Headteacher weekly blog week beginning 23rd October
Date: 29th Oct 2017 @ 4:48pm
Phew! And so the term draws to an end. Eight weeks is a long half term and the pupils and staff certainly have earnt a well deserved rest.
It was nice to welcome back Mrs Higley and Mrs Pimparel from their eperiences in France. They both came back buzzing about their time with our partner school in France. They had plenty of lessons to improve their french, soaked up lots of the culture and ended the week by teaching a lesson in the school. They based all their work around the Dear Zoo and shared work that the Year 2 and Year 6 pupils had produced in class. This week, the Year 6 pupils were very excited to receive letters from the French pupils who had written back to them. Mrs Higley was most impressed as our pupils could translate most of the content. We are clearly seeing the impact of all our staff development on the teaching of a modern foreign language. The Year 6 children now plan to hold a French cafe for the local community in the Spring.
In the last week of term, we started our assessments. For the first time we did a specific spelling assessment which will give us a standardised score so we can monitor the impact of the improvements we have made. Mrs Wakefield was thrilled with some of the early results. The words tested were quite challenging but the children did really well. Let's hope this continues throughout the year.
On Wednesday, it was our first "Celebration of the Arts" evening held at the Sports and Social club. The evening was organised by Miss Schofield who decided to put this on as the dance event her group had spent hours practising on had been cancelled once again. The evening was fantastic and so well attended with over 100 in the audience! It was a great way to showcase our pupils' talents and to give them an opportunity to shine on the stage, making all those hours of practise worth it. The dancers were amazing as were those reading and performing their poetry. It is something we will certainly do again, but next time I have challenged the staff to perform on the stage! Sadly, my role will of course be more of a choreographer due to my bad knee.
During half term, the builders have got big plans and even plan to work on Saturday! The studio hall and offices will be 66% complete and are preparing to knock through. The staff room will also begin and an external door fitted on the library room. The temporary toilets are nearly complete and once we are back the boys' toilets will be ripped out to prepare for the new meeting / cookery room. I am excited to see the developments made during our week off.
Term ended with the PTA Halloween disco. A big thank you to all those who gave their time to help. It was a great evening and some of the outfits were amazing! Things have certainly moved on since my day when I just put a sheet over my head to be a ghost.
I hope everyone has a great half term I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.