Tuesday 30th November

The end of another day that started off very white. It was lovely to start the day with such a crisp morning, however this then causes issues for us in school. Boilers working? Check. Paths cleared, not check. So out it was with coats on and Mrs. Harris helping out to clear a pathway into the school so that everyone could get in. I wonder how many people logged on or listened to the radio to see if schools are open or closed. By now I am sure you know that this school stays open as long as we can operate. If conditions are too bad then the City will make a decision to do a complete blanket closure. If not then it is down to myself to take into account the local conditions. Today was nowhere near as bad as last year.

Pretty full school and everybody working well. I had the opportunity to pop into class 5GB today and listen to the future of broadcasting in this country. Well done 5GB some superb work and you were all so enthused by it. My maths group had a lot to do today working on multiplication and the grid method. We will keep working and tomorrow officially marks our start to of festive celebrations in school.

Mr. Rothwell

Monday 29th November

Good Afternoon

Quiet day in school today with everyone going about their business as usual. It started with a very cold morning and I am sure like everyone else we didn't want to get up, the one good thing is that school is nice and warm. I was lucky to spend some time in class 4c today watching their lesson, really interesting and stimulating lesson, the children were fantastic and very eager to learn. It reminds you of why we enter the profession in the first place when you see children engaged in their work. Paperwork this afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully more to write about tomorrow, and yippee it is nearly December.

Mr. Rothwell

Friday 26th November

Afternoon everybody, the end of another week is here. I think it is only 3 more weeks to go until we break up for our Christmas holidays. We have so much to complete in that time, I really do not know where time goes at times. I have finished this weeks newsletter with some information about what we expect in terms or reading. The decision to say that children at Lyndon Green Juniors should read as a minimum, four times a week in my view is about right. The children can then fit their reading around their busy lifestyles, I think some of our children have better social lives than some of the adults.

I also promised that I would publish some of our Christmas dates for you so that they are on a central place. So here goes:

Tuesday 7th December - Christmas lunch
Friday 10th December - Christmas Panto am
Tuesday 14th December - Afternoon performance of Christmas play 1.30 tbc
Tuesday 14th December - Evening Performance 6.30 tbc
Wednesday 15th December - Years 5 and 6 Christmas parties
Thursday 16th December - Years 3 and 4 Christmas parties
Friday 17th December - School Closes for Holiday.

As well as these events we still have a lot of learning and Teaching still to do.

I always say how proud I am to be the Head of this school. This comes from having great children that have the right attitude to learning, but it is more for the community feel that we have. Our sponsored walk raised over £1200, then again you support Children in need and even more you donate to our Harvest festival that we share out amongst our community. We often feel we are asking to much of you as parents and families to support so many worthwhile causes, but you never cease to amaze me. Yet again we are taking part in our shoebox appeal and what can I see outside in the foyer, a large pile of boxes. All I can say is Thankyou very much.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and I look forward to the start of another week

The cold wind blows Wednesday 24th November

A funny day today, with some of our usual Wednesday activities happening, ie. Swimming, the last one for these classes. I suppose it all started with the cold wind blowing across the school. Is this officially the start of our winter? Will I be able to stay open all year this year? Hopefully, no heater problems this year, so a little bit of snow won't stop us. I type that with fingers crossed.

An interesting afternoon, as I have blogged before the staff in school are currently working on two main areas. Learning and Teaching and Reading. The reading group had organized four book reps to come into school to demonstrate their products to the staff. As usual we try to do things a little bit differently at Lyndon Green, so we sent a group of children from every year in the school to question the suitability of the books for our children. As usual they have done a great job and their opinions will feed into the school decision. Our children really do have a say in the decision making of the school.

Write more tomorrow.
Mr. Rothwell

Monday 22nd November

Start of another busy week in school and today started with the visit of a few furry friends. We had our visit from the animal lecturing service. We were visited by a collection of interesting animals, from snakes to meercats. The children were all glued to what was being said. Fabulous behaviour from everyone and I am sure that they all enjoyed the lecture. I will be looking for feedback so that we can judge whether to re-book next year.

Today marked the start of lots of visits by teachers into each others class. The teachers have started to come and spend an hour in each others class to observe what is happening. We are monitoring the standard of our teachers and the work that the children are completing. I had the pleasure of spending an hour in one of our Year 3 classes today. The children thoroughly enjoyed the lesson as did I. They ended up making their own Roman Road after investigating different sources of information. Great fun.

Spending time outside of school tomorrow looking at how we can improve Literacy and Numeracy even further.

Write soon.

Mr. Rothwell

Thursday 18th November Friday 19th November

Afternoon everybody. Just trying to cover the last two days at school with this post. As usual time moves on really quickly and the last two days have been really eventful for both myself and the school. We have had visitors in both days. Firstly, we had a visitor in yesterday and he was giving us a quote for moving the library in school down to where the fun factory is, so that we use the space much better. It means that we would be creating an ultimate whizz of a space and use the space even better than it is at the moment. This will take a bit of time to sort through and we have to invite some more people into school to quote so that it is fair, but really exciting times. This is one of our school priorities this year. Half the staff are already supporting Mrs. Firman on looking at reading across the school.

The rest of the day yesterday and the evening was spent looking at the progress every child is making in the school. I had to complete this task because this morning our School Improvement Partner visited us again and I had to present the findings to here. This is the reason I was not able to attend 6H's assembly, so many apologies for that. Just finished this weeks newsletter and you will find some of the dates on there for Christmas. I think it is four weeks until we break up for the Christmas holiday. So much to do in such little time.

I have been checking the stats of this blog and at the moment we are getting hits from four different places:

United Kingdom
United States
Denmark
Russia.

It is peculiar to know that I am typing this in Birmingham but being read around the world. The Internet turns the world into such a small place. If you are reading the blog from a different country please just say hello. It is good for the children of Lyndon Green to know that people from around the world are interested in their school.

Last bit, and a bit cheeky but I know my Dad reads the blog and he lives in Scotland and it is his birthday today so Happy Birthday from us all.

Have a good weekend
Mr. Rothwell

Tuesday 16th November

Well, we returned back to 2010 today and everything seemed to be back to normal. The day started with an Inspire workshop in Year 3, which was really well attended and some super feedback to Miss. Mabb, so thankyou very much for attending. Parents really enjoy spending time in school with their children, so our workshops really are beneficial. Many parents comment on how they see things differently to the way they were taught. Time really does move on and I remember when I was at primary school, not that long ago, I would much prefer to be taught using the current methods.

Mrs. Pitt will be sending home a letter which we would appreciate if you fill it in. We are looking at Learning and Teaching in our school and how to improve our methods further. This will refer to how best children learn and what makes outstanding learning. We really are reflecting on our methodology because we all remember the days of creative freedom and how we still managed to learn. We want to incorporate those elements from the past into our new methodology, so feedback would be great. A little heavy going but very innovative for Lyndon Green.

Write more tomorrow.
Mr. Rothwell