Head Teacher's Blog!
Week Ending 31st March 2017
This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:
Stanley – Year 1 – for amazing independent writing
Imogen – EYFS – for amazing phonics progress
WILF will be spending time with class 12 for 100% attendance this week and Jessica will be visiting class 13 for 100%.
Diary of the week:
I can hardly believe that we have reached the end of another term. The last six weeks have flown!
On Monday, Mrs Bates and I with Mr Rod Petman (governor) spent the day interviewing for a teacher for September. We had a really good field and were very impressed with the quality of the candidates. We were able to make the necessary appointments and I will write in the summer term to explain what this looks like.
On Tuesday, year 2 went to Wollaton hall for their school trip. They had a super day, although I am told that the highlight of the day was running down the big hill! It is great to see children going on educational visits and I thank you for your ongoing support with this.
It was great to see Jenni James in school on Wednesday as she prepares for her return after Easter, it seems like she has never been away. Also on Wednesday, Mrs Bates led a super staff meeting looking at our approach to writing. We have some really exciting ideas about how this can be achieved and the teachers were all ‘buzzing’ at the end of the training.
The parent-training event on Wednesday was well attended as usual and I really enjoyed my session on parental engagement. Parents said that they learned a lot in the phonics and reading sessions and of course the mastery of maths. Those who took part in the forest school session are keen for this to take part in all year groups! Mrs Bexon spoke to a group of parents about the emotional and social support we put in for some of our children and this was also well received. The bonus of this event was the amount of really good suggestions we received from parents, many of which we will be taking forward. I thank you for that. This theme of sharing good ideas was continued on Thursday, when I met with Year 1 parents to talk about how we can improve transition from early years. We celebrated the things that had worked well and created a list of ‘Even better if’. Mrs Bates is currently putting all suggestions together and then this will be sent out to parents in year 1 and early years.
Finally, today was a super duper day! Starting with Gold Book, which as you know is my favourite time of the week. We had a visitor today Mr John Wilson, who is the vice-chair of the Nottinghamshire Governors Association. He came in to say that we had two winners of the governor writing award competition. There were three placings across Nottinghamshire and two them were in our school. I was like a proud mum standing with Jamie Barrowcliffe who came first and Oliver Howard who secured third place for their amazing 500 word stories. The school was also acknowledged for the work that we do to promote writing for our children with a £25 book token. A great moment for us!
We ended the day with a surprise visitor – the Easter bunny, who came bearing gifts for all of the children. A great end to what has been a super term. Have a smashing holiday. Remember we do not return to school until Tuesday 18th April. I look forward to seeing you all then.