© Collingbourne Ducis Parish Council 2020
Collingbourne School’s Report 12th May 2016
Mr Jeff Mason, Head teacher, presented a report a digest of which follows: Once again I am delighted to report
that Collingbourne School continues to grow and move forward. Currently, we have 120 children on roll. In
September this year we expect that number to be more or less around the same number. Over the past year a
major focus has been to improve the quality of the school’s learning environment. This started last summer with a
major project that involved painting the school hall, a classroom and the reception pencil fence. All of which were
looking rather shabby and tired. This work was carried out by the Community Payback Team and their hard efforts
are much appreciated. Since then they have recently been busy with the outside maintenance work, renovating the
fences and sheds. The school takes great pride in being able to keep pace with the latest curriculum innovations to
support learning. Due to tight school budgets, we have been unable to use I-Pads as a means of providing exciting
learning opportunities in a way that the school’s computers can’t. The PTA’s Race Night fund raiser in the early part
of this year, unexpectedly raised several thousands of pounds that will now be used to fund half a class set of
I-Pads. With the additional funds received in this year’s budget we shall be able to put in place the costly
infrastructure to allow them to work on the school’s network. The school is very grateful for the support from the
village community in raising such unprecedented amounts and for helping this much needed project to get off the
ground. It is a key aim to ensure that learning at Collingbourne is immensely enjoyable and fun, whilst being
creative and relevant to life-long learning. For instance we have set up a school magazine for the first time. This is
aimed at encouraging children to write for a real purpose and to share their views, learning and interests. The
magazine is being run by Laurence McGowan, our Curriculum Governor, who has a passion for literacy and is a
prolific writer. At some stage we hope to submit articles to the Village Courier. A notable achievement this year, and
as part of our broad and balanced curriculum, has been our sporting success. This has been the best in recent
times, with teams reaching the county finals in Netball and Tag-Rugby. These teams have consisted of children
from 3 year groups. Much of this success canbe attributed to our 2 year plan to improve sporting opportunities in
school through specialist sports coaches in lessons, at lunchtime and afterschool. This has been made possible
through the Government Sports Premium funding to schools that is part of the Olympic legacy. The school aims to
provide at least 2-3 sporting clubs a week as part of working towards the Sainsbury PE sports award and to develop
healthy living habits in children.
All of the above is in addition to the following activities which happen every year, the children commemorated
Remembrance Day at the Collingbourne Ducis Memorial with a prayer ,our Festive Afternoon was very successful
and raised funds for the school, the carol service was once again held at St Mary’s Church. The Bun and Penny
tradition continues on and the children as does the children singing to carols to the residents of West Farm House.
After several years of use the sensory garden and wildlife area have fallen into disrepair and parts are simply worn
out. The school PTA and particularly Mrs May have taken on the project to renovate these areas. Mrs May has
worked hard to apply for funding from both Collingbourne parish Councils and the Tidworth Area board. The funding
of £1000 from each parish Council has been gratefully received by the school. This funding has made it possible to
go ahead and commission works that will take place in the summer and shall be available to be used by several of
the community groups as Brownies and Dragonflies preschool. These are some of the highlights from
Collingbournes current year. Further since my last report, I am pleased to say that we have had a great response to
our request for volunteers to help in the school. We would welcome further assistance, particularly in listening to
children read.
Mr Mason answered questions from those present after which the Chairman thanked him for his report.