30.09.22

This half term is flying by and we continue to be busy across school. I have met a few times with School Council and Ambassadors and I am looking forward to working with them during the year. They are excited to be representing the school and have lots of great ideas. The Year 1 children enjoyed a dinosaur workshop and are looking forward to a visit from a real life expert this week to talk about his work with the team who discovered the fossilised remains of the Ichthyosaur in Rutland Water last year.

We have held lots of events for parents and carers during the last fortnight. Thank you to everyone who came to the Macmillan coffee morning and the various meetings to develop our Parent Fundraising group. I am pleased to say that we have a group of parents who are keen to get this group up and running again. This means that we will be able to run our Fireworks event and we are also planning some discos and maybe a Christmas Fayre. More information will follow soon.

Thank you also to those parents and carers who attended the MHST meeting on Wednesday. We are all working hard to ensure that we support our children (and ourselves) to look after their mental health.  If you need any more information you can access this via this link https://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/camhs-mental-health-support-teams/

We continue to use the Action for Happiness calendars with staff and children. This month is ‘Optimistic October’ – enjoy!

https://actionforhappiness.org/calendar

16.09.22

We spent some time this week reflecting on the death of Queen Elizabeth 2 with the staff and children in assemblies and the classrooms. The children were so thoughtful and respectful in their discussions.

School life continued alongside our reflections and the children continue to settle in well. It was so lovely to see so many families at Breakfast morning and I am looking forward to talking to more parents and carers as the weeks go on.  I met with the Year 1 school councillors and the Ambassadors and will be meeting with the rest of school council next week. I wonder what ideas they will bring this year!

09.09.22

What a great start to the term it has been. Our new Reception children have settled in so well and we are very proud of them.

The topics have started and learning is well underway. Year 2 had a great Superhero day – Mr White is still getting the green paint out of his ears!! Routines are back up and running and we are enjoying being back together. 

We are working on our values of Teamwork and Resilience this term and the children enjoyed our STEM lessons working together on projects in class. We talk to the children a lot about the Learning Line. This is displayed in all the classrooms and used in books. It helps children to understand that sometimes you get stuck in the pit but that is OK and with a bit of determination, resilience and hard work you can achieve your goal. Here is an example of one for you to see.

We are also still using our Action for Happiness calendars with staff and children. This month is all about self care. The calendar gives a daily reminder of how we should all find time to loo k after ourselves in an increasingly busy world. More information can be found on their website here https://actionforhappiness.org/

Next week we are looking forward to our Breakfast morning at Meadow Lane for Reception and Year 1 parents. Come and join us for a pancake!!

22.07.22

We have finally made it to the end of term – wow what a year! Thank you so much for attending the picnic – we have 750 people on our field and it was a real community atmosphere – it is so great to be doing these things again.

The final two weeks of term were just lovely (and busy!) We started with a great Year 2 performance of Jack and the Beanstalk which everyone really enjoyed. The children did such a great job and performed with such confidence.

We then held our three transition days and these were really successful. The children enjoyed spending time with their new classes and teachers. We welcomed our new teachers to school and they enjoyed getting to know us and working in their new teams. This quality time will ensure that we get off to a good start when we come back in September. It was lovely to meet our new Reception children who were fab! It was nice to talk to lots of you on Open Evening and I hope that you enjoyed seeing all the great work that the children have been doing.

The final week of term was great. Year 6 did their performance of ‘Pirates of the Currybean’ which was so amazing. The children were so confident and performed with such joy; it was so lovely to see. The Year 6 children also enjoyed a trip to Planet Bounce and their Graduation ceremony where we celebrated all of their achievements and took a trip down memory lane. What a great group of children they are and I am so proud of them as they move onto secondary school.

And finally, I enjoyed trips with the School Council and Ambassadors to Lakeside where we played on the park, enjoyed a game of Crazy golf and visited the café. The children have been great representatives for school during the year.

The final assembly of the year was a great opportunity to celebrate the year together and to say goodbye to the staff who are leaving us to access new opportunities elsewhere. We wish them every success and happiness.

Have a lovely summer holiday everyone and we will see you all again very soon.

01.07.22

The week started well with an 8 – 0 victory for our Year 6 football team. We played Eskdale and we are all very proud of the team. Well done to Jayden who scored a hat trick! We will be playing Bramcote Hills Primary on Monday 4^th at 4pm if anyone fancies coming to watch.

Thank you to George who has coached the team and who really motivated them to do well and to Mr Cudworth for his support. They all played brilliantly and were a real team.

The Year 1 football club also had a match on the field at Cator Lane on Thursday and played really well and with a lot of enthusiasm! Our Cheerleading club also entered a competition on Tuesday and did really well. Thank you to the staff who ran these clubs after school in order to give these opportunities to our children.

On Friday the Reception children welcomed their Grandparents and Great Grandparents into school. This is always such a lovely event and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Our School Ambassadors also spent an afternoon helping in Reception and Year 1 (I think they enjoyed being back on the Early Years Garden too!)

As we head into the final three weeks of term, there is still such a lot to look forward to. We receive our Year 6 SATs results on Tuesday and reports will come out on Friday. Classes will be finalised this week and transition events are beginning. We will also be celebrating our musicians in school in our music concerts – I am really looking forward to these.

24.06.22

This week started with a trip to Cadbury World for Year 4 and ended with a day of Sport! Year 4 had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed their day out. 2LW also enjoyed their time at Sherwood.

Thank you for attending Sports Day on Thursday. We had a great day – KS2 in the sunshine in the morning and Reception and KS1 in the afternoon in the rain! We all had a great time and enjoyed working together. A big thank you goes out to Mr Wilkins and Miss Layton for the organisation and to Mr Lodge and the Sports Leaders from Chilwell who helped out and ran the activities, supporting and encouraging the children.

Next week we will be welcoming Grandparents into Meadow Lane on Friday and Year 2 and 6 will continue to practise their performances. They are looking and sounding really good!

17.06.22

Welcome back to the final half term of the school year 2022. It does not seem possible that another year has nearly ended; time just goes so fast.

We have certainly started the half term with a bang! Class 2CH and class 2AZ have had a lovely time on their Residential to Sherwood. I was so lucky to be able to go with 2AZ – I had an amazing time. The children were a real credit to us all and we really enjoyed being out in the open air in the middle of a forest for two days. Class 2LW will be going next week and that completes the Residential trips for the year. Phew!

Phonics week was successful and the children tried really hard. In Year 6 our writing was moderated by the Local Authority. This was successful and the moderators were hugely complimentary about the standard of the children’s work and the way that the staff know the children so well.

The staff have been working hard writing reports, doing assessments and preparing for transition. They have also attended Phonics training with Bug Club and we will be working to embed this scheme across school in the Autumn term. I also attended a meeting on the new White Paper with the Chair of Governors – definitely a lot to think about for the future. Here is a link which goes over the main points https://schoolsweek.co.uk/opportunity-for-all-schools-white-paper-all-the-policies/  

Here is a link to the full white paper https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063602/Opportunity_for_all_strong_schools_with_great_teachers_for_your_child__print_version_.pdf

To end the week Year 3 have been to Yorkshire Wildlife Park on the hottest day of the year so far. They had a lovely time and I am sure they will tell me all about it on Monday.

Next week Year 4 are off to Cadbury World and 2LW have their Residential. Don’t forget to join us for Sports Day on Thursday if you can. Keep your eye on the website and letters for further dates as this term really is very busy!

27.05.22

What a lovely way to end a half term! We have had a very busy week ending in a great Jubilee celebration on Friday for the whole school. From the playground sales in the morning to coffee and cake in the afternoon, we had a wonderful time! It was so good to have everyone together and the children and staff really enjoyed dancing, singing and picnicking together. Thank you to everyone who turned up for cake and Pimms in the afternoon – it was such a lovely atmosphere. We collected donations and will give any profit that we make to the charity ‘Place2Be’ which is a mental health support charity for children that we have used in school. The patron is the Duchess of Cambridge – we will let you know how much we have raised after the holiday. More information can be found here https://www.place2be.org.uk/about-us/our-team/our-royal-patron/

This week we completed our Raising Aspirations fortnight in style – I can’t quite believe that we had the European cup in our hall!! We certainly had some very excited children and staff. It has been so impressive to see the range of volunteers who have given up their time to come into school to show our children what they can achieve. It has been truly inspirational. Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered.

We also welcomed some visitors from Challenge Partners this week. Challenge Partners is an organisation that helps schools to evaluate their provision and learn from other professionals. We were lucky to show our reviewers how great our school is and I am excited to share the report and their comments with you in due course. I am definitely ending this half term feeling very proud of our children, staff, school and community.

Have a lovely half term everyone. I hope that you all enjoy some time away from school and we will see you very soon.

20.05.22

School has certainly been a hive of activity over the last two weeks and it has been great to welcome so many visitors through the doors.

Year 6 and Year 2 have now completed their SATs assessments and we have been so proud of them. They have all tried their absolute best and they have been a real credit to the school.

On Monday this week we heard from Cyrilyn Moore from Operation Orphan. She did an assembly at Cator Lane for the children and told us all about the work that the charity are doing in Moldova to help the Ukranian refugees. You can view the PDF by clicking here  

The children and staff then wore blue and yellow on Thursday to raise money for Operation Orphan. We were blown away by your generosity and we raised £716.55 in school and more via online donations. Thank you so much.

The Raising Aspirations events have been very successful and the children have thoroughly enjoyed talking to everyone – there were certainly some interesting questions!! We talked to plumbers, builders, scientists, architects, lawyers, Police, Firefighters, Nurses, doctors, paramedics…………the list was endless. Thank you so much to the parents/carers and people from the local community who gave up their time and to Miss Williams for organising the event. Hopefully, it will give our children some ideas about their future careers and encourage them to aim high. We will put lots of photographs on the website once the final year groups have had their turn.

The Year 1 children were also very excited this week to welcome a Knight into school! The children learned all about the life of a Knight to add to their Castles topic. They dressed in the armour and practised some battle scenes.  

Next week is just as busy as we prepare to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee next Friday. We will also be holding interviews for new teachers and holding a meeting for our new Reception parents. We will also be hosting a Challenge Partners visit next week. This is an opportunity for us to work with other professionals to celebrate what is good about school and to help us to identify areas for improvement.

06.05.22

It is, of course, exam season in schools. The Year 1 children are busy practising their phonics for the test in June and Year 2 have been doing their SATs reading test this week. They will be completing their maths SATs in a couple of weeks. The children have really tried hard and have done their best.

The Year 6 children have spent the week preparing for the KS2 SATs next week. They have continued to work hard and have shown a great attitude and I am sure that they will do themselves proud. All we ask is that they do their best and I am sure that they will.

I have continued to meet with the School Council and Ambassadors. The Year 6 School Council have run their first snack bar this week and have already made a bit of a profit – they are very excited about this. We are awaiting the delivery of the Defibrillator cabinets and then the Ambassadors will share this great achievement with the local community. The children will be helping at the picnic and Jubilee celebrations and will also be sending information out about a fundraiser for Ukraine.

We have been contacting our new Reception parents in the last few weeks and we are getting ready to welcome the new children to school. We are also liaising closely with the secondary schools around transition and planning our in school transition carefully. More information will follow soon.

Congratulations to all our star writers who entered a competition at Trent College. They attended a Celebration Story evening this week and were a credit to The Lanes. Congratulations particularly to Lila Ellis who was placed in the top 10 and to Lynden Anderson who came 3^rd. Well done to everyone involved.

29.04.22

It has been a busy fortnight at school as we settle into the summer term. The children have settled back into the school routine and are working hard. The Year 6 children are making their final preparations for SATs and we remain incredibly proud of their attitude.

Year 1 enjoyed their trip to Tamworth Castle. They had great fun looking at the armour and dressing up and have learned some great castle facts for their topic.

The Year 5 children also enjoyed a trip out on Thursday. They spent all day at Attenborough cricket club learning cricket skills and playing some games. Although it was very cold, everyone had a great time.

And then, to finish a very busy week, a group of Year 6 children represented The Lanes at a Rounders competition at George Spencer. We played against four other schools. All the children played in the matches and did the school proud. We are delighted to report that we won the competition and have some very proud and excited children and staff!

It has been great to see so many children attending lunch time and after school clubs and activities. It has also been lovely to have parents and carers into school for Star Assemblies once more and to see the start of reading mornings once again. Thank you for making the effort to come and keep looking out for more opportunities to come into school this term.

Have a great Bank Holiday Weekend everyone

04.04.22

Happy Easter holiday everyone – I hope that you all have a lovely time seeing friends and family, enjoying being out in the open air (hopefully in some sunshine!) and, of course, enjoying all the Easter chocolate. After a very busy half term, I think we are all ready for a break.

The final week of this term was certainly a busy one. I had the privilege of watching our children dance at the Chilwell Dance Festival on Tuesday. I was so proud to see them on stage and it was lovely to be able to take part in events like this once again. A big thank you goes to Shona, our dance teacher, who choreographed two great routines. The children are looking forward to performing them for the school when we return after Easter.

I was also excited to be part of the Year 4 Residential to Castleton. We are all so proud of the children as they went away for two nights having never been on a Residential trip before. They were a real credit to the school and we all enjoyed ourselves despite the very ‘interesting’ weather – one minute we were in bright sunshine and the next in a blizzard! It was just so great to be out in the countryside and to appreciate the beauty of the world around us.

We are now looking forward to the summer term and we are full of plans. Keep an eye out for letters for clubs and activities and opportunities to come into school once more – we have really missed seeing you all.

See you all on Tuesday 19^th April.

25.03.22

This week has been a tricky week once again with staff absence mostly due to the rising Covid rates around the local area. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding as we have to move staff around and use supply staff to cover classes. Hopefully, after the Easter break things will have calmed down once again. Please be vigilant and do not send your children into school if they are unwell.

It has been so nice to enjoy the lovely weather this week and the children at Cator Lane have loved being back on the field at playtime, lunchtime and for PE. We are really encouraging the children to be as active as possible and we are looking to further extend our lunchtime and after school clubs in the summer term.

Next week is ,of course, the last week of term and Year 4 are looking forward to their Residential trip to Castleton. The Dance clubs are also excited about performing at the Chilwell Dance Festival on Tuesday – I am really looking forward to seeing their performances.

Thank you for your donations to Red Nose Day, we raised a total of £638.17

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine

18.03.22

Well done to Year 5 this week and a big thank you to the staff and Governors who accompanied them on their Residential trip to York. They all had such a great time and were a credit to school. I am sure that they have enjoyed a restful weekend.

Thank you for all the donations for Red Nose Day. The children enjoyed wearing non uniform and telling jokes. We will let you know next week our total amount raised. Thank you once again for your generosity.

Next week is another busy week as we head towards the Easter holidays. Year 4 are getting prepared for their Residential trip, we are looking forward to the Dance Festival at Trent Vale and we are preparing for the Easter Egg raffle – please drop any contributions for this into the office on either site.

I hope you are all enjoying the lovely Spring sunshine. It just makes everything seem so much more positive. We are certainly looking forward to being outside more and using our lovely field.

11.03.22

Thank you so much for all the donations of sanitary products, nappies and money that you sent to help the Operation Orphan Ukraine appeal. We will continue to keep in touch with the charity and offer more support as needed. You can follow the teams work with the refugees on their Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/OperationOrphan/

The Year 6 children completed another practice SATs week this week – they performed well and all tried their best. They are working so hard at school and home and should be very proud of themselves. Children across the rest of school have also been completing assessments – all of them have impressed us with their determination and hard work. Well done!

I received the draft Inspection Report this week for checking and I am hoping to be able to share the final version with you very soon.

04.03.22

It has been such a lovely week at school this week and it really feels like everything is coming back to life after Covid. School is full of activity and the children and adults are enjoying our learning and activities.

Year 4 had a great time on their Roman day with the outside provider. They really engaged with the learning and activities, learning all about life in Roman times.

The Reception children also had a lovely time at Bluebell Farm. They were so excited to tell me all about the animals that they has seen and of course all about the yummy ice cream too!

On Thursday Year 1 also had a lovely time at Twycross Zoo. I was so excited to go with them and we had a great time. The children enjoyed seeing all the animals and learning about the Zoo’s work in conservation.  

And then, of course, we celebrated World Book Day on Thursday. I was so impressed with all the costumes (both staff and children). The children had a great day talking about and reading their favourite stories. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Finally, we are so grateful for all the items that have been donated to Operation Orphan to help the people of Ukraine. Thank you so much for your generosity. I will keep in touch with the charity and their ongoing efforts and let you know if we can help in the future.

11.02.22

It has been quite a week at school - we are all certainly ready for half term! Thank you so much for your support during our Ofsted Inspection. It was very busy and a real challenge but it felt like a real team effort.

The children were amazing and showed all of our school values. They enjoyed talking to the Inspectors and showing them their work. I am very proud of them all.

We are now looking forward to next half term and the Year 4 and 5 Residentials as well as enjoying the improving weather by getting outside more. We will also be launching our Values character in school and we are looking forward to sharing these with you.

Have a lovely half term. Don't forget to have a go at raising some money for the defibrillators. The Ambassadors made a good start yesterday and raised over £300 with their table top sale in the playgrounds. Let’s see how much we can raise.

04.02.22

It has been another busy week in school and I have enjoyed working with Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6. I have seen some great work and have enjoyed talking to the children once again about their learning. Next week I will be completing my visits with a morning in Year 4 and a morning in Year 5.

It is Parents evening next week so please make sure that you make an appointment with your child’s teacher. If you are struggling at all please let us know. We are hoping to be able to welcome you all into school in the summer term to see more of the children’s work.

The Fundraising group met on Tuesday evening. More information will soon be coming out to let you know about events that are being planned and how you can get involved. It would be great to get this group working really well to continue to develop our community around school.

Next week we will be working with the children to remind them about keeping safe online. Safer Internet Day is celebrated globally in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people, and to inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. Safer Internet Day 2022 is on 8th February and will be celebrated with the theme ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’. Here is a link to the website which has lots of resources and advice for parents and activities for children.

https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022

28.01.22

It continues to be challenging at school due to Covid but we remain determined to carry on and make sure that the children enjoy being at school and experience as many activities as possible. I was privileged to be able to attend the Year 3 Residential at Mount Cook in Derbyshire this week. I had such a lovely time and it was so great to see the children engaged in some great activities and just enjoying being away with each other.

In our assemblies this week we will be talking about being healthy and particularly about sleep. When we completed some wellbeing assessments with the children it became clear to us how much this is an issue for many of our children. The teachers will be completing work with the children and showing them some videos about sleep as well as having discussions in RSHE lessons. We will be talking to them about the importance of relaxing before bedtime, coming off IPads, phones etc and having some time away from screens before bedtime. We will also be practising some mindfulness activities with the children to discuss and practise the art of relaxation. Sleep is so important for us all and a good night’s sleep just makes everything feel better. Here are the links to the videos and work we will be doing with the children.

Why do you need a good night’s sleep? – Get well soon. Reception and Year 1 suitable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oEXGiWV3p8

Rod’s bad day – Why sleep is important.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zqjqhyc

CBBC – Help me out sleep – some good facts and videos suitable for all

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/findoutmore/help-me-out-sleep

What happens to you when you sleep?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47388673

This week I will be spending time in Years Reception, 1, 2 and 6 and am really looking forward to working with all the children and talking to them about their learning. I will also be continuing to complete the environment audit with the school council.

21.01.22

The children are still working hard in school and I have been enjoying going into classes and talking to them about their learning. The Year 6 children worked really hard this week in their practice SATs tests. They were so calm and collected and we are proud of them all.

It has been a particularly challenging couple of weeks in school with the number of positive Covid cases in both staff and children. We are working hard to cover classes to ensure that the learning can continue and to support those children who are at home. Thank you once again to the staff who have been so flexible and supportive of the school and each other.

Next week we are looking forward to the Year 3 Residential at Mount Cook. The staff are working hard to make sure that this can go ahead.

I hope that you are all OK. Please get in contact if you need anything.

14.01.22

Thank you to everyone who came to the coffee afternoon on Friday to find out about the Friends group. We are really keen to get this up and running again and to start doing some more whole school and community events. The money that this group raises is invaluable for school; we have purchased equipment for the playgrounds, updated our libraries, purchased ICT resources and subsidised trips, visitors and the DARE programme for Year 6. Look out for the date of the next meeting and please come along if you can.

This week in school some of our Year 6 writers represented The Lanes brilliantly at a writing workshop at The Elms school. Mr Cupit accompanied them and was very impressed with both the standard of their writing and their behaviour.

I met with the School Council and Ambassadors and was again impressed by their commitment to the school. The Ambassadors are continuing to support the children in Year 2 and will also be organising a fund raising scheme for February half term with Mrs Allcoat. The School Council will be working with me to do an audit of the school environment and will also be working with Mrs Gosling in the office to develop a weekly snack bar in school.

This week we have begun working with Ace Sports to support the children in KS2 at lunchtime. They are working to support the children with games at lunchtime – this has been very successful and the children are enjoying having the structure and support.

The staff have been working hard to plan intervention groups and catch up sessions for children to support their learning and progress. This week we will again be attending some training with local schools on a variety of subjects including reading, SEND, behaviour, feedback and GDPR. I will also be meeting with the Family Head teachers to plan the next steps for the Chilwell schools.

As mentioned in a previous email, please make sure that children are in the correct uniform including the correct kit for PE. Please also continue to be vigilant around the signs of Covid to ensure that we can manage cases across school.

07.01.22

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that you spent time with friends and family. I have enjoyed hearing all the stories from the children about their Christmas adventures this week.

We have settled back into school really quickly and the children are already immersing themselves in their new topics. The Year 3 team are excitedly planning their Residential trip at the end of the month – I’m not sure who is more excited; the children or the staff!

We have been talking to the children about our Values this half term of Positivity and Happiness. We have been sharing the Action for Happiness calendar for January which I have attached with this blog. This encourages us all to do a little something every day to help our wellbeing. I have also attached the 10 keys to Happiness which again talk about those little things that we can do to make us feel better. The website link is here – there are lots of good tips on it. https://www.actionforhappiness.org/

I am looking forward to meeting up with the School Council and Ambassadors next week. I am sure that they are full of good ideas to enable us to continue to develop our school. Some of our Year 5 and 6 children will also be going to The Elms Junior School for a day working with the author Colin Parsons on some exciting writing. This is a great opportunity.

Please come and join us next Friday afternoon at Meadow Lane for a coffee and a chat and to find out about how you can potentially get involved with the Friends group in school. The more the merrier!

10.12.21

It’s beginning to feel a bit like Christmas at The Lanes!! Well done to the Reception children who did an amazing job with the nativity – all three performances! It was so nice to able to invite a few of you into school – thank you for keeping to the Covid rules when you came to watch. The children all did so well and we are very proud of them all.

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Carols in the Playground on Friday night. Thank you to the staff for all their hard work. I’m so pleased that we managed to do this as it gives such a lovely community feel to school. Thank you also to the Salvation Army Band.

This week we are hoping to welcome more of you into school to watch the Year 3/4 performance. The children have worked so hard and they are looking forward to it. We have videoed all performances so everyone should be able to watch them. We will be keeping a close eye on the Covid cases and will cancel the live performances if necessary. If you are intending to come and watch please do a lateral flow test, wear a mask and a coat!

Thank you for all your donations to Save the Children on Christmas Jumper day. Also, a big thank you for all the donations to the Broxtowe Community Project. Please keep sending them in – the School Council are hoping to deliver some of it on Thursday.

It has been challenging once again as we battle through the latest Covid cases. We are working really hard to keep school going but the pressure has been hard as staff are off and we cannot get supply staff in classes. We will continue to work hard to keep people well for Christmas. Thank you for your continued support.

03.12.21

It has been a challenging week with lots of staff and pupil absence due to increasing rates of Covid in school. We are keeping a very close eye on the situation and will continue to review our risk assessment regularly. Thank you to the staff for their hard work and flexibility as we all worked together to support each other and the children.

On a positive note, I really enjoyed watching the Nativity dress rehearsal on Friday morning. The children did so well and it always makes me feel like Christmas has begun. We are still hoping to perform to an audience next week – albeit slightly smaller than usual. I hope you enjoy watching the video when you get the chance.

26.11.21

This week we really enjoyed learning more about each other as we celebrated our unique talents. It was so great to see the children (and adults) talking about what they enjoy doing. We saw magic tricks, dancing, kickboxing, jujitsu, singing, sign language…….the list is endless. We hope that you enjoy looking at all the photographs on the website.

Mrs Baker and Mrs Carré also took the ECO team to plant trees with the mayor of Broxtowe. This was a lovely event and complements our work in Outdoor Learning. The ECO team will be working with Mrs Baker to develop our work in recycling over the next few weeks.

This week is our Governor visits week in school. Many of our Governors will be coming into school during the week to see us in action. They will be meeting with the teachers and joining in lessons. They will be around school so please have a chat with them if you see them.

We will be keeping a close eye on the news about Covid and will be in touch if we need to make any changes to our risk assessments in school. We are hoping to be able to go ahead with our Christmas events in school but we will be guided by the Local Authority in the next couple of weeks.

19.11.21                                                         

This week we all took part in the Anti Bullying week. This is a great opportunity to remind the children how to play together and look after each other. They also talk about what to do if they feel they are being bullied or if they witness anything that they feel may be bullying behaviour. The slogan ‘One Kind Word’ fitted in beautifully with our half termly values of Friendship and Kindness. We have now begun training Playground Pals at both sites and they will be able to help children on the playgrounds if they need it.

Children in Need day saw us raise £795.52. The children enjoyed coming to school in their own clothes and taking part in various activities in class.

The Reception children went on their first trip this week to Greens Mill. They had a lovely time and were so excited when they came back, telling me all about climbing the windmill, making bread and the exciting bus journey! We were so proud of them – they all did a great job.

Year 1 also enjoyed their Dinosaur Day on Wednesday. They became palaeontologists and enjoyed looking at fossils and dinosaur bones. In the afternoon they loved the visit from the dinosaur!

Next week we are looking forward to Wednesday when we will be celebrating all of our talents. I will also be giving out the prizes for the half term writing competition.

12.11.21

This week we all took part in the 2 minute silence to mark Remembrance Day. The children were thoughtful and respectful. Each class has produced some work about Remembrance and we have a display at each site.

We have continued to show new parents around school. The Ambassadors have taken responsibility for the tours and have been doing a great job. They are also starting to work in Year 2 to support our younger children and hope to head down to Meadow Lane in the future to help with reading. We will be developing their page on the website too.

The School Council from Year 2 – 6 also met with me this week. We discussed all sorts of issues around school. We decided to have a non-uniform day for Children in Need and are thinking about ideas for a Christmas charity appeal. The Reception and Year 1 school council will meet next week.

We had a Governors meeting this week at which we discussed the School Improvement priorities and the long term vision for the school. I will be sending out details of a Parents Forum very soon so that we can share this with you and gather your views. The Governors are looking forward to coming into school more now that restrictions have eased. A visits week is planned for 29^th November in which they will be visiting lots of classrooms and talking to staff and children. Please visit the Governor page on the website for more information about who our Governors are and what they do.

It is World Kindness Day this weekend – I hope that someone has been kind to you and that you have been kind to yourselves.

08.11.21

Well, that was a busy first week back!! We started the week with a bang with many Year groups having a ‘Wow day’. We had a Great Fire of London day in year 2 (followed by the fire on Tuesday!); Year 3 had an Explorers Day; Year 4 had an Iron Man scavenger hunt and Year 5 were all in Space. What an exciting start to a term!

And then……. Year 6 Residential. The children and staff (including myself) had an amazing time at Mount Cook in Derbyshire. We enjoyed lots of activities such as climbing on Black Rocks, Zip wire, indoor climbing, team building games, orienteering and problem solving. We also enjoyed a camp fire, bushcraft and made some brilliant land carts which went very fast. We stayed for three nights and the children were a real credit to the school. They showed all of our school values and the staff at Mount Cook were hugely complimentary about both their behaviour and their positive attitudes to giving everything a go. Well done to them all and a massive thank you to the staff who gave up a lot of their own time to attend. Thank you also to Mr Barker and Mr Guyler, our school governors for coming with us too.

At school we have been so pleased to welcome back lots of volunteers. This will make a real difference to so many children. If you have not put your name down and would like to give some time please email the school office.

This week is busy once again with school photos, Remembrance and I will be showing parents around school for admission next September. The Ambassadors will be helping me with the tours.

08.10.21

Another busy week in school – time seems to be rushing by and I can’t believe that it is nearly half term already. Let’s hope the lovely weather continues.

I have met with the School Council again this week. They have some great ideas and I will be working with them after half term to develop some of them. The minutes will be on the website https://www.thelanes.notts.sch.uk/school-council/. They are keen to run a charity event so watch this space! The Ambassadors are also full of ideas – we definitely have a plan for after half term.

Year 2 enjoyed the Explorer Dome this week as part of their topic and will soon be able to use their new trim trail which has been delayed – fingers crossed it is up and running before half term.

Staff have been busy this week and have met in their curriculum teams to develop their action plans. They have also been getting ready for Parents Evening – make sure you book your appointment. It was lovely to see lots of parents at the Year 3 Residential meeting and the Reception phonics meeting. We are hoping to do more to invite parents into school next half term – Covid permitting.

Next week we are looking forward to our first sports competition since lockdown – cross country. I wish our team every success – they (and Mr Wilkins) are very excited!

Don’t forget that it is an Inset day next Friday. The staff will be in school and will be receiving training from Focus Education on ‘Creating the right pedagogy to support pupil’s long term memory’. We are hoping to use what we learn to inform our teaching and learning moving forwards.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

04.10.21

We began this week with the Year 5 trip to Stratford. We had a great day and enjoyed a guided tour of Stratford, a visit to Shakespeare’s school room and a trip to the Butterfly Farm. It was a very busy day and I certainly learned a lot about Shakespeare and his life. The children enjoyed being out of school – they learned a lot and were a real credit to the school.

The children in Year 1 and 2 are enjoying the outdoor learning led by Mrs Baker. It has been so great to see the children out and about and using our great facilities at Cator Lane. They have been enjoying team building activities and some nature studies – even in the rain!!

I met with the Ambassadors this week and I was so impressed by them. They have some great ideas for how they want to develop their role in school. They will be showing round the candidates for Mrs Day’s maternity cover this week and talking to the children in assembly. I will also be meeting with School Council again this week.

This week you will get your invitation to Parents Evening for Year 1 to Year 6. This will take place by Zoom – the teachers are looking forward to talking to you all.

27.09.21

Another busy week has gone by and school is feeling great. We are all enjoying being back together and the children are keen and motivated to learn. The Family of Schools Head teachers met on Friday and spent time discussing the future of the Chilwell Family of Schools and dates for events during the year. The staff in school had a staff meeting on writing which is one of our School Improvement Priorities this year.

Thank you to everyone who attended the coffee morning, donated money for cakes, bought and made cakes and supported this great cause. So far we have raised £430 for Macmillan which is amazing – if you wish to donate this week we will leave the collections open. Thank you to Mrs Allcoat for organising this and to Mrs Birchall (one of our Governors) for her support.

Well done to everyone who took part in the Robin Hood Marathon on Sunday. Don’t forget to send a report into school along with a photo and we will put them on the website.

This week Year 5 are looking forward to their trip to Stratford to complement their Macbeth topic. I am also looking forward to meeting with the Ambassadors and working out their role this year. The Reception teachers are also preparing for their Parents evenings where they will be able to tell you how your child has settled into school.

We have unfortunately had some Covid cases in school among staff and children and we are keeping a close eye on the Risk assessment as this half term continues. Thank you for your support with this.

Blog 20.09.21

What beautiful weather we are having at the moment – just so lovely to see the sun. The children are enjoying playing outside and taking part in lots of outdoor PE lessons.

Mrs Baker has started the Outdoor Learning with the children this week. I hope that the children really enjoy this – I am sure they will.

Year 2 are getting very excited as they watch the development of the new trim trail. This should be finished this week and the children can’t wait to have a go on it!

We have now chosen our School Councillors and Ambassadors. I will be meeting with them all this week to go through their role and plan some activities.

We are continuing to work to refresh our work with parents and the community. It would be lovely if you could join us on Friday for the Macmillan Coffee morning at Meadow Lane. Come and have a piece of cake and a chat.

Blog 13.09.21

Wow, what a great night we had on Friday at the Lanes Fest. Thank you so much for supporting us and coming along – I think it was just what we all needed. Thank you also to the staff who stayed behind and served at the bar, sold headbands, etc. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did – and it didn’t rain!!

Events like Friday night are so important as we try to build back the sense of community in school. For me it is what a primary school should be about; community, family and people. Hopefully, it is just the start to a great year with more events – watch this space.

This week the Reception children will complete their first full week at school. They have settled in so well and are enjoying playing together and getting to know each other.

The rest of the children are also continuing to work hard and enjoying getting to know their new classes and teachers. We have all been so impressed with how they have come back to school – it is going to be a good year!

Blog 03.09.21

Hello everyone and welcome to the first Head teacher’s blog on our new look website. I will update the blog on a weekly basis and I hope that it will give you a flavour of what is going on at school.

It has been SO lovely to welcome everyone back to school this week. School feels so vibrant and alive and the children have been brilliant. They have settled in so well and are adapting to our new routines and procedures. We also welcomed our new Reception children today for their first ‘Stay and Play’ session.

We have been using the book ‘Ish’ by Peter H Reynolds with the children this week and will be continuing next week. This book Ish by Peter H Reynolds. Ish is the story of a BAME boy called Ramon who loves to draw, until one day his older brother mocks one of his pictures and destroys both his confidence and the joy he finds in his art.” 

“Ramon loves to draw – anything, anywhere – but when his brother laughs at his drawings, Ramon loses his confidence and the joy of creating. After months of frustration, Ramon decides to give up drawing all together, until his younger sister reminds him that drawings don't have to be perfect to be beautiful.”

The children have been working to retell the story, produce lovely art work and to support discussions around Growth Mindset. The book is really simple but the message is powerful – negativity and criticism can destroy confidence and creativity and perfectionism is unhealthy too.  Praise and encouragement helps us learn!

We have also been doing lots of other work and settling into new routines in our classes. The children have also been talking about our motto and values for this half term which are Teamwork and Resilience.

The teachers will be in touch again soon. The topic webs and weekly newsletters will be on the website in the Year group pages next week.

Don’t forget The Lanes Festival next Friday – 6 -8pm on the Cator Lane field. We are really hoping that this can go ahead and we are keeping an eye on the weather forecast. It would be lovely to see lots of you there to celebrate the start of a new school year. More details will come to you next week.

Take care and have a lovely weekend.