Failure is the Key to Success

On Thursday 24th April, the school is having to close to pupils. This is because the teachers, who are members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), are going on strike for more pay. The senior management team and the teaching assistants, who are not in the NUT, will be in school but are advised by their unions not to cover the striking teachers.

It is obvious with the timing of the strike, just as children are about to start their annual tests and exams, that the union do not care about the education of our children, they are only interested in lining their members’ pockets and causing the maximum disruption. The strike was called following a ballot of members, in which a majority of those who voted agreed with the strike, however this majority was less than one quarter of NUT members, so it is apparent most teachers didn’t want to strike.

Continue reading » Teachers to strike over pay

Tags:NUT,teachers' strike

The school is holding its second International Education Week this week. Countrywide it is International Education Month in November.

The idea is to teach the children more about other countries in terms of their location, culture, language, food and lifestyle. Each day is assigned a different continent and the children are asked to dress in either colours of any country’s flag from the continent or traditional dress / sportsware from a country.

Continue reading » International Education Week

Tags:international education week

We went to a talk at the school earlier tonight about Individual Learning Profiles. Simon Olding from MovementInMind came into the school to talk to parents and staff about the software that the school has been trialling. He had already been working with the school with great results with the BrainGym over the past few years.

He explained that we all favour a dominant hand, eye, ear, foot and brain hemisphere. The combinations of these dominances affects the ways in which we are best able to learn. For example some people may visualise, others may be more hands on and others may need to take notes for information to be absorbed.

Continue reading » How we learn

Tags:individual learning profiles,movementinmind

I don’t know where it’s gone, but the summer holidays are over. The kids both went back to school into their new classes this morning.

They both had good days, which is the best way to start a new term. As Jo isn’t working at the moment, she was able to take them and collect them today.

I think they are both going to sleep well tonight; they were very tied.

Jo’s probably going to help out at the school again until she gets another job.

It’s less than a week after my last ‘OK this should have been posted a few days ago’ post on Sunday and here I am again.

This is going to be a mixed bag, so hence the title.

On Wednesday evening, Jo and I went to the school for the end of year staff and governors’ BBQ. After the weather that we had been having for the previous days, I had visions of everyone eating in the hall and running out to the BBQ under umberellas for the food. Sitting in the canteen at work at lunchtime watching the rain, I was sure that this was going to come true. However, when I drove home it was bright sunshine and we had clear skies all evening. The food was excellent, provided and cooked by T.Harper and Son, from Bell Farm Studham. We all sat out under the large ash tree in the school grounds eating and chating until dark.

Last night I didn’t get a lot of blogging done as we had a power cut. It seemed strange sitting in a silent house by candle light. The power was only out for an hour, but when it came back I didn’t get round to posting anything, just a bit of blog reading.

The weather forecast for today was heavy rain and boy were they right. I could hear it hammering on the roof at work all day and when I left at 1pm to drive home, it was the worst rain that I have ever driven in. It was coming down so hard that even with the wipers on full it was difficult to see the road. Maybe that should have been difficult to see the river, as there was so much water pouring onto the roads from the banks and footpaths that the drains weren’t coping and as a result it was just flowing in rivers along the roads. At the top of the hill going into Hockliffe, you could see where a large branch had fallen off the overhanging oak tree and landed in the road; I’m not sure exactly what had happened, but the branch was about 50 yards further down the road with a police car partially across the road blocking it. The policewoman directing traffic looked absolutely soaked. A bit further, on the other side of Hockliffe, there was a large removals lorry changing a flat tyre. I know there isn’t ever a good time for a flat tyre, but that had to be one of the worst.

By about 3pm, the weather had completely changed and it was bright and sunny. Hopefully the weather tomorrow will be good. We are planning to go to the Joust at Berkeley Castle tomorrow. The BBC weather forecast is still telling us tomorrow will be sunny intervals, so we are hopeful. We will however be taking our wellies, I think we will need them!

[Update] Due to the amount of rain across the country, there is major flooding across England and Wales. This includes flooding across the motorways in the area of Berkeley. Checking the Joust website this evening, the first weekend of the Joust has been cancelled, so lets hope the weather stays dry for the next week so that the second weekend can go ahead as planned.

Tags:bbq,joust,weather

This morning I, along with many other parents, attended the Governors’ Merit Assembly at Watling Lower School.

This assembly was started about 8 years ago with just 4 awards and has grown. This year saw the introduction of the ‘Wat Ticks’ awards for achieving the highest scores in each years assessments. It was a particularly proud moment for me, as my daughter was one of the seven with joint highest score in the Foundation stage and my son was the highest score in Year 2.

There were awards presented for those who had been taking part in the Walk to School scheme, part of the school’s travel plan, and had walked over 100 times. Awards were given for attendance, highest number of merit points, to the house captains and vice-captains among others.

Andy Pilborough-Skinner from Templar Martial Arts presented certificates to several pupils who had graded in the after school club that he runs.
This year’s academic results are the best that the school has had and to celebrate that the children are being allowed a MUFTI day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.