What a great week we have had. New topics bring new enthusiasm and our new school areas are making an enormous impact on learning. Children are gardening and looking after our beautiful animals daily- and always without being asked.  UFA groups are exciting and the sunshine is bringing an extra something that we have missed…playing on the school field at break times!

I look forward to Friday Golden Award assemblies as I  love the diverse reasons why our children have been awarded. I came to a little girl in Year 1 and asked Mrs Davies why she has been chosen this week. It was because of her amazing animal riddle. Obviously , I asked her to give me a clue and I would guess the animal she had written about. Telling me that it flies was not enough…for me! Unfortunately, I am not an expert on birds and I could see staff panic for me when I had to think of a bird it could be. For those of you who have read any of my blogs before, you will know that I am quite an expert on rescuing bats so Mrs Davies told the little girl to give me another clue – “It hangs upside down”. I got there in the end!

I love art but I am not a keen painter…especially when painting fences and outdoor wooden structures. Our trim trail area is amazing but the tower and slide structure certainly needed freshening up so I enlisted the help of my animal welfare UFA group on Wednesday. After the children had returned inside to prepare their bags for the end of the day, I carried on painting the structure green then I spoke to many parents on the playground and chatted happily to other parents in the car park. I went back inside and continued with my work until about 6.00pm. Blissfully pleased with myself and the children for making such a difference to our playground areas, I went to the printer (which has the only mirror in the school near by) and collected some work. After a brief glance in the mirror, my day turned to horror as I saw what I can only describe as an adult brussel sprout! My whole face was green and my arms matched! The fact that I had many conversations with various people along the way and only one person had mentioned that I had a bit of paint on my cheek just proves that this type of thing is the norm for me!

Archery lessons are superb and the children love it! Photography club is popular and the theme of outdoors and rainforests seem to be a trend throughout school. Fairsnape’s display is wonderful and showcases the incredible work on EGYPT. Year 6 are working hard and they are fully prepared (and relaxed) for their SATs. Our Pre-school children will be visiting school areas even more to aid transition and they will be given ‘buddies’to look after them. Our Year 5 children write a letter and send  a picture to the new starters to tell them about school and introduce themselves as their older friend. It is such a wonderful term for our school community. Year 2 are in awe of their  new classroom and they have amazed me with their creativity this week.

The school band are making an outstanding sound and it was wonderful to listen to them play familiar pop songs today. The last day of our week was calm and pleasant until I saw Jimmy at my door!  The only things I have known to be lost in a school are usually items of clothing or stationery . Today, a bewildered member of our Year 6 class knocked at my door to report that Mrs. B-M had ‘gone missing’ and all areas of school had been searched! This was interesting but not worrying. It seemed more of a case that needed to be solved rather than a problem. We found Mrs B-M in a classroom and it seemed that she had only ever been a few steps ahead. Problem solved.

It was wonderful to see so many of you walking round school on Monday and we all thank you for the overwhelming amount of positive comments we have have received regarding our new outdoors area. The Mayor of Preston will be visiting us soon and you are all welcome to join us for this special occasion. Please have a look at our recent newsletter to find dates for your diaries.

Have a wonderful weekend.