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!
