Dinglewell Junior School

As another school year ends it is pleasing to see the significant progress being made at one of our Community schools. Dinglewell Junior School epitomises the idea of continuous improvement in so many different areas under the Headship of Lisa Harford and her Staff. Let’s look at some of those initiatives:
School Web Site: The new School web site is being re-designed to project a more informal and inclusive format, this has been achieved without sacrificing any of school’s essential information or affecting the Secure, Positive and Caring environment that it projects.
Child Care Initiatives: In line with the current National approach the school has taken the initiative to provide Child care for working parents at a reasonable cost. In conjunction with Sports- Xtra the school has organised a Holiday Club for the first week of the summer holidays. The club will be open during school hours and will allow parents to receive child care for a fee of
£10.00 per day, which is a significant reduction in costs when compared to normal Child care costing!
“Budding Entrepreneurs”
A group of Dinglewell Juniors are in the Gloucester Schools Partnership Enterprise Group which is personal supervised by Head teacher Lisa Harford. The Children were given an initial set-up fee of 25.00 to form a ‘school company. Following a lot of hard work they have created a ‘Bobbles family ‘collection. With their £25.00, they bought a range of stationery and stickers, on which to print their designs. Bobbles goods  were on sale at school, Bobbles rulers or notebooks were selling at are 50p each and the children have currently collected over £200.00 – which is quite a return on the initial investment! The success of the project meant that Bobble family stocks were very low, however, we are assured that stocks will be replenished in time for the new school year.
Opportunism!  - As part of the Olympics legacy, funding from the Government has been made available for schools to promote and encourage children to participate in sport as part of the school curriculum.
Head, Lisa Harford seized the opportunity and as a result was rewarded with appropriate funds to allow the introduction of Nick Kanonick, an athlete and Olympian who represented Ireland, in the sprinting relay team at the London Olympics. His role will be to coach and develop the pupils in a range of different sports. This is a significant capture for our schools in Hucclecote as Nick will work with the Dinglewell Juniors and Infants and Hillview School also.

Vehicle Parking is a problem for all our Community schools, however, the junior school recently organised a Road Safety Campaign Competition which encouraged the children to design their own Safety Poster based around vehicle parking and the safety of children. The results have been tremendous and from the winning designs, several signs will be created for display locally with the aim to encourage drivers to drive and park safely. Perhaps we should all look out for the signs and respond to them!
Dinglewell Infants School: At the infants school Head teacher Beryl Gleich is retiring after 12 years in the role, during that time she has overseen many changes to the school. One hilight from her career was when Ofsted rated the school as ‘good with outstanding features’ praising Dinglewell as ‘exceptionally caring, warm and welcoming’.
Pupils’ attainment was rated as outstanding, and the children told inspectors that they enjoy school very much, that they are very well cared for, feeling very safe and trusting the adults who looked after them.
From September there will be a new Head of Infants: Nicola Barby joined the school in 1996 and has been responsible for the children with special educational needs. Everyone is delighted at her appointment and Nicole is eagerly looking forward to the challenges of her new role which will include working to develop strong links with the Hucclecote Play Group in the new Nursery Complex.
The New Nursery Complex is now complete and awaiting the arrival of its new Tenants in the form of the Hucclecote Play Group. As many of you may know the Group will transfer from the Hucclecote Community Centre. The new Centre will take up to 16 pre-school children. Both internally and externally the accommodation and the site has been finished to a very high standard; complete with the latest fixtures and fittings and a gated access to the Infant school gardens.
Let’s wish the Staff and pupils at the Dinglewell school a very enjoyable and restful break, they really deserve it and hope that their successes continue on their return!