I have been Deputy Head at Castledyke Primary School for quite a while now and seen lots of children pass through the doors. As Deputy I liase with the Head, Governors, Senior Management Team, staff, children and parents on strategies to provide the best education for our children.
My other main responsibility is supporting children with Special Needs. At Castledyke we have a team of highly qualified Teaching Assistants who work within classrooms or by withdrawing small groups or individual children for extra support or extension work.
Many of these assistants have become specialists in different areas of needs by training and working alongside experts from outside agencies. We have experts in – dyslexia; Speech, Language and Communication; Autism; Numeracy and Literacy support; Positive Behaviour and Social and Emotional Interaction; Counselling and Parent support, etc.
A variety of experts from outside agencies visit the school to work with small groups of children, individuals, staff and parents to ensure needs are met. These include – Speech and Language Service; Autism Team; Educational Psychologist; Visual/Hearing Impaired Service; School Nurse; and lots more.
If you feel your child may have a problem, please talk to the class teacher, a member of staff or myself so that we may try and solve the issue.
At the moment I am working on a reading project with Y1 children and training other members of staff to improve the teaching and learning of reading within our school. You will know that we now use the national book band colour system.
With help I also organise the House Teams within the school to encourage competition, teamwork and respect. The school council chose the House Team names and all children and staff have been allocated a team – Diamond/yellow, Emerald/green, Ruby/red, Sapphire/blue. Each week the house team that has collected the highest number of points is announced and awarded a rosette. At the end of each term the house that has collected the highest number of points receives the trophy and a small reward for each team member.
I you would like information on any aspect of our school please make an appointment or pop in to see if I am available.
I hope you enjoy your time at our school and reach the highest standard that you are capable of.
J Gregory