School wins awards – again

St John’s School at Midsomer Norton has got the new academic year off to a great start by scooping two prestigious national awards.

The school has been awarded the Basic Skills Quality Mark for the fourth time. The award celebrates the successes and attainments of children in literacy and numeracy.

The quality mark is valid for three years and covers ten elements deemed to be good practice within the area of basic skills.

The school has also been awarded the International School Award for the third time, recognising the school’s outstanding provision and work carried out in terms of the global community.

The school has been praised for the quality and range of opportunities and experiences open to pupils together with a creative approach to the curriculum.

St John’s head teacher, Carolyn Banfield, said: “At St John’s we work hard to include an awareness of international issues in the pupil’s lessons.”

The school has links with schools around the world at different year groups.

Foundation stage pupils link with Indonesia and exchange pictures, DVDs and information about the learning that takes place.

Other lines included emails and exchange of work with a school in Tanzania for Year 2, learning about Ghana at Year 6 and a new French link for all of the junior classes.

Mrs Banfield said: “We worked hard this year to show how the whole school and local community could be involved in fostering a greater understanding of the wider world.”

The school has held a ceilidh for parents, pupils and staff in which children demonstrated traditional Irish dancing and served soda bread and soup to the visitors.

The pupils celebrated the world cup by making top trump football cards and then sent them to their link school in Ghana.

There has also been a recipe exchange with a school in Tanzania and a whole school themed week called Rock Around The Clock during which classes learned about particular countries and Years 1 and 4 were taught the Samba and Bollywood dancing by a professional dancer.

Another visitor to the school was a professional potter who helped children to design and make traditional pots from Greece and Africa.