School Re-Opens

I am so excited to be back to work tomorrow I cannot wait!
Staff have been tidying and decorating over the summer and it looks great!
The uniforms have all arrived!
New Staff start with us tomorrow too, its going to be the best year so far!
See you Tuesday everybody.
Remember if you need anything school is open tomorrow but not for lessons until Tuesday.

Mrs S x

Brookhill Leys Condemns the Rioting

I am so sad to see the riots hurting Britain and all the people who work so hard. Frightening.

Our sad broken society needs fixing. We can’t fix the recession, we as individuals feel powerless in world politics but we can ride the storm and come out the other side, together.

We can also show the country how Brookhill Leys School Community looks after our children. The example you set your child is the one they will take forward in their lives.

You are the people who will determine Britain’s future, through your children and their values.

We need to make sure they don’t see violence, aggression, adult themes. They need to be allowed to have a positive opinion in life and celebrate their childhood, even if you weren’t able to do the same as a child.

The recession cannot be used as an excuse for what’s happening on the streets around the country. Many of us have teenagers who can’t find jobs and they feel frustrated and fed up. But if they have been brought up knowing what is right and wrong and with respect, they would not dream of rioting.
All parents should know where their children are late at night.

Recent research shows that the average time given to a child from their parent is 49 minutes a day. 49 minutes a day? That’s less than one episode of Eastenders and Emmerdale? What is more important? Finding out if Max and Tanya (Eastenders) are going to be found out, or some extra minutes with our children?

So what needs to change to ensure children some quality and proper attention? Well we can’t change the pressures we are under, it’s a recession and prices are rising all the time. So it’s about making sure our lifestyle and routines put children first. Make use of your time cleverly by making games out of housework; singing in the car; talking about your childs hobbies and interests; looking at old family photos; weeding the garden and more. We have 7 potato peelers in our house (0.29p each) and when our children were little they would sit with us and we would all peel the potatoes together and talk. They still do but complain more now, as teenagers do. 


And most importantly. Tell them you love them, praise them and tell them they are wonderful.

A practical idea I challenge you to this week.

Check out my make a meal with your child challenge, here on my blog and have a go. Your children would love to be part of it and we will be having a display in school with your contributions first week back.

There is a £30 Tesco voucher for the winning picture or photo of your end result. But remember it has to be about spending time together, you and your children.

Enjoy 

Remember you can always contact me on head@brookhillleysprimary.notts.sch.uk for advice and support. If I can’t help, I will find someone who can.

Make Food With Your Children Challenge- £30 Prize!

Make Food With Your Children Challenge
Make the following meal with your children.
Take a photo and email to

head@brookhillleysprimary.notts.sch.uk

Or bring a photo or a drawn picture into school first week back.

One picture or photo will be chosen to win the £30 Tesco voucher
Come on we want 100 photos/pictures to put up in school!


Bangers and Mash
Fruit Jelly


Sausage, beans and mash

Just think of all the things you can talk about whilst peeling potatoes.
Potato peelers can be bought for 0.39p. Makes the job quicker and gives you time for a chat.
Mashing – who can get all the lumps out? How does it happen? Magic!
Where do potatoes come from? Shall we plant some next year and watch them grow?

Fruit filled jelly

Packet of orange jelly 0.30p or less
Tin of peaches 0.29p

This is an excellent opportunity to read instructions together, talk about what is happening and use measuring skills. Getting a child to put 100ml of water into a jug is a great skill that will help their maths.

Melt the jelly; when its cold add the peaches.

Do not go over the liquid measurements or it will not set but you can replace some of the water they say you need with the juice from the tinned fruit.

Remember pineapple placed in jelly stops it setting.

There are lots of rhymes about jelly for your tiny ones.



Jelly on a plate!
Jelly on a plate!
Wibble wobble!
Wibble wobble!
Jelly on a plate!

Sisters Act!

I am getting excited now as its only 3 days until I see my gorgeous sister , for the first time in over three years!
She lives in Singapore,South East Asia, as the children will all tell you, we often discuss Catherine.
She has three children and is expecting a baby in November.
Singapore is a wonderful country. I went to visit my sister last ten years ago , before I became afraid to fly.
The thing I like the most about Singapore (after the weather) is the clean and well behaved society.People would never dream of dropping litter, or fighting in public. They show up most respect for visitors and make them welcome and looked after.
The people of Singapore work really hard and this is the normal expectation.
Singapore has changed considerably since I was last there, my sister says I would not recognise it with huge building projects. The second best swimming pool in the world (according to some poll I read recently)opened last year at the top of a very tall hotel built in the shape of a cruise liner, on top of concrete stilts.One of the most luxurious hotels in the world, Marina Bay Sands.
They have built the pool to look as though the edge falls over the end of the building. Infinity pools I think they call them.
Singapore is set right on the equator,the invisible line that circles the globe.
Singapore has no winter or summer. It is hot and sunny all year round, usually 30 degrees.
My sister lives permanently in the summer holidays :-)
I wonder what she is making of the grim summer holiday weather we have had so far.
I keep hoping she moves back to England one day but I think she finds it too cold now. She must also be the only person in the world that I know who hasn't heard of Jedward! Passing them in the airport last week she sent me a text saying "Who are Jedi? Some funny looking boys with sticking up hair just walking past"
Anyway I have 4 days to catch up on the last three years and store up memories for the next three.
I wonder which children of Brookhill will travel the world when they are older?

Summer Holidays Give the Teachers time to Prepare

Summer Holidays the press would have you believe are spent by teachers on the beach and nothing else for 6 weeks.If that's the case our school had a lot of imposters in today, judging by the amount of staff in school.I hope the teachers get a few weeks of total break because they need it but this break actually allows for school maintenance to take place,resources to be made, lessons and new classes to be set up, plans to be made and much more.I do know teachers who count the days down and then walk out at 4 on the last day and return the first morning back ready to start planning, they are the teachers who do not inspire or enthuse our next generation and I haven't seen any of those for a while around here!Our teachers and staff are amazing. I love working in the holidays because the phone isn't so busy and my 200 emails a day reduce to only twenty.I miss the children but it gives me some quality thinking time for the bigger picture. Our School Vision and where we are going;

Well it was a fantastic end to what has been my second year at Brookhill! I knew it was the best school in the world and now we are proving it!
Further improved SATs results
(English up from 44% 2 years ago to 88%)
Brilliantly behaved children and a really good fun packed learning experience right up until the last day.

Sports days; School World War two Production; Arts Carnival; Galleries of Justice; visiting birds or prey and owls; Holocaust museum; picnic in the park; Tai Chi the list is endless and just wait until next year! We already have booked our new Y6 for a weeks residential to The Isle of Wight. Y4 will be swimming. Y2 will be taking part in Tai Chi; many trips out and visitors in are planned. If you have any ideas let me know.

I have never had so many Y6 children come up to me and say things like “Can you put me back a year so I can stay here?…do we have to go?... can you open a Y7?...I’m not moving!...” brilliant! They are a credit to their families and we are very, very proud of them.

Year 6 this year have been amazing. We have some real stars leaving us and will be very sad to see them go but wish them well in their new schools. They are scattered far and wide this year as a few of our families move house over the summer.

Thank you to all the parents for their patience and support whilst my office team have been sorting out a very tricky uniform order. Our new uniform looks FANTASTIC! However the jumpers arrived, 700 of them, and were not all the correct sizes. The ties arrived and the silver and purple looked sky and royal blue! That’s because they WERE! They had produced 400 ties of the WRONG colour. Not a good start I hear you say. Well this company were the best quality for the price we wanted to pay and gave us excellent guarantees. We shall be working with them to ensure it doesn’t happen again and will look into reasons for staying with them when there are hundreds of suppliers out there. This will not affect you as uniform is being stocked in school from September.

The new uniform policy will be on the website by the end of the week and very clearly shows the new uniform expectations based on our consultations and final feedback.

We cannot wait to see a picture of purple and silver, proud, smart and incredible children coming through those school gates on Tuesday 6th September.

I am off to the garden centre today, after spending some time looking at our new curriculum for September and thinking about the school vegetable patch and how to ensure we have vegetables growing all year, I want to go and look what’s out there.Every class is going to have their own vegetable patch this year, a bit of competition. I may even grow some winter vegetables myself, although my beetroots did not do well this year, my gooseberries have been eaten and my rhubarb has died. (I need a gardening book.)One of our parents presented Miss Cox with the most wonderful bouquet of flowers, picked from her own garden,on the last day of term. I think I need gardening tips from that mum!

I have done some gardening this week and get better every year. term has been so busy the garden did get a little neglected, oh yes and the Sun seems to have disappeared again, hopefully not for long.

I've now got some extra space around my pond to fill where Mr. S has created a sunken ledge, so I have to find a pond plant to put there now. I’ll post a photo later.

Hoping that you enjoy the summer time you get with your children, whether that’s day time, evenings or weekend. Make the most of it, they grow so fast!

Are we nearly there yet? Are we nearly there?

What do parents think about school residentials?
Which year group do you feel they would be of most benefit?
How many nights away should it be?
They are expensive, what’s the most you think is reasonable to pay?
What do you see as the purpose of a residential?
We are just starting to explore the future of residentials at Brookhill and value of them to our children.
I have taken children from Y3 to Y6 to residentials and found that they were a good bonding activity at the start of a year and that every year group enjoyed them and got a lot out of them.

Where should it be? Derbyshire? Wales? Isle of Wight? Holland? Yorkshire?

Email your views, we want to know. head@brookhillleysprimary.notts.sch.uk then we can make an informed choice with your views included.

Happy Easter Memories

Easter is the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Christ and held on a Sunday between March 21 and April 25. The first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.
Next year Easter Sunday is more than 2 weeks earlier than this year on April 8th and in 2013 even earlier on March 31st
I felt a bit sad this year as my children are now 21, 20, 18, 17 and 15 so there wasn’t any little ones to create an Easter egg hunt in the garden for…or so I thought.
They were most disappointed not to have the traditional hunt, so there I was in the afternoon hiding crème eggs in trees and plant pots for them to go and find.
I don’t think it was about the chocolate. As I watched them running round laughing excitedly, I realised It was more about holding on to their childhood and the fun things they remember. They know they are too old for it now but they don’t care. It made us all laugh.

I’ve been able to give them those experiences and memories that they can look back on, and one day they will do the same with their own children.

We try and do the same thing at school. Providing memories and experiences children will talk about and remember when they are older.

When I was at school, about 8 years old, I took part in a play. I was a Tawny owl and had to sit in a tree and say 2 words. The tree was built and placed in front of a ladder and I had to sit on the top of the ladder so it looked like I was in a tree. I was so proud! I can’t remember what the play was, just my line and what it felt like sitting on the top of that ladder,lookng at the audience. Fame!
I remember the school discos and how excited I was. How smart I felt in my disco burnt orange rara skirt and Toyah Wilcox T-Shirt!I loved that T-shirt.

I hope our school children remember the owls visiting school, the Royal Wedding day, the Cinderella theatre company visiting, the African drum and dance workshop, the school disco and much more.

What do you remember from your school days?

A New Baby!

Congratulations Mrs Wray and family.

Mrs Wray left Ducks to go on maternity leave three weeks ago.

This week she gave birth to a healthy, big baby boy!
All are well and at home. We send them lots of love.

WELL DONE KESTRELS!

If you read a previous blog you will recall that the Year 5 and 6 children were set an enterprise challenge back in February.
Kestrels, Kingfishers and Moles were given £200 each and a few weeks to use the money and their skills to generate a profit. The class with the most profit would be the winnder and could keep the profit to spend on something for the children in school.
Well Kestrels...you win!!! You made £530 which after returning your £200 to the school funds gives you £330 to spend on something to benefit the children in school.
Moles and Kingfishers you also did well and made over £200 profit between you, which will go into the school fund ready for next time.
I think the best efforts won. Kestrels worked hard on planning a Saturday car wash , on pricing up jewellery making equipment, making the jewellery and then selling it JUST before Mothers Day, good thinking.
Once again the community rallied round and supported the events,buying products, visiting easter stalls and bringing their cars to school to be washed.
We even had a visit from The Stig on his super charged white motorbike.

Well done again children , you always impress me.

Spare £6000000 ?

The Spring second half term started pretty much as the first – troubles with water mains and heating systems!



Being called into school Saturday evening to deal with a flooded hall and surrounding rooms, caused by work on the new heating system that is replacing the aged coal boiler; the idea being to prevent such future problems also reducing our carbon footprint . The cost of the boiler replacement is well over £100000 and the council gained a grant for part and funded part leaving us to fund a third.
My site manager and Miss Cox were first on the scene Saturday and set about cleaning up straight away. By the time I arrived lots had already been done (see photos) and it was a case of finishing what we could until the work continued Sunday morning.

The trouble is (and we are by far not as badly off as some schools) that our buildings and systems are dated and there just isn’t the funding available to replace them all. So while 2 primary schools in the local area are receiving multimillion pound brand new rebuilds (and they really needed them, we are very pleased for them) we continue to worry what it going to break down next.
So if you know of anyone with a spare 6 million pounds then send them in our direction! (email address head@brookhillleysprimary.notts.sch.uk )

Seriously though...

We could have the smartest, state of the art, modern building you could imagine, it would be more comfortable and pleasing to the eye, easier to maintain and organise, but it is just fabric at the end of the day, our assets are our children and they will do well and continue to be happy in school whatever the building presents us.

It’s not been the best weekend. I just about managed until the end of school Friday and crashed into bed for most of the weekend with a very nasty cold.

Still managed to complete a few paperwork tasks and also managed to catch the tennis match I had been waiting to see.

Well when I say catch it. I watched the whole thing until match point when there was a knock on the door, one of the teenagers. I thought they would find their door key when I didnt get up. Nope, another knock. So I went and answered the door…and missed the end of the match!

Never mind.

I did see the speeches and the disappointed face of Andy Murray (at least he gets over £627`000 for coming second - $1000`000 Aus dollars. The winner received $2000`000).

Putting the money aside, it is still a very hard moment to bear when you have put everything in and you miss that final ball and become the loser.
(Not that I can relate to it in tennis terms, my rally record is 4 )

Is Andy Murray a loser? He is one of only two people to make the Australian Open Final 2011. He was supported by millions of followers around the world today; he is the top British tennis player; he inspires millions of others to go out and attempt their goal. Yes he lost the Open match but he isn’t a loser.

Like we say in our school vision statement – dream big – if Andy Murray settled for winning the village tennis tournament and had no ambition, he certainly wouldn’t be where he is today.

I wonder where our class of 2011 will be when they grow up?

I taught a girl in 2000 who said she was going to be a famous dancer, she was fantastic. She will be 18 now. I’m keeping my eye on ‘Got to Dance’ on Sky as I fully expect her to pop up one weekend.
I taught a boy in 2006 who said he was going to be a cricket commentator. He was very determined and knew all the terminology. He will be 16 this year so maybe in a few years I will hear his name when switching off the cricket (zzzz…) and then I shall have to switch it back on.

Come on Andy. Do it for Wimbledon 2011.

The Apprentice here we come!

Watch out for Year 5 and 6 children approaching you in a bid to win an enterprise challenge.

Each class have been presented with £200 to create enterprise projects that will make them money. So hopefully when they have to pay back the £200, in March, they will have made a profit.
The class who make the most profit will be able to choose something for the school that will benefit the children with the profit they have made.
The rest of the money will go into school fund to continue to provide experiences for the children in school.

As well as this they must keep their own accounts and record their income and outgoings.

The children are all very motivated and I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with. (Of course it is also going to be very exciting to see which of the three Year 5/6 teachers is the most adventurous!)

I can think of lots of initiatives that the children can embark on that will make them money.

If it was me I would spend £15 of the £200 on nail varnish, hand cream and nail files and charge the staff £3 for a lunch time manicure! I would only need to get 10 people to agree to a manicure to make 100% profit on my £15. This would give me £30 and in total I would have £215.

What else could they do?
Buy reasonably priced flowers and turn them into arrangements to sell. Ironing service for teachers, 90p charge for a shirt, undercutting the competition out there! (They could pay a fee to school for hire of iron, board and use of electric.) Car washing; making cards and bookmarks; designing ceramic mugs; t shirt printing; fashion show; afternoon tea for grandparents; mobile text message training service for the terrified adult….unending list.

This project is designed to give the children experience of a work ethic, how money works and develop team skills. They will learn so much without even realising it.

So look out for invites, sales reps or offers of services.

Good luck Moles, Kestrels and Kingfishers! Enjoy your very own The Apprentice!

School is such an exciting place!

What a week!
Finally got the burst pipes located and fixed. School is open on Monday.
There’s nothing worse than a school without children in it.
Thank you to the mums who brought cakes and biscuits in for the cold staff! So kind.

The good side of the school closure was staff being able to tackle those jobs always on the C list.
A list – urgent
B list – important
C list – things that need doing

A simple yet huge job, relocating the PE store into a corridor cupboard making it easier to prepare before classes begin so the walk in PE cupboard could be used to centralise the schools paper and exercise books. This is more convenient for teachers when planning their lessons.
Everyone worked their socks off and this job, amongst many others, was successfully achieved.

It is a very exciting time in school. We have the opportunity to recruit some special teachers for September to join our already excellent team of staff. Very soon the job adverts will be out and interviews will take place.

What we look for when we decide which teachers to interview and then give the job to, is very clear.

We choose the teacher we feel shows us ; they like children; they can teach very well across the school and understand what a child needs; listens to children; are professional; values parents and school community; gives 100% to their job including events other than teaching in the classroom. (School discos, weekend gardening etc.)
Schools occasionally do not get the choice right, you can’t tell everything about someone in such a short time and some people are better at interview than others. However we learn from this and it makes systems better.

We usually get 30 applications just for a temporary post, so I am looking forward to a good selection.

Our school has a good reputation in the Local Authority and teachers, who do apply here, know they are coming to a good school, making great improvements, in such a short time, with great career opportunities for people who give their all.

We are also a school who do not ignore poor teaching, or negative attitudes in school. This does mean that the leadership team sometimes get a hard time, but support is always given to staff that need it. The school team is now a strong effective one. Transformed.
We also celebrate peoples strengths and people are encouraged to share their expertise, growing leaders and creating opportunities. Attitudes are good, enthusiasm is sky high! It’s brilliant!
99% of our talented team are loyal to school, part of our team, and putting the children first. Children and their learning first - very simple. It is important that, just like children and parents , staff feel valued. We work hard on this and recently carried out a workforce wellbeing survey to identify any areas we could improve further. The good thing was the survey came back positive. It showed a less stressed workforce then when last carried out in 2008. Now we take each area and think what we could next to get it even better?

Miss Willis is one of our 99%. She worked so hard over the Christmas period.

She took a holiday over the October half term but when I came into school I found her there, painting doors(see photos). She wanted them to look nice before the children came back to school. She is so committed to our school and makes such a difference.

When you see her why not give her a smile and a thank you? For the things she does over and above.

So ... who is coming to have a cup of tea with me this term on our Friday Cuppa? Call the office and book in. (I can make different times for parents who cant come in the day, just call) I want some ideas for starting an evening book club for adults, teachers, parents and neighbours.

Watch out for a letter this half term. We are holding a pub quiz evening for parents, grandparents, staff and governors. A fun opportunity to raise money for the school library, have a drink with friends and some fun answering questions from football to footwear!

x

Happy New Year 2011

Well Happy New Year everyone and may you and your families have health and happiness in 2011.

After such a busy autumn term it was really good to have time over Christmas with my family. I love Christmas! We spent a few days in Cornwall overlooking the beautiful sea, watching seals bobbing up and down on the rough waves and listening to the fog horn of the lighthouse we were staying next door to. (All day AND all night for 48 hours!) I love being by the sea and for 6 days I could look at the ocean, enjoy the sounds, sights and smells and remind myself what the important things in life are.

It’s very easy as a Headteacher to spend all day and evening every day working and doing nothing else, because there is just so much to do. It’s a job that’s never finished.

So my aim this break was to just be rather than do. My children thought I was most odd when they asked me last week, what are you doing? For me to reply, I’m not doing anything I am being! (I was actually reading the new comical book Sophie, my youngest daughter had bought me (`A Tiny Bit Marvellous` by Dawn French).

While the break has been lovely, I have also been working, always on call and all that. Yes since Christmas Eve Miss Willis and I have been battling this cold unprecedented weather.

We have major burst pipes under ground at school and this has meant the water having to be switched off. Every day, apart from the bank holidays, we have been calling the Local Authority and liaising with them to get the leaks fixed in time for the reopening of school on Wednesday.
With so many leaks around the country, businesses being closed, people being off work, and not knowing where the leak was under the car park, it’s been very difficult to get anything sorted.

We have a few holes dug, and in between Christmas and New Year a machine hire company opened up especially to provide the contractors with a `cat and jenny`. (Don’t ask! Something that locates pipes underground or something.)

We met the workers on the car park and had various conversations yet no one could say how long it would take to fix, they had to find it first. On New Years Eve, they gave up. They had fixed one leak and switched the water on only to have a fountain spraying from beneath the tarmac in a different spot!
So Tuesday they are arriving at school first thing with some big machines and they tell me they hope to have it patched up. Yes I use the words patched up, as they recommend we need a new water mains, something to sort in the New Year! 

Of course if we do have to close this week everyone will be informed, but I am leaving it as late as possible as the Local Authority tell me they will do whatever they can to get the leak fixed in time.

Once back in school its straight down to learning.
We carried out assessments before Christmas and these are being analysed to make sure children are progressing over the year. Anyone who has stuck for one reason or another will be identified and plans put in place to see what they need to move on. There will be extra classes for boosting children in preparation for Y6 SATs and more reading sessions for children who are struggling. Parents of children who are struggling will be invited into school to chat about what the children need and how they can help at home to give them every opportunity of succeeding.
By Easter every child should have made a good level of movement up in the National Curriculum Levels. (If you ever want to know what the correct level is and how your child is doing, ask the office for an appointment and come and see me, I will talk you through it.)

Talking about Easter, I notice that the adverts on TV that, the night before Christmas, filled our minds with rich food, music, perfumes, films and various cocktails, have now transformed into diets on tropical islands with Easter eggs on brand new sofas! Are we really that easily influenced? Has anyone got any money left for a new sofa? Who buys Easter eggs in January?

So any goals for 2011 in school? Well we need to get our new parents and friends group up and running; the toddler group will begin; and our efforts to make the childrens curriculum more meaningful and enjoyable continues.
We need your support to develop our school garden and look after our pets.
We will also be looking to raise several thousand pounds for a new library to be built in our very long connecting corridor.
The School Council have some good ideas for raising money and having some community events at the same time. So watch this space! Let us know if you have any ideas, either through our parents’ comments box or send me an email. Or just come and find one of us for a chat.
I have the best school ever! I can’t wait for 2011! See you soon xxx

HAPPY NEW YEAR!