What have been our successes this year:

Our results are continuing to improve year on year. From Reception to the end of Year 4 each child is tracked to ensure that they are making the most progress that they are capable of.

We have secured the lease on a new school playing field adjacent to the playground. This is a wonderful asset and enhances the sporting opportunities for all our children. It also allows us to use our extended environment for science, geography and many other varied learning opportunities.

The school has been awarded the Active Mark, which is a national recognition of the high quality and quantity of physical education available for all our children. We have also gained the Healthy School Award.

We have developed our sporting links with Hugh Sexey Middle School and we work closely with all our other linked schools in the Cheddar Valley Learning Partnership.

For further information on the numerous activities that we as a school have undertaken during the year please visit our web site at www.eastbrentfirstschool.co.uk.

What are we trying to improve:

We are continuing to refine our skills in assessment, levelling children's work and setting challenging targets. We are encouraging the children to take ownership of their individual targets and to share them with parents. All staff are now skilled at tracking children's progress and identifying areas for development.

Through the Cheddar Valley Learning Partnership, all staff undertook training with Pie Corbett to develop the speaking and listening skills necessary for good writing. This has had a very positive effect on all children's writing.

We are working on developing our curriculum to make it more creative and relevant to children. We believe that it is important for children and teachers to be motivated and enthused by the curriculum. We believe that children should be involved in the development of their topic work, following lines of learning that interests them. We know that the best learning happens when children see 'a relevance' for what they are doing and that it builds on from what they already know. We are ensuring that the children are learning the skills that they will need for the fast changing, technological world in which they will grow up. We are providing a range of exciting enrichment visits and activities that will give the children first hand experiences on which to base their learning.

How have our results changed over time:

All the children in the Reception year made above average progress in all areas of the Foundation Stage curriculum. Targets are set from the end of the Reception year to the end of Key Stage 1 (7 years old), every child met or exceeded them. Significant progress was made by the children with additional educational needs; these children received targeted support and made above average progress. In Key Stage 2 above national average progress was made in reading, writing and maths. Reading being a strength of the school, with children averaging 4 sub levels progress.

How are we making sure that we are meeting the needs of all learners:

We ensure that all our children are making the optimum level of progress in reading, writing and maths through careful and rigorous assessments. These assessments are carried out each term with the results being stored on Assessment Manager and the results analysed so that each child's progress is tracked. Targets are set from these assessments with the children fully involved in the setting and monitoring of targets. They are also shared with parents at parent consultation meetings. For children exceeding the expected rates of progress, challenges and extension activities are planned to stretch their thinking and problem solving skills. For those children making less than the expected rate of progress then intervention programmes are set up to support the children in those specific areas where a boost is needed.

Being a small school we are able to plan the appropriate level of work for every individual child, with our favourable adult to child ratio we are able to support small group work to ensure that every child is progressing.

We have been using the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learners materials to develop the children's attitudes to learning and helping them to take ownership of their behaviour and learning.

How do we make sure that our learners stay healthy and safe:

We have achieved the Healthy Schools Award which recognises all that the school does to ensure that our children eat and drink healthy foods; undertake a wide range of regular exercise; know about the safe use of medicines and drugs; know about how to look after their bodies and to keep them clean; understands the value of sleep to growing bodies.

We have successfully completed two Healthy and Safety audits, one on paper work and systems and one on the physical state of the site. We run regular bicycle riding awareness sessions and we strongly encourage parents to use the church car park so that children can walk safely to school.

All the staff undertook training in 'Safe Guarding Children'; First Aid and Basic Hygiene. We have a rigorous system for out of school visits safety procedures. We have an extensive range of Risk Assessments that all the staff have taken responsibility for. Bullying in any form is not tolerated and procedures are in place to ensure that any hint of it is dealt with immediately.

What activities are available to the children:

Almost all of our children take part in the many varied activities we run after school. We have sports clubs on Monday's, Wednesday's, Thursdays and Fridays. We use a specialist sports coach to provide high quality PE and games lessons and he runs one of the after school clubs. We have music club on Tuesday's and poetry club on Tuesday's and Wednesdays. We have drama and music club in the summer term which builds towards and large whole school production. We have a group learning Latin, all the children learn French and with our linked schools we provide subject workshops to extend our more able children. We have two music teachers who offer music lessons in recorders, guitars, keyboard and piano.

We celebrate the children's participation in clubs and lessons outside school. We believe that these are extremely important and we share their successes at Celebration Assemblies.

We take our Year 4 children on a residential visit for four days each year. We undertake activities such as abseiling, climbing, orienteering, archery, high ropes, low ropes, beach craft etc.

We run a Breakfast Club every morning from 7.50 am and after school care is provided from school by a private nursery.

How are we working with parents and the community?

We encourage strong parental support with all aspects of school life. We provide three opportunities per year for parents to look at their child's classroom, displays and books. We hold two formal individual parent consultation meetings and we provide written reports on the child's progress over the year. Communication with parents is maintained by regular newsletters and notice board. Class teachers hold information meetings to talk through how their classes are organised. We hold workshops for parents to keep them informed of how the learning in school is being organised.

When the school field was fenced it was decided to fence off the Public Footpath from the school playground. A fenced path was also made around the perimeter of the field large enough for walkers to take a pleasant detour around the field if they so wished. The school is maintaining this path so that walkers are encouraged to use this route.

In response to parental concerns about site security, we have installed electronic key pads on the gates so that visitors have to contact the office before being given access to the school.

We have a very active PTA who fund raise extensively for the benefit of the school. We liaise with our parish church of St. Mary's. We hold regular services in church which are attended by parents and parishioners. Our singers and dancers regularly perform at the Day Centre, The Methodist Lunch club and St. Mary's Church fete.

Together with our linked schools we supported the building of school facilities in Uganda through the Link Project. We entertained the singing choir from Kenya. We support a range of other charities through out the year.

What have the pupils told us about the school and what have we done about it:

We have a very active School Council made of up of elected representatives from each year group. We meet every Wednesday over a 'working lunch'. This is an important vehicle for gaining the views of all pupils. We have sought their advice on the development of the field; which charities to support; assemblies and collective worship; playtimes etc. The School Council have been instrumental in the purchase of additional play equipment and they have the responsibility of looking after it and ensuring its safe return.

We also have a 'Lunchtime Buddy' system, which is a team of Year 4 children who apply to be special helpers during the lunchtime to support the younger children and the lunchtime staff. They have made some very useful changes to the lunchtime routines.

Our children are always very positive about their school. We know from a children's questionnaire that they are secure in the knowledge that their views are taken into consideration when decisions are made. Visitors remark on the politeness and good behaviour that is always evident in the school. They also remark on their enthusiasm and the way in which they look after each other. We take children's concerns seriously and act on them quickly.

What do our pupils do after they leave our school:

At the end of Year 4 our children move on to Hugh Sexey Middle School, Blackford, Nr. Wedmore and then to Kings of Wessex Community School, Cheddar. These are the designated schools for our school. We have very strong transition programmes to ensure that all our children transfer easily and securely from our school to middle school. We have a number of meetings throughout their last year to ensure that the children and parents have all the knowledge they need to make the transition smooth. We have had very favourable comments about how well our children settle into their new school. We also ensure that the transition from pre school placements into reception is also well managed and smooth.

What have we done in response to our Ofsted:

Since our last Ofsted in June 2006 we have been rigorous in our assessment for learning processes. Progress is now carefully tracked and intervention programmes implemented where necessary. We are currently working on providing a creative curriculum to enthuse our learning. We have thoroughly addressed the issues of the footpath and safe guarding children training.