Letter from Chair of Governors Jan 2024

January 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season with your families. Last term, the team seemed to pack in even more than normal, and I know many of you enjoyed attending the extra events during December. These started with the younger ones in Nativity, followed by opportunities for you to visit classes, the school play, the whole school going off to see the pantomime in Cheltenham and many other events too. I think part of what makes Tibberton special is the effort that the team put into these events, and it is great to see the delight on the children’s faces when taking part or watching.

Our PTFA also had, what I think, their best term ever for fundraising, raising over £9,000 towards the school playground improvements. You will start to see some of those improvements being implemented this term. We are very fortunate to have such a committed and creative team raising money for us.

The Governors have been busy too, with meetings to review progress with the curriculum, our finances and with general governance. The full Board have also been reviewing, as I mentioned in September, the potential benefits of joining a multi academy trust (MAT). We have now concluded our due diligence both on the various options for joining a MAT, and more detailed due diligence on two local MATs that fit with our selection criteria.

In order to maximise synergies, we have concluded that the school would get the most benefit from joining a primary focused MAT (where teaching best practice can be shared); one that isn’t too large; where we can retain independence of what and how we teach and one that is geographically local to us. We have concluded there are benefits both operational and financial to joining a MAT, and that Primary QuEST, which is based in Hartpury, is our preferred option. It currently comprises of Hartpury, Highnam, Ann Cam, Redmarley and Staunton & Course primary schools. These schools are mostly of a similar size to us, are in similar catchments to us, and have all recently been inspected and graded ‘good’, as have we by Ofsted.

The next stage in the process is for us to apply to the Department of Education to join Primary QuEST. There is more checking and due diligence to do during that process, including Primary QuEST having to do their due diligence on us too. Stephen Dean, the CEO of Primary QuEST, and an experienced primary school head teacher himself, has offered to visit Tibberton to meet with parents and carers. Stephen, along with Mrs Wilson and myself, will answer any questions any of you may have and we can explain some more about Primary QuEST. We have reserved a slot on Thursday 18th January @ 2.45pm just before pick up which we hope will make it easy for parents who are interested to attend. If you would like to attend this session, then please let the office know so we can set things up.

If any of you have any questions in the meantime, then either I or Mrs Wilson are obviously very happy to discuss too. Thank you for all you, as parents and carers, do to support the school too. It really is a key part of making it what it is. We are looking forward to the weather hopefully improving before too longer, and the children spending more time outside in the spring sunshine this term.

Yours Sincerely,

Neil Kinlay

Chair of Governor