APM2019 Report Shepherds Down School

Report for Compton and Shawford Annual Parish Meeting 16 May 2019

Shepherds Down is at the centre of our Parish community and has a nice, clear Vision Statement; Achievement, Fulfilment and Enjoyment.

The school is thriving and the demand on places here by Hampshire County Council grows each year. We have been asked to extend the school with an extra temporary classroom to accommodate more children in September 2019. This could potentially bring the number of children to 158. We continue to be the largest primary special school in Hampshire.

Funding is tight, but we are still expecting to outturn in April 2020 in credit. We are relying on charitable donations to be able to give the pupils the necessary appropriate resources in order for them to grow and flourish. We will soon be in a deficit budget unless we get additional funding from the government. Pay rates are on the increase and yet we receive a flat budget each year. We have to find £70k of savings just to stand still. We were helped with contributions from government this year for more than expected teachers’ pay rise and pension contributions. If we did not get these we would have had a budget deficit this year. We have 105 staff at the school.

We are developing outside play areas this year with generous donations (Thank you, CSPC for your contribution towards the Adventure Playground, which will be started around October 2019.)

Last year’s great weather saw a lot of classes getting outdoors at the Memorial Playing Fields to use the play area and gym equipment provided by the Parish Council and this year we will hopefully be able to do the same. This is such a great local facility

A local company has sponsored and fully paid for a “mud kitchen”, which we are extremely grateful and is very popular with the children. Thanks go to APS Solutions in Otterbourne.

Our Annual Golf Day will be held on 10/6/19 and this has been described as ‘The must-not miss’ event by local golfers. We have 19 teams but could take 3 more, being held at the only ‘Royal’ club in Hampshire. We hope to raise £4k to £5k with the money going towards projects for the children.

We currently have a vacancy for a community governor on the wider, school governing body. One of my favourite stories of this past year is when the children recently were asked what they thought of the long list of ‘School Rules’. They decided the most important rule was as follows:
“BE GREAT! BE SAFE! BE KIND!!”

Thanks for your time tonight and if you wish to receive an email or hard copy of this please contact me directly or via Councillor Strange. Our website will soon be revamped at www.shepherdsdown.co.uk

Mark Jenkins
Shepherds Down School representative
07831 194184

APM2019 Report Shepherds Down School