What a Character!

Yesterday I was scouring the BBC News pages - as teachers often do - and I came across an article posted on the 5^th June about “Instilling Good Character”. This was the first time I’d seen the article and for a few seconds I wondered how I’d missed it.

With the new vision statement now proudly displayed around school and our four values ringing through the corridors - it seemed like something I should have seen sooner. Though while slightly annoyed at my lateness in finding this, it felt great to know that we are using our values and vison to instil good character in everyone that’s part of the St Jude’s family.

These values don’t just sit on the surface of St Jude’s but permeate fully through the school life. They are used in learning time, free time, play time. They support our behaviour management strategies, lesson planning and opportunity giving. We expect to see these demonstrated by staff, governors and families because we genuinely believe in them being a great foundation for life and a super platform for character building.

So a huge well done to everyone who wears the St Jude’s badge proudly, you are amazing individuals and we are ALL so proud of the characters you are.

Izzy Lewis

Fantastic Friday Everyone!

Good afternoon, as I write this it’s just started to drizzle outside and I’m sure the flowers will be grateful of the drink! It’s been another busy day here (as always) and we hope you enjoy the photos of our Headteacher’s Awards and Attendance Cup winners.

Year R, 3, 5 and 6 staff met with Miss Waelend and myself today to talk about progress of groups and classes and as of 3 o clock today all staff have seen the new tracking grids for writing – this will be shared with you all in the very near future.

This lunchtime Miss Waelend and I were lucky enough to share in the company of some lovely year three children; we discussed the previous Big Questions and even started a discussion on “What is a family?”  It was this conversation that led to us chatting about what jobs people in our families had and what jobs the children would like in the future, we have a potential teacher, gymnast, ‘you-tuber’, rugby star and interior designer amongst our lunch party today.

As you will see from today’s newsletter, we have made the decision to rename our classes next year to link with our Literary Heritage.  New names will be shared with the children soon and we hope they enjoy hearing the reasons for our choices.

Wishing everyone a restful and relaxing summer weekend, click the link below to see what’s on around the city over the next few days- http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/what-s-on/going-out/what-s-on-for-friday-june-12-2015-thursday-june-18-2015-1-6793771

Izzy Lewis

It’s a hat trick!

It’s been a very thought full Thursday today - The St Jude’s leadership team spent time with individual teachers discussing the progress of the year groups and distributing our new tracking documents for writing. Year 3 marvelled at the magnificent Mary Rose and learnt about what life would have been like on board Henry V111’s warship and some year 6 pupils shared their ideas about starting a newspaper!

Pupil Progress

Today we met staff from year 1 and 4 and started looking at the progress children had made over the school year so far. It was a great opportunity for staff to talk about ideas for the rest of term to ensure progress continues to be a priority - while planning new opportunities for next year - we look forward to carrying these discussions on tomorrow with Year 3 and 5 and catching up with Years 2 and 6 next week. We were also able to share our new termly tracking system for writing which will show individual target areas and how successfully a child has met and objective - we look forward to sharing this with our stakeholders very soon.

Mary Rose

As part of their learning this term, Pipits and Swifts spent the day in Old Portsmouth visiting the Mary Rose Museum and finding out about the sinking of the great ship in 1545. IF you would like to find out more, why not visit the site http://www.maryrose.org/discover-our-collection.

Newsflash

Perhaps we have some budding journalists in our midst.

This afternoon a group of year 6 girls started planning, researching and trialling their interviewing technique as they began to put together a Year 6 newspaper.  With a pot full of ideas stewing nicely, I look forward to helping put together the final piece - under their watchful eyes of course! 

Hoping everybody has an enjoyable, sunshine filled Thursday evening!

Izzy Lewis

So here we are... Blog entry two in two days!

We started off our wonderful Wednesday with Swifts class assembly. They worked very hard and delighted us with their thoughts on Love, which they linked beautifully to the story of The Good Samaritan. Well Done Swifts and a huge thank you to the families that came to watch.

Also today, Mrs Jowers and I spent some time in Early Years looking at the opportunities children have to explore Mathematics outside the classroom. As well as number displays, counting games and shape finding we also had the privilege of counting woodlice (and their legs) as children linked Mathematical and Science skills.

Some of you may start to notice that our website is undergoing a little ‘make-over’, this is to make sure it is as accessible as possible and that it really highlights what an amazing school St Jude’s is.

Tonight the staff  have a Professional Development Meeting so the Senior Team can share the School Improvement Plan with staff.  We look forward to sharing this with the rest of the St Jude’s community in the very near future- so keep an eye out.

Until tomorrow….

Izzy Lewis

Welcome all, to the new Senior Team Blog!

It’s a pleasure to be given the opportunity to write a regular post to keep our families and friends up to date with the exciting things happening at St Jude’s.

I’m very pleased to be able to start this post by sharing our exciting new vision.

Last week the Senior Team had some time together to work on our new School Improvement Plan (that we will share with you very soon) and to talk about how we were moving forward as a school. We went right back to the start and spent some time looking at our vision and values statement. While we all agree that our four values of Love, Honesty, Forgiveness and Hope underpin everything we do, we decided that our Vision statement had become a little cloudy and needed a tweak so it was shorter, easier to remember and could become a starting point for all discussions. We came up with some ideas and shared a draft with the staff last week- after a final few adjustments I am pleased to present our new Vision Statement.

Vision Statement

Awe and wonder sit at the heart of the St Jude’s family. All adults and children work together to create thriving, independent, passionate people who have a fired imagination and a love of learning. We believe that we all learn best when we are happy, safe, valued and inspired to take on the challenges of God’s world.

We are sure you will agree that although similar to our previous vision, this is clearer and really promotes the sort of learning and learner that we strive for. With awe and wonder as our opening line, we are spending time with teachers and subject leaders planning to inject some real excitement into our curriculum- so watch this space…marvellous things coming very soon!

On the second of our SIT days, we were joined in the morning by Reverend Mike Duff of St Jude’s Church who worked with us as we evaluated the distinct Christian character of the school. Last week children bought home a questionnaire regarding this and we look forward to finding out what our parents and carers think are our strengths and areas for development. We also spent some time sharing our new Collective Worship plans and talking about how the Big Questions we ask each week are promoting deep thinking, shared viewpoints and spirituality. We hope you are enjoying the Big Questions also and feel they are a great family conversation starter.

Here is what some of our children thought about our first Big Question- “Is God always happy”?

Year R - "Yes, he's happy because he sent his message into a stone and I picked up the stone and it whispered into my ear-'he is happy because he's always got us'". 

Year 3- "Yes, because when people do things wrong it's not his fault".

 

Year 5 -  "God cannot be happy all the time because of all the bad things that happen in the world like rich and poor, homelessness, selfishness, disease and starvation". 

Our Big Question this week is- “What does love look like?” and as I write this I can hear Mrs Eldrid leading Key Stage one Collective Worship and discussing the children’s ideas about love, and … if I’m not mistaken I can hear whispers of The Beatles- All you need is Love, in the background.

What a great way to start a Tuesday!
Izzy Lewis

I am delighted to be able to write to you again through this blog, which will now be a regular feature of our communication with you. So to begin this new year (although we are two weeks in) I want to share some thoughts with you about 'change'.
January 2015 sees me celebrate 34 years in this beloved profession. I remember very clearly my first day as a teacher at Broadwater CE Primary School, in Worthing. Interestingly enough it was the school I had attended as a child for most of my primary school years and so my first full-time employment as a teacher was with the same headteacher who had been there when I was a pupil some 13 years earlier.
On my first day, Mr Tammage told me of all the many changes that had taken place since I had been there as a pupil and how he wished that the pace of change would just slow down so that we could get on with the real job of educating our children!
Over the weekend I was reflecting with some friends how, when I took up my first Headship in 1999 there was no computer for me to use, letters not email were written, the week's post would arrive on a Tuesday morning and I certainly had no 'smart phone' to keep me on the move. Interestingly enough although I now generally like the technology I use, it has forced us all to work much more quickly, responding to requests with greater speed and often being reactive rather than poactive.
The way our schools are now judged has also changed many times. January 2015 also sees the most recent publication of the Ofsted Inspection schedule, a third change since April last year. Another change is expected for September. Keeping pace with all the change is a challenge at times but quite crucial in a world where the judgements made by Ofsted have such a powerful impact on us all. The whole scale change to the National Curriculum has been very challenging too becuse the expectations we now have to have of our children are much higher than before. Combine this with the changes to the test expectations for our current Year 1 and Year 5 pupils and we certainly have to remain forward thinking and ahead of the game.
In all these changes we will aim to keep you as parents fully up to date with what is happening and how you can support your children in an ever changing world where the jobs your children will be end up doing are unlikely to have been invented yet! Food for thought on a Monday morning.
As this year unfolds we will be working closely with Ofsted to ensure that everything we are doing in school is focused on meeting the higher expectations of the new testing framework and we will also give you as parents the opportunity to hear about the actions which will result from those meetings as we being to prepare for the next inspection at St Jude's.

Thoughts on a Hospital Stay and the children at St Jude's

Well, it has been an interesting, challenging and thought provoking few weeks, some of which I feel is worth sharing with you! During my short stay in hospital earlier this month, I met three fascinating people, each of whom taught me something very different but equally important. One  of these people was a  medics, the other two were fellow patients.
The first was a junior doctor who tore onto the ward as if he was just about to miss the closing doors of the underground train. His first words to me, without looking at me at all, were, "We must get these forms filled in quickly, then you will be ready for theatre." I said nothing but waited for him to shuffle his papers for a couple of minutes, talk to himself a little and then look at me; it was here I smiled at him and simply said "Hello". At which point he breathed and said "Well I got that all wrong, didn't?" An interesting conversation resulted as he explained to me the pressure he felt under to achieve and get to the top to be 'just like his brother'. I have to admit that I said very little as this highly charged young man shared is fear of failure. My reply to him was very simple..."You have to be true to yourself and never try to be what others want you to be." That too was when I first consciously thought of the children at school feeling a huge sense of deeply wanting that for them too!
Secondly I met two amazing ladies who would never consider themselves as such, Rosie and Clare. Rosie was an older lady who had been in hospital since August, following several surgical procedures following the loss of her lower leg in the summer. I first spoke to her as she came round the ward offering us cakes she had made as part of her very slow rehabilitation. Since the loss of her leg, this one time headteacher told me how her confidence had completely gone and the most difficult thing she was finding was to work hard to restore the 'tiger that had helped her transform schools'. Daily I saw her struggle to get up, dressed and ready to face the day. Tears of determination could be quietly heard as the once simple things had become a huge challenge. She was having to re-learn things all over again and it was taking genuine determination. So back to school. Often learning new things can be really difficult and as part of our journey to becoming an outstanding school, I want the children to learn to be determined as they try out new things, new learning and new ways of working. Giving up at the first hurdle never really got anyone anywhere!
Clare was waiting for similar surgery to Rosie's, having just two weeks before been told of the need to lose her right leg at the age of 24 and just 3 weeks after her wedding to Rob. "Well life will be a bit different from now", Clare said with an infectious grin. "I am so lucky to have learnt early in my life, to relish, celebrate and enjoy every day and every opportunity I will be given." And 'yes' I would love to see that quality in our children too!
Since being home, getting mobile again is proving to be a real struggle and far from a 'breeze'. My legs appears to be defiant in refusing to follow the instructions from the brain, but I am sure we will get there. There is much to get back to and enjoy in the new year, all of which I will share with you in my next blog, before the end of term which will, I assure you, be entirely school focused!
Many thanks for all your very welcome good wishes
Joy Waelend