A message from Miss Laing…

I just wanted to write one final post as we come to the end of another year.

I have now been the Headteacher for 5 years and this year really has been the best year for us so far despite the global pandemic.

I am so incredibly proud of how hard all of our community has worked this academic year including staff, pupils, parents, governors, our cleaning team, kitchen team and everyone else who has helped us along the way in order to ensure the very best educational experience for our children.

Together we have smashed this academic year and have supported the children of Carcroft to really be the best version of themselves.

With the support of XP we have been able to develop our curriculum offer so much more than I could have ever imagined. I am incredibly proud of the staff team, who have embraced the expeditionary learning model and have provided our pupils with an engaging and exciting curriculum which has resulted in beautiful products being created for all to see.

Delivering an expeditionary curriculum is no easy task, but our staff have been amazing. They have invested so much time, in order to ensure that children are working on case studies which result in purposeful products being crafted, whilst ensuring that they acquire the knowledge and skills outlined in the national curriculum. Thank you to our Teaching Staff Team for delivering such amazing and memorable experiences for our children.

Not only have our pupils created amazing work to be proud of, this work has been shared with the wider world for all to see including places around Carcroft and very soon UKS2 will have their artwork displayed in the Frenchgate Centre in the Town Centre. In addition, KS1 will have theirs in Flamingo Land, Scarborough! Simply amazing!

Watch this space over the summer, as we are going to be sharing some of the videos from throughout the year to remind us all of the amazing work which has been created right here in Carcroft.

Now for our pupils….. they have well and truly blown me away this year! At Carcroft, we always ensure that our school day is jam packed full of learning, but this year due to the pandemic, we have had to cram in even more. However, our pupils were not fazed in the slightest, they returned with such fantastic attitudes towards learning and have worked hard, to get smart every day! The quality of work produced by our pupils this year is the best I have seen. Children have really shown that they want to be the best version of themselves and have worked hard to achieve this. They are an absolute credit to us as a school, me as a Headteacher and you as parents. I know that in 2021/2022 we are going to achieve even more, as the children’s HoWLs move from 3’s to 4’s because who doesn’t want to be exceptional after all?

And finally, I would like to thank our Parents/Carers. What a year! The global pandemic has caused so many problems for school leaders across the country, however, for us at Carcroft, this was made so much easier with your continued support and co-operation, every step of the way! You have been such a huge support this year, working with us when changes were made etc, bubbles were closed and during school closure- we cannot thank you enough for this.

As we prepare to embark upon our new Chapter as Carcroft School, we have made some changes in order to further improve the quality of education on offer for our school and really try to make our school the best version of itself, as it’s what the children of Carcroft truly deserve.

I understand that at times we are not going to be able to please everyone, but please understand that when making decisions/changes, I only ever do anything to make this a better school for our community and I do believe that together, with your support, that is what we are doing, building a school to be proud of.

As we reopen in September as Carcroft School, leaving Carcroft Primary School behind, I am incredibly proud of all in which we have achieved this year and head into the summer knowing that our staff team could not have done anymore for the children this year.

I, along with the staff team cannot wait to see what the children achieve in 2021/2022 after such a fabulous year this year; we know that they are going to continue to create beautiful work to be proud of.

I am feeling so proud today of all we have achieved and hope that you too can feel proud of your son or daughter’s achievements as you walk/drive home for the last time this academic year! #wearecarcroft

On a final note, I would like to wish our families the very best and hope you all have an amazing summer making memories.

Thank you again,

Miss Laing

Slight change to Carcroft Academic Calendar for 2021/2022

I hope that you are all keeping well and are starting to enjoy some more normality post lockdown as restrictions begin to ease. 

I am writing regarding the school calendar for the academic year, starting in September (2021/2022). You may remember that I wrote to you earlier in the year, sharing that the XP calendar differed slightly to the Doncaster LA calendar, due to the fact that XP Trust pupils finished slightly earlier than the Doncaster Schools in July 2022, however, I took the decision to continue to finish our school year the same week as the Doncaster schools, for 2021/2022, with a view to then aligning with the trust fully from September 2022. 

Unfortunately, after spending a considerable amount of time trying to figure out a way in which we could align with the trust the following year, whilst ensuring that the children and staff at Carcroft still have the same amount of summer holiday days as the rest of the UK in July/August 2022, we ideally need to finish our academic year on Thursday 21st July 2022, ensuring that our children and staff team access the full summer holiday in which they deserve, ready to commence the new academic year on Tuesday 30th August 2022, along with the rest of the XP Trust. 

As mentioned above, we were really hoping to be able to try and align the calendars in 2022/2023, but this would mean us returning to school a week after the XP Trust schools in the September 2022 and with us sharing expedition planning and resources across the primary trust schools, we really do need to commence our academic year for 2022/2023 at the same time as the trust schools in order to ensure that the children experience the same learning as their trust peers across the trust from the off as much of this is going to be joint across the group of schools.

When I wrote to parents earlier in the year, one of the concerns raised was that siblings may not finish until the week after and therefore, parents would possibly require some support with childcare. Therefore, we are going to offer a free summer club for this week which will run during school hours Monday to the Thursday, in order to support any working parents who may require it.

I do hope that this does not cause you any inconvenience and hope that you understand the school’s rationale to align with the trust from this September, opposed to September 2022 as originally proposed. I do always try to ensure that all possible options are carefully considered before making a final decision, hence the delay in this message, in order to try and do the right thing by all stakeholders, however, if you do have any further questions/queries, please do not hesitate to contact the school via email. I have asked Mrs Lythe ( [email protected]) to be the main point of contact if you do have any queries regarding this and she will ensure that they are passed onto myself if she is unable to answer them. 

The new calendar will be posted shortly.

Thank you in advance for your understanding regarding this matter. 

Miss Laing 

Headteacher

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I just wanted to write one last post to the Parents/Carers and Pupils of Year 6!

I have been fortunate enough to watch this wonderful group of children grow since they were in Foundation Stage. They really are such a wonderful year group and we are so proud of the young adults they have become.

This year I have dropped into their lessons each week and have been so proud of the way in which they have embraced Year 6; they have worked so hard week in, week out despite the pandemic. In particular, I love the way in which they are able to support each other with their learning and how they are able to lead their own learning. This really has shown their level of maturity and demonstrate that they are secondary ready.

On Wednesday evening, I had the privilege of attending the Prom and again, it was a pleasure to stand back and watch them socialise with one another; they are a year group who really do love being in each others company and have got each others back!

I really am so proud of the individuals in which they have become and will always remember them. We will miss them being at Carcroft as they bring so much joy to our school but we know that they are so ready to embrace their next stage.

We hope that they are able to take away many lovely memories from their time at Carcroft and hope that they have truly enjoyed their primary years.

Good luck you lovely lot! Go and be amazing in your new schools- we will miss you.

Finally, a little message for our Year 6 Parents….

Thank you for your support throughout the last few years, you should be so proud of your son or daughter.

Unfortunately, I am going to be unable to attend the leavers parade this afternoon as I had originally planned so I just want to say a final farewell and good luck and finally… keep in touch.

Have a lovely summer Year 6 and Parents/Carers.

Miss Laing

Last term we launched our new logo, however, we had a couple of queries from parents regarding the process and how we achieved the result in which we did. I shared with parents that I would ask the Graphic Designer whom we worked alongside to provide a little more insight into the design process, in order to clarify how we reached our final design as he has a much better understanding of this than I do, this is outlined below. I hope that this helps to further clarify the process for any parents who did have any queries.

Account from Ricky Elderkin, Graphic Designer at XP Trust.

The creation of the new logo was very much a professional, real world process and experience that we wanted to share with and include, as much as possible within the construct of the brief, everyone at Carcroft School.

After the participating students had drawn up their ideas, they chose a shortlist of five designs and handed them over to XP Trust Comms Crew to begin refining, developing and bringing to fruition.

It was extremely clear, from the concepts submitted, that there was a strong emphasis on community and unity, and what it means to be Crew, along with pride in both the regional and local industrial history that has shaped Carcroft. 

Assets like the mining wheel and tools, and the pervasive use of rainbow colours, a defining characteristic of the pandemic response, and, coincidentally, the brand colours of XP Trust, were very present in the work. It spoke to us and gave us a clear conceptual angle to get behind, explore and develop.

With all the schools in the Trust working towards cleaner, simpler, more-synergised brand solutions, the miners wheel designs that the students submitted had immediate resonance, in terms of satisfying that criteria and being a potent, practical and universally-recognisable symbol.

By rotating the conventional, semi-circular representations of a miners wheel through 90 degrees to make the ‘C’ shape, and then colouring the spokes from single colour (red, black or white depending on application) up through the XP Trust rainbow colour spectrum, a simple, vibrant logo emerged that represents unity, positivity, progression and development within the school, the community and its legacy. 

The concepts developed by XPT Comms were critiqued by the participating students and Expedition leads at each stage of submission. Their input/feedback informed the next phase of developments until we arrived at a final, chosen concept.

As I shared before the half term break, I, along with the other leaders really love the final design, in particular, I love the way in which it symbolises ‘Carcroft’, ‘Crew’ and ‘community’ all in one which was what we hoped to achieve as this was something that came through from the children’s designs.

We understand that we are not always going to be able to please everyone with something such as this, but I do hope that parents can see that we have tried to involve the children in the full process, in order to further develop their understanding of how this works in a real life context. In addition, hopefully, parents can see that the Graphic Designer has tried to capture all aspects of the children’s work whilst also making it work for the XP Suite of Logos too.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ricky, the Graphic Designer for taking the time to provide further detail regarding how the process works in order to provide parents with a little more clarity around the whole process.

I do hope that for those parents who voiced that they could not necessarily see the children’s work in the final design, that you can now possibly see that the children’s voice was very much at the heart of the whole process.

I can’t wait to see the new logo above our school doors when we open in September, as well as seeing the children in their red uniform with the logo on for those that choose to do so.

Thank you again for your continued support,

Miss Laing

Headteacher

Last term , the pupils of Carcroft started to work on a new logo design ready for when we academise and join the XP Trust. As I shared previously, I felt that this was a really good time for us to have a ‘rebrand’ and as part of the rebrand, create a new logo which is representative of our school and community as the pupils perceive it today.

Unfortunately, our academisation date has now been pushed back due to some complications around land and boundary fencing, so we will no longer convert on the 1st June 2021 as hoped. This is nothing to worry about, it just means that we will convert either next month or in September, but everything is very much underway.

With this in mind, we have decided that we would still love to reveal our new logo with our community, as we know many of you are starting to organise uniforms for September and we wanted to share this with our school community beforehand.

The work has been driven by the pupils of Carcroft and then a Graphic Designer from the trust used the children’s work and their voice to create something that will stand out from the crowd, whilst really ensuring that the community of Carcroft sits right at the heart of our logo.

Click here to view our very special reveal video…. https://youtu.be/s7P1inLTzFE

We really love our new image and hope you love it too….

Miss Laing

Headteacher

We are fast approaching the end of this half term and I shared earlier in the year that I was expecting my first baby so I would be going on maternity leave later in the year. The weeks have flown by and I will soon be starting my maternity leave, therefore, I just wanted to update parents with plans for leadership cover during my absence.

My last day will be Friday 18th June which will allow me to have a couple of days rest (hopefully) before my due date which is Monday 21st June; I will have two weeks back in school after the half term break.

I am so incredibly proud of how far we have come as a school this year despite the challenges faced by C-19 and I am confident that the leadership team, along with the Executive Team from the XP Trust will continue to drive the school forward, to be the best we can be for our pupils.

You may, or may not be aware, but during the Summer Term last year, ahead of September, we created a new Senior Leadership Team structure, following our Ofsted Monitoring Inspection, whereby the inspector acknowledged that the school had faced significant staffing turbulence including some instability in terms of leadership due to maternity leaves during the previous 12 months.

Therefore, it was my goal to create a leadership structure that would provide the capacity required in order to rapidly improve the school, and would even allow for this to happen if a member of the Senior Team was to go on maternity leave.

The additional capacity in terms of leadership this year has supported me as Headteacher to accelerate progress made within the school and will now also provide the stability in which the school needs whilst I am on maternity leave.

From September, the Carcroft Senior Leadership Team will be as follows:

Mrs Lythe- Business Manager (Business/Admin)

Miss Whitehead- Head of EYFS 1 and 2 (EYFS)

Mr Longley- Head of Year 1 and 2 (KS1)

Mr Tucker- Head of Year 3 and 4 (Lower KS2)

Mrs Fox- Head of Year 5 and 6 (Upper KS2)

This fabulous team of people have supported me this year and understand the way in which our school works and fully understand how to best meet the needs of our pupils and our families. We would not have made the amazing progress in which we have this year without them.

This academic year, parents and carers have already made contact with their Head of Key Stage/Phase Leader when they have had any problems and rarely have I been needed to get involved, as leaders have been able to effectively deal with any problems without my support.

In 2021/2022 and beyond, this is a model in which we would love to develop further, whereby Parents and Carers work with their Child’s Class Teacher to resolve anything in the first instance but then make contact with the Head of Key Stage if they are still not satisfied.

I am confident that Leaders will work with you to resolve the issue, however, there will be an additional layer of leadership whilst I am on maternity leave to support in case of any problems which is kindly being provided by the XP Trust.

Mr Butler, Executive Headteacher from the XP Trust will oversee the school during my maternity leave, spending approximately 50% of his week at the site and managing remotely for the remaining 50%. He will mainly support the Heads of Key Stage in order to further develop as leaders, who will in turn, in theory run their own mini school within a school- a model in which we have been developing together this year. Mr Butler has already worked with the leaders at Carcroft and already has a good understanding of the way in which the school works, as we have based much of our improvement work upon the XP model this academic year, so in terms of transition, it should be nice and smooth.

I know that together, Mr Butler and the Senior Team will do a fabulous job in terms of moving our school forward during my 9 months of leave and I will never be too far away.

I am sure that I will see many of you during the Summer Term because all being well we are hoping to be able to host some of our annual summer events and I would love to attend, albeit with baby in tow.

Finally, I will also be attending the Y6 Prom and Leavers event during the last week, in order to wish them farewell and the best of luck for the future.

So, in case I do not get the chance to do so, I would like to thank parents for being absolutely amazing this academic year, it’s been such a difficult year for everyone; leading a school during a pandemic has been far from easy, but with your help and support, we have done amazing and achieved such great things.

Have a lovely half term break when we get there.

Regards,

Miss Laing

Headteacher

Plus we also had a couple more including Alex H from Crew Fox, Emily from Crew Gerrard, IJ H from Crew Shields and Lacee A from Crew Longley. Well done guys!

Dear Parents/Carers,

The Logo

As you are aware, the children have been involved in creating a new logo for our school, which will be launched when we convert to an XP School. This is not looking like it will be this academic year and is looking like it might be September, however, we will keep you in the loop with this.

The good news is…. we do have a new school logo ready to go when we convert which we are really proud of, which has been designed using the children’s work and taking into account the voice of our children. We can’t wait to show you!

However, we are not quite ready for the ‘big reveal’… just yet. Mrs Fox is working with the trust communications team to put together a video which showcases the journey we went on, in terms of the design process. When this is ready, we will share this with both parents and the children. We can’t wait to show you!

Uniform

Parents have started to ask about our plans for uniform from September. I would like to propose a change of jumper colour from September, however, I am going to hand this over to parents/children to vote on and we will go with the majority.

I would like to propose that we change our school jumper/cardigan to red from September. The reason behind this is that I really do believe that a burst of colour really supports to create a warm feel in and around school, in particular on those dark, gloomy days in winter. I love to see a splash of colour in primary schools.

I have always liked the thought of a primary colour, such as primary blue or red, but have left it until we converted to an academy, as I knew that at some point this would be something we would do. I was tempted to propose primary blue, but Owston Park already where this colour and with them being less than a mile away, I would like us to have a different colour. Therefore, I thought red would be the better option.

Red jumpers, cardigans and dresses are available in Asda and are easy to get hold of, just like the navy. When considering a colour, I tried to ensure that I considered a colour that was easily accessible and also good value for money (can be purchased in supermarkets etc).

We have explored some options for jumpers and will be coming out to parents soon about the options.

However, standard round neck sweatshirts can still be worn like they are now, but we might also have the option of a hooded jacket. Like now, jumpers can be with or without logo…. this is parental preference.

Mrs Lythe is currently looking at trying to reduce the cost of logo embroidery if at all possible…. it would be lovely to see some more jumpers with our new logo on but we do know that they are costly. So, to clarify, our jumpers can be with or without logos, either are absolutely fine.

But the big decision is….

Do you want to stick with navy or are you happy to support our change to red?

Please complete the Google Form below to have your say. Voting will close next Friday, the 14th May. https://forms.gle/oNAnAsC9csm7iaa27

We will share the results next week and will go with the majority. We will get the logo reveal and embroidery plans sorted so that parents can then begin to buy uniform ahead of September as we know that some of you like to be ahead of the game.

Regards,

Miss Laing

Headteacher