Week Ending 20th January 2017
This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:

Ruby – Year 3 – for fantastic writing using accurate speech punctuation.
William – Year 3 – for his brilliant version of ‘Cops and Robbers’.
Liam – Year 5 – for fantastic effort in his homework.
Warren – Year 2 – for his detailed and informative fact file about a snake.
Liam – Year 4 – for his detailed advert for a house from Harry Potter.
Elise – Year 4 – for her detailed and emotional diary entry about Harry Potter’s trip to the zoo.

WILF will be spending time with class 8 for 100% attendance this week and Jessica will be visiting class 14 for 99.5%. Great percentages for this time of year and with so much illness.

The ‘Golden Dustpan’ award goes to Mr Leyshon’s class for the tidiest classroom. Well done!

Diary of the week:

Well, another busy week in school where the children and adults have been working incredibly hard. The week started very wet and drizzly and ended very chilly and crisp but we have all managed to keep high-spirited throughout our learning journey.

We’ve had some fantastic comments from visitors recently. On Monday, Mrs Chambers invited some of her training colleagues into school to show what we are about and what a fantastic school we are. They commented on the buzz of the place and what a fantastic learning environment we provide for the children. We had comments from Dougie and Jim this week (who visited last week to present the memorial cup for the Poppy Appeal) and they said what a fantastic group of children we have in school. They commented on their manners, behaviour and general inquisitive nature. Mr Christie, the supply teacher in year one, also said what a great bunch of children we have and how engaged they are in their learning. Following Anna Soubry’s visit to school last week, she wrote in her weekly newsletter that, “It’s always a pleasure to visit schools in the constituency and none more so than Greasley Beauvale. Their excellent Pupil Parliament gave me a suitable grilling. I was particularly impressed to hear details of how pupils are encouraged to care and support each other and get involved in the local community.” She also commented on the “inspirational” work of Mrs Chambers and her work on involving families with school life. We are very proud of everyone involved with Greasley Beauvale community!

In addition to this, we have been looking at sharing ‘best practice’ across school and thinking about our journey to outstanding. This week, and over the next few weeks, staff are taking part in learning walks where they go and observe their colleagues in action! Teachers have relished this opportunity and found so much that they can then take back to their own class as a way to develop the practice they already use. We teach children how to ‘magpie’ constantly and that is now what we are all doing in school.

Excitingly, this week Pupil Parliament met to discuss the weather station competition entries. They were impressed with both the number of entries and the quality. Antony Pailing, our link governor for science, also viewed all of the entries alongside the pupil parliament feedback. 5 winning entries have been chosen. Each of the winning entries contain key elements that will be incorporated into the final school weather station design, funded by Rolls-Royce. The winners in each category will be announced soon in assembly. VERY exciting news.

Another exciting opportunity for some children has been the ‘Spaghetti Maths’ after school club, which is run independently by a company…it has gone down a storm. Only this week, I observed children counting, using resources brilliantly, being engaged with the subject, passionate about numbers and problem solving…truly brilliant! Maths is fun and can be done by all!

I also wanted to say a huge well done to our year 6s, who are now fully into their SATs revision. This week, I ran the maths reading booster session after school and was blown away by the children’s passion to want to do well and get the right answers. True perseverance and determination…I loved it!

A reminder that Mrs Chambers will be hosting her ‘Parent Partnership Event’ on Monday 23rd January at 9.15am and 6pm. She will be sharing her research with you and discussing descriptors. Please let the office know if you would like to attend.

Another busy week…but so many positives!

Have a super weekend and see you all very soon.

Take care,
Mrs Bates