Summer News - 25 July 2008

• Coming to the end of another school year sees us completing the full two-year curriculum cycle put in place after the school system review of 2006. Our excellent SAT’s results (both individually and as a group for Year 2) show that the confidence shown by Ofsted in our inspection half-way through this cycle was not misplaced.
• Our Wishing tree was completed and installed in the small orchard at the front of the school, all children having made at least one wish and many more wishes were added to our end of term chocolate cake!

• Our Partnership colleagues from Emberton School visited to meet our two new Teddies ‘Shemberton’ and ‘Emberington’ who will be our travelling ambassadors during the coming year. We had an interesting day filled with curriculum activities to foster individual as well as institutional links.
• Leaver’s assembly was a successful conclusion to the ‘first’ school careers of our oldest pupils as they prepare to move on to junior schools and their wider circles of friends and greater challenges in the curriculum. With an excellent set of SAT’s results behind them Year 2’s preparation has been broad and thorough. Their successes represent the results of an unbroken journey of educational provision from the home through Pre-School and so to their time with us. It was pleasing that members of the Pre-School attended the assembly, along with invited members of the community and regular ‘helpers’. Well done and good luck Alex, Taylor, Alexandra, Olivia F, Olivia G, Josephine, Eleanor, Gabriel, Kaden, Ross, Charlotte, Frances and Laura. But of course we also have to say goodbye and a big thank you to their parents who have supported their children and the school along this road and, in particular, those who gave their time and creative energies to the PTFA. But as with other living organisations we also grow with the induction of our new cohort and welcome Ivo, Alexander, Mackenzie, Georgina, Harvey, Asha, Roshni, Fabien and Zak to our school.

• Sports evening was a friendly and suitably competitive event. The ‘Yellow’ team won by a small margin overall but the ‘BLUE’ and ‘Red’ teams were not second by any measure of effort or sportsmanship. Mrs Feasey calculated the final scores and presented her eponymous trophy. Many thanks again to the PTFA for refreshments and organisational fervour.
• Headteacher Mrs Arlene Bourne comments; “The completion of another school year sees us saying goodbye to a cohort of young people who have been a credit to themselves, their families and our school. It has also seen us move to Partnership with our friends and colleagues at Emberton School and the beginning stages of making this an active and productive relationship. I would like to thank the Governors and regular visitors who have helped the school to consolidate and grow during recent years. A big thank you also to all others who have supported the school; in your many ways, you continue to enrich the lives of the children who are with us for such a brief but foundation-building stage of their educational careers. We look forward to a restful summer break until school resumes on Tuesday 2nd September.”

  25 June 2008

• Having achieved our National Healthy School status this year we are the first MK school to have been subject to a follow-up ‘moderation’ of our commitment to this strand of the Every Child Matters agenda. After talking to staff and reviewing evidence the rest of the visit was conducted by pupils in a ‘walk-about’ session. Terry Brown and Jo Miller from the Local Authority were;
  “... particularly impressed by: The direct involvement of pupils in growing and cooking vegetables; The pupils' ability to talk about their involvement in decision making in the school; The use of the new shed to store outdoor play equipment and bicycles, which has encouraged greater physical activity both on the way to school and at break times. Please pass on our thanks to the pupils involved in the visit.”
• Springwatch came to Sherington School this term but without Oddie’s oddities or Humble’s hair. Our nest box near the front of the school successfully fledged a family of Great Tits (avoiding several regular visiting cats), unfortunately at a time unseen by the children. Year 1 and Reception have added to the facilities during wood-working week by constructing some nest boxes for the grounds. The children chose potential inhabitants and were then guided to make an appropriate potential home. Woodpeckers, starlings, owls, robins, tits, bats, bees (Mason and Bumble), hedgehogs - they will all be welcome to move in to new accommodation should they so please.
• Sculptor Richard Frost worked with the whole school to make us an additional tree for the orchard at the front of the school with each child having a wish to complement the ‘wishing tree’ as we chose to call it. This will undoubtedly spark further adventures in the Art curriculum for the rest of this term. See the photos below.
• The same theme was extended in Literacy with a booktalk by Paul Dorsey from the School Library Service to involve us in the city-wide reading initiatives for this summer.
• Year 2 ‘sailed’ through SAT’s and are preparing to think about transition to their next schools. Teacher’s from Tickford Park School have made a transition visit and futher liaison events are planned. Year 1 continue to live in Literary ‘Fantasy Worlds’ with student Amy Jolliffe and the Reception children have been making magic potions and spells to transform friends and relations into all sorts of creatures. Watch out Hogwarts.
• Other news; Following a very successful series of Pre-School visits our Induction Programme for new entrants is well under way and the new school beckons in our preparations. Lydia’s Recorder Club continues to warble at lunch times (rumours of a concert are floating in the air). Coach Nigel from Olney Tennis Club has been offering some extra tuition in the PE Curriculum as well as his after school club. Lisa continues to be imaginative and skilled into turning our own healthy produce into tasty supplements to lunch-time (ever heard of rhubarb ‘flump’? -it’s great with custard CS). A very big thank you from our whole-school community to the magnificent PTFA who have added so much to our curriculum this year (see the PTFA page).
• We said ‘Goodbye’ to Miss Amy Jolliffe after a particularly successful teaching practice and she takes all our best wishes back to the University of Northampton for her further studies.

  31 May 2008

• Ever since the change in age of transfer when we 'lost' Year 3 to the next phase of education in Junior Schools an ever-present question has been that of school numbers. While our forthcoming intake is 'healthy' we may have hit upon a new idea to raise enrolment.
• Hatch them out! Yes, our school roll was enlarged by 30% when we had a successful hatching of chicks in the incubator which we raised until they needed to go back to the farm. Some excellent PSHE learning about caring for the vulnerable emerged in discussion as well as non¬fiction writing to record the various stages of development.
• We welcome Miss Amy Jolliffe from the University of Northampton who will be working alongside Mr Storey and Year 1 for three weeks after half-term.
• Our re-located and refurbished play-house has proved to be a popular site for playtime conversations in the 'Quiet Garden'. Our summer Pre-School liaison sessions have been very successful with their Foundation Stage Year 1 pupils taking advantage of our facilities for environmental studies, information technology, sports and personal & social development. They had three fine mornings with our Reception (Foundation Stage Year 2) cohort and made successful forays into our early years facilities. Our formal induction programme now begins for those children registered to start school in September.
• We look forward to a three-day visit from sculptor Richard Frost after half term and the many integrated opportunities for learning that this will offer.
• Our many Healthy School activities were validated by the first Local Authority Moderation of this area of the curriculum. Growing and cooking healthy food, expanded and diverse PE activities including cycling or walking to school, excellent PSI-1E Curriculum provision and the 'Pupil Voice' project. The moderators spent time talking with staff and interviewing children who gave them a tour of the school. Well done children.

  5 May 2008

• On a nice warm May Bank Holiday Monday (5 May), the children put on a fine display of traditional English dancing around the Maypole on The Knoll, with a little help from staff past and present, and watched by a large crowd of parents and other villagers. Mr Storey had the difficult job of ensuring the ribbons didn't get tangled between dances. The PTFA were on hand to provide refreshments and Phil Smith was Master of Ceremonies.
  More photos - Video clips

  1 May 2008