Staveley School Log Book

The darling SATs of May

2010-05-11T14:58:00.003+01:00

It is May, the sun is shining and the lambs are growing bigger by the day. It must therefore be time for SAT's. Our oldest children spend parts of four days doing their SATs this week. The context this year is a national boycott led by NAHT and NUT. Our school is going ahead as while we are unhesitatingly against the SATs we feel that more noticed needed to have been given to the children before a change of expectation. As with so many other events, SATs have assumed 'rights of passage' status and are one of those things that pupils have expected for years. Contrary to popular opinion, children in our school don't mind SATs that much. Most admit to having found the week quite fun and many admit to really enjoying the process. Why the contradiction? Our school places no pressure on members of staff to reach particular targets. The pressure created by schools and parents when passed on to pupils is what really causes their stress. Our view is that we do the best job we possibly can, help all children to ac hive, provide support to those who most need it (not just those at expedient grade boundaries) and then see how they did at the end of the process. We do evaluate and see if we can learn lessons but we don't hold an inquisition.

Ofsted have been and gone this year and graciously graded us as a Good school with many Outstanding elements. Sadly they can never pay back the time to children that was lost documenting and finding evidence to support what we already knew as fact.

Our number continue to grwo and currently sit at 156 pupils on roll.

Happy New Year

2010-01-05T16:11:00.004Z

Heavy snow last night on top of ice remaining from the last two weeks of frozen conditions. We were one of the only schools open today in the area. The complication for schools is often that the weather at the school is less important than conditions at the homes of staff. While our village was snowy but passable with care, many staff had difficult and dangerous journeys. In some case being unable to get the short distance from home to main road. Of 155, about 100 pupils managed to get safely to school today.

Highs, lows and T-Towels

2009-11-20T12:05:00.003Z

Highs and lows over the last week.Our numbers continue to grow through moves from other schools.8 pupils have joined us this term after transfers from other local schools. Moving schools can solve or create problems for families but it is reassuring that the movements give us a net gain in numbers. Visiting parents tell us they like the happy and relaxed atmosphere of the school, they see pupils working hard and enjoying positive relationships. Currently our number on role stands at 154, close to its highest ever level.
Sadly we have had to close yesterday and today due to flooding.The water was running straight off the fell and though the KS2 cloakroom before exiting onto the playground. We have wet carpets and a lot of debris to clean up. The closure came due to the difficulties of staff getting through flooded roads, some travelling significant distances. Many parents asked for the maximum notice in the event of closure so we took the step of announcing it last night, following advice from the Environment Agency and discussions with other local schools. Almost inevitably today has been less wet despite awful forecasts.
Throughout the school the sense of Christmas is upon us. Play lines being learned, songs being sung and that tangible sense of excitement beginning to build.

Autumn Days

2009-10-03T21:31:00.003+01:00

This week we sang Autumn days for the first time. We have been back at school for four weeks now and the first hint of Autumn has arrived. The leaves are falling, early dew and hints of frost. Before long the fallen leaves will block the road drains and with the next heavy rain staff will find it difficult to get to school due to the flooding. We had 12 children join our reception class and another three into other year groups bring us to the largest number on roll for some time. This week sees the start of a very exciting project in school. We are working with four other local schools to give our most able children the chance to work with others from different schools. On Wednesday we have a launch day at Rydal Hall to start the project off. The team of children will create a website that will feature reviews of Lakeland tourist attractions written by children for children. Last week we also saw a milestone as the 800th entry was posted to our pupil blog - Making the News. We have more posts than any other school in the country.

Court Cases

2009-06-30T11:50:00.002+01:00

All the recent news seems to involve courts getting involved with schools and parents. it would seem that we will be expected to take parents to court if their children misbehave and they will be able to take us to court if their children fall behind and do not get 1:1 support. This way chaos lies, not to mention chronic waste of time and money.
Whatever happened to just talking to one another like adults and sharing reasonable expectations? One the positive side it seems as though the Numeracy and Literacy frameworks will go. Once they were the answer to everything, how times change. Few of us will lament their passing I suspect.
The school is very busy with trips and events at present and far from 'winding down', the end of the term seems to get busier with every passing year.

They think it's all over...

2009-05-15T12:46:00.003+01:00

The drama that is the story of SATs reached the end of another act today. We have finished our KS2 SAT's and said goodbye (we are told) to the Science tests for ever. As ever our children made the best of it and we did all we could to make the week less stressful. We held our customary SATs breakfasts filling the school with the delicious smell of toasting bread. Afternoons were fun filled and all admit to the week being less awful than they had feared. We can now get back to our core purpose of educating children to become considerate, thoughtful and kind adults.

The DCSF have announced that they plan to put the SATs back next year to prevent our Y6's have time to once again enjoy schooling. They seem to have forgotten that many schools will have booked residential and similar activities for June next year. Many of these opportunities have to be booked well over 12 months ahead. One senses that the DCSF may have to re-think that hasty decision. We formally opened our EYFS Playhouse this week, the youngest children seem delighted with their new place to play.

Another first is the introduction of our new text messaging service to parents. This is proving to be a great success and is being used both to send information directly and also to point to paper letters or prompt returns. We expect to add an email copy in the near future. A wish would be to eliminate paper correspondence altogether.

We hope that we both provide a more effective communication and also help parents to be more involved with the day to day life of the school.

Many tired eyes point to the fact that we are nearly at half term and all will benefit from a break in what we dream will be sunshine.

Pandemics

2009-04-30T14:13:00.003+01:00

Today we have been in receipt of the first batch of helpful advice regarding responses from schools in the event of a Flu Pandemic. We are all no doubt filled with dread at such a prospect and yet have to turn our minds to thoughts of measured and logical responses that aim to improve the safety of our children. Schools will be creating or revising their emergency planning and parents will be wondering how to manage having their children's schools closed for potentially long periods. With regard to any attempts to maintain an educational provision under such circumstances thoughts will turn to remote learning in it's various forms and also systems to allow rapid communications. Perhaps this will act as a spur to all of us to improve the opportunities for pupils to benefit from our Learning Platforms.
I hope above all else that when strategic decisions are being made, the safety of children and others is placed above logistical considerations.

Two heads better than one?

2009-03-14T18:34:00.002Z

Friday 13th, Red Nose Day was memorable for two reasons. Firstly it was our most successful charity fund raising event ever, beating our previous best by over 100%. The money is still being counted but we are already beyond the £500 mark. I am so proud of the pupils for the way in which they showed such commitment to the events, joined in the fun and yet managed to carry on with learning and behave so sensibly throughout the day. The second reason was our novel idea of allowing a child to be 'Head for the Day'. Pupils had to write letters explaining why they should be chosen; the competition was so hard to judge that we ended up with a head and a deputy. The two new appointments rang the bell, blew the whistle, inspected lessons, answered the phone, dealt with emails, telephoned the Westmorland Gazette and were photographed by the newspaper. We will certainly repeat this successful idea.

One other highlight of the week was the receipt of an Excellence in ICT award for the school website. This was announced at the Cumbria ICT Conference at Rheged. The website is providing more and more information for parents, helping them see the work of the school, offering a route for engagement and contribution and also providing a window on the school for prospective parents. he statistics also show that the website is being viewed right across the world.

In like a Lion

2009-03-04T09:45:00.002Z

March arrived this week and today we have another light sprinkling of snow; there are some decidedly fed up lambs in the fields around. Much is happening in the school at the moment - we have lost one pupil with a family move to Grasmere and gained one so our numbers stay constant. We are getting ready for World Book day on Thursday and red Nose day the Friday of the following week. Our most exciting news is that the School has won an Excellence in ICT award for the best Cumbrian school website. Despite the huge amount of time the website takes up it is an essential part of our work and fulfills three main aims:

It allows us to display and celebrate the work our children produce
It allows us to share the work and life of the school with our parents and allows them to see more of what goes on.
It acts as a showcase for future parents who may be choosing a school for their children. Our web statistics show that the site is being looked at all over the world and all over Britain. More often than not when parents enquire about places for their child, they have already done their 'homework' and looked at the school site.

The school is in a very positive frame of mind and all are working hard. A boy in Y1 brought me his writing book yesterday showing the improvement since September, it was breath taking and moved from two indecipherable squiggles to half a page of writing that could easily be read - those are the great moments!

Let it snow...

2009-02-02T11:22:00.004Z

Heavy snow again today, the third major fall of the school year. Many staff and children were unable to get to school. The weather has changed from blizzard to bright sun in moments. Throughout the school, teachers are taking advantage of the excitement to focus learning on activities to do with the weather. One class is keeping a log and publishing to the school website as the day moves on. Many schools are shut today but we have managed to stay open. If the snow continues however, we may not be able to keep going.

New Year 2009

2009-01-08T13:41:00.002Z

The year has started for us as it finished with snow, ice and bitter days. 4th December saw a rare event for us with the school forced to close due to snow. Many staff could not reach the main roads to travel.The Christmas productions of the Nativity and Dick Whittington were an enormous success but are now a distant memory. The Christmas holidays gave our contractors the opportunity to replace carpet in Class 2 and also to complete the fitting of a dividing door between class 1 and 2. The effects are very positive indeed. We admitted a new child yesterday and true to form he has settled in well already. We also appointed Mrs parsons to provide temporary cover for a maternity leave in the reception class.

1 in 5

2008-10-06T12:02:00.003+01:00

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

2008-09-02T13:59:00.002+01:00

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

2008-07-08T14:19:00.001+01:00

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

2008-07-08T13:59:00.002+01:00

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...

2008-06-19T16:58:00.002+01:00

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

2008-06-05T15:09:00.002+01:00

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

2008-05-16T15:30:00.002+01:00

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

2008-04-25T09:36:00.002+01:00

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

2008-04-16T09:38:00.002+01:00

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

2008-04-14T15:16:00.002+01:00

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

2008-03-19T21:21:00.002Z

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

2008-03-14T14:05:00.002Z

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

2008-03-14T11:24:00.000Z

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

2008-03-14T11:13:00.000Z

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