Headteacher's Blog

Friday 15th January

Out and About at BETT in London!

Hi everyone. This weeks blog comes from BETT and I have the help of Sarah, Maisie, Tom, Lewis T, Alice, Matt, Callum and Jazmine who have been here all day representing our school.

We had an early start this morning leaving school at 7.30am but unfortunately bad traffic meant that we didn’t arrive at Bett until 12.15! When we arrived we went to the LP+ stand and then had some fantastic pizzas from Pizza Express.  Then we got to look around the show and Sarah’s favourite gadget was called mimio which meant that as she wrote, her writing appeared on the whiteboard.

Matt and Callum took pictures and videos of cool gadgets using a PDA, then came back to the LP+ and downloaded the pictures to a laptop.

They then edited this, adding text and music before uploading their work to a collaborative BETT broadcasting page.  At 2.45, we made a live broadcast back to school using ustream and each of the children talked about what they had enjoyed during the day.  Lots of parents were able to tune in to our live broadcast and see what their children had been up to for themselves.

Then the children had time to explore the stands.  Jazmine particularly enjoyed the freebies and went from stall to stall, collecting as many pens, sweets and other goodies as she could!

All in all, a fantastic day was had by all and the children (and staff)  have come away talking about what exciting technologies we would like to have in our school.

Have a great weekend!

Mr Rees

 

---

Monday 4th January

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, unfortunately the snow brought an unexpected early finish to last term for the children and 2009 will certainly be remembered by me for the snow!  With all the excitement of Christmas behind us for another year, we can now look forward to the fresh start the new year brings us. 

Looking forward to hearing about everyone’s exciting holidays this week – why not send me a message through the blog and let me know what you enjoyed the most?

Wishing you all a great 2010 on behalf of everyone at Little Harrowden!

Mr Rees

 

---

Monday 14th December

As we jingle merrily to the end of a busy term, the school has a wonderful festive feel with carols in the corridors and sounds of the Nativity rehearsals all around us! We are looking forward to the Nativity this week from the children in Class R and Class 1 and of course there is much excitement about the pantomime visit on Thursday. Last week we used the magic of skype to take our Headteacher Award winners up to the North Pole in Achievement Assembly – just ask the children to explain more!

Well Done to last week’s Headteacher Award winners:

Class R – Nell

Class 1 – Madison

Class 2 – Ruby

Class 3 – Kara

Class 4 – Kate

Class 5 – Bradley

Class 6 – Ellie

 

And to those winners from the week before:

Class R – Hannah

Class 1 – Ryan

Class 2 – Millie

Class 3 – Nina

Class 4 – Liam

Class 5 – Emily

Class 6 – Lewis

Wishing everyone a very merry last week of term.

Mr Rees

---

Monday 30th November

Technology!

At Little Harrowden, we are constantly trying to develop our use of new technologies to make learning better and recently we have had some exciting projects take place within school. Following our ‘virtual assembly’, we had a visit from Peter Ford from Northamptonshire’s ‘Harnessing Technologies’ team earlier this month who showed us how to use broadcasting software using laptops. This was great fun and different classes were able to broadcast live to my office using a Macbook as they walked around school! You can read more about this on Peter’s Blog at http://nthink.net/. We are now looking at how we can use this technology to make learning even more exciting and hope to be able to broadcast assemblies to parents at home in the near future!

As well as this, children in Years 5 and 6 have been learning to use wikis and can now listen to their radio broadcasts on their LP+ pages. This week, we are also using the Skype technology for the first time as part of the Lion King African Showcase with children reading poetry from outside school which will appear live on the big screen in the hall!

Congratulations to last week’s Headteacher Award winners:

Year 1 Chloe B

Year 2 Harrison M

Year 3 Emily

Year 4 Corban

Year 5 Harry

Year 6 Joshua

Also a big well done to the choir who performed at the Castle last Monday evening in the annual Rotary concert– there were lots of positive comments from the audience about Little Harrowden and thanks must be expressed to Miss Britton and Mrs Williams for the work they put into the choir throughout the year.

Have a great week

Mr Rees

---

 

Monday 23rd November

What a week!

Last week was Anti Bullying week and children took part in learning about ways to prevent bullying and how to deal with difficult situations as they arise. At our school we use the word STOP to remind us of what bullying is and what we can do about it.

Several Times On Purpose

Start Telling Other People

I look forward to seeing parents in school today for our assembly to share what children have learned.

Also last week, we finished the week dressed in pyjamas to support children in need thanks to great organisation from a group of Year 5 girls. Samantha, Emily, Holly, Chelsea, Wei-Jane, Beverley and Chloe worked together to write to parents, lead an assembly for children and organise the day so that the whole school, including teachers, were in their pyjamas on Friday! On the day, a staggering £336 was raised which made me feel slightly better about having to lead an assembly in front of parents in my dressing gown! A big well done to these children.

Congratulations to the Headteacher Award Winners from last week:

Rec - Elena
Year 1 - George
Year 2 - Daniel S
Year 3 - Ethan
Year 4 - Charlotte
Year 5 - Beverly
Year 6 - Amy

And also to the winners from the week before:

Year 1 - Hannah

Year 2 - Cassandra

Year 3 - Thomas

Year 5 - Samantha

Year 6 - Dominic

As I type, I can hear the choir singing in 2 part harmony in preparation for tonight’s Rotary concert at the castle. I look forward to seeing them perform tonight and will report back next week on how they did!

Have a great week everyone

Mr Rees

---

Monday 9th November

VIRTUAL ASSEMBLY!

Well today is an exciting day in school as we attempt to hold our first ‘virtual assembly’ using the LP+ technology. The idea is that the classes will stay in their individual rooms and take part in the assembly through a discussion forum within our virtual learning environment. Many of the children are already extending their learning through using LP+ and I hope that this will encourage others to do so in the future. Watch this space to see how it went!

Congratulations to Headteacher’s Award winners from last week:

Class 1 – Morgan

Class 2 – Madison

Class 3 – Ella

Class 4 – Victoria

Class 5 – Ben

I hope everyone had a safe weekend enjoying the many firework displays that were held locally. I will award a team point to anyone who can send a message through the blog to tell me about their fireworks evening.

Have a good week.

Mr Rees

---

Monday 12th October

Definitely Autumn...

Summer is certainly over now and coats, leaves and heating are now very much part of everyday life in school again. After a very mild September, apparently the conkers have fallen early this year – the world championships were held yesterday at Oundle and organisers are considering moving the tournament forward to keep up with the changing climate we are facing! Watch out for posters around school advertising a similar competition at Orlingbury this week.

Today was school council election day in school and congratulations must go to all children who put themselves forward for election and submitted manifestos. With all the votes now counted, we are pleased to announce that the following children will make up our school council throughout 2009-10:

Class 1 – Aimee & Ben

Class 2 – Millicent & Carlo

Class 3 – Emily & Laura

Class 4 – Aston & Demi

Class 5 – Emily & Beverley

Class 6 – Jack & Sama

Congratulations to last week’s Headteacher Award winners

Class 1 – Ben

Class 2 – Maddy

Class 3 – Adam

Class 4 – Sam

Class 5 – Rowan

Class 6 – Michelle

Have a great week everybody...

Mr Rees

A big well done to the Headteacher Award winners from last week

Class 1 – Caitlin

Class 2 – Robert

Class 3 – Sophie

Class 4 – Charlotte and Maddison

Class 5 – Chelsea

Class 6 – Ella

Mr Rees

---

Monday 28th September

RADIO STARS

More excitement at school last week as a group of children were recorded on Radio Northampton. The broadcasts went out every day at 3.50pm and the children entertained listeners with their discussions about our school and a particularly interesting conversation about killing wasps! Well done to all those children involved.

Congratulations to last week’s Headteacher Award winners:

Class 1 – Isaac

Class 2 – Georgia

Class 3 – Kyra

Class 5 – Rosie

Class 6 – Carlos

A reminder to children that manifestos are due in by Wednesday for this year’s school council elections.

Have a great week everyone!

Mr Rees

---

Monday 21st September

What a Week!

I spent a wonderful birthday (21 this year) on Wednesday with Years 2 and 3 at the West End watching the Lion King. Not only was it a wonderful production, but we received so many positive comments from other members of the audience about the behaviour of our children which made me very proud!

The week got even better when I got a message to say that the school council had produced a video explaining the new team point system! You can view the video below, just click the arrow to start!

 

I think they all deserve a special mention for their work with this. A reminder that manifestos are due in by the end of September for the School Council Elections for this school year.

Well done to the first Headteacher Award winners this year:

Class 1 Kai

Class 2 Liberty

Class 3 Jonathan

Class 4 Jamie

Class 5 Louise

Class 6 Rachael

Have a great week!

Mr Rees

---

Monday 14th September

What a lovely start to the week it was to welcome our new Reception Class to school today.  Lots of eager faces ready for their first day and only a few tears from the parents!  The Year 6 children are very excited about meeting their new ‘buddies’ and helping them along in their first year at Little Harrowden.

Well done to the gold book entrants from last week and I’m looking forward to seeing who will be the first Headteacher Award winners this Friday.  Please note our assemblies have now changed to 9am on a Friday – we hope this means it will be easier for parents to come and celebrate their children’s achievements with them.

Enjoy the week

Mr Rees

---

Monday 7th September

WELCOME BACK!

Welcome to the new school year. What an exciting September this is for us all at Little Harrowden with new pupils, new staff and new building work complete in time for today!

I hope everyone had a great summer and is looking forward to the new year.

Please send me through your messages telling me what you got up to over the summer.

Have a good week.

Mr Rees

---

Friday 10th July

What a Performance!

Well the summer term is rapidly drawing to a close and this week has seen the children in Years 4, 5 and 6 take to the stage in their superb performance of 'The Rocky Monster Show'. A big well done to all the children and staff who have worked so hard over the last few weeks - it was great to see their work pay off.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who attended the summer fayre last week. With the weather holding out for us, there were some super performances on stage as well as some fine entreupreneurship on display from the children in year 6 who raised over £300 between their stalls as part of their apprentice challenge.

Well done to the Headteacher Award winners from last week and this week:

Last Week

Rec - Olivia

Year 1 - Cameron

Year 2 - Nina

Year 3 - Megan

Year 4 - Louise

Year 5 - John

Year 6 - Keiran

This Week

Rec - Oliva Chloe Maia Jessica

Year 1 - Millie

Year 2 - Chloe

Year 3 - Kate

Year 4 - Rowan

Year 5 - Rachael

Year 6 - Jordana Elliot Chloe Charley

Mr Rees

 

---