07.31.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged headteacher blog, heathfieldcps.net, mrs spencer, school improvement, Year 6 at 6:39 pm by headteacher
The main issue with being a teacher is that most of us enter the profession because we really want to make a difference to the way that children learn. Most good teachers are passionate about what they do. They care deeply about the welfare of their children and of the families and often the local community. Most good teachers are highly reflective and often they are their own most severe critics. Few teachers enter the staff room to say, “Wow, I’m an amazing teacher, I’ve just achieved all my targets!”
Teaching is a highly emotive profession; we have the potential to have a huge impact on the quality of life for many children. Intrinsic to this we are always seeking to improve our technical skills and develop new ideas.
I have been told on various occasions that I am “passionate” about my role as Headteacher. I have also been told that I am “driven” by my desire to see sustained school improvement. Just as a class teacher I was always determined to improve my skills and techniques year on year; “good” has never been good enough for me. This can be seen as a very positive characteristic. If not managed with care it can also be quite damaging. I have seen too many senior leaders face burnout after only two or three years.
And so I come to the end of my second full year as Headteacher. We have had many successes. The name of Heathfield Primary School is now on the Bolton, national and the global map. My staff are becoming increasingly independent and are making more decisions about how they can become more effective both in their class and across the school. Year 6 have had an amazing year – I will miss them deeply, so many delightful youngsters heading off to secondary school. How many schools can boast of 60% Level 5 in English? Writing has been a phenomenal success for us this year and I am so proud of both the children and the staff, supported brilliantly by our parents.
The next step??? Well I am completely exhausted! There is nothing left! The next step has to be a jolly good rest! I will be donning my trainers and looking for mountains this summer! One of my happiest memories from last summer was when I was sat on my own on a rock on the top of a mountain enjoying a 360’ vista of snow capped mountains. And then the most enormous eagle flew up over the crag in front of me gliding effortlessly on a current of air – it was within 20 metres of me. Amazing.
Why am I writing this? I am trying to remind everyone who reads this, particularly the younger, excited, energetic teachers – have a rest, take a break. It’s good to be passionate – but take care of yourself and make sure that this summer you give yourselves a well deserved break. Recharge your batteries – you will be ten times more effective and you will have happy memories!
As for me? Well, I’m signing off the blog for now. I have to go recharge my batteries and look for an eagle.
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07.11.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, moral code, rules, Year 6 at 3:40 pm by headteacher
I am already thinking about the new year in September and there are a few activities that we now have in place that seem to be making a significant impact on the well-being, behaviour and attainment of the children. I don’t think any of these activities are revolutionary or particularly original, but I am a great believer in sharing and stealing ideas. So if you have any further good ideas and are happy to share please post your comments.
July
Moving Up Day and Parent Pop In
Reception Class Home Visits and Visits to School
September
Display Board photos and names of our new children
Year 6 Meeting
2 weeks of induction activities including:
- Lots of PSHCE including circle time;
- Moral Code is shared and signed by children and teachers;
- Class Rules are devised and signed by children and teacher;
- Children carry out surveys to decide what kind of learner they are;
- Lots of Art, DT, ABOUT ME displays and group tasks.
The plan is to ensure that the children feel safe and secure in their new learning environment and with their learning partners. It also gives the teacher lots of opportunities to talk to the children about different aspects of their learning and individual targets can be set. Literacy and Numeracy take a back seat whilst basic skills are revisited.
During my assemblies I introduce key standards for the year. These include, “The Golden Rules,” which many of you will be familiar with, and “The Moral Code,” which I will post later this week.
I have posted below one of my favourite Assembly themes. It is a quote by Frank Outlaw and I find that it is a very powerful piece of text. So powerful indeed, that once explained in real terms, my Year 6 children can repeat it back to me after one hearing.
Watch your thoughts;
They become your words.
Watch your words;
They become your actions.
Watch your actions;
They become your habits.
Watch your habits;
They become your character.
Watch your character-
For it will become your destiny.
John Outlaw
Just try sharing this with your class – it’s a fantastic starting point for any set of class beliefs. There are lots more starting activities that go on in schools during September and I would welcome your ideas!
Thank you!
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05.14.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blog, blogging, blogs, Headteacher, heathfieldcpsnet, learning, primary school, SATs, Year 6 at 8:54 pm by headteacher
This week has been extremely busy for me at Heathfield Primary School. I am the Headteacher of a small school, one form entry, nine teachers including myself.
On Monday I helped to organise and administer the Year 6 Reading SAT, which I didn’t think was too awful. Granted it was quite long and not all of the children coped with all of the tricky questions but all of the children were in good humour and had a jolly good try. (The pre SAT toast, juice and strange modern music put the children in a bit of a party mood which seemed to help!) Monday afternoon was spent madly phoning around for references so that on Wednesday I would be able to interview NQTs for the temporary position we have in September. @DeputyMitchell ran a staff meeting on ICT which went down very well.
The writing and spelling tasks were scheduled for Tuesday morning – this was a very long morning and it was a relief to get it over with, to be honest. Some of the spellings really were extremely hard but once again, my group tried their very best!
Wednesday hailed the first of the Maths papers, mental maths first and then paper A. I will be asking the staff to have a go at these soon in a staff meeting but it’s top secret so don’t tell them!
David, the Vice Chair of Governors and I then spent the afternoon interviewing NQT teachers for our one year position. Superb candidates, every one of them deserves to get a job soon. Good luck to them!
Thursday – Maths Paper B which to me did not seem quite so awful as Paper A.
I spent the rest of the day trying to catch up with all of the repair and maintenance work going on around school. I never realised when I became a headteacher that I would need my own tape measure - and I am now an absolute whizz at flicking out my tape measure just like builders do. AND I can now balance a pencil behind my ear and can convert mm into inches whilst muttering, “It’s gonna be tricky, and it’ll cost a lot.”
Today (Friday) I tried to resolve part of the paper mountain that is currently making my life miserable.I think I need to ban myself from using post-its. They just seem to increase the paperwork somehow and I can never remember why I have used them any way. I also managed to delete about 15 emails from, Annette (who is “single and wants a friend”), Nadia (who comes from “Russia and would like to meet her potential other half”), Agnetha (from Sweden,” just look at my photo”) and so on- quite funny but I daren’t open the links in case they have viruses and my pc self destructs in ten seconds.
This afternoon I had a very promising meeting with one of our LLEs (Local Leader in Education), she is a fantastic Headteacher and I’m hoping that over the next twelve months she will be able to coach myself and the staff so that we all improve our game. Hopefully the work that she does with us will be strategic and help me to reassess my vision and my direction for the school.
Having spent very little time this week in any class I decided this evening to lurk on the school blogs and see what is going on in the classes.
WHAT AN AMAZING WAY TO MONITOR THE QUALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING!!
I am so proud of my staff and my pupils. So much work has been going on this week. I am sorry that I have left the other classes up to their own devices but, WOW, they have really stepped up to the mark!
Take a look at some of the learning going on!
Every class is blogging!
Reception Class have used photopeach to create some lovely work on Life Cycles. Year 1 are using their class blog to practise their assembly. Year 2 are finding out their very favourite Viking names using wallwisher. Year 3 have carried out a science experiment and have recorded their results on photopeach. Year 4 have photographed themselves during a maths shape investigation. Year 5 are learning about the Ancient Greeks. Year 6 have been developing their creative writing skills using the theme of “volcanoes.”
I really cannot ask any more of my staff can I? Superstars every one of them. Lucky me.
Similar posts that might be of interest:
Do you ever wonder what the headteacher does whilst you are in your class teaching?
Blog Progress So Far
The 5 Levels of Leadership
I am an Air Traffic Controller
Magic Dust
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05.11.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blog, blogging, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, leadership, primary school, SATs, strategic, Year 6 at 9:13 pm by headteacher
This week has been so busy at Heathfield that I feel as if my feet have barely touched the ground. A mad mixture of finance, recruitment, paper work and SAT administration, I am really good at multi tasking but sometimes I feel as though I am just spinning one plate too many! I just keep waiting for that crashing sound… Not quite sure I have got the balance between admin and strategic leadership quite right this week!
First thing: MAKE A NICE CUP OF TEA.
I try to have a meander round school each morning, I like to say hello to everyone and just gain a sense of the “mood” of the day. The Before School Club children are always in and they always like to show me what they have made and tell me their news. I usually check my emails in the morning, I tend to get 20- 30 every day and if I don’t check them daily it can become a very daunting process. Opening my OWA to find 70 emails from over a few days is just not funny.
I try to keep my desk tidy but this is currently a failing task of mine because the new pieces of paper seem to land faster than I can Deny, Destroy, Delegate or Detonate them! (thanks for that @colport!) I now have a new system for my paperwork. There is a steadily filling up pigeon hole outside my room – I have sworn an oath to myself not to accept any more pieces of paper to my room until the current pieces on my desk have been detonated. I am also hoping that over time some will become naturally useless – the deadlines will have come and gone and the sun will still rise and the building will still be standing!
This morning from about 8.45am I was very busy administering Year 6 SATs with the Y6 teacher and the DHT. We plied the children with toast, juice and some very loud music! They loved it and thought they were having a party! It was the short writing task, spelling and long writing task today, and I sat with a group that I have been working with since Christmas. When they saw the writing task they were so pleased and excited! They just wanted to show how clever they really are!
Bizarrely, having spent so little time teaching over the last two years I was totally fascinated to see how quickly Year sixers can demolish four brand new rubbers. So now I know why the stationery budget is so huge. This is why I need to be experiencing school life at ground level. Do rubbers matter? Well, yes, the detail does matter.
My next job was to madly phone around for references for some NQTs that I am hoping to interview tomorrow afternoon. It’s a simple process and it goes something like this: I check out the Bolton NQT Talent pool, these are final year students who have passed an initial application and interview with the Bolton panel. I then phone their college to ask for a reference, and then get put on hold for 10 minutes or so whilst the referencing department is located. With all those students requiring references you would think it would be a straight forward task. The referencing department who cannot take details over the phone because they are too busy (name and DOB) then give me an email address so that I can email them to request the reference. I then email the references department for the reference and get my email bounced back at me because I have been given the wrong email address. I then phone the college main switchboard to find out the number of the referencing department…….Sigh……
This afternoon I tried to find £4250 that should have been placed in our school budget in April. Four phone calls and half an hour later, the money was located, in the wrong place but at least it was in our school and not in another school with a similar name. IMO that’s a result! My next job was to contact CPS to discuss some units that need to be constructed. I had shown my Key Stage 1 staff some lovely furniture catalogues but, “It just wasn’t quite what they wanted!” So instead of buying some nice simple furniture from YPO we spent an hour after school with tape measures attempting to design some bespoke fitted furniture! It was rather good fun actually!
So there you go! I don’t think I’ve captured all of my day but I think this is probably about 70% of my activities. Some days are very strategic, others are just “busy”, every day is different and I rarely go home thinking “Well today went just as I expected it to!”
Similar posts you might want to read:
Magic Dust
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05.07.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blogging, challenge, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, learning, Year 6 at 8:01 pm by headteacher
We had our very first taste of blogging at the end of December 2009. In just over one term the Heathfield children and staff have worked hard to embrace the challenge of using blogging to develop and extend our learning opportunities. Please take the time to have a look at some of the great work by our pupils!
Year 6 have been using Peer Assessment to help each other with their writing skills: Year 6 Peer Assessment
Year 1 have been using wallwisher to post comments about Barnaby Bear having his holiday in Egypt: Barnaby Bear
In Year 2 Sabaa, Phoebe and Ciaran have posted their wonderful writing entitled, “The Ocean’s Fury.”
Year 4 have been using voicethread to describe their ideas about using Onomatopoeia
Year 6 have been coaching each other in maths by teaching each other different techniques for written word problems
Amongst other things, Mr Mitchell has been following the elections
You can follow me on twitter
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04.19.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Egyptians, enquiry, heathfieldcps.net, investigation, Reception Class, Vikings, voicethread, wallwisher, wordle, Year 1, Year 2, Year 6 at 8:22 pm by headteacher
It’s the second week of summer term and what a pleasure to see the children really enjoying themselves outside in the sun! We have made so much progress in so many ways since September 2009 and I could never have imagined how motivated and purposeful the staff and the children could be.
In Reception Class we are beginning to invest heavily in ICT equipment, bee bots, audio, microphones, cameras and similar. We have taken advice from our twitter colleagues who have been very helpful and informative about up to date equipment. I believe that the EYFS children should be able to digitally record their own work (visual and audio). No big deal, you might say, but they then should take personal responsibility for saving work into their own evidence folders which they can then share with any adults or other pupils. We all know that our children can use phones and cameras, let’s use and develop this acquired skill.
Reception class are also having a great time with their worm cocoons and also with their little tadpoles (photos to follow!) We also have a wonderful outside learning environment in which the children love to learn. I have been informed that the tadpoles can’t actually talk but they do like to see what work the children have completed- we have many a photo of pupils showing the tadpoles their best work!
Year 1 are getting quite experienced with their class blog. Having received a postcard from Barnaby Bear (currently stranded on holiday in Egypt and having a smashing time), they are using a wallwisher to investigate and ask questions about Egypt. This is a really effective way of encouraging the children to learn through enquiry and investigation.
Year 2 are our newest class in terms of blogging! They are sharing ideas about Vikings and invasions! I cannot believe how excited Y2 are to be blogging. Judging from the current buzz in Y2 I don’t believe it will be difficult to keep up the momentum! Our “Blogging Class of the Week” Trophy might be the perfect carrot to keep Y2 busily blogging!
Our Year 6 class (now blog diehards!) have been using voicethread this week and are now contributing their happiest memories of Heathfield to make a wordle.
PHEW! That’s a lot of learning! Please visit our various blogs and leave your comments! The children get so excited when they realise that they really do have a worldwide audience, the capacity to communicate with others is thrilling and highly rewarding!
Just think- the first blog training Heathfield CPS had was in December 2009 - what amazing progress we have made!
http://heathfieldcps.net
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01.29.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged BLOXX, collaborative activities, favourite moment, Headteacher, Heathfield, The TES, Year 6, YouTube at 9:06 pm by headteacher
Once again it has been a really busy week at Heathfield Primary School. Two weeks ago when David Mitchell set up some interactive collaborative online activities during snow closure we very proud to be featured in an article in the Bolton News and following that, The TES.
Last week Heathfield went national again when the The Times and The Telegraph both featured articles about Heathfield’s approach to blogging, the internet and use of internet tools such as YouTube. As a school we are working hard with Bolton Local Authority to investigate programmes such as Bloxx which have been developed to enable us to access the video and content of YouTube whilst blocking any potentially unsafe material. This is a great step forward, particularly for Literacy and Topic projects which will be greatly enhanced by these additional resources. Whilst aiming to provide exciting and challenging opportunities for the children, Heathfield School staff provide an extremely safe learning environment and any internet work that we do is carefully monitored.
On Thursday our Year 5 class had a fantastic day out to visit a bug centre as part of their Rainforest topic. Miss Howarth was so impressed with Year 5 and their fantastic behaviour that we presented them with a special whole class certificate in assembly.
I was also particularly pleased on Friday morning when I was inundated by children from Reception Class, Year 1 and Year 4 all coming to see me to show me their wonderful work. On Friday afternoon I met with school governors to discuss Finance and Premises. The Chair of Governors thoroughly enjoyed walking around the classes to meet the children. When I asked the children if they knew what the school governors actually do we were both pleased and surprised by the thoughtful answers that the children gave.
MY FAVOURITE MOMENT OF THE WEEK………
Reading this post by Sophie, Year 6 http://y62010.heathfieldcps.net/
M – (Metaphor) , sometimes known as a figure of speech , which is not literally true … e.g There was a gaping hole in her heart …
A – (Alliteration) , Alliteration occurs when 2 or 3 words (in a row) begin with the same letter/sound… e.g Smelly Sausage.
P – (Personification) , Personification is when somebody gives a random noun a human characteristic. e.g The wind let out a mighty roar.
S – (Similes) Comparing 2 random yet similar things , using like or as .. e.g the sun was as bright as a shining star …
Similes can easily be confused with metaphors but similes can be easily remembered by the fact that they compare two things that are similar, and similes is much like the word similar …
By
Sophie (Year 6)
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01.21.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blogs, DeputyMitchell, earthquake, Haiti, Headteacher, Heathfield, Tudors, twitter, VLE, Year 4, Year 6 at 8:16 pm by headteacher
I cannot believe that we are nearing the end of the third week of term. We began on January 1st with a staff training day. David Mitchell updated us all on how we could update and more effectively use our VLE. We are, at present running two systems side by side. The VLE is proving to be a really effective tool for holding data and useful information for children, families and visitors to the site. The school blog is much more reactive and changes almost daily and I don’t really see any tension between the two systems.
Reception Class have settled in really well this term and I am intending to find out this week how to post pictures of work on to this page. Year 6 have been completing lots of research work based on their topic, Zoos. Year 6 have also had some additional tasks based around the disastrous earthquake in Haiti. We are currently consulting with the children about how they would like to help the people of Haiti. If you have a look on our Year 6 blog you will find lots of work around the earthquake disaster.
Year 4 are racing into their Tudors topic, always a great theme, the pupils love the blood and gore of Tudor times. The Year 4 blog will be underway very soon and I am looking forward to some really exciting work from “Team Wiggans”.
Next week we are looking forward to a school visit from some of our Twitter friends, with whom we are hoping to collaborate in order to provide even more real and exciting opportunities for the children. Update on progress on Wednesday!
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