It has been one of those weeks where you can’t put your finger on what you have done. I have been at buildings meetings, teaching, reading stories (without falling asleep in Pre-School’s quiet area), unblocking drains, trying my very best to get the gate buzzer fixed, updating school development plans, planning the budget, transporting children to the swimming gala, showing more new families around school and trying to fit more things into an already overcrowded timetable. Next week, I will be in Pre-School for the whole week and I have to say I am looking forward to it. One of our new 2 year olds managed to spot ‘my daddy’ on every page of a Dora The Explorer book. ‘My Daddy’ happened to be a tiny (compared to all of the other characters in the book) magician wearing a magical coat. I have met this little girl’s daddy and the two could not be further apart in appearance. It just shows you how the special people are thought about every minute of the day. I did not think that Pre-School would have been as successful as it currently is. We are now full on a Tuesday and Wednesday until September and we have growing lists of interest, as well as definite numbers, for the following two years. I would urge any of you who wish to join our Pre-School to collect a form and put your child’s name on our lists as we do not want to disappoint.

click this link…

I am not a great dancer and I think a giraffe would possibly have better moves due to having longer legs. I taught a little boy, in one of my previous schools, who developed a brain tumour. He is not here anymore and I always remember that his favourite story was ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’. It is incredible to think what an impact we have on children and what special thoughts they hold of you forever. Sometimes we think that we don’t make such an impact, but I certainly remember the teachers who listened and the teachers who inspired me. The video above is for little Ben who loved ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ and always laughed at me when I tried to dance. My aim was to prove that giraffes can dance but I will let you judge that for yourselves!

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.

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.

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!

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.