Mr Duncan's Blog
Friday 10th February
Thank you to all of the parents/carers who have joined in our Inspire sessions so far this year. This week our year 3 children had great fun making Robots from the boxes that were kindly supplied by home and Haden Hill Leisure Centre. The Robots are currently 'dotted' around school for all the children to see.
Our Year 4 and Year 1 children have also had 'Fabulous Finishes' to the themed topics they have been covering this half term. Year 1 had a super day at Warwick Castle and Year 4 enjoyed RAF Cosford. This morning several of the children have shown me the fantastic writing that they have produced from these visits.
Our Book Fayre has also been a huge sucess this week. It was lovely to see so many of our children being able to access the books that were supplied. We have also bought lots of new copies for the school library and one child has now been inspired to write a letter to Jacqueline Wilson inviting her in to our school.
Two years groups have had Banghra dancing in the school hall. Dudley Performing Arts did a great job of telling the children all about the history of Banghra dancing before they had a go themselves and used the drums that came with DPA.
We had a very good turn out for parents evening and really appreciate the support that our parents are offering to school. Thank you to our Governors for being available for the Governor Surgery where parents could chat about any issues they have in school but also thank you to Leasowes staff for coming along and chatting to parents about transition to High School. It was a very succesful evening.
Our recent Governor curriculum meeting was held the 1st February. All subject Governors had the opportunity to come in to school and work alongside the subject leaders to find out more about how the subject operates in school. The feedback from Governors has already been extremely useful in helping to move all subject areas forward and ensure that we continue to provide the best possible education to the children in our care.
Through our close links with Olive Hill Children's Centre we have been able to set up a Musical Bugs group for toddlers. The afternoon has started slowly but numbers are now increasing. The parents who attend have all said how much they and the children enjoy the activities. If anyone is interested in attending these sessions please call in to the school office for further details as we would love to see more of our parents accessing this.
Reverend Rutter (St Peters Church) has continued to support the school. He has held several whole school assemblies for us this half term and is now working with Miss Corbett to create a choir visit to the church. Further details will follow over the next few weeks.
Our hard work with our partner school in the USA has been recognised. Mr Hill and Mrs Richards (Extended Services co-ordinator) have both been working hard to further the links. Our year 6 children have used Skype to contact the children in the USA. This work has now led to us achieving the Foundation Level of International School Status.
I also need to say a very special well done to some of our year 6 pupils who recently attended Dudley Schools citizenship debate 2012. The children really enjoyed the event and it has now led to a debating group being set up in school. I know that they are going to start their own group by talking about what they feel is the best book they have read. I look forward to seeing how this work will develop.
Mrs Jennings is now working with our eco-committee (HOPP - Howley Owl Planet Protection) group. The children have decided that it would be good practice to have some recycling bins around the school site. A competition has now started to design the bin itself. We will then be having the winning design placed on to the bins selected.
Thank you to all parents who completed the recent parental questionnaire. As you already know we have analysed the feedback and the common theme is that of homework. We will now be working with phase leaders to enusre that the homework provided matches the high expectations of the curriculum work that is currently being undertaken.
We are continuing to upgrade the fabric of the building. Over half term two new intervention/support rooms are being built at the end of the year 2 classrooms. This will allow us to really review the way in which intervention strategies can be used. This will be particularly important for those children who have difficulties in certain areas of learning. We are also refurbishing the 1HT classroom to make it slightly bigger. The room will also have new lighting, new flooring and furniture that fits the purpose of a year 1 learning environment. The stairwell entrance to years 5 and 6 is also being refurbished. Walls are being plastered and the floor will be painted to smarten the area.
Finally, well done to all of our children for the effort they are making in both uniform, behaviour and attendance. Our school improvement partner has now visited the school on several occasions and feels that behaviour on every visit has been outstanding. I would agree that the vast majority of children are behaving extremely well and are seeing the benefits in their learning. Year groups are really making an effort to look smart on a daily basis. Could I end by saying that our attendance figures continue to increase and are currently extremely pleasing. However, I would urge all parents to ensure that children are punctual as we would like to see the number of regular 'lates' being reduced.
Friday 11th November
This week saw the launch of the Howley Grange School Bank. The children who have been successful in their applications to be members of staff with the Bank did a fantastic job in making sure that Key Stage two were able to open their new accounts. We had some very excited children who all received a Globe money box, balloon and seeds for opening accounts. We hope that this will encourage children to be financially aware as they grow older and understand the importance of saving. Could I also thank Mrs Faber and Ann from HSBC for all of the hardwork it has taken in getting this Bank up and running. Over the next few weeks we will give out more information outlining how and when the children can access the Bank.
In school today we all took part in a two minute silence to remember those who have lost their lives at war. The children were a real credit to us and treated the event with respect and dignity. Thank you to the many pupils who decided to buy and wear a poppy over the last week.
Next week we have a group of students from Newman University College with us. They will be working with Mr Hill and the members of the school council to make a digital version of the school prospectus. I am sure that the children involved will enjoy the project. They will get to use a wide range of technologies to support their learning and will take responsibility for working to quite a tight deadline as we hope to share the finished article with the whole school on Friday.
Since my last blog the children have also been to Quinton Cinema as part of National Film Week. Both Key Stages were able to watch a film for free. They then had activities to complete based on the film that they saw. Thank you to the staff at the cinema who made our trip so enjoyable.
We also continue to develop the fabric of the school. As I am sure you have all seen the area outside of the main school office has been refurbished. It now has some very nice grey slate and potted plants that make the entrance to the school look so much nicer. Our work on the garden area at the front of the school has also started this week. The pathways have been relaid and bark has been put down. Please keep an eye out as this project will develop over the next term. We have also managed to replace the flooring in years 3 and 4 along with the classroom doors in all of Key Stage 2.
Today also saw our Reception Inspire session where parents were invited in to school to work alongside the children. Thank you to all those parents who were able to attend and join in. It looked a great deal of fun to me and I know from talking to the children afterwards they all loved having their parents in school. We hope to be able to do this again next term.
We have also continued with our plan to increase the number of responsibilities held by the children in school. We now have Prefects, School Council, House Captains, Eco Committee, Litter Team, School Shop Team, School Bank Team, Fruit Monitors, Milk Monitors, Toast Sellers and Playground Buddies. To continue with this the children whithout any of these responsibilities have been asked if they would like to join either the Literacy or Numeracy Councils that are about to be established. These teams will work with Miss Cole and Mrs Tibbetts to develop the subjects in school e.g. the literacy team may decide to try and get author visits or the numeracy team may develop challenge afternoons. We look forward to continuing this process so that all children in school have a specific responsibility and contribution to the school community.
All year groups have also completed the second round of target setting for this academic year. This means that parents should now have the children's new targets for this half term. The response to the last set of targets has been extremely positive with many parents commenting on how they have been able to support their children in achieving these. We are also very pleased that children are able to see the progress that they are making from this Assess and Review process.
Finally please remember that next Friday (18th) is our Children in Need Mufti day. We ask that children bring something with them that can be included in the Christmas Raffle by the PTA. The money made by this will then be split between the School PTA and Children in Need. We did this last year and it was very successful. We would appreciate your support again this year.
Friday 14th October 2011
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