Headteacher Weekly blog week beginning 3rd October
Date: 8th Oct 2016 @ 12:45pm
It was another busy week; when is there not one of those at Farndon!
Several of our infant children got to enjoy a trip away from school this week. The Reception class had a great day at Park Hall Farm. They got the chance to work with several different animals - the horses stole the show for many of the children I think having seen some of their writing back in class. The Year 1 and 2 pupils, who are learning about Heroes, got the chance to go to Liverpool and visit the Spaceport. Some of the heroes they are learning about are Neil Armstorng and Tim Peake so this trip was perfect to learn all about their experiences. They enjoyed learning all about the solar system and visited the Space Dome theatre. And no trip to Liverpool would be complete without taking a Ferry across the Mersey! Planning trips away from school takes lots of planning, adminsitration and paper work and I thank the staff who continue to work hard to ensure the pupils get lots of first hand experiences and memorable moments in the curriculum.
Parents may recall that as a school we have successfully bid for some money for our staff to visit France for CPD and to link with schools in that country. This is a school improvement point for the school this year - to improve the teaching of Modern foreign languages across Key Stage 2. Each term, 2 of our teachers will be going over to an area of France for a week to have intensive courses on the French language and to gather teaching strategies and resources to bring back to school and to then share with staff. Mrs Cornforth and Mr Bond have gone on Friday and whilst they are there, pupils and parents can follow their experiences on our blog.
We are only 1 month into the academic year and already we are celebrating success in sport. Having already won our 2 rugby tournaments, our hopes were high in the cross country. I was so pleased to hear how well all the members of our team did in each of their races. We won the overall trophy winning 5 out of the 6 races. Using the sports premium money, we have invested wisely into helping to provide a range of sports for all of our pupils and to help prepare them for tournaments. I look forward to seeing how our pupils get on at the hockey. Mr Bond is also introducing this year and added feature for competitive sport. In order to maximise the amount of pupils who have the opportunity to partake in competitve sport, Mr Bond is organising "intra" school competitions programme. Each term, pupils will play for their House in rugby, rounders, football, netball and other sports. In each competition, they will earn points that will contribute to their score in Sports Day so that we can find the overall winning House for Sports during Health Week - let the games begin!
My week has been dominated with meetings regarding the potential enlargement of our school. It is obviously an exciting time for us as we look at how we can develop the building and future proof the school. I met with the School Council as part of the consultation process and they came up with some wonderful comments. 1 pupil said how they thought it would be sad to buy a house in Farndon and not be able to come to the school as that is where they could make friends with other local children. Another councillor said he liked the idea of mixing classes in the future as you could make lots of different friends. The full consultation is on Tuesday and I look forward to seeing parents then and answering any of your questions and sharing with you all some of the exciting potential developments.