Head teacher blog 29th September 2017
This week our extensive programme of after-school clubs started and it is an important part of the Farfield offer. There are literally hundreds of club places, ranging from arts, crafts, singing and sudoku, to football, athletics and karate. I am grateful to all the staff and others that run the clubs, especially those volunteers who give up their Wednesday evening to run Farfield Youth Club.
Earlier this week, I began my more formal classroom monitoring, spending time in five of the infant classes. In one of the Reception classes, my presence was a definite distraction, with a stream of children offering me cups of sand ‘tea’ laughing as my face complained of sugar or too much milk. Nevertheless, in each of the five infant classes that I visited that morning, behaviour and engagement was excellent: each setting was a joy to spend time in. ‘Behaviour and Engagement’ is a very appropriate focus for these first formal observations: if this is right, the rapid and deep learning is much more likely to follow.
On Monday, Y1 visited the farm and harvested lots of vegetables to make a soup for their parents. Many thanks to all the families that were able to come and share the soup at the end of the day. On Wednesday Mr Cooke took thirty children from Y3-5 to the John Charles Centre for a morning of activities linked to World Fitness Day. We also welcomed Kevin from The Real Junk Food Project who came in to do a junior assembly updating us on the success of the Fuel for School stalls and the wider project. This evening, we are looking forward to our first league matches of the new football season. This year we are running four teams: U9, U10, U11 and a regular girls’ team. I am delighted that so much competitive sport will be going on between schools in football and many other sports.
