Our latest news
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you have all had a lovely summer break with your children and that they have enjoyed their first week back with their friends and teachers. It’s amazing how often the weather seems to improve as soon as the children return to school!
We had a very busy year last year with the appointment of a new head teacher in Mrs Wilson, an overhauling of our curriculum plans, along with an expansion of our clubs and sporting activities. Towards the end of the year we were visited by Ofsted, which went very well, and confirmed that Tibberton is a good school.
This year our priorities are to continue to work on strengthening the curriculum and our support for children with SEND. We are expanding both our nursery opening hours and the nursery hours that qualify for government funding. We hope this will help busy working parents.
The Governing Board will also be exploring the potential benefits of joining a Multi Academy Trust (MAT). As some of you may be aware, the Government have mandated that all maintained schools must have joined or be in the process of joining a MAT by 2030. In order to be proactive, we will be exploring the potential benefits and the option we feel is best suited to Tibberton.
We have started to review the various options, which include joining a large national MAT, working with a local secondary school, or joining a primary school focussed MAT. At this stage we think a primary focussed MAT is likely to offer Tibberton the most benefit and synergy. As well as the benefits, we want ensure there is enough flexibility for us to continue to develop our school with some independence and to ensure we continue to protect what’s special about Tibberton.
One primary and early years focussed MAT who we are currently talking to is Primary QuEST, www.primaryquest.co.uk. It is very local to us, has similar sized community schools to Tibberton and has grown organically from an academy created in 2011, which then expanded into a MAT in 2019. It currently has five good primary schools within its MAT. Each school has its own Head Teacher, Advisory Board, PTFA and have maintained their own identities and culture.
Once we have completed more of our due diligence on this, and any other potential options, I will write to you again and arrange some sessions to share our thinking with you and to answer any questions you may have.
Yours sincerely,
Neil Kinlay
Chair of Governors Email :- chair@tibberton.gloucs.sch.uk