Friday 10th February 2012
Well it’s good to have arrived at February half term. Imagine finishing with snow on the last day! At least we got off lightly.
It’s been a busy week. There was a staffing committee meeting on Monday, then parent / teacher consultations on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. After the parent / teacher meetings on Wednesday both Mrs Clare and myself had to go to a Diocesan meeting at Holy Family, so didn’t arrive home until 9.00pm.
It was unfortunate that the Disco had to be cancelled but as Miss Clarke was off ill most of the week, none of the essential background organisation had gone on. Because I didn’t know how many parent helpers could be relied upon, I decided to cancel. It will be rescheduled after half term.
You will have received the newsletter telling you about the planned change of website address. Well we have received notification that it can be used now. Instead of typing in the ik.org. the new website address is
www.st-marys.swindon.sch.uk Try it and you will go straight to our learning portal.
Have a good week and see you on February 20th.
Mrs Burchall
Friday 3rd February 2012
It’s been a busy week! On Tuesday a film crew came from the World Community of Christian Meditation to spend the day with us. They were gathering information and evidence about how doing Christian Meditation throughout the whole school at the same time each day is affecting the daily lives of the school community. They did this through talking to teachers and pupils and myself. They were very impressed with the school and how seriously the children took to meditation. St Mary’s is one of several schools that will be included as a case study for this training D.V.D. We’ll have a preview of it after Easter.
Later on that Tuesday we held a twilight session on Child Protection Update training. This was compulsory for all staff, so it was a long day by the time we finished at 6.00pm. This Child Protection Update has to be done by staff on a three year cycle, but for Headteachers and Deputies it’s 3 years.
Miss Crook and myself conducted a “Learning Walk” of the middle phase on Thursday. This is where we scrutinise books, talk to children about their targets, look at the learning environment in the classroom and the planning books. This is to ensure consistency of whole school approaches are happening in the classrooms.
Friday was a busy day with both Miss Crook and Mrs Weaver on a Leadership Pathways day in Bristol. This is a year long qualification run by the National College of School Leadership and helps develop senior leadership skills. Miss Kershaw took two Year 6 pupils, Joseph Lloyd and Sophia Ali to Steam to take in an Olympic Ambassador day. The school had to nominate two pupils to act as Olympic Ambassadors. They will come back from the day full of ideas to help us, as a school, prepare for the London 2012 Olympics!
We ended the week with a lovely assembly led by Avebury class.
Enjoy the weekend! I’m off to a wedding!
Mrs Burchall
Friday 20th January 2012
This week has flown past and has seen our year 6 children embark on their residential visit to Braeside, Devizes as well as a visit on Tuesday from The Image Theatre performing The Selfish Giant.
This performance happened on Tuesday afternoon and what sets this musical theatre group apart is the fact that they truly engage the children by involving them in the songs as well as dressing up and taking on acting parts. Last year they performed The Wind in the Willows which was very good, but I think they surpassed themselves with The Selfish Giant. I’m sure your children told you all about it when they came home on Tuesday evening.
Tuesday saw the year 6 children setting off for Braeside. This is always a highlight of their year and this month is chosen specially for its suitability for going long walks, wrapped up warmly, without any danger of heatstroke or sunstroke! The first day saw them taking part in problem solving and team building activities in the outdoors. Wednesday saw them tackling a six mile hike up Roundway Down, which they all managed superbly well. Thursday saw them buying various food for their lunch at the Devizes Market and then preparing their lunch. The main purpose of the task was to think about locally resourced food as well as packaging and nutritional value.
There was a lovely assembly this afternoon from Ermin all about self giving and they did a wonderfulpiece of drama all about a tree that gave everything it had, the acorns, branches and trunk to help a person in need. They then equated that story to Jesus who gave everything for us. They are to be congratulated and thank you Miss Upton and Mrs Ballard for your hard work in preparing the children.
I wish you all a lovely weekend.
Mrs Burchall
Friday 13th January 2012
Well the first full week of school has passed and this morning was the first morning in ages that I had to scrape ice off my windscreen. They do say that next week will see a much colder spell of weather, just in time for the Year 6 Braeside Residential visit.
This week has been a relatively quiet week. Swimming started again for the year 3 children and music tuition started again for the African Drumming in Ermin and Waylands Smithy as well as trumpets in Ridgeway and Salisbury.
Paediatric First Aid Training took place for two days in school for two of our Teaching Assistants, Mrs Stephens and Mrs Warwick.
A Headteacher from Portsmouth paid the school a visit to find out more about converting to Academy Status. She was very complimentary about what she found at St Mary’s, especially our Conservation Area. I think sometimes we take all the space and land we have for granted. She was from an inner city school that had to share the playground with the Infant School next door!
We finished the week with a lovely assembly from Sarum class all about Celebrating which is the topic for R.E. these first few weeks. Thank you Miss Lumley and Sarum.
Don’t forget that if you have a child due to start school in September 2012 then Sunday 15th January is the closing date for applications.
Have a relaxing weekend!
Mrs Burchall
Friday 6th January 2012
Happy New Year to one and all. It’s good to get the first three days under our belts. Having the extra day holiday was really good. I do hope nobody turned up for school!
It’s been a quiet start to the term, although there has been some lovely news. Mr McCavera has become a Dad for the second time. His new daughter, Erin, was born on 29th December weighing 7ib 4oz. Both mother and daughter are doing well. Mr McCavera is taking two week’s paternity leave at the moment and Mrs Forcer has come in to hold the fort with Avebury class while he is away.
We have also welcomed Miss Claire Cummings as our new permanent admin assistant. Claire replaces Preet Cook who was doing the job on a temporary basis while we assessed the needs of St Mary’s operating as an academy. Claire will be working every day in the office and she will be the voice that is heard answering the telephone. This allows Mrs Green to have more time to concentrate more on the management side of the office.
I had a walk up to the conservation area and you will be glad to know that after the recent very wet weather our pond is almost full to the brim. The pond will be ready to welcome lots of new life in the spring.
I think that’s all to report at the present time as it has been a short week.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Burchall
Friday 9th December 2011
Those of you who came to school this morning will already know that we have had some trouble with the drains from the mobile classroom. Mr Priday and our plumber, john, have worked tirelessly to unblock the problem and they were true heroes and solved our problem. It was not a pleasant job trying to flush through a pile up of ten years waste. I shall leave it to your imagination! Thank you Mr Priday.
To offset that we had a another really successful Christmas morning complete with each class visiting Father Christmas in the community room. This year the children received a selection box as they did last year, but the added extra was that this year each selection box was individually wrapped with each child’s name on it. That was a true labour of love. Thank you to our Friends of St Mary’s and their merry band of supporters who really make this event so enjoyable for the children.
It has been a busy week. On Thursday night our school choir performed at the Oasis along with many other schools for the annual Christmas Concert. They were superb. They looked outstanding in their new choir polo shirts complete with a Christmas tree hat kindly donated by Mr Ballard of Independent Fireplace installations. Thank you Mr Ballard! We are very proud of our choir and tomorrow night they are performing at Holy Rood SVP Christmas party for the elderly. What great ambassadors they will be for St Mary’s.
The Governing Body meeting on 6th Dec discussed the school uniform and details of that will be going out on Monday in the newsletter. But for those who read this blog I’ll set it out for you below:
School Uniform
Year 3 upwards winter uniform
Black or grey trousers, skirts, or pinafore
Plain socks or tights
Black or brown flat school shoes or boots
Either
White shirt, school tie, v neck royal blue jumper or cardigan
Or
White polo shirt and royal blue sweatshirt
A school fleece may also be worn
Summer
Black/ grey tailored shorts may be worn or a blue and white dress.
Infants
As above but without the option of a shirt and tie.
Sweatshirts, cardigans, fleeces, coats and polo shirts with the school crest can be purchased through the school. The school uniform shop is run by the Friends of St Mary’s and is of the highest quality. However any royal blue jumper, cardigan and sweatshirt is acceptable as are white polo shirts.
Holiday dates for the school year 2012-2013 will also be circulated on Monday.
I must go now if I’m to be back in time for the disco tonight at 6.00pm
Have a good one!
Mrs Burchall