all classes will get an opportunity to handle the full range of animals and learn about them. To find out more about Zoolab take a look at their website www.zoolabuk.com.

From last week we have also established a clothes recycling bank at school 'Recycle for Michael' Please help us to raise funds for school by donating any unwanted clothes and shoes. The recycling scheme is linked to the Salvation Army who give us money back into school based on the weight of the clothes we collect. The recycling bin is here all the time so feel free to send in your things when ever you want.

Calling any Manchester Evening News readers....please send us any 'wish tokens' from the paper which in turn we will pass on to the Manchester Donkey Sanctuary to help them get their share of £25,000. All of our children benefit from going to the sanctuary so we want to support them as much as we can.

With warmest wishes,

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 30th September (camberwellpark Admin)

End of September already!

As September draws to a close and we have already completed a full month in school it is good to reflect on how well all of our many new children have settled into school and the good start made to the new term. As headteacher, I have arranged to spend time in all of the classes before half term to monitor the quality of teaching and ensure the high standards we have established across school are maintained. I have been popping in and out of classes already and it is great to see how motivated and engaged the children are in their learning.

This week is also a week of interviews - tomorrow we are interviewing for the caretaker post, on Wednesday the admin post and on Friday the teacher post....all essential roles in the school so am looking forward to recruiting three new outstanding members of our school team.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher
 

Monday 23rd September (camberwellpark Admin)

Individual Education Plans and target setting

The start of term is always the time when teachers and their teams decide the priority targets for all of the children in their classes. These are their 'Individual Education Plans, three targets for each of the children which are barriers to learning and should be practiced each day. The targets may be curriculum related but may also relate to personal independence skills or behaviour for learning. The children's IEPs will be sent home to parents / carers this week so that they can also be practiced at home and will be discussed with parents / carers on parents' evening.

It is also target setting time for the staff. All staff in Camberwell Park School have performance management targets set linked to our School Improvement Plan to ensure that the children are always receiving the best! 

As a school it is important we continue to build on our Ofsted outstanding judgement by reviewing all of our policies and procedures making sure Camberwell Park is a school to be PROUD of

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 16th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Monday brings the start of another busy week in school.

On Tuesday evening it is the first full Governing Body meeting of the school year and on Wednesday our first Finance Committee meeting of the school year. The Governors have an essential role in challenging and supporting the school on a range of issues and the meetings are an important time for discussion about a range of whole school issues.

The school has four vacant posts advertised at the moment, that is, two teacher posts, a caretaker post and an admin assistant post - further information about all of them is on our staff vacancies page on the website. On Thursday, there is an invitation for anyone interested in the teacher post to visit school to find out more about us. Recruiting the right staff is essential in ensuring our children receive the best at all times. 

We have also a number of families with young children who may possibly want a place at Camberwell Park visiting us this week. It can be a really difficult time for families when making a decision about a school placement, especially if considering special education for the first time so it is important to ensure they have the opportunity to visit, take as much time and ask as many questions about the school as they want. I look forward to welcoming them into school.

With best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 9th September (camberwellpark Admin)

First full week back

This is the first full week back for the children. We continue to welcome and support new children into school on phased admission programmes and this week we also resume lots of our regular school extra curricular activities such as visits to the donkey sanctuary, Switch on Sound Music sessions and our visiting sports coaches. Mondays is 'Sing and Sign' day when all of the children join together to sign and sign a range of songs chosen by the classes. The school choir practise new songs and lead the singing. It is great fun!

Today, I am representing the school at a reception event at the Lowry Hotel for schools which have been judged Outstanding since the Ofsted framework has been changed and made more challenging. The Chief Inspector of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw will be there as will other representatives from Ofsted. I am PROUD to represent the school at such an important and high profile event. 

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Friday 6th September (camberwellpark Admin)

Reflections at the end of the first week back

I am writing my first blog of the new term at the end of a really good first week back.

We started this week with 2 training days for all of the staff which included some whole school development, sharing of information / planning and classroom preparation. We also spent time discussing the priorities in our School Improvement Plan which this year are Quality of Teaching and Learning and Total Communication.

Wednesday was the first day back with our children - a day we always look forward to. We have welcomed many new children into school this week and it has been great to see how quickly they have settled. Fantastic also to see all of our other children and to see how pleased they all are to be back in school - lots of happy children and smiling faces!

I will resume my weekly blog now to keep you up to date with all the events and information about school. Don't forget you can also follow us on Twitter @CamberwellPark 

I am looking forward to us continuing to build on our Outstanding Ofsted outcome during this school year ensuring we can achieve the best possible outcome for each and every one of our amazing children.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 22nd July (camberwellpark Admin)

End of term

We have just 2 days left of this school year and today brings us one of most special days. It is the day when we hold our end of year celebration assembly, celebrating the achievements of all of our amazing children. All of our children are today presented with their year books which contain photos and certificates telling the story of their year. Today's assembly is also a leaver's assembly for our year 6 pupils.....they have been practising a special song and dance routine which they will perform this afternoon. Parents and carers have been invited .......tissues are at the ready!

Whilst we finish school on Tuesday, lots of things will continue over the summer, starting with our exiting exhibition at RHS Tatton Flower Show between 25th - 28th July. We are taking 6 of our children each day who will be doing cooking demonstrations, talking about their gardens and showing visitors to the exhibition all of the photographs we are taking. If you are able to, do come and see us there - if not look out for us on local news / RHS Tatton television programmes!

I will continue to be in school over the summer to do preparation for next year and to continue to attend planning meetings about our new school building.

I will not maintain this blog over the summer holidays but will continue to update the school's twitter feed @CamberwellPark which you can see by having a twitter account and following us or by reading it on the front page of the school's website www.camberwellpark.manchester.dbprimary.com

Thank you for all of your support this year...and for the positive feedback about this blog

I continue to be PROUD to be the head teacher of such an outstanding school

With best wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 15th July (camberwellpark Admin)

Picnics and Flower Shows

This is an exciting week in school as it is the week of our Camberwell Park Flower Show.

On Tuesday afternoon, we are exhibiting the ten 1 metre x 1 metre gardens made by each of the classes. We are having a whole school picnic lunch outside in our play grounds followed by a special assembly and Flower Show Awards Ceremony in the afternoon including entertainment from our school choir and cheerleading group.

On Wednesday we are taking a group of children to Tatton Park to set up our first garden ready for the Flower Show there which opens to the public on 25th - 28th July. To keep up to date with our Tatton news follow us on Twitter @CamberwellPark.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 8th July (camberwellpark Admin)

Our Ofsted report is published

I am delighted to share with you our Ofsted report from 20th and 21st June 2013 http://www.camberwellpark.manchester.dbprimary.com/manchester/primary/camberwellpark/arenas/schoolwebsite/web/ofstedreportjune13.pdf

An achievement like this is due to an outstanding team of people who have continued to work together keeping the interests of our very special children at the heart of everything we do. My sincere thanks to all of my staff team, governors, members of the multi-agency team, parents / carers and friends in the community who all have an important contribution to our Outstanding School.

I hope you enjoy reading the report as much as I did

I continue to be PROUD to be Headteacher of Camberwell Park School.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 1st July (camberwellpark Admin)

Ofsted, Twitter....and singing!

As you are aware, we were inspected by Ofsted on 20th and 21st June. I have now seen the draft report which is has been returned to Ofsted and I am pleased to say I will receive a final copy by Friday 5th June at the latest which I will be able to distribute to parents / carers. It will be online on the Ofsted website and I will also link it to our own school website by 12th July at the latest.

Just to remind you - you can now follow Camberwell Park on Twitter, @CamberwellPark. If you have not already registered - now is time to do so! You can also see our twitter feed on the home page on the school's website. There are regular updates on there about the work of the school so it is worth following us to find out the latest of what is going on in school! I will also be tweeting throughout our exhibition at RHS TattonPark in July.

This afternoon our school choir are joining in a 'singing square' with the school choirs from our partner schools Temple Primary. St Augustines and Heald Place. They have got new choir t-shirts with our school logo on them and are really looking forward to spending fun time with children from the other schools.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 24th June (camberwellpark Admin)

Ofsted...... and Twitter

Camberwell Park School was inspected by Ofsted on 20th and 21st June. I am unable to share the outcome with you until it is officially verified however, we are very pleased with the Outcome. I will send a copy of the report home to parents and carers as soon as it is made available and update the link on this website to the new Ofsted report. Thank you to all of the parent / carers who made their views known to Ofsted via Parent View. We had 17 responses which were all very positive.

You can now also follow us on Twitter @CamberwellPark. If you are not already registered, please register for Twitter for updates as they happen - general news about the school, Ofsted updates, news about our preparation to RHS Tatton Park and updates about our new building. Look forward to seeing you there! As with all social media, it is imperative that we have clear policies and procedures to ensure our children and our school are safeguarded. Please see the e-safety page on the website to read the school social media policy.

With warmest wishes

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 17th June (camberwellpark Admin)

Inclusion Week

We are pleased to have strong relationships with lots of our local mainstream schools and as well as weekly links for some of our children to attend lessons in mainstream schools, we provide outreach training, advice and support for mainstream schools in the north of the city.

Every year we have an 'Inclusion week' where we invite some of our local mainstream schools to bring groups of children to Camberwell Park for a range of activities. This week is our Inclusion week. During this week we have a group of children from St Clare's Primary  joining in wheel chair dancing with Orange Butterfly Class, a group from Croslee joining in music with Yellow Butterfly Class, a group from Charlestown Road joining in ICT with Red Butterfly Class, a group from Bowker Vale joining in cookery with White Butterfly Class, a group from Pike Fold joining in football with Silver Butterfly Class, a group from Moston Fields joining in Yoga with Violet Butterfly Class and a group from Mount Carmel joining in cookery with Gold Butterfly Class. In addition on Wednesday afternoon it is our Open afternoon for staff from all of the schools we support who are invited to spend time in the school so we can share good practice with them for supporting their children with special educational needs in their own schools.

Promises to be a busy and fun week!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 10th June (camberwellpark Admin)

End of year reports

There are many priveleges I have as a head teacher and one of them is reading the pupil end of year reports. It brings me great joy to read about the  progress the children have made during the year across all areas of the curriculum. This is one of my important tasks this week and next week. As all of the children have now been assessed in relation to their attainment, the teachers are busy writing their reports in preparation for parent's evening and the end of the school year. I read them and add a comment and then they will be being sent home for parents / carers to read before meeting with teachers and class teams on parents evening. I know how much the end of year reports mean to parents / carers and I hope you all enjoy reading them.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 3rd June (camberwellpark Admin)

Welcome back!

Today is the start of the second half of the summer term and once again we return in the lovely sunshine!

We are counting down now and busy with our planning for exhibiting at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park - make sure you have the dates in your diary ( 25th - 28th July 2013)! The sunshine is helping all of our plants to grow and the classes are also practising making the salad dressings which will form our cooking demonstrations. We are hoping to take 5 children with us to the Flower Show each day so will be contacting parents / carers soon to see who is available.

I will post updated information about RHS Flower Show Tatton Park in my blog as our preparation progresses.

We have also been contacted by Carillion, the contractor who has been appointed for our new building. They have requested an initial meeting this week to begin considering our building plans which is very exciting!

I will post any updated information about the building on the 'School Building News' page on the website.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 20th May (camberwellpark Admin)

From eggs to chickens!

It has been very exciting in school last week and this as we have had our own version of 'Chicken Watch Live'!

Our children ( and staff!) have been able to watch first hand eggs in an incubator as they hatch

Noticing when the first signs of life begin to show

And seeing when the first chicken is born

All the chicks have now been born and during this week the children are able to handle them. As well as a great experience it has supported their learning in Science - Life and Living Processes, as well as in other areas of learning e.g. counting the chickens ( maths), writing about them ( English), drawing them ( Art). The children have also asked lots of questions and engaged in lots of important discussions e.g. after being shocked that chicken was on the menu for school dinners one day last week, one class discussed whether it is ok to eat meat - linking into the work we do as part of Open Futures Curriculum 'Ask it'

'.

One another note - a buildings update - The Construction Company Carillion http://www.carillionplc.com/, has now been named as the contractor appointed for the new Camberwell Park School building. I will keep you informed of developments about the building on the 'Building news' page on this website.

Mary Isherwood

Head Teacher

Monday 13th May (camberwellpark Admin)

Assessment of pupil's progress and achievement

Whilst we are assessing the children's progress as they are learning throughout the year, each May we carry out formal assessments of their achievement in relation to the targets set for them at the beginning of the year. This is done through a scheme called PIVATS, ( Performance Indicators for Value Added Target Setting). PIVATS is a way of us measuring and celebrating the steps of progress all of our children have made during the year.

During this week and next, the teachers supported by the teaching assistants will be using PIVATS to assess the children in English, Maths, Science, ICT and Personal and Social Development. This information will be shared with parents / carers in the detailed summer term report which follows and discussed at the parent's evening at the end of term. The data collected is also used for us to measure whether our pupils as individuals and in different groups have made good or outstanding progress  which we judge by comparing the progress they have made to other similar children nationally. We are pleased that over the last 3 years, the percentage of our pupils making outstanding progress has increased each year which is something we are very PROUD of.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Tuesday 7th May (camberwellpark Admin)

Offsite  educational visits and enjoying the sunshine

It has been really nice to have a day of lovely sunshine in school today after all of the cloudy, rainy, windy weather we have had recently. It has also given classes good opportunities to be able to use offsite visits to support their learning. Today, this has included Violet Butterfly class who visited Heaton Park  and Red Butterfly class who participated in a local walk to look at flowers and plants. Whilst the children are out they use iPads to capture the things they have seen and to practice their 'Film it' photography skills.

Offsite visits linked to the curriculum are an important part of our school curriculum in order to support learning linked to the curriculum. Our visits plan includes parks, museums, libraries, religious buildings, supermarkets, local walks, as well as other specific places of interest linked to the curriculum. We are lucky to have 2 school minibuses to support all of our children to be able to participate in offsite educational visits.

During this term many classes will be visiting Tatton Park to see where we will be exhibiting our gardens in the Tatton Flower Show in July.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Monday 29th April (camberwellpark Admin)

School leavers and new admissions

At this time of year we begin to plan for the next school year. This includes thinking about children that are leaving us and those that will be joining us in September. For our year 6 leavers it is an exciting time but can be a time of anxiety so it is important we consider best ways to support the children and their families. This includes a transition programme of visits to their high school - our year 6's started this process last Friday with a first visit to Northridge High School coffee shop.

I am starting the week with a meeting alongside my colleague special school head teachers looking at our September waiting  lists  to plan our admissions for the next school year. Following today's meeting we will be able to plan our class groups for next year and some visits for the children who will be joining us in September to make sure they and their families feel supported as they join our school.

On another note  - a reminder that school is closed to children this week on Thursday 2nd May for staff training.

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher

Thursday 25th April (camberwellpark Admin)

Being an ECO school

One of the things really important to us as a school is being an ECO school, that is, ensuring as a school we consider all key aspects which contribute to being ECO friendly - recycling, saving energy and water, sustainability, healthy living, litter, school grounds, transport and global citizenship. We hold the prestigious ECO schools Green Flag Award which has to be renewed every 2 years and this Friday the assessor is visiting school to judge whether our Green Flag will be renewed or not. It will be our 3rd Green Flag renewal.

We have worked really hard as a school to link aspects of our ECO work into our curriculum and into our every day activities - as you come into school one of the first things you will see is our ECO display including our whole school ECO code and you will often see the recycling monitors from the classes bringing down waste paper and plastic bottles to the recycling boxes which are positioned there.

The assessor will be meeting with me, having a tour of the school and meeting with the pupil school / ECO council to talk about the work we have done since our last Green Flag award. I think the assessor will be particularly impressed with the work we have done on our school grounds - particularly our vegetable growing beds.

Good luck everyone for Friday!

Mary Isherwood

Headteacher