Friday 30 September 2011

I am just sitting down at my desk after a very busy morning. It was our Harvest Coffee Morning and once again it was extremely well attended. I would like to thank everyone for their fabulous donations of cakes and biscuits - the hall looked like an episode of 'Britain's Best Baker'. At the moment the total raised comes to £384.70 but as I write the Year 6 are going to go into the playground to sell the leftover cakes so perhaps the amount raised will exceed £400. All those parents who attended seemed to enjoy themselves - the children singing harvest songs was a particularly popular addition and we will certainly be keeping that in for next year.

You may not see a lot of me next week because I have a lot of meetings and courses to atttend. However I will be monitoring what is going on in school. If you need to see me you can make an appointment for when I am around but if you urgently need something sorting out Mrs. Zegallo will be in charge in my absence.

Saturday 24 September 2011

There have been a lot of things happening in school this week. It was lovely seeing so many parents attend our 'Meet the Teacher' evening . We had many positive comments and although there were one or two concerns I am confident that I will be able to sort these out and ease parents’ worries. I would recommend though that if your child tells you something that you are unhappy about that you should discuss your concern with a member of staff so that you can check the validity of what your child has told you. Very often children misinterpret something and although it appears real to them the actual truth is a little different.


On Wednesday we had a visit from Brookman's Park Rotary Club to highlight 'World Peace day ' which is celebrated on the 21st September every year. 'World Peace Day' is dedicated to peace, and specifically the absence of war, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone. It is observed by many nations, political groups, military groups, and peoples and, for the first time this year, members of the Little Heath School community. A selection of children from the school released white balloons into the sky and enjoyed the event very much. Photographs were taken and hopefully they will appear in the local paper soon.

Next week is another busy week in school. We are having the individual photographs on Monday and the older children will be taking part in netball and football tournaments. On Friday we are having 'Harvest Festival Coffee Morning'. This has become a very popular and successful event and that is all due to to the generosity of our parents who donate lots of cakes to be sold at the event and are then very generous with their donations for charity. This year , as I explained in my newsletter , we will be singing some autumn songs at the event so hopefully it will be an even more enjoyable occasion than normal. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Friday 16 September 2011

The big news in school for us this week was the birth of Mrs. Richardson's daughter Amber. She was obviously impatient to make her entrance as she arrived two weeks early, and indeed, Mrs. Richardson only came to visit us the day before so when Mrs. Richardson rang us the next day I thought she was going to say she had left something rather than announce the birth of her child. I believe both mother and daughter are doing well and I am sure we will be seeing them both in the coming weeks.

In the rest of the school everything is returning to its normal pattern as clubs have recommenced and the Nursery children have joined us. It is lovely to have them in school and even though they are so young they all appeared to have settled very well into Little Heath. Let's hope they all continue to do so.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you next week when we have our ' Meet the Teacher' evenings. These evenings are an opportunity for parents to find out the about the expectations of their children for the coming year. They are also an opportunity for parents to ask the teacher any general questions about classroom routines. There is a possibility that I will not be able to attend the Year 6 meeting on the Wednesday night but if I cannot be there Mrs. Zegallo will take my place. I know some parents are not happy that children are not allowed to come but the focus for this evening is on the dialogue between the teacher and parents. In the past some parents have chosen to ignore this request and bring their children into the school but if that happens this time parents will be asked to take their children home and will have to miss the meeting. It is also not acceptable to leave children in the school playground or parts of the school building because there will be no-one to supervise them. I know that this can be an inconvenience for some people but this is why we let you know about this meeting in plenty of time so that you can make alternate child care arrangements for what is a short period of time.

Friday 9 September 2011

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a great summer holiday and are looking forward to the new term. I know we have only been back for a week but my holiday already seems a dim and distant memory. However, as usual, all the children have settled back into school extremely well and have all been enjoying 'Multi media' week. We decided on this theme because our brand new computer suite is now up and running and although there have been a couple of glitches with logging on the new computers appear to be very popular with the children. I would like to thank the PTA again for raising the money so that we were able to purchase our new computer suite. The difference it will make to the pupils' learning will be significant.

The Year 6 are holding the elections for house captains next week so have been hot on the campaign trail this week - I have even seen some cakes and brownies been given out so obviously our candidates are not above bribery! The election takes place next Friday and so I will let you know the results after that.

We have also had our 2 new members of staff join us this week. Mrs. Penny May in working in Year 1 and is covering Mrs. Richardson's maternity cover. Ms. Diane Simoneau is also joining us for the year in nursery.
Both have told me they have really enjoyed their first week and feel very fortunate to be part of such a lovely school community. I would like to thank everyone for making them feel so welcome.