I spent the day, as part of our Governor monitoring week visiting every classroom in the school. The focus of my visit was to look at how well our most able children are supported and challenged in the classroom although in doing the activity, it was great to see all children on task and enjoying their learning.

In Year 6, they are studying the novel Journey to the River Sea. As a secondary school English teacher, I could have been watching a lesson for Year 8. The children were discussing the different character types in the novel using words such as protagonist, antagonist, dynamic and many more. They were being constantly asked to justify their answer and look for evidence from the text in support of their opinions.

I saw Year 5 in Maths, alongside 3 other teachers who were visiting from local schools to learn from the good practice at Mellers. They were being encourage to work systematically through the problem solving exercise – a word they clearly understood. The children demonstrated a language of mathematics and an enjoyment and curiosity in their learning.

Year 2 were studying World War 11 and asking questions about the feelings of the soldiers in the trenches. They showed empathy and understanding.

The Year 3 Art lesson showed children learning how to blend colours and an understanding of what a silhouette is. In the other Year 3 class children were learning about adverbial sand conjunctions.

I could write so much more but the things I picked up were that the learning of children was building year on year and I could see skills developing from the early years through to year 6. The teachers and teaching assistants worked together to support learning. Work in the books were beautifully presented and the behaviour for learning was excellent.