It was a privilege, as part of our monitoring activities this term, to be present at the Annual Performance Review. This is an important meeting for schools in which our external advisor, Jess Steele, meets with the Heads of School, the Executive Head and Governors to review the progress made by the school over the previous year. It is also an opportunity for new targets to be set.

Myself and Mrs Morris from the governing body attended and Miss Dermody and Mrs Buttress answered some very challenging questions from our advisor and governors. Governors were delighted with the overall results with the year 6 results, combined for reading, writing and maths being above the national average, which is a great achievement.

We then heard about the second target which was to do a whole school review of behaviour and relationships. This was undertaken because we had evidence that some behaviours in school, from some students, was becoming unacceptable. The review was lead by Miss Marks and included staff meetings, training sessions and surveys. As a result we now have in place a whole new system including houses, house points and rewards. It will be followed up with more surveys this year to review its effectiveness.

We also heard about the developing roles of the Heads of School which have become embedded over the year with Mrs Buttress and Miss Dermody running the school on  day to day basis while Miss Dawson takes on a more strategic approach across the Federation.

As ever we were proud to listen to the enormous amount of work which has gone in to giving our children at Mellers the very best education possible. The achievement and progress of our children, from their starting points, is remarkable and we would like to thank the entire team at Mellers and the Nottingham Nursery for everything they do for our pupils.