We are certainly in the swing of things here as we approach the end to our first half term back in school. I have been inundated with pictures of our children reading in some very unusual places. One of our school improvement priorities is to enhance the love of reading and extend the amount we read as a school. Our task is to have our picture taken as we are reading in an unusual place. We have had many smiles over some of the pictures-you are very welcome to have a look at them for yourselves in our school hall! The requirements of the new SATs are that the children answer comprehension questions in full answers, quoting detailed evidence from the text. We found, last year, that the new test papers were long and many children did not complete the paper. This is one of the reasons for  focusing on building stamina to read longer pieces of text and to infer and deduce key information. A love of reading always helps this process and I would urge you to visit the local library and invest in books that your children will love to read-and want to keeping reading! We have specific ‘class reads’ that the children love and ‘Author Study’ is embedded throughout school-beginning at an early stage in Pre-School. We are delighted that our Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar results were well above Lancashire and National Average, as this was a school improvement priority last year and it has certainly worked! Our Year 1 phonics screening check is also consistently well above National Average, which proves that reading and phonics are taught very well in the infants. Thank you to all who sign the daily reading diaries. It is wonderful to see so many children being presented with reading certificates in assembly.

I am delighted to have received so many phone calls and positive comments regarding the behaviour of our children. Last week, our Year 5 children joined other schools on a Pilgrimage trip to Lancaster and it was truly wonderful.  We are very proud of the children and we give our thanks to the team at Lancaster Diocese who worked tirelessly in making the joint trip a safe, spiritual enjoyable occasion.

Here are some pictures of our new trim trail being tried and tested by our excited children! So many thanks go out to our anonymous parent donator who has provided this trim trail. What an incredible gift. Each week, the team with the most house points will earn themselves 15 minutes extra play on the trim trail-something worth working towards!

The beautiful moments the Pre-School parents will want to see. Here are some pictures for you to cherish…

I am sure that it was ‘Ferris Bueller’ who said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Wonderful news! Our children love our school!

It always amazes me that the world is always perceived as such a wonderous place to a child. Today, I listened to Louis Armstrong singing ‘What a Wonderful World.’ The week has been very busy and filled with many different challenges. We need to stop, reflect and take the time to appreciate the wonder in the world-just as a child does. This thought crossed my mind when I saw the children go on our new trim trail for the very first time today. The expression on their faces can only be described as ‘sheer delight.’  Each class will be given a play time when it is for their use to avoid congestion! It was magical, however, to see the older children take the hands of our younger children and help teach them how to use the trim trail safely. As I stood in the middle of the trim trail activity area, wind blowing in my hair, I resembled only what could be described as ‘Worzel Gummage’-some of you may remember the children’s TV programme about the scarecrow!

Have a look on our ‘Hill Chapel Pre-School’ web page for more pictures of our first week. I love this picture because it is a typical representation of our school ethos.