In the last few weeks we are trialling SEAL - Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning. We are paying particular attention to the changes unit.
It just seems to me that it will be really hard to do this justice in such a busy curriculum. We have allocated a 25 minute slot to do this. How do others fit it in?
Primary schools are to get extra cash to become specialist centres for the teaching of arts, science, music, sport and languages. Ministers hope the scheme will replicate the success of specialist secondary schools, where GCSE scores have risen by at least one grade across the board. Specialist schools get extra funding to spend on staff, training and equipment in their specialist area and must develop a strategy for raising standards in that particular field. Experience has shown that this usually has the knock-on effect of raising standards in other curriculum areas, as teachers in other subjects copy the successful strategies used by colleagues teaching specialist subjects.
34 pilot schools in Devon will test the idea to see if the same effect happens in primary schools.
Doesn't this sound exciting! I hope this idea goes national so that primary schools can really work towards achieving specialst status. I applaud the idea!
One of the reasons that I haven't been posting much recently is because I have spent so much time planning something which I think is really exciting - Wistonia University.
Wistonia University is a brilliant way to bring the children, staff and community together to share skills and interests. The idea is that staff and volunteers run a course in something that they have a skill or have an interest. The children choose which courses they'd like to attend and then they are allocated a course from their top three. The courses will have a mixture of children from Year Three to Year Six. The intention of the courses is that they should be vocational - to give the children a skill they can use in the future.
All in all there are 25 course on offer: advertising, bricklaying, cake decorating, card making, clothes designing, dancing, floristry, hair styling, knitting, Italian, model painting, Paper crafts, Photo Story, Plant propagation, preparing a three-course mea, speech and drama, sports coaching, teaching, textiles, upholstery designing, water safety and basic first aid and woodwork.
I was really proud today to see Wistonia University in action. The adults were all pleased to be working with such a mix of pupils, delivering a course in something which isn't always possible to teach in the normal curriculum. The children enjoyed making friends in different year groups and learning something different.
If anyone is interested, I will put the Prospectus in the downloads section so you can have a look!
One of our fun art projects for after SATs is to make mod roc masks. The masks combine sculpting skills with careful painting. They look great and are a nice thing for the children to keep at the end of the year.
So this year's Apprentice comes to a close. What a final. You could really see that both the final two had huge potential and it would be a hard decision to make. My favourite is Simon. He has proved through the whole series to be a character. He should have gone, however, in the TV selling challenge. When he didn't, it proved to me how much Sir Alan rates him. Kristina is also a worthy finalist. She has been strong all the way through. When she was in the losing team, it was never because of her. How did Sir Alan go in the end?...
Sir Alan gave the candidates four days to come up with conceptual ideas for a new building, and as usual - it's got to make money. Some of the candidates from earlier in the series returned to help them. Kristina picks Natalie, Naomi, Adam and old rival Paul to her team. Simon's back with his best mate Tre, Lohit, Jadine and Rory.
As with all the tasks, it's never a smooth ride. Going with the idea for a phoenix building, Kristina's focusing on the figures, while Paul's left in charge of the designs. But Paul mucks up the measurements, losing Kristina a potential £53 million! Natalie and Adam are sent to pick up props for their display. With classy in mind, they come back with bags of tat - creating what Kristina feels is a 'brothel' like display. She tells them to change it!
On the other team, Simon and Tre come up with an idea for a boat-shaped building, only to have it slammed by Rory, who wants to make a 'spunky' looking building with guts. Rory's inspired by organic shapes and draws out a wave shaped building. Fair play to Rory - whilst he was a drip in the show, his design and ideas in this week's challenge were good. Unfortunately, Simon didn't take Rory to the architects and somewhere along the design process, the building starts to look a bit phallic!
Tensions are rising. Rory and Tre clash over his ideas for dancers and Jadine takes Simon aside for a pep talk, advising him to watch his back. By now morale's so low Simon takes desperate measures, offering his team an all-expenses-paid holiday in Barcelona if he wins. This fails to motivate Tre, who'd 'rather stab himself in the eye' than go on holiday with his team mates. Tre has a real way with words!
It all comes together on the night and both candidates give impressive presentations. Simon takes to the podium pitching the wave as a 'radical development' that will 'transform the skyline' Kristina's up next with her phoenix, 'an inspirational building that makes business sense'.
Back in the boardroom, Sir Alan faces the two finalists alone. His dilemma is visible. Both are asked why they should be hired. Kristina's response is practical - 'I'm focused, determined' but Simon's is more emotional - 'I'll work my cotton socks off'. (Cottons socks?)
'It's a tough decision. There's only one job... I've got someone very experienced, someone enthusiastic.' 'Do I need to be the headmaster again?' But in a final surprise move, he says, 'Bloody old fool that I am, I'm going to take the risk - Simon you're hired!'
Nice one.
So what should I do now? Lost isn't back until February and The Apprentice won't be back until March. There's nothing left that's any good on the telly. Hopefully Peter Jones' Apprentice rip off Tycoon might be worth watching. There's no way I'm going to watch Big Brother. I guess I'll just have to find something else to do!
Now this is a good one!
We have just returned from a day at Alton Towers. What a fantastic day out! I am lucky enough to have 2 weeks off for half-term and I would definitely recommend people to go in the second week - it was really quiet. The longest queue was 20 minutes for Air!
We also went on the Extraordinary Golf. This was really good, but you have to pay £5 each to go on this.
A fun day!
One week to go before Sir Alan must choose his apprentice. It's the interview round. There's no place to hide and they have to face three of the toughest interviewers in the business. Claude Litner, a global trouble shooter; Bordan Tkachuk, chief exec of Viglen computers, and property developer Paul Kemsley. These guys are awful. I'd hate to be interviewed by them, especially Paul Kemsley, who is incredibly shrewd.
The Times reports that school governors often lack the necessary financial and managerial expertise and are not qualified to assess staff, research suggests.
Last night I stumbled upon a superb school website - Kew Woods School in Southport.
I've gained lots of ideas for things to try in school. For instance, the introduction of a Parents Council. There's also some good ideas to use on our school's website. We need to add more information about what we do to meet the Every Child Matters agenda.
Definitely worth a look!
I wanted a book display for the library part of our new Multimedia Suite. 
A London primary head has decided to abandon the title 'head teacher' and become 'lead learner'.
Ofsted inspectors have revealed that the number of schools found to be failing has risen. During the spring term 5% more primary schools were put in special measures. However, the number of schools given 'notices to improve' because they are at rish of failing fell by 4% to 352.
David Willets, Tory education spokesman, said, "This is yet more evidence of the pressing need to focus on raising standards in our state schools."
Thank you to everyone who voted in May's poll. 31 votes were cast in total.
You were asked to show which SATs papers were the most challenging for the children this year.
By an overwhelming majority, the English Long Writing Task was voted most challenging. 51.6% of the voters thought this was tough. It wasn't an easy paper in terms of getting the tone right. I did think, though, that the content of the writing was at least something the children were aware of.
Some interesting results there...
This month I'd like to find out how often people teach English and Maths, on average, AFTER the SATs.
