The best start for every child

September 2011

Mr Wallace and Christine Blower discuss the new phonic reading check on BBC Breakfast.
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April 2011
London Fields is an outstanding school
We were all thrilled with our March 2011 Ofsted report. The school was judged to be 'outstanding' and has made outstanding progress.
We know there is always more to do - and that is our core purpose - to make it even better. But the Ofsted report reflects the tremendous efforts made by so many staff, parents, children and others. Well done to all!
You can read more by clicking this link.
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November 2010
Woodberry Down is one of 12 schools featured in new Ofsted report - 'Reading by six: how the best schools do it.'
The best primary schools teach virtually all their children to read, regardless of their social and economic background, ethnicity, language spoken at home, special needs and disability – an Ofsted report launched today reveals.

Nationally, one in five children leaving primary school do not reach the standard expected for reading and writing. The report, Reading by six: how the best schools do it, highlights the good practice of 12 outstanding schools across England representing a diverse range of communities that show it is possible for all schools to achieve the highest standards.

Success in the 12 schools was based on a determination that every child will learn to read, together with a step by step approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling systematically through phonics. 
You can download the report here.

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March 2010
Woodberry Down becomes England’s first primary Accredited Schools Group

We were thrilled to learn that Woodberry Down, supported by the Best Start Federation, has become England’s first primary Accredited Schools Group.

The purpose of the accreditation system is to enable the best education providers to share good practice across the system, and in particular, to improve standards in underperforming schools. Woodberry Down, and staff from the Best Start Federation, have been doing this for nearly two years now. Accredited School Groups can lead 3 or more schools, and Accredited School Providers can lead up to 2 schools.

Greg Wallace, Executive Principal, said, ‘Schools that are underperforming lack clarity. Muddled thinking is prevalent, particularly around what constitutes good teaching and good curriculum provision. Weaknesses in day-to-day organisational management allow a range of problems to go undetected and some of the school’s systems act as barriers to increasing teacher effectiveness.

Every child deserves the best start in life through attending a great primary school. Achieving Accredited Schools Group status right at the start of the government’s accreditation drive is an enormous honour to everyone who works within and across the Best Start Federation.’

You can read more here.
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February 2010
On 23 February 2010 Woodberry Down played host to a range of very special visitors including the Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) and Education Secretary (Ed Balls). The were joined on stage by Dame Julia Cleverdon, Chair of Teach First.
The Prime Minister outlined his vision for an education system based on a commitment to excellence. Addressing the audience of hundred people at Woodberry Down, Mr Brown said reforms in education would focus on raising the status and standard of teaching, creating a personalised teaching environment, and promoting excellence.
Mr Brown, Mr Balls and Dame Cleverdon also met some pupils – who were thrilled by the whole experience!
Click here for more.

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February 2010
Mandeville’s Ofsted report is published

We were all delighted to receive the final report for Mandeville’s recent Ofsted inspection. Staff from Woodberry Down and London Fields have been working alongside staff at Mandeville since January 2009 and Mr Wallace has been Executive Principal of all three schools since June 2009.

The report was very positive, reflecting the huge improvements that have taken place at the school:

Mandeville Primary is a good school. It is improving rapidly and starting to exhibit some outstanding features...
Inspiring leadership throughout the school… Consistency of approach, high expectations and challenging targets for staff and pupils are the key, along with a concerted and relentless drive to secure more effective teaching and learning…
Parents and carers are delighted with the improvements that they see taking place on almost a daily basis. Progress is accelerating throughout the school and starting to eliminate a legacy of underachievement from the past. This is because teachers are transforming the pupils from passive learners with low expectations of what they can achieve, as seen in some poor quality work in their old books, into active learners with higher aspirations. There are two key reasons for this. First, the dialogue established by teachers through highly effective marking emphasises their high expectations and ensures that pupils can reflect on how to improve their work. Second, pupils become engaged in learning as they discuss questions posed with their ‘talk partner’…
The emphasis on improving basic skills, particularly in reading, is having a dramatic effect for all pupils, not just by improving reading but also their enjoyment of books. This is also helping, in particular, to engage boys more in their writing by directly linking tasks to the books they are reading…
The pupils’ excellent behaviour supports their learning and improves considerably during their time at the school. Marking is of a very high standard throughout the school and helps the pupils to understand how well they are doing and where a piece of work can be improved. Their books are full of their ‘green pen’ responses to comments and additional challenges set by teachers after each lesson…
The school is at the forefront of curriculum innovation through the creative and extensive links that are made between subjects. Pupils also have exciting opportunities to apply their technology skills in a real context through the school’s ‘Virtual Learning Environment’…
Everyone shares the executive principal’s vision and commitment to the pupils. The leadership roles of all staff are very clearly defined and all are being held very closely accountable for the quality of provision and standards in their areas of responsibility…

The role of the federation in securing success at Mandeville was also highlighted:

The remarkable progress that has taken place in less than a year stems directly from working in partnership with the federation. Teaching is improving rapidly as the school is able to draw on expertise from across the federation to develop teachers’ skills. This and the impending formal entry of the school into the federation, with the continued benefits this brings, provide the school with excellent capacity to secure further improvement.

You can download the full report here.

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February 2010
Schools visited by Ofsted as part of the 2009-10 survey inspection programme: raising aspirations and achievement- the power of partnership

At the beginning of February we had a visit from Ofsted to look at the hard federation at London Fields and Woodberry Down Primary Schools. The visit letter has now been published.

We were delighted with the feedback received.
‘Clear strategic vision for the federation… relentless drive to raise standards… outstanding leadership capacity developed at Woodberry Down… the drive and ambition for every pupil to succeed came through strongly in all discussions with staff… exceptional ICT systems… innovative assessment and marking procedures evidenced in pupils’ books… London Fields’ pupils bubbled with enthusiasm and pride as they talked about ‘the magical change that happened’ at the start of the federation… teaching was lively and learning was purposeful… the presentation of pupils’ work was of a high standard across the federation and the standard of pupils’ work at London Fields showed remarkable improvement since its start… excellent support from the chair of governors… visionary, strategic development… clearly valued by the Learning Trust.’

You can read the whole letter here.

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September 2009
Woodberry Down and Mandeville on the BBC
We were delighted to feature in BBC2's Daily Politics Show. The clip is here.

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June 2009
NATIONAL LEADER OF EDUCATION/ NATIONAL SUPPORT SCHOOL
The Executive Principal and staff at Woodberry Down Community Primary School have been selected for a top role supporting schools in challenging circumstances.
Greg Wallace has become one of only about 100 heads across the country to be appointed in the latest recruitment round by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) to the prestigious role of National Leader of Education (NLE). It also means the school is now designated a National Support School (NSS).

NLEs use their success and professionalism as school leaders, along with the staff in their school – designated a National Support School - to provide additional leadership capacity in struggling schools. The type of support provided is flexible, ranging from coaching or consultancy and interim leadership roles to leadership of more than one school in a federated or executive headship. They also have responsibility for helping to grow the next generation of NLEs and National Support Schools.
The latest expansion of the scheme brings the total number available for deployment nationally to about 300. The overall expansion will see the number of NLEs increase by up to 500 by 2012 leading ultimately to 300 primary and 200 secondary National Support Schools.

Greg Wallace said: “We were all delighted to hear this news. For the last few years we have been working with other schools on a range of issues and this has seen us develop new skills whilst developing and consolidating work at Woodberry Down. It all brings another dimension to the school, keeping rapid continual improvement very much alive in our own school as well as others. At Woodberry Down and London Fields I work with many exceptionally talented and dedicated people. Their energy and commitment is inspirational.”

Toby Salt, Deputy Chief Executive of NCSL, said: “I am so proud that these outstanding school leaders like Greg Wallace are being honoured in this way. NLEs, supported by their schools, have a more important role to play than ever in ensuring that excellent school leadership and the best possible opportunities are available to as many children as possible. Many of the schools involved in the scheme see improvements in exam results at both the support and client schools with progress achieved in excess of the improvements nationally. This is thanks to the hard work and dedication of all those involved in the scheme.”

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February 2009
EFFECTIVE MARKING IS SHORTLISTED FOR THE INNOVATION AWARD - EDUCATION RESOURCES AWARDS 2009
We were very proud to learn that Effective Marking had been shortlisted for the above award. Designed, developed and implemented by staff from this school, it is a significant achievement.

Over the last year and half other schools have adopted our approach and subscribed to the website – in London, across the UK and – more recently, across the world.
Money from Effective Marking revenue provides additional funding that is always needed.

More importantly, we have prioritised one of the most important- and often neglected – aspects of teaching. The people that need to benefit from any educational award are children. And where Effective Marking is implemented consistently all the evidence suggests that they do.

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December 2008
London Fields had a visit from Ofsted. The school came out of special measures and the report said, “Since September 2008, the school has been operating in close partnership with a highly successful primary school. Many leaders and experienced teachers, including the new executive principal, head of school, deputy and an assistant head have transferred to the school and brought with them effective systems based on best practice. Evidence shows clearly that through federation with Woodberry Down Primary School, the impact of which is already apparent in London Field's recent rapid improvements, the school's capacity for further improvement is very secure.” Read more here.

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November 2008
Ofsted visited Woodberry Down. The report said, “Woodberry Down is an outstanding school that provides high quality education for all its pupils. The executive principal is an inspirational leader who has built an excellent team of assistant headteachers. Together they have very high expectations of pupils and staff and ensure the school's policies and procedures are applied consistently. Teaching and learning are outstanding, as pupils make very rapid progress from low starting points to reach the national average by the end of Year 6. Refugees and pupils who start school speaking little or no English do particularly well, and the level of pastoral care for all pupils is outstanding.”
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October 2008
Woodberry Down is the London regional winner in the first ever national Learning Outside the Classroom Awards

The first ever national Learning Outside the Classroom Awards were announced today. The awards celebrate schools which have used learning outside the classroom in imaginative and innovative ways including: providing opportunities for informal learning through play; reducing behaviour problems and improve attendance; stimulating, inspiring and improving motivation; providing challenge and the opportunity to take acceptable levels of risk; and improving young people’s attitude to learning.
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September 2008
Making ICT Meaningful – a brand new teaching approach to ICT

The two schools in the London Fields Woodberry Down Federation have launched a brand new teaching programme for ICT. Written by Marco Ramsay (Deputy Head at London Fields and joint ICT leader at Woodberry Down) the programme is an
alternative way of approaching the teaching of ICT.

“By teaching dull and irrelevant units of work from the QCA teachers are actually putting children off using ICT,” said Mr Ramsay.

MICTM (Making ICT Meaningful) is a new approach altogether. It completely changes the structure of what is taught and how ICT is used with relatively cheap resources. Starting in Key Stage one, children are taught the fundamental skills needed for ICT. Year 3 is a critical point in MICTM as this is where the children learn to use software ready for their projects in Years 4, 5 and 6.

Once in Year 4, the children will no longer have a series of six lessons, as
their skills will be developed enough to work on their own projects. At this point the children will take on 12- week projects with a creative element at the core. These will consist of filmmaking, animation or sound creation. They will use all their skills over approximately twelve weeks.

MICTM is a complete programme that is highly supportive to teachers who are given simple, clear planning guidance and accompanying resources.

Many thanks to Mr Ramsay for all his hard work in writing MICTM. We look forward to seeing the results soon!

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April 2008

A GOOD LUCK MESSAGE FROM LEONA LEWIS!

I'm really pleased to hear about the exciting concept of two great primary schools joining up together, namely Woodberry Down and London Fields. I believe it will be the start of great things to come and will only enhance the education of so many different children.

I myself grew up in the culturally diverse borough of Hackney and fully appreciate that so many positive things are constantly happening in the area...a good example being these two schools. I am very pleased and look on with interest at the prospect of what is to happen.

I have heard about all the great things that are going to happen when the federation starts. In fact, I’ve heard loads. A good friend of mine works at one of the schools and he says it will be the best thing ever! I’m sure he’s right.

Good luck to everyone involved. The children deserve the best.
Work hard all of you - I might be coming to check soon!

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