Wednesday 15th December

I have not completed the blog for a few days, school has been incredibly busy and time has been short.  So really a quick summary of the events of the last couple of days.  Excitement is growing in the final run up to the Christmas holidays.  On Monday the performers were in the stages of last minute rehearsals for the play 'The heart of Christmas.'  Mrs. Pitt and I have spent the last two days looking at all the assessment data for the Autumn term and the spent the day yesterday talking to the Year Leaders about the data and the progress that all the children have made, and how we can support you even further over the next two terms.

Tuesday was spent in the hall with the Drama and Choir club children completing the dress, afternoon and evening performance to the children and the parents that attended.  They were fantastic and a real credit to the school.  I thoroughly enjoyed the last play where the children imitated the staff perfectly well, in fact too well.  I am now conscious of every move and mannerism that I make.

The rest of the week comprises of parties and the Church service.  Things to look forward to.

Mr. Rothwell

Wednesday 8th December

Another day, another Inspire Workshop.  This time it is the parents of the Year 3 Amber Maths group that have been invited into school to work with their children. The feedback forms are all really positive.  WE hold 36 workshops across the school every year in Literacy, Numeracy and ICT and we always have around 2/3 of the parents attend each workshop.  From the feedback it really seems to be beneficial to our community.

Year 6 have been to Aston Hall for the final visit and they all have said what a super trip it was and how worthwhile it was.  This is the second year of this trip taking place and both years the children have said how good it was, just cold.  Lots of follow up work to come.  We have just changed our entrance hall displays from writing around school to how we use ICT in school.  Some fabulous results.  Pop into school and see the quality of work on show.  It really does reflect the standards we are trying to reach.

The school Christmas play....

Write more when I try and get a sneaky read of the script.  Sarcastic, me???? I refute those claims Danny!
Mr. Rothwell

Tuesday 7th December

Today started off bitterly cold.  -9 when scraping the car, but at least we were nowhere near as bad as Scotland, where some children and parents slept in school.  Could you imagine!  A really busy day starting with an Inspire workshop for class 5GB, some great feedback from parents about how important it is to spend time with their children in school, as well as comments regarding being able to see how subjects are taught these days.  I am sure many of us would recognise how education methods have changed over the years.  For the better I hope!

The Christmas performance has started to take shape and many rumours are emanating about which child is playing which member of staff in the performance.  Sadly, Danny does a very good impression of me!!  Even James the builder has got a role in the play!

Lunchtime came and many children were participating in the Christmas lunch and all came out of the dining hall full of energy having had a great lunch.  You should have seen the eagerness on the faces of the children to actually get to the hall for this special lunch. 

It was a day of meetings for myself today.  One to discuss our Resource base with the Infants and then a second one with a company called Ambinet.  I have asked them to do some more signage for the school on the main doors coming into school. 

You really can feel the excitement brewing in school and that is just the teaching staff knowing they only have a week and a half left before they can prepare for Christmas at home.  The children, really are getting excited, however they are keeping themselves in check and as usual they are behaving fantastically well.  We wouldn't expect anything else.

Mr. Rothwell

Monday 6th December

I am sure there is a famous song about it being cold outside, but I will reiterate that it is. However, school is fantastically warm especially in every classroom. We really are jumping in to our festive preparations, the stage has been erected in readiness for this years performance. There is an expectant buzz in school, with the Christmas postal service in full bloom. The children and staff are still working hard, assessments and analysis of pupil progress are well underway and will be even up until next Tuesday. The pupils in the writing club are still attending along with the Mikey Prices Monday club.

An exciting day tomorrow, it is the Christmas lunch for the children. If you are reading this blog from around the world, why not tell us how your preparations are going for Christmas.

Mr. Rothwell

Thursday 2nd December

A really short post today. I spent today at Head Teacher meetings looking at the future. Very depressing..... We know we all have to tighten our belts a bit in difficult times, but we aim at LGJS to still give our children every opportunity to make sure they thoroughly enjoy their time in school.

Mr Rothwell

Wednesday 1st December.

Another crisp and wintry day in school, no paths to clear today as the hard work has payed off from the previous day. School attendance is still quite high even though we are still fielding calls to see whether we are open or not. As I say, i will do my best to keep the school open until it is out of my control or a safety to the children. The difficult nature of this weather is the ice on the playgrounds and for that reason we keep the children inside away from harm. The children really hate being couped up but they have games to keep them occupied in the lunchtime break.
First swimming session for many today and they all left school wrapped up to the hilt. It seems as though costumes passed muster this time as no issues came back. Time is marching on towards Christmas and we find that there is still alot to do in school.

Tonight was our trigger to decorate the school and the staff and children spent the afternoon together decorating it, as usual it looks great.
We still have clubs on and jokingly wondered whether the Tag Rugby club were going outside, you should have seen the look of terror on their faces. Sadly though it was to be inside.
Mr. Rothwell