Christmas Party pictures!

  17 December 2006

• As a busy term draws to a close we have the chance to reflect upon the changes that have taken place and which are yet to come.

• Epitomising the new school structure our Christmas Nativity Happy Birthday Jesus, was well received at all the performances in St Laud’s church. With nearly half the school this year in the Reception group and almost all of the remaining half in Year 1 the average age of the performers was significantly younger than in the past. Our small Year 2 group rose magnificently to their dual roles as narrators and Wise Men/Main Star whilst the singing of the whole ensemble was to be commended. Many thanks to Mrs Annette Borner and Mrs Betty Feasey for their musical expertise, to Mrs Celia Wing and Mrs Emma Ravilious for costumes and Mrs Sue Temple for many extras in school at this busy time of the year.
• We are saying goodbye to two colleagues this month. Miss Claire Wadsworth finishes her experience with us and returns to the University of Bedfordshire to complete her degree. Mrs Lund leaves us for a post with the Milton Keynes Theatre as the final part of our restructuring of the school following the city-wide change in the age-of-transfer.
• Mrs Ravilious continues in her role of Higher Level Teaching Assistant with enhanced and widened responsibilities within the teaching team.
• Both Miss Wadsworth and Mrs Lund take with them the thanks and appreciation of the school in the form of a gift contributed to by staff, governors and school-funds.
• As a footnote we would wish to share the successful opportunity that arose following some developmental work from last year’s very successful Outdoor Week. Working with local authority advisers we were successful in taking the curriculum outdoors to celebrate our local environment and to develop creativity and communication skills. Our sister school, St Andrew’s at Great Linford, wanted to do something similar and we were able to help them do so. When I say we I mean the children as well because it was the perfect opportunity for our small Year 2 cohort to work alongside some peers from St Andrew’s and to contribute their skills in a wider context. In their words;
• MD; I used the video camera to take over 100 pictures and made two new friends, Josh and Josh!
• MD; I liked visiting the park again where we had our trip in the summer.
• GK; I made friends with girls called Megan and Jasmine and we made stick books.
• EC; I was poorly and missed the trip. I’m looking forward to the next taxi ride.
• (We are off to Greenleys First School in January for a similar visit -CS).
• All that remains is to wish all our friends and supporters the best possible Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

  20 November 2006

• Our week of activities based on Maths started the half-term with a common purpose across the school and the children took full advantage of the topic-based theme. Incorporating primarily Literacy, Information technology, and music with many other aspects of the curriculum the week sped past with practical maths being both a focus for activities such as cooking a well as developing core skills and consolidating them in different contexts. Many thanks to all those who came in to school to help and work with the children. School-grown pumpkins gave the younger children material to order, count and measure as well as the ingredients for cooking a pumpkin pie. The sale of produce at the end of the week gave some older children the role of shop-keeper with further application of Numeracy skills in the area of money.
• Our new bike shed has arisen and when completed will be officially opened with a review of our cycling safety programme for the children and an opening ceremony to encourage the more healthy option of cycling to school.

• As a school we were greatly saddened to hear of the death of Norman Arnold. Norman, in his role with the Historical Society was part of our school Millennial CLUTCH Club - taking an aspect of local history and using Information Technology to preserve local history, as well as make it available, to the children. Our project, guided and resourced through the MK Living Archive and the Open University, gave the children an insight in to Holidays - past and present. Norman was instrumental in directing us to key people in the village and sharing his love of the past in an inspirational manner. Our sympathies to Anita, Stuart and Bruce. Our CLUTCH club findings can be accessed here: http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/sherington01/home.html.

  22 October 2006

• Yes, we heard the first mention of the word last week and we will not go down the road of thinking about tinsel, trees, nativities and stars - just yet!

• But there were stars this term - in the school’s celebration of harvest festival at St Laud’s. We retold the story of The Little Red Hen to a packed ‘house’ and received so many positive comments from the congregation. This year’s cast, being on average younger than in previous years, rose magnificently to the occasion and a fine supper following the performance sealed the evening with our new school partner, the Rev’d Mandy Marriott.
• We welcome Miss Claire Wadsworth from the University of Bedfordshire who will work with us until Christmas (with the older children) to complete her teacher training course.
• Lisa’s cooking club continues to support our Healthy Schools programme. Children are preparing and eating hot meals made from basic ingredients, widening their appreciation of where food comes from and learning what it involves to prepare it in hygienic and safe ways. Then the eating and sharing at mealtimes underline social skills and table manners as well as the use of a knife and fork!
• Our partnership with Sherington Pre-School continues with the school hosting their AGM and viewing a lovely display of the wide and varied experiences offered by our sister organisation and thinking more generally about young children having a ‘voice’ in their activities through role-play complementing basic literacy skills across the curriculum.
• As we write we are planning a ‘maths week’ which will do just what it says on the tin and a whole lot more - accessing the mathematical and problem-solving curriculum through a wide range of activities involving story, dance, art and literacy.
• Thanks are due again to the stalwart volunteers helping to maintain many of our extensive outdoor facilities. They have worked in unseasonable sunshine and tropical monsoons with cheerfulness and good humour to the benefit of the children’s experiences.

  23 September 2006

• We returned to school in good health and spirits. Everybody seems to have had a good holiday, a varied mixture of activities and experiences to share. We welcome a new reception cohort; Amity Duncan, Clare Maitland, Alice Chambers, Caprice Masani, Aaron Beal, Douglas Vale, Kobie Monro, Jay Phillips, Natasha Currie and Emily Reid.
• Our first major event has been to prepare for Harvest Festival at St Laud’s. The children have worked hard and enthusiastically to put on a rendition of The Little Red Hen and with nearly half of our pupils new to school this has been a challenge for them.
  Everyone had a part to play and in partnership with the congregation and parents their singing supplemented the story with some favourite hymns. Many thanks to Mrs Feasey for helping us with rehearsals and playing the accompaniment on the night.
• The all-year round gardening club and Lisa's cooking club teamed up to provide a Harvest Festival lunch of home-grown pumpkin soup with homemade bread and Chelsea buns.
• It may be noticed that the wooden dinosaur ‘Doris’ who graced the mini-knoll at the front of the school has succumbed to the weather of several seasons.
  Plans are afoot to enable our current cohort of children to renew this feature in the new year.
• Our revised class and teaching structures are working well; all professional staff have greater contact with all pupils across the week giving us an improved teacher: pupil ration compared to previous years. The help freely given by our many volunteers enhances this even further and adds more dimensions to our daily school life.
• A big thank you to the volunteers who have helped to tidy up the grounds and keep our outdoor facilities in good working order.