Thursday 28 March 2013


Well the holiday has finally arrived but the warm weather has not. I cannot believe how cold it is and it is even starting to make the children go a little stir crazy as we have had to bring them in for part of the lunchtime because it is so cold. Let us hope the weather improves over Easter so they can get outside and run off some excess energy. Apart from the weather  it has been quite a fun week in school thanks to the Year 3, 4 and 5 production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Everyone who has watched it has said how great it was and I would like to thank all the staff, pupils and parents who helped make it such a great success. It takes a lot of time and effort to put on a school production but the end result was certainly worth it. In the foyer at the moment you can see pictures from the show courtesy of Mrs Zegallo - they are certainly worth a look.

All that is left for me now is to wish you all a Happy Easter -   I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday 16th April.

Friday 22 March 2013


Well, spring has arrived but I think that someone forgot to tell the weather-my body certainly thinks that is in the throes of winter. There are many winter viruses around still and unfortunately some of the staff fell foul to some of them this week. I think everyone needs a good holiday and thankfully it will arrive next week. I still cannot believe that it will actually be Easter next week as it has been such a short half- term. I cannot wait for Easter Sunday as every year I give up chocolate for Lent and feel that I can really indulge myself on that day since it was the middle of February when chocolate last passed my lips.

Even though next week is a short week we still have a lot happening in school. Next week many of the parents and family friends in Year 3, 4 and 5 will be coming to see ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and I can guarantee, from what I have seen in rehearsals, you are all in for a treat. We also have our half termly book viewing session on Wednesday from 3.00pm – 4.30pm so I look forward to seeing many of you then. I would also like to remind everyone to fill in the parent questionnaires that we sent out last week. The more people that fill them in the better the representation we have of the parent body.

 Please remember that as Thursday is the last day of term, school will finish at 2.00pm.

Friday 15 March 2013


As I expected there has been great excitement in school today amongst a sea of red noses and funny feet– we have also had a two headed monster wandering around the school. This is all down to it being ‘Red Nose Day’ and everyone getting into the spirit of the occasion. Although this day brings great merriment in a primary school it does have a serious purpose behind it and I would like to thank everyone who bought a nose or made a contribution towards this day as all the money goes towards many good causes and supports those who find themselves in difficult times. I do not know exactly how much money has been raised but as soon as I do I will ‘tweet’ the amount and you will be able to see it on our website. I have to admit to being a little excited as this will be the first time I will have tweeted for our website  - I am very easily pleased!

A lot of you will have also seen our new site manager today. His name is Craig James and I know that you will all make him feel very welcome. He officially starts on Monday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our temporary site manager Rosario Di Francia who I am sure you will all agree has done an excellent job for us. He has been very happy working here and has told me that he thought the parents and children here the nicest he has ever worked with.
I find it hard to believe that we will be breaking up for Easter in less than 2 weeks. This term seems to have flown by. We still have the Year 3, 4 and 5 production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to look forward to and then we will have a two week break. Let us hope that it brings us warmer weather

Thursday 7 March 2013


As I am out tomorrow I am ‘blogging’ a day earlier this week. This has been our first week without Mr Berridge as site manager and it has been a little strange without him there in the morning. Saying that, our temporary caretaker Rosario Di Francia (or Mr D as some of the children have started calling him) is doing a sterling job and we are very lucky to have him. I have appointed a permanent replacement now and when all the paperwork and clearing processes have been completed I will let you know who he is and when he will be joining us.

Following on from our ‘Writing Week’ (as some of you will know the egg has cracked open and there are some mysterious footprints on the playground) we have had ‘World Maths Day’ and ‘World Book Day’ this week. For ‘World Book Day’ the children have designed some lovely badges and I am sure that they will enjoy talking about their favourite book characters with the other pupils in their class. Next week we have ‘Red Nose Day’ on Friday and as you will know from the newsletter that was sent out the children can come in with funny feet that day (as long as they can walk in them). They are also allowed to not wear uniform and wear a red nose which can be purchased at school. There has been a lot of different activities in school recently but we believe that these ’WOW’ experiences enhance the learning of the children- not least by making school an exciting and fun place to come to so the children really want to be here.

Before I leave you I would just like to inform those of you who do not know that we now have a ‘Twitter ‘ feed which can be viewed on our website. This will be used to inform the Little Heath community of our sports results almost instantly and any other information that we think you would find interesting.

Friday 1 March 2013


It is hard to believe that this time last week I was on holiday because you very soon forget about all that when you return to work. I had a very enjoyable half term and came back to work feeling quite energised on Monday. Unfortunately one of the winter viruses caught up with me on that day and I started to lose my voice and it has not really returned all week. Although I have been struggling to speak I have to admit that until Wednesday I sounded a lot worse than I felt. I must say that parents and children have shown me a lot more sympathy than the staff. There have been a few remarks such as “it is a lot more peaceful now” and “at last we can get a word in edgeways”. I will get my revenge next week though when my voice returns to its full force!

This has been quite a sad week in school though and not because I have lost my voice. As you probably all know Mr Berridge retired as our site manager this week after 21 years at the school. Fortunately we are not losing him altogether as he will still be working at lunchtime for us but I know all of you will miss seeing him at the start and end of the school day. Thanks to your generosity we were able to give him some lovely leaving gifts. As he will now have more time to himself he wanted to get a dog for himself so the staff helped him to purchase a greyhound and we also bought him a sweatshirt which had a logo of a greyhound on it. With the money from the parents and pupils we purchased a print with some chickens on it (because everyone knows how he loves his chickens) and we used the rest of the money to purchase some garden vouchers as he really enjoys working in his garden. He was very touched by all the good wishes and gifts that he received and I would like to thank everyone who helped make his last days as site manager so special.   

Everyone (apart from those with a child in Year 3) will have received the annual school report for their child today. We are sending them out halfway through the year as opposed to the end of the year in response to parents’ requests last year. As we are sending the reports out now there will not be the usual spring parents evening as this has now been moved to the summer but if you would like to discuss any part of your child’s report with their class teacher you can make an individual appointment to do so. Remember as well as the report we also have half termly sessions when you can look at your child’s work and the next session for that is on March 27th. There will also be two more sessions in the summer term.

Next week I have to be out of school for a lot of meetings but I can assure I am still working. If you would like to see me and I am not in school you can either see Mrs Zegallo or make an appointment to see me on my return.