16th November 2012

Hi Everyone
What an exciting day we've had today!
Children in Need day is always such a big event at Welland School and so well supported by children and parents. This year our theme was 'Legs Go Crazy'. So many children (and their parents) made such an effort transforming their legs into 'crazy' legs. I will put a slide show on the school blog as soon as possible.
Children also voted in 'Strictly Welland-The Dance-Off'! The videos are on the website to see. The Early Years Team had almost 200 votes and were the winners by far!
Children set up and ran a number of games stalls in the hall during the morning which raised a lot of money also.
The grand total so far is £580 which is tremendous, well done everyone. Of course, because it was more than £500, I danced with my lovely partner Betty, although I don't think she enjoyed it quite as much as I expected she would!
All in all, a great day. Thanks to the staff for being such good sports and parents and children for supporting us so much.

Have a great weekend, see you next week.

GC

9th November 2012

Hi everyone,
it doesn't feel like we've only just had a week off! Phew!

The Y6 class had a magnificent trip to the Space Centre in Leicester this week. I know that children in Miss Sismey's class and Miss McKearney's class are looking forward to their trip next Tuesday to Coates in Cambridgeshire.

The next round of after-school clubs begin next week. There's NARNIA for Y5&Y6 on Mondays, FILM on Tuesdays for KS2 children, MULTISKILLS for Y3/4 children and Spanish for KS2 children on Thursdays and FAMILY CHRISTMAS ART & CRAFT on Wednesdays for all children and their parents.

52 parents attended assembly this morning! It's great that so many parents are able to come and join in our celebration. Although it is getting a bit tight!!! I think we shall have to start considering how we can create some more space.

It's the build up now to Children In Need. If you missed the details on the flier that went out this week, you can find it in the newsletters section of the website.
Monday is going to be very exciting as the staff from each phase will perform their dance in the hall. This begins at 2:30pm. Parents are welcome to attend too. It will give you a chance to see which group you'd like to vote for. Of course the best bit will be my special dance!! But we have to raise over £500 for that to happen (I'm not cheap!). You can buy votes in each class.

It's been a tiring week for all of us, children and adults. I hope you all have a restful weekend and I look forward to seeing you next week.........especially for the Dance Off!

GC

26th October 2012

Hi Everyone,

Thank you to those of you who were able to make to to parents’ evening last night.  84% of our parents came which is our highest since my arrival at Welland.  I’d really like to reach 90%. If you have any suggestions to make parents’ evening better, please let us know.

I hope you like the slideshow for parents’ evening.

We aim to make parents’ evening a positive and enjoyable event for all parents and children. We try to invite agencies to present stalls that parents would find interesting or useful.  Obviously it’s difficult getting so many parents seeing their respective teacher but we try to keep to time. Don’t forget, if you would prefer to sit down and discuss your child’s progress with their teacher at any time, please ask! We are happy to arrange this outside of formal parents’ evenings.

This week in school we managed to complete all the teaching-staff performance appraisals (!!!), some training for support staff and our adult courses have continued.

Next week, the school is closed for the half term holiday. We hope you have an enjoyable break and look forward to seeing you all back on Monday 5^th November.

An Hour at Welland

19th October 2012

Hi Everyone

Busy Friday Assembly today. We had over 50 parents attending which was great, even if a little noisy (ahem!). Congratulations to the Elkhouly Family for winning the family challenge and Ryder for winning the Y1 Poetry Assembly.

All parents should have received an appointment for parents' evening next Thursday. There will be plenty of activities and stalls in the main hall for parents, including tea and coffee, biscuits etc. The teaching staff will be in the small hall for the parent/teacher interviews. As usual you will be asked to sign and comment on a target sheet. Please leave this with us in the post box that will be in the small hall. We will copy it and send it out the next day for you.
The classrooms will be open for you to go and look at the children's work and talk to the teaching assistants who will be on hand to help you out. We hope you have an enjoyable and informative evening and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Please forgive me if I mudge you on during the main interviews. It's not personal but it's to make sure we keep to time. As a parent, I used to hate it when you were kept waiting for ages for your appointment. We are always happy to speak to parents at any time, just arrange it with your child's teacher.

I hope many of you have seen the slide show on my blog for 'An Hour at Welland'. It's a proper goose-bump moment seeing the children in photos like that. I'm hoping to produce a 'Day in the life of Welland' also. Watch this space!

It's a busy week for teaching staff next week, they've got staff appraisals with me and the assistant headteachers!! I'm sure they're looking forward to it!
This week, as every week really, has been really busy but very productive. Y5s have been on a health kick working on things like heart rate, lung damage through smoking etc. We've got some great models that show all these things and I even made a fantastic model of a lung for them to use also.
In today's assembly, we had the longest list for children reaching gold ever! Well done children!
Attendance for this week was well over 97%. That's brilliant, well done mums, dads and children. There wasn't any class below 95%. This is a first for us and because it was so good, we felt we couldn't give Billy's bones out. Mr French's class made 100%, closely followed by Miss Finley's with 99.5%. I think Miss Finley's could make 100% next week!

That's it from me. Have a great weekend everyone and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

GC

Friday 12th October 2012

Hi Everyone,
Thank goodness it's Friday !!!!

Another busy week done!

I've been really pleased with a lot of the children's work this week. I've seen castle making and instructional writing in Reception-Abigail Crowson wrote some lovely instructions for her boat she was building. I've seen witches and wizards in Y1 and I even tasted a witch's potion. Children in our Early Years Phase (YR-Y1) are showing signs of rapid progress! Well done children and staff.

I've seen children's learning in Y3,4 and 5. Mrs Mills and Mrs Norris have been looking in Y2,3,4 and 6. We have all been pleased how well children are working and trying their best.

This week the Y2 enjoyed an explore around the local area and the school photographer came in. I must apologise for any confusion regarding the photographer. I accept a reminder letter would have been helpful-sorry!   (...actually I blame the office!!!!). We made sure all the children looked gorgeous and we hope you will like the results. Perhaps in the Summer we'll have a whole school photograph as this is the first year in the new school building.

Parents' Evening is coming up on Thursday 25th October. We try to make this a big social event for all parents and families. The teaching staff will be in the small hall and coffee, biscuits and activities will be in the big hall. You will be able to go into your child's class and look at their books and work. Staff will be in the classrooms if you want to chat to them too. Please make sure you send back the reply slip so we can book you in. Even if you don't, we'll book you in anyway.

Attendance is still going well.  As a school we achieved nearly 97%.  Unfortunately Billy's bones went to Miss Cylkowski (92.4%) but Billy the Fish went to Miss Byrne's Y6 class who achieved 99.7%.  Dave the Lazy Monkey went to Miss Astill and her Y1 class because she had the most lates.

Next Friday we award the Family Challenge trophy. The current challenge is to write a limerick about Welland School. Good Luck. Entries need to be in by Thursday night.

There have been lots of birthdays in school this week;
YR, happy birthday to Lewis Slipper and Kirils.
Y1, happy birthday to Jasmin and Nadia.
Y2-3, happy birthday to Jowapu.
Y4-6, happy birthday to Sebo, Iliyan, Marta, Macauley.
Special happy birthday to mum, Emma Lenton this week and my baby boy Harry who turned 20 this week!

The school nurse has a drop-in session next week. If you would like to have a chat with her, please see Mrs Reed.

That's it for now. I hope you all have a happy and safe weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week.
GC

Friday 5th October 2012.

Hi Everyone. Welcome to my blog! It's been another busy week in school, but very productive and very successful. Today sees the end of the induction period for children entering school in Reception.

We've been really pleased how well they have settled, even coping with lunchtimes and mixing with all the other children on the yard. It's not easy joining such a big school when you're 4 years old but they seem to be managing it, even though there are a few tired faces on a Friday (and I don't just mean the staff!!).

So many different things are going on around the school from potion making and casting spells in Y1, making jam tarts (like the Queen of Hearts) in YR, robots in Y4 and so much more. I know that next week, Y5 are looking at the heart and how it works. We've got a really good model that shows this as well!

I'm really pleased with attendance this week. The school has made 97% which is a tremendous effort. Billy the Fish was shared between Miss Sismey's class and Miss Bridgeman's who both reached 100%.  Unfortunately, Billy's bones went to Mr French with 94%. I really feel this year we could make 95%.

Parents courses are kicking off now. We are running EsOL courses and English GCSE courses each week. Our parent course starts next week and many more will follow throughout the year. Congratulations to Rute for achieving her Customer Service Level 1 course.

On a sad note, we are sorry to see Mrs Turner leave us today. She has worked here for many years in the office supporting Mrs Edwards. Mrs Joslin has joined us in her place. We wish both ladies well for the future. If you need to pop into the office at all next week, be nice to Mrs Joslin, she's not used to us all yet!
If you are interested in a navy blue waterproof coat (like the one staff wear) please tell them in the office. If we have enough interest, we can order some and the price may reduce from £14.

On the website home page, you will see a link to OfSTED's parent view. I would encourage as many parents as possible to give their views.

That's it for now, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and I'll see you all next week.

GC

Harvest Festival

http://peterborough.foodbank.org.uk/

Collections for harvest festival this week. Our aim is to get 300 items for the Peterborough Food Bank.

Parent View

'OfSTED use an online survey called PARENT VIEW to gather parents’ views.  The survey covers a range of topics, including quality of teaching and  behaviour. The results are published on the web site.

To put your views forward, please go to www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk and follow the instructions. It’s important to us and inspectors that as many  parents as possible put their views on.'