This year marks a very significant one in the life of BPS, as we say farewell to the first ever Reception year group when the school opened in 2017. The incredible journey our Year 6 children have been on reflects that of the school and, like all journeys that count, the challenges along the way are what shape us. We stand here immensely proud of that group of children, what they have achieved and who they have become just as we do every child and our whole school. We are very, very proud of BPS!
We started this year welcoming our new learner power Pride and this served as our central ambition for everything we did this year and beyond. Leo the Proud Peacock was named after Leonardo DaVinci, a remarkable human being in so many ways. He was a brilliant scientist, engineer and inventor and an exceptional artist. The breadth of his skills, his remarkably inquisitive mind and his attention to detail were astonishing. He was also exceptionally creative, a wonderful example of why a rich and broad learning experience is so important. We challenged everyone in our school to be like Leo, ask questions, lots of them, try as many things as you can, explore with your ideas, invent with your knowledge, play with your learning! We are delighted with the response.
Taking pride in what you do, how you do it, in how you behave and how you treat others is essential, but we also wanted to encourage everyone in our school to celebrate with pride what they achieved and who they were. We have so much to be proud of in our school and I am delighted that this year we have shared our successes in a wonderful BPS way. Our children are making incredible academic progress.
Our academic achievement data is hot off the press for this year and another great source of pride for us all. Once again, we consistently have twice as many children working at greater depth compared with the national average, and for some year groups even higher. For example, Year 4 has 93% of the year group at age related expectations or above (ARE+) and 50% at greater depth (GD) for writing, and 91% at ARE+ for reading and maths with 64% GD in reading and 67% in maths. For a school that is not academically selective on entry and where our focus is on creating an engaging, exciting curriculum, and putting the children’s wellbeing first, these are seriously impressive results.
We’ve welcomed 14 new families to BPS this year and look forward to welcoming the 18 joining us just in September, and the others expected to join during the year. In fact, we will start the 2024/25 academic year with the highest number of children in Reception to Year 6 ever, and the second highest total number in the whole school! To have achieved this in a year generally acknowledged as a difficult market for independent school recruitment is something to be immensely proud of and speaks volumes about BPS’s reputation. These excellent numbers are due in great part to so many of our nursery children staying on into Reception – many prep schools I know would love to have our levels of retention at this stage – and we look forward to providing even greater synergy between Preschool and Reception next year when they are working side by side in the newly refurbished Early Years centre. Works for the fabulous new outside space start as soon as we break up – keep an eye on our social media for progress updates.
This year, we have been delighted with some of the exciting additions and upgrades to our amazing school site. In September we opened our new climbing frame, this has been a hit with every year group and earlier this term we opened our fresh look library. The children and staff adore their exciting new reading and learning space. Thank you to everyone who supported or organised the numerous BPSA events that funded these special additions to our school. This year the events have raised £14,500 which is an incredible achievement, and we will make plans to find ways this can further support the learning experience for our children.
It has been wonderful to see so many of the children making the most of our after-school club provision this term. We pride ourselves on the range of clubs that we offer, giving the children the opportunity to try out a wealth of different activities that complement, enrich, and extend skills already offered in the school curriculum – but to also have fun whilst challenging themselves to be adventurous and try new things.
Across the school we enjoyed a huge range of trips and visits near and far. Our curriculum continues to inspire and engage the children in so many ways. One of the highlights of the year was the STEM showcase. Being able to share what the children achieve and enjoy with you was a real pleasure. The children take such delight in making their scientific discoveries through the year and the afternoon allowed many children to show super leadership and communication skills, leading or explaining the activities. It has been a superb sporting year with hundreds of fixtures and successes in a wide range of sports. This term alone there have been 48 cricket fixtures, Y4 were superb at the Epsom College Super 8’s, and our Sports Days were excellent showcases for the sporting prowess of the school. Music and drama have been incredible this year with superb shows and performances from all year groups. We have enjoyed 18 large scale performances this year, which is absolutely amazing! The musical talents of the children continue to grow, and we are delighted that 50% of children in Rec- Year 2 and 80% of children KS2 are learning a musical instrument!
This academic year we have continued in our efforts to support local businesses and charities, raising over £3200 in donations to the Poppy Appeal, Sutton Nightwatch, UNICEF, Stripey Stork, Banstead Village Residents Association and the Animal Protection Trust. We are committed to the importance of teaching children the value of empathy and helping those in need where we can; not just by donating money but by being generous in other ways – be that with their time, by recycling their clothes and toys, bringing joy to the elderly residents of local care homes through shared activities or visiting a food bank to better understand the way they help people. We will continue to nurture these relationships in the year ahead and thank you for your support in our endeavors this year.
As we come to the end of the year, we say thank you and farewell to some of our colleagues as they move on from the time with us. Jenny Cruickshank has been such a huge part of our Nursery team, and we wish her all the best as she moves on to new adventures. Rajia Begum will also be missed in our Nursery team, deciding she will not return to BPS after her first child’s birth. Becky Harris will be missed in our Year 1 team as she moves to her next adventure. Deirdre McManus has been a wonderful support to the school, and we wish her well as she takes a break from teaching. Finally, we say a huge thank you and farewell to Steve Hilller from our site team as he moves down to Devon. All these colleagues will be greatly missed, and we thank them for their hard work and support.
Thank you to you all, for the ongoing support of our school and we look forward to hearing about the adventures of the summer. As the new Labour Government is being formed as we speak, we remain incredibly confident about the future of our school. With our highest ever numbers in September, we will continue to expand and develop and do everything we can to support our families and provide our children with a first-class education.
My final thoughts are with our Year 6 leavers who say farewell and head off to an incredible range of senior schools. They were awarded 12 scholarships and offers from some of the most competitive schools in the area, and each of them is heading to a great school. We are incredibly proud of them and all they have achieved. Thank you for the legacy you leave.
I leave you with the final words from my end of year speech:
Remember to embrace adventure, be kind, stay curious and always be a good friend.
