Recent Letters
Monday 30th June 2025
Dear Parents/Carers,
Re: Annual Records of Achievement
On Friday, you will be receiving your child’s Annual Record of Achievement. In the report, you will read about the knowledge and skills your child has developed over the year, the subjects they have enjoyed the most, the values they have displayed and their main achievements and successes. There may also be some advice as to how you can help them at home.
The report contains the following Assessment Information:
Assessment is on-going, lesson-by-lesson, week-by-week, and is collected formally three times a year. At the end of Terms 1 and 3 pupils are assessed as being ‘On-track for GDS’, ‘On-track for EXS’ or ‘Not on-track for EXS’, based on teacher’s assessment of the key performance indicators (KPIs), which you will have discussed with your child’s teacher at parent/carer consultations. In February you also received a mid-year report that gave you this information. At the end of Term 6, pupils are assessed directly against the KPIs; these are the objectives taken from our curriculum that have been agreed to be the most important (in each year group) in determining attainment and progress across Years 1 – 6. The teachers’ assessments are corroborated by standardised tests that the children sit at different points throughout the year. The guidelines below provide information explaining what the judgements in this Annual Record of Achievement mean.
GDS – childrenworking at Greater Depth, within the Expected Standard, are secure in all the age-related, end of year key performance indicators, and will be deepening and broadening their knowledge and understanding of these expectations.
EXS – children working at the Expected Standard are secure in all the age-related, end of year key performance indicators.
Just below EXS – childrenworking just below the Expected Standard are not secure in the age-related, end of year key performance indicators.
Well below EXS – childrenworking well below the Expected Standard are not secure in the age-related, end of year key performance indicators from their year group and also have gaps in their knowledge of curriculum objectives from previous year groups.
For children in Reception, the reports are largely the same, with content that is primarily based around what your child has achieved this year. The main difference is the language of attainment, which relates to the Early Learning Goals. Additionally, there is also box for your child’s comments.
Emerging – children are working below the expected standard and have not achieved the Early Learning Goal.
Expected – children are working at the expected standard and have achieved the Early Learning Goal.
If your child is in a statutory assessment year group, i.e. Reception, Year 1, Year 4 or Year 6, you will receive a copy of their outcomes in the assessment taken. Year 6 will receive theirs on Friday 11th July.
Translatable version of this letter is available here.
If you would like to discuss your report further, please contact your child’s class teacher for an appointment.
Yours sincerely,
Dan Rodeck
Headteacher
Wednesday 25th June 2025
Dear Parents and Carers
Re: staffing news
I am writing to let you know of a number of staffing changes that will be happening at the end of this term and at the start of next academic year. These include a few departures (not all permanent), as well as returning and new colleagues.
Starting with a colleague who is leaving, but only temporarily. Miss Abbey Cook starts her maternity leave at the end of this term. Naturally, we wish her and her partner all the very best and look forward to hearing her news in due course.
Sadly, we have a number of colleagues leaving us permanently this summer, all of whom will be missed greatly, both professionally and personally.
Mrs. Ali Buckley joined the school in 2001, and after 24 years of service is taking retirement due to personal circumstances. Miss Fran Mills, who has been at the school since 2008, is moving to Cornwall, where she and her partner will set up a new life for themselves. Miss Lydia Trapnell, who has been at the school since 2012, is leaving to follow a new pathway, teaching reading on a one-to-one basis. Miss Emily Plummer, who started here in September 2020, is moving to Yeovil with her fiancé and has secured a teaching role down there (sadly, the commute is just too far!). Mrs. Sadia Khan, who started here in January 2024, is leaving us to pursue her teaching career in another Bristol school.
I’m sure you’ll join me in thanking them for everything they’ve done for the school during their time here at Filton Avenue Primary and wishing them all the very best in the next chapters of their lives.
Additionally, and very excitingly, Mrs. Sarah Stefanini is taking a short sabbatical during Term 1 + 2, to spend some time abroad with her young family. In her absence, Mrs. Gemma Kirk and Mrs. Kat Preece will be our interim co-Deputy Head Teachers, and they will bring the school the experience and continuity it needs to keep progressing.
Moving onto the subject of colleagues either returning or joining us in September, we are very pleased that Miss Hine-Jeffreys will be back teaching at Filton Avenue after her maternity leave. She will actually return for the last two weeks of term, so don’t be surprised if you see her. We have one new colleague starting with us in September, Mr Nathaniel Torrible, and two who have worked/trained here before, Miss Beth Bamford-White and Miss Charlotte Walford. Naturally, we’re very much looking forward to welcoming them to the team.
As always at this time of year, I know that you and your child(ren) are very keen to know who their teacher for next year will be. After a very thorough and comprehensive process, we have let our colleagues know this information last week, and we’ll inform you early next week, via Arbor. Following this, we will communicate with you re plans for transition.
There are several weeks between now and the end of term, but it’s important that you’re kept well informed of changes and that you hear things officially, not on the grapevine.
Translatable version is available here –
If you’d like to discuss any of the above, please don’t hesitate to come and talk to me.
Yours sincerely,
Dan Rodeck
Headteacher
Monday 2nd June 2025
Dear Parents and Carers
Re: School Community Partnership (SCP)
Many of you will be aware that we currently have a Community and Parent Advisory Group (CPAG). This group has been supporting our aim of enhanced community engagement, building on the great work that is already happening here at Filton Avenue Primary School.
Listening and working well with school stakeholders is a key part of the school’s work and principal among these is the parent community. The participation of parents and then the wider community is an important aspect of school leadership which provides important insights into the school. Such collaboration seeks to demonstrate transparency and better decision-making and allows school leaders to work in partnership with parents and the wider community, to deliver the best educational outcomes for every pupil.
With the above in mind, I’m now writing to you all to tell you about some very exciting changes that are happening, but also to apologise that I’ve not communicated about the CPAG/SCP sooner. I put a proposal to the Trust for, what I believe are, some significant improvements to the model and these have now been agreed. It took longer than we’d hoped, but it’s better to do things well and we believe that it’s now ready to launch. If it’s successful here at Filton Avenue Primary the other schools in TiLA will look to adopt the model too.
I’ve attached a document that outlines the proposal for the new School Community Partnership. Firstly, you’ll notice a change of name to the School Community Partnership; I’m sure you’ll agree that this is an improvement in itself. Secondly, and most excitingly, you’ll notice that the premise of the new model is to link our pupil leadership groups (we have 9 currently) with parents and carers, as well as members of the wider community. It is this direct link between the pupils and you that has the potential to be particularly powerful and it’s this element of the proposal that has struck a chord with my colleagues in TiLA. Whilst the School Community Partnership group will have an overarching view, the three sub-groups (Culture, Health and Wellbeing, and Sustainability) will look at specific aspects of school-life, as detailed in the attached document.
A number of parents/carers have attended meetings over the last couple of years, and will be welcomed back, if they still wish to be a part of the School Community Partnership or one of the sub-groups. However, if you’ve not been involved before, but are interested in getting involved with any (or all!) of the groups, then please complete this Microsoft Form – https://forms.office.com/e/g42inra9jP
For a translatable version of this letter please click on this link –
If you wish to discuss any of the above, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Dan Rodeck
Headteacher
