1 in 5

The TES are telling us that one in five teachers would welcome a return to the cane. Not here at Staveley School!. This is a happy place where children are loved by teachers and our discpline is based on trust and respect. We have no wish to use violence to make our point - our children know the value of a withering look of disappointment!
A busy few weeks ahead with many trips taking place. Today all of the KS2 are visiting the parish church in Kendal for a day of storytelling on the theme of Harvest. Later in the week Y3 visit Birdoswald on the Roman wall for a one night residential learning about the Roman occupation. Next week Y6 head off to York on their residential week. Living in such a rural location, we feel it is essential to take the children to other places as often as possible.

Teachers' Holidays

Who says teacher's get long holidays? While you imagine them travelling the world or lying on sunny beaches for six weeks, think again. The chances are they are in school, sorting after last term or getting ready for the next. The school has been a very busy place this summer as all the building work has moved along. I have been in many times to deal with building matters and every time I have come in, there have been teachers working away during their holidays. We are now ready to start the new year and all our work will be finished over the next few days. We have welcomed a number of new starters this September in addition to those who joined our reception class. We also welcome three children who do not have English as their first language. The new children are already settling in well and it already feels as though we've never been away.

Builders

The builders are on site now and will be here for the next two months. They are re-roofing one of the school buildings and building a new assisted change facility. This will provide us with a disabled toilet, changing area and shower. All these will improve our school and the experience we give to our pupils.

Still Raining

Two weeks since the summer fair and it's still raining. We've lost sports day and seen some wet weather every day since. This hasn't dampened our enthusiasm however and lots of exciting events have taken place. This week is Arts week and the children are all enjoying arts based activities on the theme of Carnival of the Animals. Two classes have been down to Cheshire to visit Little Morton Hall , a beautiful Tudor house, as part of their work on the Tudors. We've had three video conferences lately, two with Helmshore Museum on the Tudors and one with a South African comic book artist who was shoing work on the life of Nelson Mandela. Our children have been competing all over the county and bring back trophies for Athletics. Many of the children have been taking part in an Arts project with the Brewery called the Kendal Motto Project. We are sfeeling sorry for our Y6 children as having had to go through the process of SAT's the marking company have messed up and the results will now be at least a week late. For those counting there are 8 more get-ups until the end of term. The children and adults are all tired and are looking forward to a well earned rest.We're keeping our fingers crossed for an uptyurn in the weather.

Watching the weather...

Oh dear, we've ruined the weather for western Europe! Tomorrow is our summer fair, close to midsummer and dependent on good weather. Yesterday one Welsh village had the wettest June day on record and it feels like that here. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for a window from 6 until 8pm. Today Cycling Proficiency started for some children and tomorrow sees Class 3 heading off for a visit entitled Time Travellers. One ex pupil is about to attempt to become the youngest ever to sail single handed around Britain - we wish him every success. The next big worry for the weather will be next Friday, our Sports Day. Probably worth buying a brolly now.

Summer Sunshine

Some folk think of the summer term as a lazy time in schools with children and teachers winding down towards the holidays. The reverse is usually true and staff and children both working hard, playing hard and getting more and more run down. It isn't a surprise that so may teachers are ill during the first week of the holidays, we stave it off then collapse.

This week the Y4/5 children are away on an Outdoor Residential at Fellside centre north of Keswick. they will be mountain walking, gill scrambling, climbing, abseiling and sailing. They will also be enjoying the time away from home with their friends. The Y6 children have been in cricket tournament today finishing a very creditable third. Year 3 have entered a competition to make the longest plasticine snake, they have to measure it so it counts as maths. Elsewhere preparations are in hand for the annual summer fair run by the Y6 children. Next week sees our Class 4 performing in the Making Music production Wellytivity. This involves over a 1000 children spread over four nights at the Kendal leisure centre.

SAT's

We have finally finished the annual trauma that is SAT's. The year 6 children have endured their tests and examination in the name of raising standards and the week has past as positively as possible. Each day has commenced with a SAT's breakfast and the smell of toast has drifted through the school buildings. The afternoons have been given over to rounders and the week has ended with a giant Y6 party. As a school we can now return to our true business of education. We are looking ahead to half term and the school trips that provide such an exciting end to the year.

Another busy week

The weeks seem to fly by and this has been another very full five days. The road safety officer was in school on Tuesday morning to provide road safety training to all the younger children. This was very successful and we hope the lessons learned will be retained. The school hosted a meeting of the three Parochial Parish Councils on Tuesday evening. They were given two presentations about the school and the work that goes on to support the young people of the parish. All those in the parish were encourgaged to become more involved in the life of the school and an open offer made to anyone who can offer help in any way. Thursday saw the Reception children making the journey to Williamson Park in Lancaster. They visited the Butterfly House and the park as part of their work on minibeasts. On Thursday evening we held our AGM and the keynote speaker as Jeff Haslam from the Local Authority who gave an informative, relevant and a times very moving talk on the subject of internet Safety. Following the talk, parents were invited to tour the school and to see the different ways in which each age group make use of ICT to support learning. Despite the small numbers attending, it was a very successful evening. As ever, we owe a debt of gratitude to all those members of staff who gave up their time to ensure all went smoothly.

April sunshine and showers

Yesterday we spent the morning in Craggy Woods working with Sue Thompson from the National Park. The children from Y3 and 4 enjoyed a couple of hours of environmental activities despite the rain and snow falling on the tops.
The school grounds have been transformed by the after school Gardening Club. This has been organised by a group of parents and offers a large number of children the opportunty to do some gardening, learn about the natural world and enhance the school environment. The children are enjoying it enormously and the results are spectacular. We are greatly indebted to those parents who have given their time so generously.

First week back after Easter

We have returned from one of the earliest possible Easter breaks and found snow still on the tops and frosts in the mornings. The week has finished on a high note with wonderful production of Tom's Midnight Garden delivered by the Image Musical Theatre. The children joined in with some of the acting and learned songs to sing. We all enjoyed it very much indeed.

End of term

Thursday 20th March is the end of the Spring term. As we look forward to a well earned break we say goodbye to Mrs Fall who has been teaching French for the last two years. Tuesday saw a very successful family Easter bingo evening in the school hall. The hall was packed and everyone enjoyed a great evening. The term finishes with our customary Easter service, held in St James' church at 9.30 am.

Sporting Success

We have just presented awards to the Cross Country teams who won their events at the recent Elleray Cross Country Competition. We won the boys and girls under 11 races for teams. The younger children also did very well and look good prospects for the future.

World War II

Today as part of our project work on World War II, Mr Castlings has been in to talk to the KS2 children. During the war he was evacuated to Staveley as a child. Many years later he returned to make his home here as an adult. He shared his memories and helped the children to understand what is was like to be an evacuee.

Log book goes electronic

Today we decided to move with the times and transfer our school log book to a blog.