25 April 2007

• Prior to the holiday we had a magnificent display of Easter bonnets and skilful egg-rolling. The bonnets showed a lot of thought and imaginative care and the egg-rolling was cheered on by an appreciative audience of parents and friends.
• In the one week back at school since Easter the children have begun to practise their dancing for the village Mayday celebrations on the Knoll and once again Mrs Feasey has provided the expertise and patience to develop these skills.
• Inside the classroom our key Stage 1
  children have been investigating Creation Stories from several religions. They designed a creative workshop for the rest of the school and made representations of pictures from the Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions in clay, paint, collage and various drawings (pencil, felt-tip and computer). They mentored our Reception children in the stories and techniques and left only the clearing-up for the adults to do.
• With our earliest sowings beginning to show through the soil Mrs Ravilious and the Reception children have begun planting pumpkins, lettuce and French Beans for the vegetable plots.
• Lisa came in to cook pancakes to make up for the Shrove Tuesday we missed when the roof was leaking - they were well worth the wait and greatly appreciated by the children and adults alike.

  25 March 2007

• Did I last say “interesting times”; well the times got a bit more interesting when the Ofsted Inspector dropped in for a one day ‘light touch’ inspection. Light touch, but very rigorous, and the whole school community emerged delighted with the result.
• Outstanding grades in the areas of Personal development and well-being (behaviour and attitude & enjoyment of learning) and Good in all other areas. From the Report "The children are very confident workers who enjoy working together; these attributes combined with a good grasp of basic skills prepare them excellently for the next stage of their education…. the good teaching and learning ensure that pupils achieve well and make good progress…..the curriculum is good because it meets the range of pupils needs well and is enhanced by a good range of extra-curricular activities."
• Thanks are due to all those staff, governors and helpers over recent years who worked hard to achieve these results. The school page on the Sherington website was applauded during the inspection as an excellent overview of the daily life of the school (many thanks Ian). As with any inspection process we have some areas suggested for improvement to lift our ‘at least’ good gradings into the outstanding categories and these are already being implemented.

• Finally to the children, after all the heart of all we do, the Inspector wrote “Your behaviour is excellent and your attitudes to learning are outstanding. Your school is good and your Headteacher and staff look after you very well and help you to make good progress in your work.”

• Normal life at school continued with the vegetable plots planted, frog-spawn appearing in the pond and the Reception cohort visiting the village playpark for inspiration in their current topic. Years 1 & 2 have been living on the Isle of Struay with Katie Morag in our Literacy/geography topic while the whole school shared an RE workshop with the Rev Mandy on this term’s theme of the ‘Prodigal Son’. This included a whole school rewriting of this biblical story as ‘The Wayward Daughter’.
• Our Mother’s Day Assembly was a heartfelt event with all children preparing a gift, card and seasonal bunch of daffs to present to those who love them best.
• Preparations are underway for our 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee Celebration on June 30th and part of this will be a reunion of former pupils. If you or any of your family have had connection with the school please write or e-mail to Jill Burgess c/o the school. If you can’t appear in person some thoughts, memories or recollections will be gratefully received.
• So the roof is fixed, the Inspection done and the season seems to be turning; looking forward to SAT’s, Mayday and the Golden Jubilee as well as our normal summer’s activities. Life’s never dull in a small school doing big things and long may it continue thus!

  25 February 2007

• With our youngest children celebrating the Chinese New Year of the pig with Mrs Ravilious we are reminded of the saying ‘May you live in interesting times’, which we certainly are. The school was forced to close before half-term due to the snow causing traffic disruption and staff unable to travel to school in time and this was followed by a leaking roof. The resulting readjustment of our teaching in the remainder of the school while work was carried out showed the children at their flexible best, working in a variety of groupings and making full use of our outdoor facilities.


• Many thanks to those who helped us tidy the outside of the school, fill the skip and plant the new mini-orchard on the mini-knoll at the front of the school.
• Our Year 2 cohort took part in two learning walks to work with their peer-group from other schools. The first to Greenleys First School coincided with the first snowfall and we were able to take part in two lessons; a session of outdoor sculpture involving the use of the most abundant natural material of the day and a literacy lesson. Then a week later they went to the Horwood House Conference Centre to take part in our School Improvement Conference with a network of MK schools seeking to implement the pupil voice in Primary Schools. At Sherington this four-year research project has embedded a programme which starts with child-initiated and planned role-play, progresses in the older children to aspects of self-assessment and involves our regular whole-school circle-times whereby all the children have a chance to express their views and take part in some decision making.
• We would also like to thank all those who helped keep the school running smoothly and contributed to the very positive atmosphere during the repair work.

 

  28 January 2007

• Everybody returned from the Christmas break in good spirits to greet the New Year’s work with enthusiasm. Across the school we have all been enjoying a settled start to the term’s work looking at ‘Materials and buildings’ through the stories of the Three Little Pigs and The Three Little Wolves. The latter project was well interpreted by our visiting Year 10 student from Ousedale School Miss Chloe McFarlane as part of her work experience placement.
• The reformed PTFA continue the tradition of providing a hot lunch with a lovely cottage pie made from our own potatoes and home-grown leeks.
• Cornelius & Jones provided an excellent workshop and theatrical experience based on the Oscar Wilde fairy tale The Happy Prince which was enjoyed by the whole age-range within the school. Not only was the retelling of this story the focus for our week’s Literacy work but the excellent presentation gave the children a real insight into the theatrical processes behind the performance.