Mr Smith posts regular messages below. Parents will find useful updates, whilst pupils might find themselves playing starring role in one of the posts!
It was almost game, set and match for the Wise Owls this week, as they not only scooped an extra 5 minutes of break time for having the best attendance, they also had the most children who completed their home-learning – setting an example to the rest of the school and demonstrating effective behaviours for learning that make a big difference.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents, grandparents and other relatives who were able to join us this week, as part of our Back to School sessions on reading – many of whom attended multiple workshops throughout the week. These sessions were very much the highlight of the week for me, and it was great to see so many children and family adults making the most of the quality time together, sharing a book, doing their speed sounds or working on their comprehension skills. We had a record turnout on this occasion also and I hope many of you will once again take up the opportunity to join us in April for our sessions on spelling. If you want to know some of the feedback we received, we’ll be displaying this in reception over the next week.
I had one of those moments this week, when I stood back and felt an immense sense of pride, for what you are all becoming and how you are all progressing! I have never stopped having in faith in your ability to ‘shine’ but it has to be said that everybody is working incredibly hard around school at the minute and it is great to see that the hard work is paying off! I hope you are feeling proud of yourself too!
I’m sure that you have all heard the famous saying; “practice makes perfect” over the years, either from your teachers or your own mum and dad at some point. No matter how many times we hear it, the message never loses its importance. School this week has been living proof that if we put in the hard graft and keep on top of the things that matter, it really does pay off. There have been many examples of this ringing true.
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have all had a fabulous time off with your family and friends over Christmas and you are fully refreshed for the term ahead. It seemed really strange to come back into school on Tuesday last week with the Christmas decorations still up. Usually, we return to school a little later into January! However, the sooner we are back, the sooner we get back into routine. It was great to see all of the children once again.
Apologies to my blog followers for not posting for a few weeks. We’ve had a really busy few weeks in school getting ready for the Christmas break-up, with some snow and ice thrown in for good measure. This last week especially, has been a really topsy-turvy one with our school closure on Monday and our early finish on Friday. I think that we were all surprised by the road conditions on Friday morning when we arrived for Christmas Dinner Day. However, thanks to Mrs Harris our Caretaker, and her son, we managed to keep the pathways around school reasonably clear. Did you know – this week we have got through 10 very large bags of grit in the process!
Click here to continue reading… “Twas the weekend before Christmas break-up….”
It has been a rather interesting week in school with so much happening away from the normal occurrences. I am of course referring to Classic Book Week.
I want to start by thanking all parents for getting on board and embracing our whole-school dress-up day on Monday last week. There were some superb Victorian costumes and it gave the children a real insight into what life was like to live in Victorian England. A number of children commented on how warm they felt and also how ‘restricted’ the Victorian dress made them feel. Mrs Harris said that she was struggling to smile and that she felt very strict in her Victorian clothes. Whether dressing up is your thing or not, it takes great courage to go out of your comfort zone and move away from the safety of what you know – so thank you everyone. I was extremely encouraged by the way our children embraced their Victorian style lessons and also by the efforts that all parents went to in sourcing a suitable costume so their child could join in.
Last week’s blog was a tribute to the exemplary service and dedication of our armed forces in conflicts around the world, keeping us safe and representing our great nation. This week, I’d like to start by congratulating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh on their extraordinary service and dedication to each other!
Today marks 70 years since Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip got married and I’m sure that they’ll be looking back with fondness on that special day in 1947 where the whole country came out in their droves for their wedding. Clearly much has changed since then – we’ve seen Prime Ministers come and go, fashions change with every decade, new countries formed and many new laws passed. On behalf of everybody at Coton school – have a wonderful day and many congratulations to you!
As we leave another school week behind, the sights and sounds of this weekend’s Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall are a timely reminder to us all of the personal sacrifice that so many people make for the good of others. After so many conflicts across the world – the two world wars, the Falklands, Northern Ireland and more recently, the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq – our school stands in tribute to all the service men and women who gave up so much. Our thoughts are with those families who lost their loved ones through the act of war. Their memory will be live on.
This week, the children in Wise Owls have been doing their bit to keep the memory of those men and women burning bright, selling poppies for a minimum donation of 20p each day. It has been great to see so many children wearing their poppies with pride around school – and let’s not forget about why we wear them! Inspired by Lt Col John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields’, after his sight of poppies growing in a war torn battlefield, the poppy has become a national symbol of selflessness, courage, resilience and hope. All very important qualities to bear in mind.
We talk about the art of resilience every day in school – in order to show perseverance (one of our school words), one needs the resolve and dedication to keep going and not give up, even when we find something tricky. I took great heart when Mrs Mailer texted me on Tuesday evening last week, to let me know how our dodgeball team had got on in the Primary Dodgeball Competition at Greenbank. Not only did our school reach the quarter finals, they did so in real style! I am told that at one point, only Liliah (Wise Owls) was left to defend her team, successfully managing to not get hit and fending off balls from the three remaining players on the opposing team. Also this week, I was most impressed with Gracie from the Funky Foxes, who was working hard to understand how to read timetables in maths. Reading a timetable can be a very tricky skill to master but after asking for help and then listening really carefully – she was able to have a go herself and get her subsequent answers correct. There was ample resilience shown in Year 6 too – Mrs Weston’s class have been mastering the art of fractions this week.
On Wednesday last week, I had real reason to feel hopeful and optimistic after working with Eva Cerioni (a phonics specialist from Derby University). We both popped into phonics lessons and we were really impressed with what we saw. You were doing really well with your speed sounds and your reading of alien words. Remember – this is a big focus for us this year and we want to make sure that you all enjoy phonics lessons and have the chance to get active. Mrs Smith has been really pleased with the results so far –so much so, she has had to rejig the groups already, after only 6 weeks!
Mrs Weston, Mrs Smith and I had a good look at your English books on Monday night last week too. We were really pleased with the presentation and handwriting in your books – I can’t believe the difference that the new writing paper is having in Key Stage 1. There was some super writing from the children in Super Squirrels! There is always so much to remember when you do a piece of writing! I was also really pleased to see that you had been working hard to respond to your teacher’s feedback during ‘please and now’ time too. Many of you have been encouraged to read over your own work in ‘please and now’ time and add in missing punctuation for yourself or improve your use of language. Remember – if you respond to teacher feedback every day, you will go on to make even more progress in your learning. It is really important that the work in your book shows consistent improvement over the year – there should already be a massive difference between September’s work and the work you are producing now. Mrs Smith and I were also checking whether you were producing work in line with your potential and also National Expectations.
Unfortunately, I have had to have a little nag over the last few weeks when it comes to attendance and lateness. Last week I shared some figures with you about lateness and I know that many of you were shocked to hear that 606 minutes of learning time had been lost last term. Well, this week we had another 17 incidents of lateness and this added up to 2 hours and 5 minutes of lost learning time. It is really important that you get yourself to school on time so your teachers can use every minute possible to make a difference to your learning. I am also a little disappointed with our current attendance figures too. After being at the 97% mark for the duration of last year, our average attendance is down to 95% at present. Obviously, we are aware that you are all going to feel ill from time to time and we would never want you coming into school if you are sick but we all need to mindful of making the most of the time we have available to help you learn and work on any areas of difficulty. Remember an essential part of ‘excellence’ is about changing our behaviours and getting into good habits. The Wise Owls have the best attendance this year to date so well done!
A massive thank you to all those parents who attended one of this week’s successful parents consultation evenings. It was great to chat to you all and be on hand to answer any queries or concerns that you may have had. As you will have gathered from the conversations, we are working hard to develop a culture of openness and honesty through the information that we share with you. I know that we still have a way to go on this but hopefully you sense that we are improving and moving in the right direction. I am going to be talking to an SLE (Specialist Leader of Education) in the forthcoming months about how we can visibly show you your child’s academic journey as they progress throughout the school linked to national expectations. We are also going to be making some changes to our Individual Education Plans. Watch this space!
Mrs Farmer and the ladies in the school kitchen did a terrific job on Wednesday last week, as we welcomed an additional 82 grown-ups into school for our annual grandparent’s lunch. This is always such a great occasion and I know that the roast beef went down a real treat! Having visitors into school is an integral part of our ethos – we are really pleased that so many grandparents could make it. We look forward to inviting them into school again, very soon.
I am really pleased with how the Intra School Sport is going at lunchtimes. Last week it was the turn of Key Stage 1 to take part in a range of sports with our Lunchtime Sports Leader, Devon. Tag rugby and dodgeball seem to be the most popular events which are signed up for at present, I am going to be keeping an eye out for those children who are showing good sportsmanship and also good gamesmanship during lunchtimes. There is nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition – so long as remains good natured! I am working with Mr Brown, our Sports Link Governor next week, so I hope to have some interesting figures to show him about how things are going!
Also next week, the Brilliant Badgers are holding their special Viking Day. It sounds like it is going to be a fantastic day of fun filled activities – I think a grand Viking invasion is planned for Coton Woods at some point during the day. Miss Bains – the new class teacher will also be joining the children so she can get to know them further. On Thursday this week, we have the school disco too – so dust off your best frock and your dancing shoes!
Keep an eye out for an important letter going home over the next day or so too, regarding our forthcoming Classic Book Week. We will be encouraging children to come dressed in Victorian dress during the week so they are engaged in the week’s festivities.
Thank you for the 14 entries in last week’s blog box. It would be great if we could top this next week. This week’s blog box question is: How many grandparents attended our special lunch on Wednesday last week?
To finish this week’s blog – I want to leave you with a few poignant lines from Robert Laurence Binyon’s well known poem – For The Fallen
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Welcome back after over a week off. The beard is off, the hair is trimmed and it has been great to see all the children back in school, looking refreshed and ready for the busy term ahead.
The run-up to Christmas is always a hive of activity and there are many exciting extra-curricular events taking place. This term we have the Key Stage 1 Nativity to look forward to, the Key Stage 2 Christingle Service in church, the FPTA Christmas Fayre, a school disco, a Christmas bingo, Grandparents’ Lunch, Classic Book Week, Primary Dodgeball & Primary Gymnastic competitions, in addition to getting started on the Key Stage 2 summer production and preparing for Young Voices. All of these events are really important in offering our children the rounded educational experience for which they are entitled. Many of our staff team always look forward to this term (as do I) and enjoy the opportunity to informally mingle with parents and do lots of the ‘fun stuff’. After all, this is the ‘awe and wonder’ that our children love and it brings our school community together.
At the same time, the challenge for all of us, is to make sure that our school continues to grow and develop for the good of the children’s attainment and academic progress and that our school improvement journey doesn’t stall. We have made such a great start to the new school year, it is important that we build on our achievements from last term and keep up the momentum.
I’d like to start this week by saying a big well done to a few children who have started the new term, in the same way that they ended the last. I was immensely pleased when Ms Challinor sent Aroura (Brilliant Badgers) to me on Thursday morning with some amazing writing. When I was at Primary school, English was my favourite subject and this love has only grown stronger throughout my days as a teacher. It was wonderful to see some beautifully joined handwriting and not only that, but a page of perfectly formed sentences. I’d also like to give Tamsin (Brilliant Badgers) a ‘thumbs up’ for her Viking work in computing too. On the subject of politeness and manners, I’d like to thank the children in Wise Owls for coming into Collective Worship superbly this week. Setting an example is a big part of what is expected from a Year 6 learner. They have had it in spades this week.
I had a great meeting with School Parliament on Monday last week, where we discussed how we could improve Privilege Time. All of the MPs decided that they would like Privilege Time to have a weekly theme from now on. Some of the suggestions included: the setting up of a treasure hunt, cooking, cinema, or a physical circuit being set up in the hall with the PE equipment. I am really looking forward to taking their ideas on board – Mrs Cresswell has been busy making me a laminated poster to display around school, where I can write what the Privilege Time theme is for each week. Keep your eyes peeled so you can decide whether or not to cash-in your Privilege Pass.
It was lovely to see so many parents attend our phonics workshop this week. Mrs Smith had a great time teaching a demo-lesson, with the help of our Year 1 children. I know that there were lots of technical words used such as: grapheme, diagraph, pure sounds, alien words etc. Please don’t worry, we will be issuing an information sheet shortly. Next week, we will be developing our phonics teaching further when we welcome Eva Cerioni (Derby University) into school to give us some more useful pointers. As I have mentioned before, phonics is a big part of our school improvement plan this year; we want to make sure that these vital learning foundations are firmly in place for every child before they begin Key Stage 2.
I was very busy on Thursday and Friday last week, paying close attention to the attendance and lateness figures from last term. I was really pleased to give out a total of 42 certificates on Friday, to all of those children who came to school every day of last term. Even though there were lots of germs and bugs going around, and many bouts of sickness (which cannot be helped) we still managed to get over a third of our school population here 100% of the time. However, it is lateness that still continues to be an issue for our school. I just wanted to share the following interesting facts with you from last term’s figures:
I think we are all late at some point in our working life but please remember that the register closes at 9am and being regularly late has a detrimental impact on rates of progress. Giving your child the chance to socialise on the yard before the start of the school is vitally important to them. Starting the day in calm fashion, without having to rush to get out of bed, sets your child up for the day ahead. Also, many of our interventions and basic skill lessons take place between 9 and 9:15. It is really tricky for your child if they miss the chance to work on these pre-requisite skills that are so important to access other aspects of the curriculum. Mr Evans (our Chair of Governors) and myself will be keeping a close eye on this as the term progresses.
Mrs Christie had a great time last Tuesday, when she visited Moira Primary School to look at how we could develop our use of Numicon in Key Stage 1. For those of you who are not aware, Numicon is a special resource which makes the concept of number much less abstract. It really helps the children to make visual connections when adding, subtracting, learning about fractions and comparing numbers. Your child will be using lots of Numicon resources over the next year so we can secure their mathematical understanding.
I am really looking forward to this week’s Grandparents’ Lunch. It is always such a joyous occasion and great to see the look on a child’s face when they have a special guest with them. Last year we had 86 special visitors joining us and I know we are expecting many more this time around. Mrs Farmer and the team in the kitchen do an amazing job to feed so many people in such a short space of time. The event takes place this Wednesday from 11:30 am –starting with those children in Happy Hedgehogs. At 11:50 am, it is the time of the Super Squirrels, and then the other 3 classes will have their turn from 12:15 pm.
Also this week, we have the first parent consultation evening of the new school year. Your child should have taken their appointment time home with them on Friday, in the form of a paper slip. These were delivered to classes on Friday morning. Please make sure that you check your child’s bag if you haven’t received it. This parents’ evening is all about giving you information on how your child has settled into the new school year. We will be talking to you about a range of generic areas including: attitude, effort, presentation and home-learning as well as giving you a general indication as to whether they are on track to achieve the expected standard by the end of the year in Reading, Writing and Maths. Please be advised that teachers can only give an indication at this stage in the year, based on the child’s class work to date. However, we will be honest with you and shed some light on the areas that your child is finding more difficult, in addition to celebrating individual successes. I am pleased to announce that we have a number of special visitors attending too, in the form of Mrs Sharples (Headteacher from The Pingle Academy), a representative from The William Allitt school and, for those parents with children in Brilliant Badgers, the newly appointed class teacher to take over from Miss Popple – Miss Bains.
In the school hall, we have our usual book fair event taking place too. This runs until Thursday next week. Please have a good look at the cases on display – we are working really hard to encourage all children to read regularly at home. Not a lot of people know but our school gets commission on every book sold at the book fair and we can then reinvest this back into school. Please click on the following link to see how the book fair helps our school: http://coton-in-the-elms.derbyshire.sch.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=9144&action=edit
Before I leave you for another week, I’d just like to draw your attention to an important safety notice that was sent out last week. We currently have a child in school, who has been diagnosed with an aggressive nut allergy. All of our staff are epi-pen trained but we must make sure that our school environment is safe for everyone who attends it. From now on, we’d kindly ask that snack products which list nuts in their ingredients list, are not brought into school under any circumstances. This includes in lunchboxes or for after school events. Having an allergic reaction of any kind can have very serious consequences and can be fatal. Remember, reactions can not only be caused by physical contact but also airborne allergens too! We’d really appreciate your support in this matter so we can ensure that our school remains a safe place for everyone.
Have a good week and I hope to see lots of brilliant English work when I look at your Literacy books with Mrs Weston and Mrs Smith on Monday!
This week’s blog question is: How many minutes were lost due to lateness last half-term?
