Headteacher's Blog
Welcome back everybody! We are looking forward to another great half term. A newsletter, including dates for your diary, will be sent home this week. Please don’t forget that your child/ren will need to come into school next Thursday (2nd March) dressed as their favourite book character.
Headteacher's Blog
I was surprised today when a song came on Smooth Radio and the children in the back of my car began singing along to Copacabana! I didn’t expect the children to know this song but they did. We were coming back from the trip to watch ‘Oliver’ at Our Lady’s. Bob Marley also came on the radio and it was at that moment we all starting singing along to Three Little Birds. I wish I didn’t worry about a thing but sometimes you can’t help it. I have been very upset by the news that Father Smith is leaving. We work so closely together and I can’t help but miss him already and he hasn’t even gone yet. I will be at Mass this weekend to say goodbye and hope you can make it if you can. People say that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. I have been so used to working alongside Father Smith on a daily basis. His interest in our school and our children has been breath of fresh air and his enthusiasm in general has brought me a true understanding of ‘School and Parish working together.’ I think you always miss charismatic people who make a difference but I am not sure at the time you realise just how special they are. We will welcome Father Sony into our school and Parish and I will try my very best to keep family Mass alive and engaging for our children.
Headteacher's Blog
Our children have had a great time learning how to use clay. They have made their own Terracotta Army Warriors. Look how amazing they are.
Headteacher's Blog
Thank you to all who came to watch the show. Well done choir and band children-you were amazing as always! All children who represented school were awarded the bronze star. We are so proud of them all!
Headteacher's Blog
Dear all,
We are in need of developing our outdoors area. This area will be used by children in breakfast and after school club, baby and toddler groups (which will hopefully start soon in school), all children in the school and children of the Parish on a Sunday. It will not be restricted to infants only. We hope that this will be at the back of Father’s garden, where the EYFS and infant outdoor access areas already are. The fenced in space for Pendle Class is limiting and is simply not big enough. We would turn that space into one big messy play area and the Pre-School children would share this communal area too. We use all school grounds for outdoor learning but the children deserve even better. Big ideas need to be put into reality for all of our children and we need help. Behind Father’s garden is a huge space and our children deserve the very best. We want to have outdoor art spaces and create zones for messy play, bird watching, physical development and everything that is creative! A few years ago, Mrs Kerr visited Melbourne to explore and learn about their outdoor spaces and the pictures are incredible. I will put some of these pictures on another post for you to see our vision. Our outdoors are beautiful and we want to create natural areas in keeping with school. There are a few examples below of projects other schools have completed. I have put a bid in for The National Lottery in hope we are granted £10,000. The last bid I put in was refused due to where our school is located. We were told that not enough people from the community would benefit from this for it to go ahead. If our new bid is successful, the entrance to after school/ breakfast club will be through this new area and not through school anymore. They will use this as their outdoor space daily. We will have lighting and seating areas in this space for all to enjoy. The PTFA are supportive of this and I hope that you will all understand how much this is needed to move our school forwards for our children. When we created the Pre-School secure entrance, I could not extend this space any more than it is due to the oil tanker that needs access to the back of Church. This is why the Pre-School space is situated where it is. It would be wonderful for them to use a rich and diverse learning area close to their classroom.
Headteacher's Blog
The title of this blog reflects the whole week. Why not dance at every opportunity when you are 2 years old? Yesterday rounded the week off with laughter, a conga and new 1970s dance moves. I like The Eagles earliest songs and Nat King Cole but music from the 70s makes me want to dance too! Fairsnape’s music lesson in the hall was interrupted by Pre-School’s conga. If you are going to do an unplanned conga you have to do it right and let everyone know about it. Making our own see saws has been a feature of outdoors and the children’s happiness has brought us great smiles.
Headteacher's Blog
We are reaching for the stars!
Headteacher's Blog
This morning as I was happily gritting, I was called a ‘Jack of all trades!’ A couple of you had commented that it was quite a comical blog yesterday as it highlighted just how diverse my job actually is. Being a head teacher is far removed from the days of teaching. You really do have to know things about things you didn’t even know existed. I was speaking to Mr. Gilmour about this today because the drains in the playground had flooded again. For that job, the animal net remained redundant and the long prodding stick came out. It was not glamorous in any way but it got the job done. Playground safely gritted and drained-for now!
