Your opportunity to help your child

My view is that a school cannot be judged purely on figures. To do this you can enter school with an agenda to find evidence to damn it; leaving it inadequate.

I look at it from point of view of it being a good school, (not Ofsted good – but parent good).

I look at the tremendous forward movement since my eldest child joined the school. The effort the school has made to involve/inform parents – parents’ forum, new reports, improved parents’ evenings, texts home, postcards home, personal calls to discuss your child and the introduction of the parent portal which gives almost real time information on your child’s progress, attendance and through which you can contact teachers direct.

Our children can access a wide curriculum, (with choice of a range of academic, vocational subject).

They have the choice to continue many of these subjects to either GCSE or Btec qualifications. This enables each child to reach their full potential if they are prepared to put the work in.

The school also runs an extensive range of after-school clubs. From study groups, to sports clubs, art and design, film clubs, music clubs and a very successful and popular drama club.

The recent production of High School Musical involved over 200 pupils, everyone was a credit to Ecclesfield, and every child (and teacher) involved gave up evenings/weekends to make it the wonderful occasion it was.

The school is not perfect, the teachers are not perfect, the pupils are not perfect and the parents are not perfect. We’re not there yet, but this certainly is not a school going backwards.

You will get parents who have an axe to grind and are not happy with the school. I would think most schools would have.

All I would say to these parents is come to the parents’ forum meetings; many of the school’s changes are discussed there before being introduced so that is your opportunity to help your child.

They take place each half term and are on the webpage.

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