Yearb

ook 2

012-2

013

A message from the headteacher Welcome to our second yearbook, in which we look back over our achievements in

2012—13. Once again we have had a very successful academic year. We hope you will

enjoy reflecting on some of our key events in words and pictures, which give an

account of the broad and balanced curriculum available at this outstanding school.

I hope you have a great summer and I look forward to working with you again in

September 2013.

B J Hazell

July 2013

Olympic playground opens Twenty years after we were first allocated the land adjacent to our junior playground, the school has at last been

able to open the Olympic playground. Complete with all seasons football pitch, running track, fitness trail and

shaded respite area, the playground has already proved its value. Classes take it in turns to use the new facility at

breaktimes, which the children love, and which creates an atmosphere of greater calm in the other two

playgrounds. It was used for our infant mini Olympics in June and lent a village-green feel to July’s summer fair.

Our Olympic legacy The Olympic Playground was a physical legacy of London

2012 but we have kept the spirit of the games going in

many ways.

In September a group of children visited the Paralympic

Games and saw Josie Pearson of Team GB win the women’s

F51/52/53 discus final, as well as many other events. “It

was a day I will remember for the rest of my life,” reported

Mervyn Wong.

Thanks to the Get Cycling campaign, junior children tried

out all sorts of bikes and scooters in the junior playground

in October, with the recumbent bikes particularly popular.

Later in the year we offered cycle training to several groups

of junior children.

Year 6 took part in a netball, football and hockey

tournaments in the autumn term, while year 3 worked with

the Royal Ballet through the Chance To Dance scheme.

Athletes from years 5 and 6 took bronze medal place in the

Lambeth indoor competition in January and won the

outdoor Quad Kids track event at Tooting Bec in June. As a

result our pupils qualified to represent Lambeth at the

London Youth Games in July.

Our swimmers tied with Telferscot for first place in

February’s borough-wide gala. In May both boys and girls

teams took part in a Lambeth cricket tournament.

Weekly after school clubs gave some children a chance to

pursue their sporting dreams. For example, Nia Ahad

became the first Clapham Manor pupil to reach brown sash

stage 1 in her martial arts course. Some of our pupils have

been coming in at 8.00am to play lacrosse during the

summer term. Jake Wood qualified to take part in the

Surrey County swimming championships and to represent

Lambeth at the London Youth Games.

The sound of music This has been a wonderful year of music at Clapham Manor

with many opportunities for our talented children to

perform.

Our key stage 2 choirs this year have shown us just how

good their voices are and the numbers of children involved

proves how much they all love to sing! Not only did the

years 3 to 6 choirs sing at both school fairs and the

summer concert, but they also took part in the Lambeth

Music Festival in concerts on the South Bank.

Our instrumentalists have had many chances to shine

through assemblies, termly piano concerts and as part of

the summer concert in June. The audience at this event

was treated to a diverse mix of soloists, groups and the

newly- established school orchestra. The Jazz Band has

also continued this year as an after-school club, providing

a fantastic learning experience in woodwind, brass and

ensemble playing for our children.

Pupils in year 2 showed just how amazing key stage 1 can

be by representing the school in The Festival in the City

children’s parade. They created glorious costumes and

despite the soggy weather were only too pleased to use

their voices and percussion instruments to demonstrate

their Samba skills from Bank to St Paul’s!

Music teaching at Clapham Manor has been hugely

enriched this year by the generosity of The Friends who

purchased a recorder for every child in years 3 to 5. We

hope to hear more from the recorder-playing population

next year as the programme continues for every child in

key stage 2. A greater range of instruments is now on

offer through private music tuition and the new website

promises to be a perfect platform for sharing the future

sound of Clapham Manor.

On stage The Early Years Team worked tirelessly with the

children to present a glittering Little Blue Star show at

Christmas. Years 1 to 6 then raised the stakes with a

hilarious disco-style version of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Our end-of-year productions involve all the children.

Whether they are big stars or little blue stars, they all

benefit from the experience to develop confidence and

maturity.

Moving on up For the second year, we have arranged a school

journey for our year 6 students in September.

Not only is this less costly than a July journey,

but the bonding experience of school journey is a

good way to start the year.

Now our year 6 students are ready to move on,

and we send them to secondary school with very

high expectations for their future.

In January year 6 children visited The Oval to

meet representatives of the Metropolitan Police.

The event taught them how to deal with some of

the extra challenges and responsibilities they will

encounter in year 7, including using public

transport independently.

In July both year 6 classes visited the Royal

Courts Of Justice and staged a mock trial in a real

courtroom. Some of them have been inspired to

consider careers in the law.

Whatever you do, year 6 students, good luck—and

don’t forget to visit us often.

A portal to different worlds How do you describe a library? At its best it gives the chance to enter

many different worlds. In comfort and peace a reader can be

transported in any direction he or she chooses.

We are delighted to say that this year we have been able to put some

very creative ideas into practice to support the development of our

library. To a lovely light top floor space in our original building we

have added a sofa, bright rugs and seating cubes in the funky fabrics

of London’s tube and bus seats. Literary characters have become

larger than life through a team of gifted and talented artists (pupils

and their expert mentors) whose sculptures decorate the library.

Most importantly, we have spent over £4000 on new books.

ICT continues to be a priority and we remain fully committed to

supporting learning through cutting-edge technology. However, we

believe that children need books as exemplars of how to organise

information into knowledge, ideas into stories, before they can take

full advantage of the connectivity of the modern world.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development All curriculum areas provide opportunities to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral and social education. Through

spiritual development pupils learn about themselves, about what they think and feel and how that relates to the

rest of the world. Moral development supports understanding about right and wrong. Pupils are encouraged to

reflect on the effects their actions have on others and begin to develop the ability to make responsible moral

decisions for themselves. Social development supports children in an understanding of their role as part of a

family, the school community and the wider community. Cultural development supports the growth of respect for

pupils’ own culture leading to an interest in the culture of others. It helps children understand and respect

differences.

Every week this academic year we have asked children, staff and families to focus on a different aspect of social

and emotional learning. The “SEAL” skills we have concentrated on this year have contributed to the children’s

resilience and abilities to recover and forgive.

Children’s Centre

In 2012—13 Clapham Manor Children’s Centre entered into a more formal

partnership with Heathbrook Children’s Centre which, although initiated

primarily to save money due to a reduction in the budget, has resulted in a

more cost effective and cohesive programme of activities for families across

our centres. Due to this partnership we were able to further improve our

offer to families by making full use of the additional space at Heathbrook

Park One O’Clock Club. Many new sessions were added as a result of the

partnership which, in our opinion, has been a huge benefit to our local

community.

One of our most significant achievements this year is the success we have

had with improving our offer of work-focused support. We have had various

courses running throughout the year but one that will have the most

significant impact to support children and families is the provision of a

functional skills course in numeracy and literacy. This was extremely

popular with around forty parents/carers signing up for the opportunity.

Alongside this we embedded volunteer and introduction to work

programmes within the centre. Over this year we set up our own mini

recruitment agency which has enabled fourteen parent/carers to take up

work/volunteering opportunities within the centres to build their

confidence and employability. This group has been a breath of fresh air and

has fed back to me on many occasions how appreciative its members are of

the opportunity; I thank them greatly for all their hard work, willingness

and enthusiasm to help deliver our services.

Next year’s challenge will be to take over delivery of services at Clapham

Common One O’Clock Club. We aim to set up a preschool, to develop forest

school activities and to continue the busy stay and play sessions.

Animations at the National Gallery On Art Day at the end of the last academic year, year 4

children made animated films inspired by Willem Kalf’s picture

Still Life With Drinking Horn, the focus of the National Gallery’s

Take One Picture event.

All the children’s work was sent to the National Gallery and in

November we heard that two of Clapham Manor’s animations

had been selected to be displayed to the public. Mr Pittard and

Ms Goodhew represented the school at the grand opening of the

exhibition in June.

The two winning groups were: Ella Anderson, Derona Coleman-

Robinson, Ludo Solomon and Bradley Wilkinson; Benedite

Ngiena, Adam Ben Sadok, Dominic Downes and James Portelli.

Hot gossip By the second half of the summer term

everyone was ready for some R & R. This

year’s barbecue and disco provided just

the right atmosphere for some family

fun. Children danced while grown-ups

gossiped and everyone relished the food.

At our barbecue the staff serve the food

and drinks to families in recognition of

the mutual support we offer in educating

the children.

Wastebusters! Throughout the year children at Clapham Manor have found new ways to

care for the environment and have fun as well.

In March, Waste Week saw pupils challenged to create fashion items

from junk materials. Two winners from each class modelled their items

in a special assembly.

Families were asked to bring in old clothes and shoes for recycling

through the Wastebusters scheme in April. We had a fantastic response

and the collection earned us points to spend on science and sports

equipment.

Part of the infant playground has become a wildflower meadow as

children asked us to take action to provide habitat for bees and other

insects. Year 5 learned more about how important insects are in

pollinating plants at a workshop at the Oasis Nature Garden.

The Olympic playground has provided us with some new beds where

children have planted vegetables for the Growing Green project.

Family learning

At Clapham Manor we believe that family learning is

vitally important to help our children develop. This

year we have offered many courses from Story Sack to

improve literacy to supporting families interested in

developing their skills for working with children, to

ESOL to sewing classes, to helping your child with

writing.

We believe this is only the start. As part of our work

within the Clapham and Larkhall collaborative next

year we hope to be able to offer a vast array of

opportunities aimed at helping parents and carers to

support their child’s learning or help to enhance their

own employability.

All courses will be advertised through the school’s

newsletter so parents and carers are encouraged to

look out and sign up quickly as places go fast. To find

out more about how family learning can change lives,

speak to one of our family learning champions about

how family learning has helped them and their child,

as they are true inspirations.

Engaging with the

wider community The school council is the children’s voice in the

management of the school. Each class elects a

representative and a deputy and the children know

that through these classmates they can pass their

views to the school’s senior leadership. A year 6

child represents each reception class. School

council meetings give the children the experience of

the formal democratic processes they will encounter

in the outside world.

As well as being an instrument of democracy, the

school council is the conscience of the school. In

December it suggested a Christmas jumper day in

aid of Save The Children. The event raised lots of

smiles as well as £361.31 for the charity. School

councillors came up with the brilliant idea of the

Great Clapham Manor Bake-Off in aid of Comic

Relief on Red Nose Day.

Two school council members represented Clapham

Manor at the first inter-school safety conference

organised by Release The Peace in November.

The curriculum offers all pupils at Clapham Manor

opportunities to engage with the wider community.

Children brought food and household necessities to

our harvest assembly in October for the Ace Of

Clubs, a local charity for homeless people. Year 2

children visited Tooting Islamic Centre and

Streatham synagogue as part of their curriculum

studies of a variety of faiths.

News from the governors This year the governors have really enjoyed seeing Clapham Manor's children achieve so well. There have been

great performances in class, sports, music and many other areas of activity in our busy school. The governors have

worked hard with Mr Hazell, the staff and parents/carers to support children's time at school and to make sure that

the school's buildings and outside areas can be the very best quality possible. The finishing of the Olympic

playground was a special moment and it's been wonderful to see this stunning new space used so enthusiastically.

I'll take this opportunity to thank my colleagues on the governing body for their commitment to the school this year

and to let you know that three of our parent governors soon reach the end of their time in office, so there will be

elections in the autumn to replace or re-appoint them. If you would like to know more about how to use your

experience and enthusiasm to help Clapham Manor become an even better environment for children, please

contact me through the office.

Finally, we are saying farewell to Pat Ellis, our outstanding business

manager who in the last 14 years has played such an important part in

building Clapham Manor's performance and reputation. The governors

wish to thank Pat for her steadying support for us and for her great

contribution to the school community. Enjoy the peace and quiet, Pat!

Here's hoping you all have a very happy summer!

Nigel Haselden

Chair of governors

Welcome to the Friends of Clapham Manor Primary School, your school's PTA.

Our main aim is to raise funds for the school and to ensure that every child can go on

the school trips. We organise fundraising events such as cake sales, the winter fair,

black history month party, the Easter and (our main event) the Summer fair. We sell

Christmas trees and organic vegetables.

This year, Friends paid for the nursery trip to the Oasis garden and a trip to

the childhood museum for Year 1. We helped Year 2 to go to the London

Wetland Centre and Year 4 to Hampton Court Palace and Victorian school.

Year 6 went to London Zoo and also enjoyed their school journey. Friends

donated some money to the school to buy 'wet play' toys for those rainy days

and recorders for every child in years 3, 4 and 5 and are supporting the

Growing Green project to get the children growing plants in the new

Olympic playground.

Many of the parents are involved in helping out but we always welcome

and need more volunteers, so do join us for meetings when you can.

The green newsletter given out to all the children every Thursday states

when and where the meetings will be taking place as well as lots more

information.

It would be lovely to meet some new faces so please come along next

term. Until then, have a great summer.

Hayde Sacerdote

Secretary of The Friends of Clapham Manor

Clapham Manor Primary School and Children’s Centre, Belmont Road, London SW4 0BZ Tel: 020 7622 3919 Fax: 020 7622 0043

Website: www.claphammanor.lambeth.sch.uk Email: admin@claphammanor.lambeth.sch.uk