Week Ending 6^th October 2017

This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:

Oliver – Year 6 – for incredible persuasive speech packed full of emotive vocabulary

Lauren – Year 5 – for being determined and not giving up when things were tough

Olivia – Year 5 – for outstanding use of embedded clauses and relative pronouns

Joshua – Year 2 – for fantastic effort in handwriting

Jake – EYFS – for fantastic effort when learning tricky words

Alice – EYFS – for fantastic homework on creating repeating patterns and additional phonics

Ethan – EYFS – for creating a fantastic rocket using the hammer and pin shapes, which he copied from a picture accurately

Three classes achieved 100% attendance last week and praise goes to class 1, 7 and 12. I love the fact that children know why attendance is so importance and all children are now striving for their gold, silver or bronze pin badge at the end of the year.

Diary of the week:

Blimey, Friday again all ready! It does not seem like two minutes since we were preparing for the Macmillan coffee afternoon last week and what an absolute success that was. All at Team GB spent all weekend waiting to hear what we had raised in total, and we were astonished to find out that everyone associated with the Greasley Beauvale community helped to raise £1,652.64 for this very worthy charity. I think the photograph at the bottom of this feed REALLY epitomises the delight and gratitude of the year 6 team.

Well, this week, we were back to our learning and busy working hard. Yesterday was amazing; Mrs Clarke and I went on a walk around school (with our clipboards) to see what learning looked like on a typical Thursday afternoon here at school. Below are some of the positive attitudes to learning that we spotted:

• Focussed, attentive learning atmospheres in all lessons and interventions.
• Marking policy followed on all classroom displays.
• Celebration of scholarship and work to be proud of, from across the curriculum.
• Working walls being used well as an additional learning resource.
• Evidence on displays, in teacher talk and through dialogue between children, that expectation for ambitious vocabulary use is increasing.
• Displays evolving over the term and becoming more interactive.
• The achievements of children outside of school are recognised and valued in lots of places around school.
• Evidence of exciting risk taking in lessons and interventions.
• Use of well-managed, focussed outdoor learning.
• Clear evidence that adults’ approaches to teaching and learning generate high engagement.
• Clear links, where appropriate, to whole school focus on tolerance.
• Range of quality resources being utilised to support all learners.
• Questioning is being used effectively to encourage children to solve problems and become more independent in their approach to learning.
• Increasing use of, quality texts being used as a stimulus for learning across the curriculum.
• Subject leaders leading by example.
• High quality, tailored interventions running across school.
• Impact from Teaching Assistants across school is very high.

A great picture across school and lovely to see so much learning taking place in an enthusiastic, inquisitive and positive manner. School is a hive of excitement currently and children are eager to do their very best.

During a great Gold Book this morning, Ava (in year 2) was congratulated on her leadership skills! I didn’t wait long and could not wait to have her on the team. Consequently, this afternoon we did a learning walk together. She was great with her clipboard and said the following about teaching and learning across school:

• Neat handwriting
• Putting hands up
• Good listening
• Good spelling
• Good reading
• They’re doing their purple pen
• Sitting quietly
• Good lining up

Thank you so much, Ava…a great leader for the future!

Looking forward to next week, a reminder that Thursday is the individual school photos for all children across school. Get smiling!

Today we say goodbye to Katie Henshaw for a while as she starts her journey as a mummy and moves into her maternity months. Mrs Henshaw was due to start her maternity the week after next, but has made the right decision to look after herself, and her family, and put her feet up a week earlier than planned before ‘baby Henshaw’ makes an appearance. I will keep you posted on the exciting news. This term, Mrs Henshaw has not been class-based and has been covering planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) across Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2. Next Thursday, we have teacher interviews to cover this time in her absence and again, I will update you on the new teacher’s name until Mrs Henshaw returns sometime next year. I think you will all join me in wishing her well and good luck as she welcomes a newcomer to her family unit. Best Wishes, Katie!

Following that successful conclusion to another great week at Greasley Beauvale, I wish you all well and a very happy weekend with your families.

Take care,

Mrs Michelle Bates

Head Teacher