Two weeks in

When I said, at the height of the Indian Summer last September, "Please will you get me an umbrella?", my wife looked at me like I'd asked for an umbrella at the height of an indian summer.  Who's smiling now, in wet trousers and shoes, eh love?  Who's smiling now...

So, two weeks on and its business as usual: amazing work, incredible behaviour, and ambassadors who have made us proud to belong to Badock's Wood.  Year 4 science, year 1 and 2 hedgehog posters and reports, year 6 maths, year 3 letter writing, year 5 ...pretty much everything - it has all been really impressive.  We asked some people last week to turn their behaviour around - they have done it, in spades.  Year 1 and 2 had a trip to the zoo on Tuesday - without getting wet! - and were all apparently amazing.  To cap it all off, we have been joined by 4 new friends this week in years 2, 3 and 4, all of whom have proven to be, in the words of Mr Davies, "legends" (insert own Welsh accent).

And has this inclement weather dampened our enthusiasm?  Thwarted us in our endeavours?  Negated our joie de vive?  Rained on our parade.  Nay, and thrice Nay Mr Bumble.  We've just...got wet.  And got on with it.  Job, as they say, done.

In my last intrepid meanderings into Blogsville I spoke about the exciting new partnership with the Children's Centre, and the start of our joint work.  Well, we started.  My, did we ever get started.  We made a really exciting start to our project and what should be an enormous benefit to everyone.  Already, we have started to work more closely together for families and individuals.  Job, as they say, started well.

All joking aside, all I really wanted to say at this point was an enormous thank you to the 60 new colleagues who came together with such positivity and enthusiasm to embark on what promises to an exciting, ambitious journey.  And what a potential destination...

Keep dry and stay safe everyone.

That is all

If you were me, what would you say...?

Term 4 reaches its conclusion, the Easter egg hunts have been conquered by the vainglorious (or, year 5 scabbling around on the floor) and the sun shines on the righteous.... or Southmead, as we call it. What have we learned?

- When challenged so to do, year 6 know how to show off;
- That fairgrounds come in all shapes and sizes;
- That starting a topic off on the last day of the previous term works wonders;
- That discussion, open and honest, can bring about improvement for all.

The whole fairgrounds / pirates / giants thing went down a storm, and the school is all the more colourful for the efforts of the whole team. This unseasonable weather at the deep end of the term has allowed us all to take our learning outdoors, and my how we have enjoyed it. I would just sign off this part by saying "well done everyone" - I've seen the RAG sheets, and I'm well happy.

As George said to me this afternoon - " 'Ave a nice day tomorrow...when I'm having a lie - in!". Well, on many other occassions, the wind up would have hit the spot, and I'd have been forced to mess up the spikes on his hairdooooooooooooo. As it was, he couldn't been further from the wind-up-truth: I am really looking forward to tomorrow's inset, as it is the start of a new and exciting chapter in our history - we start our work with the Children's Centre!

Not only am I really looking forward to getting to know loads of new colleagues and friends, I am also enormously excited about what we can create. Just think of it. The potential, the possibilities, the projects, the outcomes. I think it can and will be amazing.

So, if you wer eme tomorrow morning, in front of a staff that has more than doubled, what would you say? What message would you give? What points would you put across? It is something I have been thinking about for weeks, and I am really looking forward to getting this fantastic project started.

So, as we think about what to wear tomorrow (after all, it is important girlfriend) and look forward to Mr V's BBQ, have a great start to what I hope will be a cracking Easter hols, and stay safe.

For now, with great excitement about what I have to say next, that is all.

Except for

All the best Vaise - take care xxx

Bears, giants, pirates and fairgrounds

A new smartphone app perhaps? Maybe the ingredients for a winning entry to Come Dine with Me? Or things it is unwise to sit on?

No. That's our term 4 curriculum.

Oh yes, it is. And what fun it has looked. The work around the school is so exciting, so colourful, so well presented, so crammed with learning, that I have been late for meetings, so engrossed have I been with reading things when I should have been on my way.

And these are still competing for display space with the dragons, puppets, bridges and meals we have on display from last term's learning. Can't be all bad surely? No, sir, not one iota.

So what have we learned in the last few weeks, running up to International Women's day?

We have learned that some quieter friends are now happy to speak in assembly.

Some older friends are extremely good at showing how kind they can be.

Some parents should keep their own counsel.

Some of our taller friends keep putting art in very interesting places.

Above all, we have learned that, thankfully, spring is on the way, and aren't we all delighted it is.

Advance news: coming soon - the biggest running club in the world EVER! Get your trainees out grandma: if I'm "running", then so are you.

Happy International Women's day everyone.

That, finely put, is all.

Or Worry, about February...

Half a year, half a year, half a year onward, into the valley of learning, pedagogy, progress, innnovation, energy, commitment, fun rode the 228 (rising to 239 if you count the nursery children)...

Three years ago, the evening before the February half term, I was head of a very different school. We had no special needs provision, limited progress, a curriculum so thin you could hold it up to the light and see ... the light, and attendance so poor - on all levels - that we had more empty chairs than a Fabio Capello Q&A session at Whitehart Lane. Now, we have special needs children outperforming the national average (oh yes we do Miss Andrews), good to outstanding progress across all areas, a curriculum that features Banksy, Traction Man, the trachea, pirates, dragon's eggs, winged beings, creating digital music, and ... Dizzee Rascal. Furthermore, our attendance, if continued, will beat last year's record breaking 91.4% by some considerable way.

Where will we be three years hence? On the eve of the mid point of the 2014 / 5 school year?

All plans for the hovercar are to be put back into geeky wardrobes, and Aston Villa will not have won the Champions league ... repeatedly. But where do you think we'll be? Where do you hope we'll be? How will you ensure that? Isn't that what Aspire - Achieve - Enjoy is all about?

Oh dear, I appear to have gotten serious. I shall stop, and instead try once again to install Primary Sassoon font to this rubber band laptop (you know the pain you have wrought on me Mr V!?!) and do my homeowrk in readiness for one of my much enjoyed linguistic bouts of thought - i - ness with my mate Josh.

Well done on a brilliant half year everyone. Are you going to rest on your laurels, or look upon your works, say "Nah,", and build something even better?

Having left you something to ponder, I shall say merely, that is all.

PS Mr Bernstein, I do not want the job, thank you very much. I do not like John Terry - or any racist pig headed ( insert own defamatory noun), I can't work Wednesday nights (it will clash with badminton) and I simply will not take the pay cut. All the best.

The lady said they were from the world's number one university, I said "And I'm from Birmingham, pleased to meet you."

January is almost gone, and we are 1 / 12th into the battle over a new year. How's it been for you so far? Cold? Well, winter does do that...

We've now had four weeks of term 3, with just two to go, and I am perpetually staggered by the work going on around the school. This week, observing lessons as I have, I have seen massive pieces of art in creation, electronic music in composition, mathematical problems in solution, and lengthy writing in edition. Furthermore, I have been delighted to see work coming in from home - dragons, writing, pictures, all independently started and finished (with the help of some extremely talented parents and grandparents). Praise assemblies at the moment are a joy because we hear so many positive and pleasing stories. I heard an amazing story today of one of our reception children, who was clearly unwell, determined to come to school to receive the praise he rightly deserved for learning all his words - by all accounts, he was waiting by the front door of his house! So all in all, we're not cold, just extremely busy.

What have we learned in the last fortnight? Well, today we have learned, or simply remembered, that year 5 do not like it when their teacher is out of class, and think that the rules of the school suddenly no longer apply. I hope that they have learned this afternoon, that this is simply not the case. I think Miss Norman may have a word or two to say come Monday morning..

Besides that, what do we now know that we didn't before?

Year 6 (and 5 when they're in the mood) are amazing artists. Dare I even say cool?

Year 3 and 4 can really crack on with that maths when they put their minds to it.

Year 1 and 2 know a thing or two about dragons (and about making them)

Reception know how to be a dragon, to an incredibly consistent rhythm.

But these observations do not even skim the learned surface of the pudding of academia we have feasted upon in the last few weeks, and we shall not stop there. Next week there are meetings for all the grown ups about helping all our children to become even better readers (as well as a few other meetings...)

Have a funky February everyone.

That is all