Thursday 16th June

As usual we had a very busy day.  It started off with a Year 6 meeting for those parents that wanted to view the SRE materials before their children.  Attendance at the meeting has been about average for all of these meetings as many of the parents have viewed the material before having had other children in other years.
We were also fortunate to welcome Class 8 from the Infants to come and look around the Juniors.  We know it is often daunting moving from one environment to another, especially as we go up into the sky rather than spread out like the Infants.  I would say that the children were brilliant.  They were very confident in their approach and they all enjoyed having a good look around the school.  Well done to the Year 3's for conducting such marvellous tours of the school.

Write more soon

Wednesday 15th June

Today started of a little depressingly, I attended a meeting held by the local schools about how we can all support each other over the next few years, this however is a new and exciting direction, as collaborative learning rather than competitive learning across the schools will help and support the children in Sheldon and Acocks Green.  It will also be a great opportunity to harness the teaching talents that we have in local area.  What do they say, 'Two heads are better than one.'  Well in this case it was around 15 Heads.  I suppose the depressing part is the current state of our authority.  Being the second largest city in the country really is something to boast about, however with the restructuring of the authority and the loss of jobs due to cutbacks in funding and the need to save money it does feel like this city is in limbo.

However, that does not prevent us from doing all the exciting things in school.  I arrived back into school to be greeted with the sound of music, no literally it was the sound of music.  I could hear the sound of Doe a deer permeating from the building and that was enough to cheer me up straight away.  It just goes to show that working in a school really is rewarding as well as frustrating some days.

Today marked the start of our School Development Plan.  This gives us a chance to look at the school and what we have achieved as well as where we need to go next.  Tonight gave the teachers the opportunity to express their opinions on the four key areas within the school.  We structure our work around Teaching and learning (curriculum), Ethos, Buildings and Leadership and Management.  This gives the staff the opportunity to air their opinions and therefore contribute to the development of the school.

Over the next half term, the children and parents will be given the opportunity to express their opinions of the school.  Whilst opinions are usually positive, I am and have always been open to opinions that are negative.  We always can improve!  Whilst we sometimes can't provide the children with everything that they want for example, skateboard parks and swimming pools.  I believe that the children of Lyndon Green Juniors have a very large say in the development of this school and are given some exciting opportunities to enhance their learning as well as their social skills.  We hope that they build up a bank of memories that they can take away with them in the future.

Wow I have gone on a bit...

Tuesday 14th June

Well, where does the time go.  We are now well on out way to then end of the school year and school is working at its maximum, the children of Years 3, 4 and 5 have been working hard on their tests over the last two weeks, whilst the Year 6 children have started their work on this years production. 

The production this year will be BUGSY MALONE.  It really is a blast from the past, and I am sure that many of you will recognise lots of the songs.

This week we are conducting our SRE viewings across the school, allowing parents the chance to view the materials before their own children do.

I will be completing the essential dates list today and hope to have uploaded them onto the website as well as on this blog.

Well this is a brief post as a welcome back but I aim to put more on later on in the day 

Look how far we have come edition

Well today is April Fools day, so many children tried to catch me out, but as my Gran once said, 'you cannot kid a kidder.'  Nice try everyone.

As usual, school has been incredibly busy and I will upload some images from the week that show what we have been up to in school.

As usual a buildings update

 From flat pack to furniture, magic! I'm sure CPM didn't think it was magic

You can see the library beginning to take shape.  Blinds are to fitted next week and then the books are going to be sorted when we come back after Easter.  You can see the pile of boxes in the corner, they contain all the new library books.  We really cannot wait to open them and show them to the children, it is like Christmas all rolled into one.


This week has seen the Year 4 Egypt day in full swing and I'm sure their were a lot of mummies who were busy creating costumes(see what I did) so that their children could take full part in the day.  Lots of cooking and fun ensued.  Today Class 4C completed their Egypt assembly, it was fabulous and as I said at the time my new favourite words will be kerfuffle and Jackal headed mother in law.  I wonder if I could get away with that one.  Images below are from the Egypt Day and show the three classes in full costume.

Can you spot the teacher?

Some super posing, I'm sure I can see Howard Carter there somewhere.

Walk like an Egyptian.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and a Happy Mothers Day.  I hope the daffodils get home in one piece.
Mr. Rothwell

Wednesday 30th March

An interesting start to the week,and a few peculiar looking adults and children in the school. The main reason for this was the annual Year 4 Egyptian day. I will hope to upload some images for you tomorrow once I have checked them all for clearance. The Allen keys came in handy as CPM builders (name check, surely it is worth some money off the bill) have been very busy and if you take a peek through the windows you will see the assembled furniture. The books are due to be sorted out for the library on the first day back after the Easter holiday. The technology for the library has also been arriving in dribs and drabs. It will look fantastic when it has been finished. If you remember the old Fun Factory, then you will not recognise the room anymore. It is my haven when I need some peace and quiet.

Staff completed their annual epi-pen and asthma training tonight. Even though it is an annual training session, it does not lose it's importance due to the amount of children that we encounter these days with severe allergies and asthma. We hope the skills that they were reminded of this evening will never have to be used.

I will hope to upload lots of pictures tomorrow for you to see. Don't forget to check out the front page of the website where there are details of events for families around Birmingham over Easter as well as free swimming for Years 5 and 6

Friday 25th March - The allen key edition

Work continues in school, with the arrival of the furniture for the new library.  The pictures below demonstrate why this edition of the blog is dedicated to the allen key.

As you can see just a few parcels.  We are coming to the end of the week in school and as usual it is a busy Friday.  Class 4F have completed their class assembly, newsletter has already gone to print and is about to be uploaded for the week.  The children are enjoying the Spring sunshine, it makes coming to school very easy when the weather is like this.

We have two weeks left before the Easter holidays but we still have lots to finish before the end of term.
I hope everyone has a super weekend, don't forget to put your clocks forward.  The last words and picture goes to Maisy and her family.  Good luck in New Zealand.

Thursday 24th March

Lots happening this week in school, with building work nearing completion and lots of activities taking place in and out of school.

Firstly as I type this blog, we are awaiting the arrival of all the furniture for the school library, it really is an exciting time because like children we want things done as quickly as we can to see the immediate results.  The new Year 3 corridor is coming to a completion and we hope to start moving the furniture back into the 3 new workspaces that we have created.  Here is a quick picture of how they look at the moment.

In terms of school events, the children of Year 6 have been visiting the library this week, they have been returning with arm loads of goodies ranging from CD's to magazines.  I just hope they remember to return everything when the loan is up.

In sporting events, we sent two teams to represent the school at the Gateway Cluster Football event, look what they came back with:

Both of our teams managed to get to the semi-final, where unfortunately they played each other.  The final was a dramatic affair that eventually went to penalties.  After a tense shootout, I can declare that Lyndon Green were the eventual winners.  Well done to everyone that played,as usual they represented the school superbly.  More details can be found in this weeks newsletter, which will be uploaded tomorrow.

Friday 18th March

Comic Relief and Puzzle day in school, makes for a very confusing day!!!  It really is strange to see our children not in uniform, as wonderful as they look I really do prefer them in uniform.  I know the children of Year 5 often do this as a debate topic, but it would take one almighty arm twist to change my mind on this one.
The purpose of puzzle day, is to bring mathematics alive.  We have a variety of activities going on around school and all the children are actively engaged.  The Learning Platform is being used by lots of children outside of school to access all the different links to the strands of mathematics that the teachers have been uploading.  The current number on line accessing mathematics is 74 children.  Great to see the children so engaged and enthusiastic.

Right let's get onto yesterday.  What a day!
Firstly, we send our Year 6 boys to the Birmingham football finals, and what do they do, yes you guessed it, they went on and won it.  So they are now going to have to represent Birmingham in the National finals which are held at a Premier League football ground.  Last year in was at Anfield so we will wait and see.
Secondly, Year 3 mixed team went to represent the school at a local cluster meeting.  Our two teams managed to progress to the final, playing each other, so yes we came first and second.
Lastly, the cross country team had great success.  In the girls race we had a 1st and 3rd and in the boys a 2nd place.

It was a great day.

Finally, we held our annual music concert, showcasing the skills of our violin and viola players.  As usual it was a great event.  Well done to everyone.

Last post for the week, hope you can all keep up with the activities and events in the school.  Keep further up to date with the latest newsletter that can be accessed from our school website.

Quick follow up

United Kingdom 729 United States 165 Japan 12 Russia 4 Germany 3 Malaysia 3 Denmark 2 Brazil 1 Croatia 1 Israel 1

This information has been take from the stats section of the blog and it details where this blog is currently being accessed.  If you are accessing this blog from one of thee countries, don't forget to say hello in the comments section, below each post.

Monday 14th March

The start of a new week beckons.  An interesting day to day, it started well in school with a photographer taking pictures in and around school for the new prospectus that we are putting together.  The children enjoyed starring in the pictures and I am sure that the final product will look fantastic when it is put together.
We had a great end to last week with a couple classes visiting Sheldon Library, (links to their latest newsletter can be found on the front page of the website) Year 5 had a great trip to the museum collections centre for their Language Alive experience, their feedback said it was a great trip.
This afternoon saw the arrival of two fire engines and 8 fire fighters in school, no there was no fire or any emergency.  This was an arranged visit by the fire brigade to our Year 5 classes.  Each class will spend a session with the fire service over the next couple of days.  So, as you can see the tempo in school never stops and in between all these super experiences we have to maintain our educational standards so that our children continue to achieve the best that they can.  Although, on reflection all these experiences that we add to our curriculum benefit the children immensely.
As a last comment today, i have to recall what a great assembly 4J put together for us on Friday, it really was a fun and educational performance and I have never seen so much determination in the eyes of children as when the were completing their River Dance.  I hope the children involved really do remember the experience.

It has been a while

Like a long lost friend, I realise it has been a while since I last posted on here.  There are no excuses, so none shall be given.  OK it has been incredibly busy in school, focusing on Teaching and Learning as well as turning our school into a fantastic place to work and learn.

So what have we been up to?
We have looked carefully at the way we are teaching in school and how best children learn, as teachers we have used a lot of theory as well as a lot of information from our current pupils.  If we take out that we want our own swimming pools etc.  we find that children learn in a variety of ways , some like quiet, some like noise, others group work, others individual.  How do we cater for such diverse learning style.  Well firstly, as teachers we have to be prepared to leave our comfort zones.  Not an easy thing I can tell you.  We have to put together our ideas and couple them with the children and deliver a pedagogy that inspire our leaders of the future to go out and inspire others to want to become educators for tomorrow.  Gosh this is deep stuff!  We feel though that we have to take it to this level to take our school to the next level.

We are slap bang in the middle of building and creating a fabulous resource for our children to develop their personal research skills and we are very excited about the prospects of the future environment that we are building for our children.

The children are fabulous at the moment and all are accessing our Learning Platform where they can further develop their interests in subject throughout the school.  You cannot work on the Learning Platform at night without seeing a whole host of children searching their way through the information that the staff are putting on the platform.  Great to see.

A really successful Governing Body meeting this week, where I reported on some real successes, for example attendance has continued its upward trend over the last three years and we are currently not far off the 97% which is fantastic.  I recently handed out 308 Walk to school badges for the month of February and remember this is out of 370.

It is good to be back on here and I must continue to log on as much as possible because I can tell people are visiting the blog.  Thank you for everyone's continued efforts in making Lyndon Green Junior School a fabulous place to work.

Wednesday/Thursday 19th/20th January

Very sad news today regarding school.  I arrived in to school to the news that somebody had tried to remove some lead off the roof over night.  This is not something that we are used to at Lyndon Green, but it does not stop us in our daily routine, we pick ourselves up and start again.  More Inspire workshops again with the attendance of over 20 parents for 6M.  This workshop allowed the parents to see the materials that the children of Year 6 will be tested in, in May of this year. 

It is Thursday evening and the clubs are about to start again this evening, 25 of our football squad will be put through their paces as well as over 30 children completing Art club, then for the first time this year the tuneful sound of over 30 guitars being put through their paces with Mr. Orr.  So in total we will still have approximately 85 children out of 370 left in school until 4.30.  Good going!

I am looking forward to the class assemblies starting again tomorrow and this time it is the turn of class 5GB, I look forward to seeing many parents there.
Mr. Rothwell

Tuesday 18th January

I said it was going to be a busy day and it was , breakfast meeting followed by a quick dash back to school from the Botanical Gardens, followed by a maths lesson, followed by a one to one tuition meeting..... You get the picture.

The children are really settled in school and applying themselves really well,  we had another Inspire workshop this morning that was well attended as always.  School is a very positive place at the moment and long may it continue.
Will hopefully write much more tomorrow.

Monday 17th January

School is a busy as ever with the parents of the children in 10E viewing the SRE materials.  Maths booster groups for both Mrs. Pitt and myself.  Well done to my group you are growing in confidence all the time and tackling tasks far easier than you have ever done.  The rest of the school is fully engaged for a Monday, and the sun even came out at one stage.

Just finished getting ready for this half terms Governing Body meeting, we are looking forward to welcoming our new members to the Governing Body and sharing with them the work that we are undertaking.  I'm just not looking forward to the late night, but that is part and parcel of the work that we do.

Ultra busy day tomorrow starting with a meeting from 8 at the Botanical Gardens, listening to DRB ignite and finishing with a meeting at 7.00 pm carrying out some research for NCSL. Hopefully write more tomorrow!

Tuesday 11th January

Well today was all about the one's, with the peculiar date being 11.1.11.  I had a long day today, but it really does show how quickly we get back into the swing of things in school.  The first part of the day, I found myself in Year 5 in class 5J, whilst the class teacher Miss. Mills attended a meeting.  And Yes I can still teach and have not forgotten what it is like in the classroom, I say it often enough that some days as the Head Teacher I really do miss the hustle and bustle of everyday class teaching.  So, it was on to Spanish, thanks Miss. Mills, however I really enjoyed it learning my greetings and my colours.  I suppose I am like many students of the age where I really only learnt French and German at Secondary School and no languages at Primary school.  Apart from Spanish I then had the joy of my favourite narrative poem by Alfred Noyes - The Highwayman.  This was my favourite poem when I was teaching full time at my previous school, Hillstone Primary School, and I remember how I managed to get a group of boys really interested in what really can be classed as a love story.

From class 5J I moved into class 5GB and a whirlwind of mathematics, thoroughly enjoyable as it really is my favourite subject to teach.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on paperwork and preparing for the Governing Body meeting due next Monday.  The rest of the school continued as normal.  Mikey Pryce came in to deliver his fitness session to class 4F, they will get used to it. 

The clubs list in school seems to be getting longer and longer and this evening saw the reintroduction of the beading club.  This had 51 requests for places, however pleased I am by the overwhelming interest in our clubs, we have to ensure that they are kept to a reasonable number, I hope that the new organisation of this club will allow all those children to participate if they want to.

Mr. Rothwell

Thursday 6th January

Strange to think it is Thursday.  I still think it is the beginning of the week.  We will all get back into school mode very soon.  The school is back into the swing of things very quickly, we are currently looking at all the clubs for this term, more clubs than ever, but that is what we think is right for our children.  I hope we can accommodate everyone that wants to take part.

Write more soon

Mr. Rothwell

Welcome Back

Wednesday 5th January

Welcome back everyone!  I hope that everyone had an enjoyable break and that the weather and illnesses floating around at the moment did not disrupt any of your plans during our Christmas break.  The children return to school this morning, and as usual it was cold and wet but a superb turnout as usual.  A quiet day in school today, more of a settling back in week, especially with it being only 3 days.  This term will bring lots of exciting events in school, events that we hope will enrich our children's education at Lyndon Green.  It was asked whether Year 4 could visit Egypt as part of their Egyptian topic, but I am afraid the budget will not stretch that far.  I hope to keep everyone up to date as much as possible and complete this blog as regularly as I can.  Keep reading

Mr. Rothwell