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!