A-Z of Prescot Church Web Site

 

Mission Statement

At St. Mary and St. Paul's we are committed to providing a happy, safe and stimulating environment where learning is championed, and which has the Christian faith at its heart. Children are valued as individuals and encouraged to achieve their best, respect themselves and others and become valuable members of our community.

St. Mary & St. Paul's C of E Primary School:http://smsp.org.uk/
Watchmaking in Victorian Prescot:http://www.watchmakinginvictorianprescot.co.uk/

From Jul. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary & St. Paul 's School

How many times have you said, or heard, the phrase, “It's a small world.” Actually, it isn't! At the Equator, the Earth's circumference is 24,901 miles. In other words, if you walked non-stop at 4 miles an hour (a briskish walk), and didn't alter your pace even when climbing mountains or walking across oceans, it'd still take you 260 days (and nights) to walk all the way round. The Earth's population is estimated currently at 6.66 billion people. To put that huge number into context, if every person in the world took it in turns to go to Anfield once each to watch Liverpool play a Premiership match, the ground would be filled to capacity for every match for the next 3,983 years ! The Earth is a pretty big place.

Yet at the same time, with global air travel, satellite television, broadband internet and mobile phones, the world can seem a much smaller place. People travel far more, and meet people from all four corners of the globe (a slightly mysterious saying for a spherical planet). We live in a pretty multi-cultural society – Britain has had a long tradition of immigration and emigration and is culturally richer for it. Jesus encouraged his disciples not to be insular, but to accept everyone (think of the Samaritan woman at the well) and to, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)

Understanding the world in which we live, and respecting people from different nations and backgrounds, is therefore an important aspect of children's education. Without a proper appreciation of these things, children can easily lose a proper sense of perspective – while many of our children may not have everything that they wish for, they have so much more than the children in the refugee camps in Darfur or Burma or the shanty towns of Rio or South Africa . Our children also need to appreciate that, while this is the case, it isn't because they have any more right to a comfortable life than anyone else – and hopefully the challenges that they see other children facing will motivate them to try to do something about the world's inequalities.

It's in this context that our school has been engaged in a lot of ‘International Schools' work this year. Most recently, Mr. Knights (the teacher who's running our International Schools work) has visited our partner school in the Tyume Valley region of South Africa 's Eastern Cape to see what life is like for children there. He's come back to school with a mountain of photographs and information that show very clearly the challenges that children in those schools face every day. It has been a ‘reality check' for our pupils – and teachers; as we sit in our beautiful, refurbished school it's hard to picture going to a school every day that sits at the top of a dirt track, has ‘traditional' chalkboards, large classes and minimal equipment.

By engaging in our International Schools work, I think we've managed to give our children a far better understanding of the diversity that exists in our world. I also believe that they understand far better now not to take people at face value but to look beneath the surface at the person within. We hope and pray that this knowledge and appreciation of the world around them will help them to become better and more inclusive citizens, working towards making both their local community and the wider world a more harmonious place.

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Jun. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary & St. Paul 's School

Inspections are a bit like London buses – you wait ages for one and then two come along in quick succession! No sooner had our Ofsted inspection team left us, their kind words still ringing in our ears, than our Diocesan inspector was in school to look at St. Mary and St. Paul ' s church school distinctiveness. Clearly we're ‘on a roll' at the moment though as the headline judgement in the Diocesan inspection report was also that St. Mary and St. Paul ' s is ‘outstanding', as you can see from the report's opening paragraph:

“The distinctiveness and effectiveness of St. Mary and St. Paul ' s Church

of England School are outstanding.

The school's Christian character permeates all aspects of school life. Christian principles of love and respect are actively promoted making a significant impact on pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Children are caring, concerned and responsible members of their community. They are inspired by the Christian teaching of their headteacher and staff. Positive relationships between pupils, staff, governors and parents also demonstrate the Christian ethos.”

Church schools are unique and, in my opinion, very, very special places because they are expected and tasked with educating “the whole child” – including the child's faith and spiritual development. As I write, the children in Year 6 have just completed their final SATs test – and I'm sure that they will have done us (and themselves) proud again this year. However, our school isn't just about SATs tests and levels. Our school is about helping children to reach their potential and become fully rounded members of the community – the local community in which they live and also, we hope, the faith community.

It's nice, therefore, to have Ofsted and the Diocesan Inspection both telling us that we're succeeding in doing the job that we've set out to do.

The final half-term of the summer, though free from inspections (we hope!), still promises to be a very busy one. On 4 th July, Eddie O'Hara, our local MP, is visiting school to unveil a plaque in our recently opened extension. Before that, we're hosting a Verse Speaking Competition (23 rd June) as part of the Prescot Festival. Our first event, though, is a Family Fun Day on Saturday 21 st June. The event, running from 11am to 2pm , is based in the Children's Centre attached to the school (The Phoenix Centre), but a lot of the school will be open too for performances, refreshments and so on. If you've not had the chance to come and look round since the building work has been done, why not come down then and see our wonderful school?

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From May. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary and St. Paul 's

I promised last month that I'd include details of our hugely successful Ofsted inspection in this month's article – the report had not been published last month so I wasn't able to quote from it directly. However, I am now extremely proud to be able to report that St. Mary and St. Paul 's is officially an OUTSTANDING school. Less than 1 school in 10 is graded outstanding by Ofsted. We were the first school in Knowsley this year to be graded outstanding; only 1 Knowsley primary school was graded outstanding in the whole of last year, and none in 2006 – which shows what an achievement it is. The report of course reflects great credit on everyone connected with the school – staff, parents, governors and, most importantly, children. Below is the text of the letter that the inspector, Mrs. Corlett, wrote to the children as part of the Ofsted report – I thought that people might like to read it.

Inspection of St Mary and St Paul 's Church of England Primary School, Prescot, L35 5DN

Dear Children,

Thank you all for giving me such a warm welcome to your school. You were all exceptionally polite and helpful, and I really enjoyed talking to you and finding out about all the fun you have in school. Thank you, especially to those of you who gave up your lunch break to explain how well you care for one another and know how to be safe and healthy.

Your school is outstanding. That means that it is one of the best in the country and you are right to be so proud of it! You make very good progress in your lessons and behave well. I was particularly impressed with the way you understand that each one of you is responsible for choosing between right and wrong and show great respect for the feelings of others. Your teachers work very hard to make learning exciting and interesting. You told me how much you enjoy the visits they arrange, and that they are all friendly and kind. You also said that they are always willing to give you extra support if you find things difficult, and that no one ever feels bad about having to ask for help. This has helped you to improve your writing – I was amazed at the amount you do and your obvious enthusiasm for this subject. During my visit I was lucky enough to meet the new arrivals in the nursery – Henrietta's chicks! No doubt Henrietta will be very pleased to receive all your letters telling her how well they are doing and how carefully you are looking after them for her. Further up the school, I saw lots of good examples of scientific investigations. I really hope many of you will be able to build on your skills and use them to continue your good work on improving our environment in the future

In such a good school it was hard to think of ways in which things could be better, but I have asked your teachers to give you a little more time in lessons to look back at your work and improve it using their helpful comments and advice. You can help them by listening to their suggestions and paying careful attention to their comments on your written work. Each one of you has a very special contribution to make in the future. Your headteacher and all the adults in the school recognise this and will help you to be the very best that you can be.

I wish you all the very best of luck.

Janette Corlett
(Lead Inspector)

Since Ofsted we have also been inspected by a Diocesan Inspector (looking at our church school values and impact). We're still waiting for that report to come out, but the feedback we received on the day was very positive too.

All in all, it's been quite a few weeks at St. Mary and St. Paul 's. With all of the wonderful things that people have said about our school, we can now look forward to moving ahead with confidence and, we hope, with an ever increasing number of children and parents eager to send their children to our fantastic school!

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Apr. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

I'm writing this month's news still beaming with delight following our recent Ofsted inspection. I've got the draft report from the inspector in front of me, and although I can't quote it directly until it is published officially – which it will have been by the time you actually read this – I can share with you how pleased we are with the inspection outcomes.

I have written many times about the massive progress that St. Mary and St. Paul ' s has made over the past four or five years, about our excellent Key Stage 2 SATs results, our wonderful new building and a whole host of other things. Ofsted, which many see as a threat, was actually a chance for us to show all of these things off and to have confirmed for us the judgements that we'd made in our school self-evaluation. The inspection effectively covered three days. On the first, the inspector went through and analysed all of our results and other data and the self-evaluation form (the ‘SEF') that we complete regularly as we reflect on our school's strengths and weaknesses. I had two long phone calls with her, discussing what she had found and trying to answer lots of questions! The inspector then spent a full and very intensive day in school with us: she watched teaching and learning in every class, went through children's work, met with children, staff and governors, analysed the parental questionnaire and trawled through our self-evaluation evidence. It was a very thorough and rigorous day, which ended with her giving feedback to the staff, governors and local authority representative. The third day was for writing the report – the final draft of which I've been able to read.

I'm very pleased (and proud) to be able to report that the inspection went outstandingly well, and that our own judgements about the school were confirmed (and in some cases even strengthened) by the inspector. When the report is published, I'd urge you to read it; I've always believed that one of the great strengths of our school is the relationship that we've got with our two churches. When times were hard here, we were always grateful for the support – both practical and prayerful – that we received from the congregations of St. Mary's and St. Paul 's. Now that the pendulum has swung the other way, we really want to share and celebrate our good news with the whole parish!

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Mar. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary and St. Paul 's

As I'm writing this, the sun is streaming through my office window and the temperature is such that I'm actually considering opening the window itself to cool down a bit – and it's February! Do we not have snow in this country anymore? It's been another wet but very mild winter – a clear pattern these days it seems. With Easter being so early this year, it's also been a remarkably short half-term (in a very short term) – and yet there still seems so much to fit in.

The netball and football teams have been practising hard, ready for forthcoming matches. The choir are in good voice, while there are also lovely melodies coming from the recorder club and from our keyboards group, who meet as part of our enrichment afternoon every Friday. The children have been studying things as diverse as Chinese New Year and the Katie Morag stories, while I've also seen some fabulous written work, art work and more. We've also welcomed a visitor from our partner school in Holland, who spent a week with us – meeting the children and seeing some of the sights in the Capital of Culture – and we're now trying to set up a multi-cultural, Pan-European project involving our two schools and further schools in Italy and Turkey. It's not surprising at times that the teachers look exhausted before every holiday!

Creativity is a big part of the curriculum today – there's a realisation (at last) that while not every child will succeed academically, every child has talents that need to be nurtured and developed. Many of these talents are creative. I actually think creativity is massively undervalued – not just in many schools but in society in general. How many times have you heard someone described as being ‘arty' in a derogatory way – ‘arty' almost being a euphemism encompassing unreliability, lack of focus, lack of intellectual rigour and so on?

There is always a certain irony when this sort of intellectual snobbery comes from someone who would describe themselves as a Christian. Surely, as Christians, we follow the greatest, most creative talent of all – for what could be more creative than Creation itself? So as I sit here, looking at the beautiful day outside, I'm proud to say that our school prizes and encourages creativity. I only pray that the unseasonably warm weather isn't a further sign that man, so often dismissive of creativity, is managing to irrevocably damage that greatest creation of all – the beautiful planet on which we live.

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Feb. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary & St. Paul 's School

How many of England 's World Cup winning team from 1966 can you name? They were (and probably still are) national heroes – their images seen many thousands of times on television, in newspapers and so on. Their moment of glory was just over forty years ago, watched and listened to by most of an expectant nation. Now, just to test you, how many of Jesus' original twelve disciples can you name? They lived rather longer ago, of course, and, as Andrew Lloyd-Webber's brilliantly ironic lyrics in ‘Superstar' say, ‘ Israel in 4BC had no mass communication'. The answers to this particular brainteaser are at the end of the article, so read on!

As you may have guessed, my theme this month is teamwork. It has been said many times that ‘there is no I in TEAM'. The theory is that, when a group of people are working together, teamwork is so much better than individuality – ‘two heads are better than one' may be another similar concept. However, there are plenty of examples of teams where, to coin another phrase, ‘the whole is less than the sum of all the parts'.

Without wishing to bore any non-sports enthusiasts who may be reading, I think recent England football teams are a pretty good example of a group of talented individuals who never perform as well together as may be expected. Nobody (surely) can doubt the quality of players such as Wayne Rooney and John Terry – proven in the Premiership and Champions League – while Liverpool fans are well used to regular game-changing performances from Steven Gerrard. One would expect the England team, containing as it does such luminaries, to be world-beaters. Sadly, as we all know, this is not the case. It has mattered little whether the coach has been Swedish or English, well versed in English football or a continental expert, track-suited or tie wearing, balding or bubble-permed: nobody has managed to take the individuals and turn them into an effective team. Maybe Fabio Cappello will be the man who makes the difference and ends the ‘forty years of hurt' – only time will tell.

Far longer ago – even before England won the World Cup – Jesus assembled a team. Unlike Cappello, Keegan, Revie et al, He didn't have the pick of many million pounds worth of proven talent. He couldn't make all expenses paid trips to all of the temples, talent spotting and then selecting the most impressive preachers to represent him. Jesus chose twelve disciples whose backgrounds – as fishermen and tax collectors for example – and personalities – some quiet, others hot-headed – would hardly suggest that they would form any sort of team, let alone one which would still be influential two thousand years later. At least (allegedly) all of the England team are footballers! Yet Jesus created a team whose works, with him and after his death and resurrection, are so well known to us all and whose influence stretches to all corners of the earth. The Acts of the Apostles is an amazing book, and it is remarkable to read of the hardship and suffering that the twelve accepted as they sought to ‘be witnesses for me (Jesus) in Jerusalem , all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8). Nobody else could have commanded such loyalty, but of course there is nobody else like Jesus.

We all belong to many different teams in our everyday lives – maybe as part of a staff team, the Mothers' Union , the flower arrangers or whatever. On a broader level, as members of the church (and of the church school), we all belong to a Christian team, following on from Jesus' original disciples. Just as we hope that Gerrard, Ferdinand, Rooney and co will repeat the successes of 1966, so we should be trying to emulate (in our own small way) those twelve who set up the early church and whose influence is still remembered today in the pages of the Bible and the names of churches the length and breadth of the country. As a school, we try to play our part in this by ensuring that our children understand the Christian faith and the Anglican tradition, so that they too can choose to follow Jesus as many millions have done before them.

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

 

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From Jan. 2008 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary & St. Paul 's School

So here we are – another new year. It doesn't seem that long since we were celebrating the start of the new Millennium, and yet now we're coming into 2008 and another decade is three quarters of the way through. The new Millennium was supposed to mark new and exciting times; there were uncertainties (whatever did happen to the Millennium bug?) but also hope and celebrations. A few years on, have the ‘noughties' been all that you hoped they would be?

In Education terms, the past few years have seen almost constant change. As 1999 became 2000, schools were under the remit of the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE); since then, we've had the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the new Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Ed Balls is the sixth Secretary of State who's led the Department in the eight years of this Millennium. The old Primary Literacy and Primary Numeracy Strategies have been replaced, firstly by the Primary National Strategy and then by the Renewed Frameworks for Literacy and Mathematics. Educational fads have come and gone (and will no doubt come back and go again as surely as high street fashions return spasmodically). Everyone has a common goal – the best for our children – but children don't grow and develop uniformly and can't be programmed like computers, so there is no one clear way of working in schools that guarantees 100% success.

Amidst all of this turmoil, staff in schools have kept ploughing on bravely, doing the job that they trained to do and that they love doing – helping children to learn. It is, as I've written before, the most wonderfully rewarding job that I can imagine. For every parent who has the delight of seeing the look of accomplishment on their child's face when they've cracked a problem, imagine that sort of joy multiplied by the number of children in an average class and you can picture something of the rewards of teaching. I've also written previously of my gratitude to the staff at St. Mary and St. Paul ' s, who work incredibly hard and who, as a consequence, see these rewards and successes more often than most.

In this changing world, there is of course one constant in all of our lives. Jesus, born over 2000 years ago and whose birth we celebrated at the Millennium, doesn't change tack or follow fashion, but provides us with the bedrock on which to build our lives. As a church school, we place great importance on developing children's spirituality and awareness of their and others' faiths. With the security that the knowledge of God's love for us brings, I'm sure we'll be able to cope with all of the changes and challenges that the new year brings.

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Dec. 2007 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary and St. Paul' s

Many years ago, there were two monks walking through a forest. They came to a clearing where there was a fast flowing stream. On the far side of the stream there was a fair maiden, unable to cross because there was no bridge.

Brother Thomas, one of the monks, saw the maiden's plight, waded across the stream, hoisted her on to his shoulders and carried her back across. He set her down in the clearing and she smiled, thanked him and went off on her way. The two monks then resumed their journey too

When they came to a second clearing, the two monks paused for a rest. Brother Jerome, the second monk, admonished his companion. “You know that it is against the rules of our brotherhood to look at or speak to a member of the opposite sex,” he said, “yet you not only did that but you also carried that maiden across the stream; are you not ashamed, Brother Thomas?”

Brother Thomas replied, “I carried her but a short way, but you have carried her with you for the rest of the journey.”

What's the meaning of this story, you may wonder? I think that it shows very nicely two people who come at their Christian faith from different angles. One, Brother Jerome, is tied up in traditions and regulations; the other, Brother Thomas, is more interested in ‘doing' the Christian thing than worrying about those things.

This is, in many ways, symbolic of some of the issues we face today as a church school in a society in which fewer and fewer people go to church – particularly among the younger ages. For some of them, church will seem to be a place full of strange rules and regulations, of traditions that they don't understand and that seem designed to make them uncomfortable. For many of us, this is true even when we go to another church as a visitor and worship there. I recently went to a dedication in a Baptist Church in Cheshire . The people were friendly and welcoming, and yet all through the service I struggled as I didn't know the hymns and wasn't used to the service that they used. Had I been a newcomer to the church as a whole, I may well have been put off – and that was a nice service in an inviting, family orientated church.

Thankfully, as a church school we are able to take children across to St. Paul 's every Tuesday for a short school service. We're lucky to have, in John and Philip, clergy who are happy to give time to the children, who speak a language that they understand and who help to make church a welcoming place. For our children, church isn't a strange place full of strange rules but somewhere much more familiar.

We also encourage the children to follow Brother Thomas – to live as Christians first and foremost, before worrying about any other aspects of being Christian that may be more confusing. Brother Thomas clearly followed Jesus' instruction to “love thy neighbour” and that is one of the four ‘Golden Rules' that we have in school that we expect the children to follow.

Being a Christian isn't necessarily easy – but nor need it be complicated. If we can keep the messages that lie at the heart of the Christian faith simple for our children, so that they can understand and follow them, then there is a chance that they may take that faith into their teenage years and beyond. We want to produce more Brother Thomases – Christians who ‘do' Christian things – and to do that we mustn't ourselves turn into Brother Jeromes.

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Nov. 2007 Parish Church Magazine,

“The driving force of an effective education is hope”

(Professor Bart McGettrick)

This quote came from Professor McGettrick while he was speaking to the recent Diocesan Conference for Headteachers. He was talking about the values of a church school – and how those values made church schools different to any other school. The idea that hope is the driving force – the power that makes the school run – is an interesting one. It's rather different to the national agenda, which puts attainment at the heart of everything that we do. To some people, maybe it seems a bit ‘wishy-washy'. After all, it's not easy to measure – and you can't put ‘hope' down on an application form. And yet…

Imagine that you're standing near the seaside, looking out over the sea. It may be that there are things in your way – trees, people's windbreaks and so on. They stop you from seeing clearly. Imagine the view with them cleared out of the way, so now your view out to sea is unobstructed. You look and can see for miles – but only the foreground is crystal clear, while things further out to sea are blurred. Now imagine that you pick up a pair of binoculars and look through them. Suddenly you can see things that were far off so much better. The horizon seems to be closer – almost as if you could reach it.

That is what hope can do for you.

For many children, the horizon is just too far away. They limit their vision to what they can see closer to them – and thus their ambitions are limited too. For other children, their view is an obstructed one, so they can't get a clear image of what lies ahead of them at all. Hope is that pair of binoculars – it brings that which is almost out of sight closer to hand, crystallises that which is blurred and uncertain into something tangible. Without hope, children don't have aspirations because they see no point. They don't strive to achieve, because achievement has no positive end result. Giving a child in school hope – hope that they can fulfil their ambitions, hope that they can succeed and so on – thus can really be a driving force behind their education.

Of course, hope is also a key theme of the Christian faith. Jesus came and gave hope to the (quite literally) hope-less. Without Him and his ultimate sacrifice, there would have been no hope for us ever having a wholly fulfilling relationship with God – it would have been so much further away and so much more unreachable than any distant horizon. Jesus provided us all with the hope that, despite our many failings, our sins would be forgiven and that God would welcome us to him – and what an unbelievable hope that is!

And so, Professor McGettrick's assertion may not be as unrealistic as it first appears. In a church school in particular, the hope for our future with our loving Father, and children's hopes for their futures as adults can run alongside each other. Together, they do indeed provide a really powerful ‘driving force'.

Neil Dixon Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Oct. 2007 Parish Church Magazine,

Choices, choices, choices…

We have to make choices all the time. Brown bread or white? Chips or mashed potato? Sunday Times or News of the World? (Your answer to those three questions would probably say an awful lot about you too!) Some choices are minor – like those listed above – while others have greater significance. We may have a General Election to vote in quite soon – possibly the biggest decision making process in a democratic society.

For parents, there are also always choices to be made. Some (again) are minor – the ‘beans or spaghetti hoops' dilemma perhaps. Others are far more significant – such as choosing a school for a son or daughter to attend.

The ironic thing is that, at times, some people seem to spend more time over the little decisions than the big ones. How many times have you seen someone studying food labels in the supermarket to check which beans have the lowest amount of salt or saturated fat? How often have you picked up the ‘own brand' because they're a couple of pennies cheaper? People no longer seem to just pick up a tin of Heinz on the basis that ‘they've always been the best' – they weigh up health benefits and price before making a decision – when the impact of a tin of beans on your health and your wallet is actually pretty negligible!

Isn't it strange then that some people seem still to base vital decisions on far less evidence than those little, daily choices we have to make? Parents choosing secondary and primary schools often draw on their own experiences, or on reputations that have been built up over the years but that maybe no longer accurately reflect reality. From our school's perspective, people remember threats of closure and some poor results from five or more years ago and close their eyes to the reality of today. It is, to say the least, massively frustrating.

Quite simply, St. Mary and St. Paul ' s now offers an unparalleled educational opportunity for primary age children. We are the only Church of England primary school in the area (and the benefits and successes of faith schools have been widely publicised in the last 12 months). Our academic record is excellent – our ‘value added' score of 102.2 this year is in the top four in the whole of Knowsley, while figures such as two thirds of our Year 6 children reaching level 5 in science (the level expected in Year 8) show how highly our children achieve. Add to that our national awards (Artsmark, Activemark, Healthy Schools , Eco-Schools, Training School status) and the breadth of curriculum we offer and you're building up a picture of a very successful school. Take into account Ofsted's recent comment about our children feeling ‘safe, confident and valued' and I think you'll appreciate quite how good a school St. Mary and St. Paul ' s has become.

Everyone at St. Mary and St. Paul ' s has appreciated the support, both physical and prayerful, of the church community that has helped us to transform our school. It is a privilege to be Headteacher here, and I look forward to further developments in the next few years that will help us to become even better. Finally, to any parents (or grandparents) reading this, who are currently thinking about a school for their children, I'd simply ask that you don't automatically reach for the usual brand on the shelf, but read the label carefully: if you want to visit us, ring the school office and we'll happily show you round, so you can see St. Mary and St. Paul ' s for yourselves.

Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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From Aug. 2007 Parish Church Magazine,

News from St. Mary and St. Paul 's

Let me tell you a story. The names have been changed, but the characters in the story are real enough. For the moment, let's call them Maggie and Lee. Lee arrives at our school; he comes from a large family, likes playing out with his mates and, as a consequence of both of these circumstances, doesn't always get to do as much reading at home as maybe he could. This, of course, creates something of a downward spiral. Because he doesn't read as much as some of his classmates, he gradually slips behind until reading becomes something of an issue with him. He feels like a failure. When he arrives at St. Mary and St. Paul 's he's unwilling to read, seldom takes a book home and is really struggling.

Thankfully, this is where Maggie comes into the story. She comes into school for two mornings a week to hear children read. A retired lady, she's happy to give up some of her time to help the children in this way and, needless to say, she's greeted with open arms by the staff. She works with Lee's class, particularly supporting the less able readers. At first Lee is reluctant; however, with lots of support from his teacher his confidence is coming back. Twice a week, Maggie patiently listens to him read, encouraging him when the going get tough, praising him for all the progress he's made. She's able to devote 20 minutes or more solely to him, sitting quietly together in the library. Lee starts to move through the reading scheme. He begins to look forward to the mornings when Maggie's due to come in. His improvement as a reader has a knock-on effect – he begins to find other subjects less difficult, is more able to join in with class sessions and, slowly but surely, begins to succeed where in his previous school he'd become used to failure.

This may only be a story. Lee isn't just one child, but rather a mixture of a number of different children – a character though that anyone who's ever worked in a school would recognise. Maggie on the other hand is a real person (her name is actually Cilla), who selflessly gives up her time to come into St. Mary and St. Paul's and hear children read. She gives them time and space as individuals to practise their reading in a relaxed, friendly and totally non-judgemental way – and the children really do look forward to her visits. She genuinely has made a difference to their reading and to their self-esteem. We're very, very grateful for everything that she's done.

We would be delighted if maybe someone else out there reading this magazine would think to themself, “I could do that.” If you are that person, or even if you think it may be something you could do, why not ring us up in school to have a chat? After all, there are literally thousands of children like Lee around but there are far fewer Maggies.

 

Neil Dixon (Headteacher)

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