Friday 25 May 2018


I am typing this blog after returning from the mini-marathon. I love this event because it brings nearly all the schools in Potters Bar together and everyone can take part – it does not matter whether you finish first or last, everybody gets cheered over the line and I think everyone can really feel that they have accomplished something when they have completed the run. This morning everyone did the school proud but some children did especially well. Nathan in Year 5 finished 5th and Aston and Eleasha from Year 4 finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. I am also sure that you will join me in thanking all the staff at Oakmere Primary for organising this event. As I said earlier, I do love attending this event but I would find it daunting to organise the whole thing.

I had a very pleasant afternoon yesterday because I was one of the judges of the ‘Bake-Off’ competition that took place in Year 4. During the week the children had all made and decorated cakes in school based around different themes and yesterday afternoon I was one of the people who had the great job of tasting all the cakes. Although it was a difficult job to pick a winner (but certainly not to sample them all), we finally decided on the group that consisted of Jack, Neve, Lianna, James and Dovydas who had made a delicious sponge cake and it was beautifully decorated to show the importance of friendship. After the competition the Year 4 parents were then served afternoon tea by their children and were allowed to sample the cakes that had been made. It was a lovely event and I know that all of the parents who were able to attend had a really good time.

The afternoon tea was not the only event that we have had parents in school for this week. On Monday some parents were in school to see their children in a ‘Sharing Assembly’ and later in the week many parents were in school for our ‘Open Afternoon’ where they were given the opportunity to look over the learning their children have completed over the last half term. I enjoy it when we have parents in school because it makes it really feel like we are part of the community and it is nice to chat to everyone. The children also love it when their parents come into school because they can see everything they have been doing.

You may have noticed that we have had some men working on the field for the last couple of days. They have been installing an extension to our fitness trail which should be complete after the half term break. We have paid for this with our sports premium money and from a donation made to us by Tesco as part of their community project scheme. This was also down to many parents putting a counter into the Little Heath section when the scheme was running in the local Tesco stores. I would like to thank all the parents who did this and also to Caroline Lofts from the PTA who put us forward for this project. I know the children will get years of enjoyment from playing on this equipment.

Sorry to give you such a long blog to read but there has just been so much happening in school this week. The weather for the Bank holiday weekend is looking very promising which means that we get a great start to our week off. I hope you all have a good break and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday, 4th June.

 

        

Friday 18 May 2018


I am feeling a little tired this morning because I attended the Herts Catering Awards last night. The reason that I was invited to this was because our cook manager Louise was a finalist in the ‘Cook Manager of the Year’ award. Out of over a hundred schools she got down to the last three and although she did not win I feel that we should be really proud that we have such a good cook making meals for our children. The staff certainly appreciate her – I have never worked in a school where so many staff order school meals. Louise would agree that she is helped enormously by her team which consists of Nyesha and Maria, and hopefully, next year, all of them will be nominated and win the award as a team.

It has been a rather quiet week in school as the Year 6 have been sitting their SATs tests which means that the other children have had to keep the noise down. As usual, the tests were not as bad as the Year 6 had anticipated and although there were some challenging questions on the maths reasoning papers I know that they all tried their best and that is all we can ask of them.

I find it really hard to believe that it is half term at the end of next week but we do have some fun activities to look forward to before the holiday begins. On Monday we have ‘Sharing Assembly’. You will already have received a letter about this if your child is involved.  I do enjoy these assemblies because it is good for the children to share work they feel proud of with their parents and the school community. On Wednesday it is our ‘Open Afternoon’ where parents are invited in to share all the learning that their children have done over the last half term. That runs from 3.00pm – 4.30pm.

On Friday all the KS2 are taking part in the ‘Oakmere Mini Marathon’. This is when all the KS2 children in the area converge on Oakmere Primary to run a mini marathon which takes part in the school grounds and the surrounding area. This event has been running for many years and is a great community event. I know all the children do not enjoy distance running but this is meant to be a fun event and it does not matter whether the children take 15 minutes or 45 minutes to complete it –the key thing is that they have taken part. This is why I insist that all children do participate unless they have an injury or an illness which prevents them from doing so.

You will all have received a letter informing you that the PTA are organising a ‘walking float’ for the Potters Bar Carnival Day. This will be the first time that we have taken part in the parade since I have come here and I think that it will be a really good thing. We always take part in the art exhibition and this year, as well as the parade, our girls’ football team will be taking part in a football match. We will be helping the children prepare any props for the walking float in school as part of an ‘Arts Week’ that we will be holding straight after half term. Details of what other activities the children will be doing during this week will be sent out next week.

I know many people in the country are looking forward to this weekend because there is a royal wedding taking place. However, if this is not your thing there is some good weather forecast so at least everyone can enjoy the warm weather. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

Friday 11 May 2018


I hope you all enjoyed the extended bank holiday that you had last weekend – it was almost as if we had ordered the weather specially. It was difficult to return to work because I felt as though the summer holidays had started – I really hope that the weather is as good when our summer break actually arrives because anything less than glorious is going to feel like a disappointment.

However, no matter how hard it was to return to work on Tuesday I am glad that I did because it has been a really good week for me in school. This is because I coach the girls’ netball teams and this week we took part in the primary ‘Le Gros’ netball tournament at Mount Grace and we won it. Some of you will already know this because you will have seen the report and picture in the school newsletter. Looking at that picture you may have thought that  because of my victory pose I had won the tournament single handily when I actually never set foot onto the pitch –it was the girls that did all the hard work. I would like to congratulate all the girls who took part in the tournament on their brilliant performance (we had 2 teams taking part) and thank them all for representing the school so well.

Next week in school will have a slightly more serious feel because it is ‘SATs’ week - a time which all Year 6 work towards. However, every year when they have taken the tests they always say that they were not as bad as they were expecting and they never are. Our children have been well prepared for the SATs by Mrs Zegallo, and, as we always tell them, they can only do their best and life and learning will continue after those 4 days. SATs tests are only a snapshot of what children can achieve and what is more important is what they achieve in class and the progress they have made with their learning over the years.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend – the weather may not be as good as last weekend but I still think it is going to be very pleasant.

Thursday 3 May 2018


Thank goodness that the weather seems to be changing for the better. Some of the older girls have been greatly disappointed because they have had all their netball fixtures in the last week cancelled. Every time we seemed to even think about netball the rain appeared. The Le Gros netball tournament has been rescheduled for next week on Wednesday night and the forecast is good so hopefully it will go ahead then. I will let you know how they do in my next blog.

Fortunately the weather was fine for the girls’ football match so this could go ahead. As I explained last week the girls were taking part in a county football event called the ‘Millenium Shield’ and had got through to the semi-final stage which is amazing. Unfortunately, they were beaten 3-0 in their match but they played really well and did the school proud. I would like to congratulate them on their great run in this competition.

As I also mentioned in my last blog, some of the Year 4 children took part in a primary technology challenge which was held at Oakmere. The challenge for them was to build their own marble run and apparently we were one of only two schools which designed a structure that allowed the ball to roll from top to bottom without stopping. I would like to congratulate all four children on designing a successful model.

We have a long weekend to look forward to which is always nice. I hope you all really enjoy it and I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday. I will not be on the gate on that morning as I have to attend some training but I will be in school in the afternoon.