Dear Parents/Carers,

Staffing update

As you will be aware from our newsletters, we are sadly saying goodbye to Miss Daisy Jones at the end of term. We are also sad to announce that Miss Fiaz will also be leaving at the end of term. Miss Fiaz has been a central member of the school and Leadership Team and will be greatly missed by us all, but I know you will all join me in wishing her all the best for the future as she moves on from Botley.

I am extremely pleased to announce that we have four new members of staff joining us in September. Miss Jessica Axtell will be teaching in year 1; Miss Katherine Wilkinson will be teaching in the Nursery; Mrs Helen Couling will be teaching in Year 2, and Mrs Sadiya Hussain will be sharing the teaching of year 5 with Mr Hunter. All the staff will join us for transition events towards the end of term and we look forward to welcoming them to the Botley School staff.

We are also saying a sad farewell to some of our support staff this term. Mr Raees Ali-Mehmood, Mrs Kelly Preston and Miss Micheala Honey are all moving on to new career opportunities and we wish them every success in their ventures.

We are currently recruiting the final members of the support staff team for the autumn term and will update parents with information as soon as we have it. 

Expanding the SEND Enhanced Provision

Following the success of our enhanced pathway in the past two years, we have seen an increase in the number of pupils who need access to this enhanced provision. From September we will be opening an additional enhanced pathway class base for Reception and KS1 pupils, with the current provision remaining in place for KS2 pupils. This will ensure our pupils with specific communication and interaction needs have the best possible provision for their education here at Botley. It is designed for pupils who need a level of support that cannot be provided to the high level our pupils deserve in a mainstream classroom.  It will also provide some outreach work for pupils who are able to learn in the mainstream classrooms for the majority of the day, but may need additional support and time away from class during the day for specific timetabled interventions. This will also enable the class teachers to focus more on the ‘Quality First’ teaching within the mainstream classrooms.

Class Structures Planning

The current plan for the class structures for the 2025/2026 academic year is therefore as follows: 

We hope that you find this information useful and will provide further updates as swiftly as possible.

Yours Sincerely

Mrs Jo Reid BA(hons) PGCE MA NPQH

Headteacher