Headteacher's News
All the most recent news from Edith
Monday 14th July 2025
Dear parents and carers of children in Stepney Park Primary School.
As you know, we have almost reached the end of another fantastic school year! The entire school community, including our dedicated staff and amazing children, is ready for a well-deserved break. Our children are buzzing with excitement for their upcoming break and are eagerly anticipating moving into their new classes when they return.
This has been a great year, marked by outstanding test results and, more importantly, by the joy and happiness we've seen in our children every day. So many exciting things have happened – too many to list here – but I would like to encourage you to reread our previous newsletters to be reminded of the many fantastic opportunities our children have embraced and excelled in throughout the 2024-2025 school year.
We feel really lucky to work and learn in such a supportive and vibrant school environment. A huge expression of gratitude goes out to every single member of our staff: from our dedicated teachers, dedicated kitchen staff, hard working caretakers, invaluable teaching assistants, compassionate pastoral care team, and other essential support staff, right through to our hard working admin team and cleaners. Each person has worked so hard to ensure that your children received the great education they deserve. Thank you all!
Staff who are leaving
We would like to extend our gratitude and warmest wishes to several valued members of our team who will be moving on.
We celebrate the wonderful careers of Kathy, our School Business Manager, and Helen, our dedicated Art Teacher, who will be retiring this term. Their expertise and contributions to the children and the success of both Redlands and Stepney Park over many years have been fantastic and highly valued. They will be greatly missed, and we wish them a very happy and fulfilling retirement.
We will also sadly say farewell to other highly valued colleagues, who are moving on to new opportunities:
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Louisa: Assistant Head and EYFS Lead
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Sarah: one of our Year 2 Teachers, year group lead and Science lead
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Rachel: one of our Year 1 Teachers
- Sindhu and George : two of our Teaching Assistants
We are very grateful for their hard work and dedication to our children and our school community. We wish them all the very best in their new roles and we will miss them all!
Year 6
It is with a mix of sadness and pride that we prepare to say goodbye to our lovely Year 6 classes. Soon, they will embark on their exciting journey into Year 7, and while we will miss their presence, we know they are ready for this next stage of their lives.
They have been a great year group, demonstrating resilience through challenging times and working with dedication to achieve their full potential. We are so proud of everything they have accomplished, and we eagerly anticipate hearing about their future successes. Our doors are always open; we would love for them to "pop in" and say hello at the end of a school day next year, sharing updates on their adventures.
Farewell and good luck, Year 6! We can't wait to see the amazing things the future holds for each and every one of you.
Test results
Our school continues to move from strength to strength and we are again above the national (and local) average in most of the crucial test results!
We are very proud of the following:
Note:
Other External Results
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Phonics Screening Check. 77.5% of the Y1 cohort passed the phonics screening check (national average 80%, Tower Hamlets average 79.2%). The small fall since last year (83%) reflects the high number of children with SEND in this cohort. 94% of the current Y2 cohort have now passed the screener.
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Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check. 66% of children achieved a perfect score of 25/25. We do not yet have figures for national averages, but based on last year’s (34%), this should be significantly above the average.
Congratulations to all staff who have taught our children day in and day out. Their efforts and expertise have really paid off!
Uniform ‘pass it on’ weeks
Thank you to everyone who gave us uniforms to pass on to other families. It was a great success, and it is something we will most definitely do again going forward. Please remember to send your child to school in the correct uniform:
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Purple T-shirt or top with school logo
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Grey trousers/ skirts/ dress
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Black shoes
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No leggings without skirt or dress
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No tracksuit bottoms
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For PE: plain white T-shirt with plain black leggings or tracksuit bottoms
Start of the autumn term
Dropping off
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The 2025-2026 school year will start for children at 8.50 am on Tuesday September 2nd.
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Please drop children off at one of the four playground gates at that time.
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Children in reception need to be dropped off by the gate near the caretaker's house on Redman’s road, where staff will be waiting to welcome them.
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Nursery children need to be dropped off in the south car park by the nursery gate.
Picking up
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Please go and find your child in the year group lining-up area in the playground, staff will be there to help you find the correct location.
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First week picking up safeguarding arrangements :
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The first week is always a difficult time, as class teachers do not yet know who the parents or other appropriate adults are who are allowed to pick the children up.
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We will send you a copy of the ‘ Picking Up Arrangements’ form this week. Please return it to us by the end of this week, if there are any changes from what you told us previously.
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Yr 5 and 6: Parents who wish for their child to go home alone can let us know in writing using this form as well. (For year 6 children: if you have already given permission, there is no need to tell us again)
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Children in Reception and Nursery should be picked up by their parents only in the first week, so that we can get to know you. We will ask children to confirm that the person who is picking up is in fact their parent. If this is not the case, we will ask the person who is picking up to wait, and we will call you on the number you have given to us to confirm that you have given permission for someone else to pick up instead. This is so that we can ensure that our records are up to date with all the new children who will join the school. Thank you for your patience with this.
Dear parents and carers, I want to finish by saying thank you for your continued support this school year. I hope you will have a relaxing and enjoyable summer holiday and hope to see you all again at the start of the next school year.
Kind regards.
Edith Philipsen
Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School
