Preparing children for life is what school is about-this should put things into perspective.  For those of you who know me and understand my philosophy on education, this letter will come as no surprise. It isn’t often that I can discuss my views on education and my views on the testing process and current testing systems. If you walk into our school and visit classrooms, you will find creativity, children being listened to and lots of smiles and active learning. Our Year 6 children didn’t bother at all when it came to taking their SATs because they were thoroughly prepared and had been for some time. Learning didn’t change for them. They continued to thrive on a creative curriculum, where writing is exciting and grammar is taught through songs and dance moves! When children are excited and motivated to learn, they will thrive. Happiness first and all else will follow- under a blanket of excellent teaching, learning and care.

Save The Children Den Day has been ‘awesome’ and certainly a day the children will remember forever..

Brock Valley Churches Together are hosting a family picnic and walk followed by a short ecumenical service at Whalley Abbey on Sunday afternoon 2nd July.

Well done to all children who took part in the Barnacre Rd Football and Netball tournament.

Each day brings a new set of smiles and a new set of dilemmas. On Monday, there was no power to the school hall and the kitchen fridge broke. Luckily, I could keep out of the way a little because I am in class-and Loving it! With the power of delegation, a team from LCC came to solve the problems. Two days later, they were solved but today the internet is completely down. This has affected all classrooms and homework! I know that many of the children will be devastated to hear this but we will resume our usual internet power by Monday.

Our sincere thanks go to Mrs. Hamer, Sam Eastham, Bernadette Coulthurst, Alison Proctor, Caroline Griffiths, Vicki Coupe, Leila Spinks, Sam Coupe, Sara Arundale, Miranda Lockley-Briggs, Saz Walton and Nikki Brice for their time and dedication. They created wonderful floats for the Goosnargh Festival Day. They looked amazing! We thank Chris McGowan, who organised T-Shirts and Mark Eastham and Mark Joyce-our float drivers. It was a wonderful day that could only go ahead because of the huge amount of support given to our school. Thank you!

Thank you so much to all of our parents who supported Goosnargh Festival Day yesterday. Mrs.Hamer has such creativity and has put hours worth of work and time into the floats. She had help from our other wonderful parents and I will mention them all when I have the full list. It was brilliant to see so many children there dressed up as Trolls. The Pre-School float was adorable carrying our youngest children and the main school float was a visual feast. I didn’t manage to gain full confidence on the roller boots but I didn’t fall-neither did Miss Stewart. Thank you  to Alex Johnson, Mrs and Mrs Butters and all of the Goosnargh community who come together to organise this amazing event. It was great! The maypole dancers from our school were super representatives of St.Francis’ and we actually came 2nd place in the float competition! Thank you to all.

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The great thing about being a child is that you can get away with ‘messy play’ any time. The great thing about being a teacher is that you can also get away with ‘messy play’ any time! We have had a great end to our half term. The Year 6 children have amazed us with their incredibly calm attitudes towards SATs and we have welcomed a new teacher to our team. The art work in Fairsnape Class is beautiful and Year 2 had the pleasure of watching  Mr. Gilmour ‘see off’ the cows that were intruding on their nature walk. Year 5 amazed us (again) with their Shakespeare performances and children are constantly being given Golden Awards for their care and consideration of others. The Spring Bash was superb and we give thanks for the work of our PTFA. We also give huge thanks to the parents who are busily preparing our school floats for next weekend. It has caused a slight problem for staff , however, and it ended with Mrs.Kerr visiting A&E!