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.