About Our School
Chalfont St. Giles Infant School and Nursery is a thriving village school situated in the attractive village of Chalfont St Giles, in South Buckinghamshire, just 30 miles from London.
The school originates from 1875. The site is attractive and is an historical landmark in the village, particularly the Palliser room (the school hall). All available teaching space has been utilised, including the conversion of the caretaker’s cottage to a library, food technology room and classrooms.
The socio-economic environment of the village is wide, consisting of a council estate north of the village and mainly detached houses, occupied by middle/upper income families elsewhere. Building land is limited and property prices remain high. Property is very much in demand for commuters working in London, and also employees of multi-national corporations.
The school has been inspected on three occasions by OFSTED in 1995, 1998 and 2004.
Since May 1996 the school has been recognised as an Investor in People. Our most recent assessment in July 2007 recognised us as an Investor. We received very positive feedback and we are proud of our award.
In 2001/2 the school received a School Achievement Award from the DfES, celebrating the fact that we achieve better results than most schools in similar circumstances.
In 2005 the school was awarded the Quality mark from the basic skills agency.
In 2007 we were awarded Gold recognition of our level 3 travel plan encouraging safer routes to our school. Parent and community involvement has been a key area for continuing development and subsequent success. This has involved the extension of the open-door policy, including public open-days for the nursery and the infant school.
Links with Chalfont St. Giles Junior School are positive and regular contact is maintained. The Year 2 and 3 teachers respectively meet annually to co-ordinate transfer and the staff of both schools enjoy a joint training day together once a year. The SEN co-ordinators and the Educational Psychologist also meet together to discuss the needs of children transferring to the Junior school.
The school has remained high profile in the local papers, using school events, celebrity visitors and academic achievements to advertise in the local community.
The governor's committees have been particularly successful in promoting the school amongst the business community, organising exclusive events, and encouraging businesses to participate and sponsor the school financially.
The governors of the school continue to be totally committed and eager to develop their role in management, monitoring and evaluation. They complete an audit of their strengths and areas for development (via a Self Evaluation tool provided by Bucks CC), including an evaluation of their own role. (The most recent of these was completed in November 2007.) Their analysis is shared with the staff and this along with the annual school review enables us to form a new development plan. The aim of this process is to ensure whole school ownership and to keep our work focused on the school Vision.
At our school we want:
- Every individual to feel safe, secure and valued within our school family.
- To inspire and nurture a love of learning.
- A brave, creative, relevant curriculum that allows us all the freedom to explore.
The various governing body committees are also pro-active and perform professionally. A demonstration of commitment is shown by all the governors taking on responsibility for liaising with subject co-ordinators of each aspect of the curriculum. This involves regular meetings with the co-ordinators to discuss new initiatives, planning, observing lessons and monitoring books. Each governor also takes on the responsibility of attending functions at school during their chosen 'month'. This ensures a strong governor presence in school at all times.
The PTA have a significant role to play within the school. They organise a number of fund-raising events which contribute directly to the school budget by linking fund raising to the school improvement plan targets. These events are key to the life of the whole school. They include fund raisers such as quiz nights, sponsored events and indulgence evenings and also wonderful community events such as egg-rolling at Easter, Dad's Day when Dads come into school to help and Christmas parties. They are a dedicated group of people who support the school and further encourage community links.