Monthly Review: July 2012

NPQH
This month I've prepared my application form for the NPQH. For anyone who is thinking of applying, you'll need to allow some time to fill this form in. It is challenging. Don't underestimate the value of the application form - I've been told it is essential that it is completed well with the right sort of examples. Thank you to everyone who shared ideas with me on Twitter.

Planners
I've been busy organising new planners for the children to use next year. We want to encourage the children to take real pride of these books and use them productively to record reading, homework, notes, targets and anything else that's important. I like the look of these: http://school-planners.co.uk/, but I think we've left it much too late to organise all of the customised pages that we'd like to have. So in the mean time, based on a recommendation, we've gone with http://www.alphaeducationalprint.com/~primary who allow is to have 8 customised pages. Do you have planners in your primary school? It was our school council who got us thinking!

Tanzanians
In the third year of our Tanzed partnership we welcomed two teachers from our partnership school. They really did touch people's lives when they arrived. Their enthusiasm for life was infectious! We held a fundraising evening and raised a lot of money for the school to contribute towards paying to add electrical power to the school.

Sports Days
Right at the end of the month, school sports days came under scrutiny due to the Olympics. Schools were criticised for not hosting competitive sports. I think we have it right in our school. In the infants we have a non-competitive sports day, but points are still collected for the house teams. In the juniors we have a competitive sports day, with field and track events. The children love it, and it was described by our school council as, "Just right."

Weather
The weather this month has been rubbish. Julys are increasingly becoming bad months for weather. Perhaps it's time to start moving some of the sports events to a different time of year?

Chester Zoo
We had a great Year Four visit to Chester Zoo!

End of year
It's the end of a busy year, and my first in Year Four. I've enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next one!