School Achievements

Naace Mark

Callis Grange Nursery and Infant School was awarded the Naace Mark for the fifth consecutive time in October 2021. The Naace Mark is awarded to schools who are committed to using technology to support teaching and learning.

Assessor's comments included:

"the senior leadership and governing body provide proactive support, both educational and technical, to ensure that education technology supports teachers in their teaching and enhances children in their learning"
"the education technology leader is of the highest calibre and leads by example"
"the school’s curriculum organisation truly integrates education technology in all subject areas as evidenced by the many wall displays throughout the school"
"the ongoing assessment of the children’s progress in education technology is well documented"
"the web site is excellent with clear links to all areas of the school’s activities"
"safeguarding is taken very seriously throughout the school"
"there is a great set of updated videos on the web site showcasing the school’s learning and education work and achievements"

Eco-Schools Green Flag Award

Callis Grange has received this award 7 times, the latest being in July 2023. The award is for continued excellence in improving environmental performance and learning.

"The Eco School’s team congratulated Callis Grange on the way their Eco-Schools work is guiding pupils along their path to becoming curious, caring and compassionate young eco-citizens. The team also loved how diligently Callis Grange have communicated their Eco-Schools activity across and beyond their setting through their newsletters, assemblies and collaborations with local landscapers and charities. Callis Grange’s achievements this year have been fantastic, and they have no doubt that they have and will continue to equip their young pupils with the passion and confidence to take the eco-message beyond the school gates and into their homes. " July 2023.

There are nine topics which are used for the Environmental Review and linking the programme into the curriculum.

The Eco-Schools topics are: Litter, Waste Management, Energy, Water, Transport, Healthy Living, School Grounds, Biodiversity and Global Perspective.

Callis Grange has an Action Team made up from our Healthy Schools Working Group and our School Council. They have undertaken an Environmental Review and developed an action plan, which is monitored and evaluated and linked to the curriculum. We involve the whole school and the wider community.

Click on the link below to take a look at our Eco Schools page.

Eco Schools

KM Kent Literacy Awards 2020

We are delighted to have received this award in recognition of our library development and refurbishment. Working with one of our parents, who works at the Turner Contemporary, a philosophical enquiry took place with a group of children across all year groups. This involved discussion around what makes a place special and the sensory experience of being in our library. Their ideas were taken by designer, Lydia Laitung, resulting in our newly refurbished library.

Gold Healthy School Rating

Callis Grange has received a Gold Healthy School Rating for 2019-2020 which was awarded in July 2020. This new Department for Education Healthy Schools Rating Scheme replaces the previous Healthy School Scheme. Our Gold award recognises the schools contribution to supporting pupils' health and well-being and celebrates healthy eating and physical activity.

Safe Schools Accreditation Award

The Safe Schools Accreditation Award demonstrates that we promote the children’s emotional health and well being and encourage positive relationships within the school and wider community. This has been awarded four times with the latest award in June 2019.

The moderators were particularly impressed with the following aspects of our work and stated:

A proactive attitude and thorough approach to pupil voice and engaging with parents. In particular, we were impressed that your engagement takes place throughout the school year and is used to inform action plans.
The emphasis on positive behaviour through initiatives such as play-leaders and School Council and thoughtful schemes of work, displays, and signage such as the 'make someone smile' sign in the playground.
Pupils have an understanding of how to prevent bullying and how to act in a range of situations. In particular the schools 'Think and Talk' approach to solving friendship difficulties. It is wonderful to see an approach that enables the pupils to develop problem solving skills and resilience, as well as reflect on how behaviour can affect others.
The schools continued Enhanced Healthy School status, especially the work that has been undertaken to improve emotional well-being through the 'healthy body, healthy mind' approach.
The holistic approach taken to help keep the pupils safe online in and outside of school which goes far beyond statutory requirements. For example, the stance taken with regard to (non-age appropriate) gaming merchandise on lunchboxes and bags etc.
The moderators also noted that the school demonstrates a clear commitment to tackling bullying in all its forms and have asked the school if our work can be used as an exemplar for other schools.

British Council International School Award

In April 2019 Callis Grange received the Foundational Level International School Award from the British Council with the assessor stating that:

“You have imaginatively used your location close to Europe to highlight Britain’s geography links and also provide an excellent French experience for the children.”
“The list of French based activities you provided is very impressive.”
“You have also allowed the children to learn that being a citizen also involves caring for the planet on which we live.”

Quality Mark Award for Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity

This award was achieved in December 2018 with Distinction. Below are the reasons for Distinction outlines by the validator:

Achievement

Receiving the ‘Sustained excellence for the delivery of P.E. and school sport’ from Thanet Sports Partnership 2018.
The only school in Kent to receive the ‘Enhance Healthy Schools Award’ – maintained since 2013.

Quality of Teaching

Very high quality of teaching through well-resourced class teachers
Outstanding teaching resources, lesson plans and broad balanced curriculum. Well trained staff who receive Continuous Professional Development in areas to increase their confidence in teaching P.E.
Pupils make substantial progress from different starting points in all areas of activity.

Curriculum Provision

The P.E. curriculum provision is very good, with an excellent balance between varied types of games, athletic activities, problem solving – ‘Forest School’, dance and gymnastics.
Very well resourced with an excellent range of equipment, with purpose-built storage (well beyond the norm).

Outstanding leadership from the Headteacher and Senior team – ‘National Leader of Education’ award supports this.
Highly qualified Subject Leader, with a specialist physical education background, provides a very committed lead to other staff. Exceptional organisational skills provide superb support for all other staff in delivering high quality P.E. lessons.

Governor Mark

This has been awarded 2011, 2014 and 2017. This is the quality mark accreditation for excellence in school governance.

Basic Skills Quality Mark Award

Callis Grange has received the Basic Skills Quality Mark Award seven times, the most recent being in January 2020. The award is held for three years. The school has received an over 10 year recognition award.

The Award is a national award and to achieve it ten elements must be met.

Callis Grange has met all the elements and therefore has:

A whole school strategy, including an action plan, to improve performance in basic skills
An assessment of pupil performance in basic skills in the school
A target for the improvement of the school’s performance in basic skills
Basic skills improvement plans for pupils under attaining in the school
Regular review of the progress made by each pupil under attaining in basic skills
A commitment to improving the skills of staff in the school to teach and extend basic skills
The use of a range of teaching styles to improve basic skills
The use of appropriate teaching and learning material to improve basic skills
The involvement of parents in developing their children’s basic skills
An effective procedure for monitoring the action plan and assessing improvement in performance in basic skills.

Enhanced Healthy School

Callis Grange has achieved Enhanced Healthy School status.

A healthy school:

Is successful in helping pupils to do their best and build on their achievements
Is committed to on-going improvement and development
Promotes physical and emotional health by providing accessible and relevant and equipping pupils with the skills and attitude to make informed decisions about their health
Understands the importance of investing in health to assist in the process of raising levels of pupil achievement and improving standards
Recognises the need to provide both a physical and social environment that is conducive to learning

However

At Callis we have gone beyond being a ‘Healthy School’ and as of June 2013 became the only school in Kent to have achieved Enhanced Healthy School status. In June 2016 Enhanced Healthy Status was achieved again.
As a school we have worked with our local NHS Specialist looking carefully at the current health issues in the local area using data from the Kent and Medway Public Health Observatory.
The school worked with the Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Service at Kent Community Health NHS Trust to scope out the issues facing children and families in the Thanet area and used the insight gained to place a whole series of activities to tackle these issues.

Investors in People Standard

Callis Grange has now achieved the Investors in People Standard five times, the latest being in February 2012. The standard is held for three years.The school has also received 10 year recognition.

The Standard is a national standard which sets a level of good practice for improving an organisation’s performance through its people.

The standard means that Callis Grange:

Makes a commitment from the top to develop all employees to achieve its business objectives
Regularly reviews the needs and plans the training and development of all employees
Takes action to train and develop individuals on recruitment throughout their employment
Evaluates the investment in training and development to assess achievement and improve future effectiveness

Our assessment stated that:

There is an very strong ethos amongst people which could best be described as that of a caring school
Everyone believed that what they and the school as a whole did was to help develop and educate its pupils for later life
The culture of the organisation is completely inclusive in that everyone, regardless of role, is encouraged to learn and develop to improve their performance

Activemark

We are proud to announce that Callis Grange has been awarded a prestigious national award by Sport England. Sport England is the country’s leading strategic sports development agency.

Activemark is a national accreditation programme, which recognises schools that show a commitment to promoting the benefits of physical activity. To achieve an award a school must offer a well-balanced physical education programme; provide an environment that encourages physical activity and teaches children the importance of staying active for life.

We strive to ensure that physical activity has a high profile throughout the school and that our pupils have access to appropriate opportunities to be active both within lessons and out of hours. Achievement of the Activemark award acknowledges the high level of our physical activity provision.

Achievement of the award has required the school to complete a thorough application process. We have welcomed this opportunity to review our physical activity and physical education provision and are delighted to receive recognition for the wide range of opportunities we provide for all our pupils.

We aim to provide all our pupils with the opportunity to be active and have an enjoyable and satisfying experience in doing so, whatever their level of ability. In this way, we hope to foster a positive attitude towards physical activity so that pupils continue to participate in, and reap the benefits of, a physically active lifestyle.