Headteacher Weekly blog week beginning 8th February

Date: 15th Feb 2016 @ 3:33pm

The final week of this half term was as busy as ever.

The week began with our grammar talk to parents, led by Mrs Wakefield. Not only was it lots of fun, but the feedback showed that parents found it really useful. Expectatiations in grammar for each year group has risen and much of the literacy homework given focuses on this area. There was so much ground to cover that we did not even get up to semi colons, relative clauses, active and passive and complex sentence types. Mrs Wakefield hopes to hold an upper junior session very soon.

In Mrs Wakefield's literacy class, they have been enjoying reading and then responding to the text The Land of Neverbelieve. It is a wonderful book with stunning illustrations. As a school, we are investing in quality texts to use as a stimulus for writing and for guided reading. It is part of our approach to foster a love of reading for our pupils. This week, the Year 5 and 6 pupils have really enjoyed creating their own Neverbelieve Zogg planet. Having written their draft versions, they have now presented them as power points on the computer complete with hyperlinks.

On Thursday, it was the Handball tournament with all  of the schools from the Broxton area. It was a freezing cold night on the astro turf at the Heber High School. We took two teams and I was so proud of their atitudes and efforts. They gave it everything and both our teams won their qualifying groups. Farndon A beat Clutton to reach the final. Farndon B met Malpas and pushed them hard - they even hit the crossbar. Sadly, they conceded late on to lose 1 - 0. In the final, both teams played so well. The team showed real resilience to come back from a goal down to win 2 -1. Another trophy for the cabinet. I must congratulate both teams; they represented the school so well in respect of performance and their behaviour.

In our celebration assembly, we looked at the British value of Individual Liberty - the right to make your own choices. We started by playing a word association game where they could not pause; William was very good. But we realised that some choices are not always easy. We looked at choices we can make in school: school council reps, school dinners, curriculuar clubs and attitudes to learning.

On Friday, I went into Reception's music lesson. As part of their work on Chinese New Year, they sung songs and played instruments, while a Chinese dragon danced around the group. Joseph did a wonderful job at the front of the dragon. The children had a great l time learning all about the Chinese New Year and their culture.

This week I went into Year 2 to see all their writing on Jack and the Baked Beanstalk. The children have really enjoyed this text and produced some wonderful writing. Their presented pieces are on display with vines, stalks and baked beans backing paper!!!

I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable half term break. I am looking forward to the second half term with Faith Fortnight and World Book Day in the first few weeks of our return.