Today is the first day of Spring and we have had beautiful weather. We took advantage of this and started our Gardening Club today. So far, two children have been nominated from each class from Y3-6 and we went outside and planted potatoes today into grow bags. I am going to put up some photos and ask the children who helped me to write some instructions on how to plant potatoes.

We have also received some new raised beds that Mr White is building and we hope to have one per class very soon. We are going to grow things we can eat! This is part of our project with the school in Tobago. They are also growing food in their vegetable beds.

Children have also asked if we can get the Garden dug over and re-planted. Would any parents be able to volunteer to help us please? Let Mr Hall know if you would like to help and we will try to come in one Saturday!

So Gardening Club, can you tell us how to plant potatoes please? Here’s the sequence of photos….

This week I really enjoyed my assembly and it started with a simple question…

Why do gorillas have such big nostrils?

Not a lot of children knew the answer to that one!

If you know please keep it to yourself and send me a comment at the end…

Then I asked a few children to come to the front and tell us a joke… they did a great job and the audience thought it was hilarious! We were really laughing! Our noses were wrinkled up, our mouths turned up, our tummies shook and we made funny whooping noises. We felt good!

The point of the assembly was really all about our feelings; sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are sad. When you are sad, sometimes you can cheer yourself up by thinking about things in a more positive way. One example was to think that when it is wet playtime don’t just feel sad because you can’t play football, think about how much you will enjoy playing a game in the classroom with your friends. Also if we don’t expect too much (don’t be greedy!) then we will often be pleasantly surprised which will make us happy. Children said that they felt happy when they played with their friends and family and when they thought about happy memories. We thought it would be good to tell each other jokes to make us laugh as this feels good.

So can you tell me a joke? Go on! Make us smile!

What about the answer to my question?

Why do gorillas have such big nostrils?

Because they have big fingers!

I have to thank my nephew Euan for telling me the joke. It makes me smile every time I think of him laughing with me!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful time over the holidays and enjoyed relaxing with friends and family.

The new year brings lots of new resolutions and a chance for us to make a fresh start. Today’s assembly was all about finding solutions to problems and setting goals for each of us to achieve. Some children have already told me that they are going to make sure they make an extra effort in lessons (especially writing!) and some have already said they want to work on making sure they get their behaviour right every time. I am very impressed that these children have already chosen what they want to do and have begun to identify ways forward.

In our assembly story, we learnt how you need to see what the setting or situation is, identify a goal, think of what can go wrong (obstacles) and make a plan to enable you to achieve your goal. This can be applied to any situation, from completing homework to improving behaviour, from being a good friend to stopping bullying. Children were very quick to think of solutions to the problems in the story and some were quick to be able to apply the process to other problems. Try it – it may help! There are 4 steps: Setting, Goal, Obstacles, Plan…

One goal that we are setting for our school is to make sure that as many children as possible do as well as they possibly can. In the last newsletter (written by children), you read the interview with David Lammy where he explained that people always said to him, ‘You can’t do that’ and he thought to himself, ‘I will show them, I WILL do it’. He identified his goals, looked at what might go wrong and made a very successful plan to achieve his dreams.

Each of us now needs to take some of his exceptional attitude and make
it our own. Decide what it is you want to achieve; going to university,
having a job you enjoy or being supportive of your friends and family. If you are determined to succeed, you will find that you are likely to do well…

One saying that I like is ‘Shoot for the moon; if you miss, you might land among the stars’. Can you think about what this saying might be telling you and write a comment please? Or you could tell me what your ambitions are and what goals you have set yourself. Whatever it is, good luck!

My goal? I have got to get back to writing my essay as part of my goal to complete some learning I am doing about how to be a better headteacher! You see, we never stop learning and we all have to keep trying hard to achieve our goals!

We are very pleased to say that we recently had a visitor from HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspectors) who are part of Ofsted and came to see how we are improving as a school and to see the progress the children are making. As usual, pupils at Ferry Lane showed that they are well behaved and confident children who enjoy being at school. The inspector was pleased with the progress the school has made since the Ofsted inspection of July 2010 and said that we have made Good progress and have Good capacity to continue making further progress. We wanted to thank all members of our community for the hard work they have all put into our school. Parents and carers have also done their bit by making sure we improved our attendance and punctuality and by supporting learning at home.

The inspector visited every class and noticed that the curriculum has improved teaching and learning and that we are very aware of the next steps we must take to continue to raise standards in English, maths and science. We need to maintain our progress in English and maths and improve even further for more able children and for all children in science. One of the suggestions the inspector made is that all children need to know what levels they are at and so this week you will be given this information at Parents’ Evening. You will also be told if they are on track, below or above age-related expectations. This should help you to see where they need a little extra practice to catch up or where you might like to visit a museum to support and extend their learning (the Science Museum is always great and like lots of our museums it’s also free!). www.sciencemuseum.org.uk (but remember you have to pay to see an IMAX film).

One other thing the Inspector thought we should concentrate on is our handwriting and presentation of our work and you can certainly help at home by practising writing and spellings. Try to use a pen and join your writing!

The Inspector’s report will be published on the Ofsted website soon at www.ofsted.gov.uk.

The progress the school has made is evident in our results this year and we believe they are the best KS2 results the school has ever achieved! The progress the children have made is also clear and we are very proud of their hard work and achievements. We now need to make sure we carry on achieving this well every year! We know that we can do it if we all work together to support the children and that includes staff, parents and Governors, not forgetting the children themselves!

This year we are pleased to be starting a new international project (as I told you in my last post) and soon we will have a space on our blog where we can post things for each other. We have also been joined by a French Language Assistant and Mlle Gaulthier hopes to be with us for the rest of the year. We are also looking forward to having teachers from Tobago visiting our school and Mr Mackie is getting the chickens sorted out for that project.

All in all, it looks like this will be a really good year so lets work hard and enjoy making the school an even better place together!

Hei… I am writing this from Norway where we are visiting a school called Arvoll Skole in Oslo. There are also some teachers from Escola Carrilet in Spain and this is the start of our two year project together. We have been working out the timetable and thinking about the work we will each do in our schools when we get back. We are all very excited that we are in this project!
One of the things we have agreed is to have a shared blog and website areas where all children and staff from all three schools can communicate, share work and tell each other about Healthy Lifestyles. It will also help us to understand people in different countries and learn how to get along well together.
We have also agreed (and this is the really exciting part!) that we are all going to take children to visit each others’ schools and we will be thinking about how we can select children for the trips. We can’t all go!
If you want to start doing a bit of research about the two countries and their languages that might give you a head start!
Staff will also be visiting each school and the first visit will be when Norwegian and Spanish teachers come and visit us in London in November. We are looking forward to welcoming them to Ferry Lane!
Children in years 5 and 6 will also be writing pen-pal letters to children in years 5 and 6 in Spain and Year 6 on Norway (their school is bigger and they have 2 classes in year 6).
Here in Oslo it is a beautiful day and the children at the Arvoll school have been playing outside, just like you do at Ferry Lane. We noticed they also have a lot of footballs stuck on their roof, just like us!
Last night we ate dinner in a famous fish restaurant and we even tried some whale (Mr Leuzinger tried it but was not convinced!). Norway has a very proud seafaring tradition and they cooked us some excellent fish dishes! Today we are visiting the school and meeting children and staff. This afternoon we are going on a walk through the city and tomorrow we are hoping to go and see some very old Viking ships. I wonder if they were the ones that went to Britain that Year 4 will be learning about…
In Norwegian to say thank you, you say Takk. The train is called the tog.  Hadet is goodbye, see you all on Monday!
PS Can you figure out how to say school in Spanish and Norwegian? What do you think hei means?

In the last few weeks a great deal has happened at Ferry Lane and it has been quite hard to keep up! But it has all been good and I certainly have enjoyed every minute… Where to start?

Well today has been unbelievably brilliant. It started last night when Mr Sloan texted me to say we would be in the papers for all our hard work on the blog! So I went to have a look and it was true – we are all over the media! Mr Sloan has cleverly made some links for you… Here is the newspaper article, and here is a longer version on the Haringey website.-

Then Mr Sloan emailed me to tell me to go to the website and see the fantastic film of the BBC Dr Who writing project. And what a stunner it is! Once you get over the embarrassment of seeing yourself on film (do I really sound like that?!) you can really enjoy it. I watched it with Ms Cozier who is also on the film (we were giggling) and we telephoned Ms Prothero, our Chair of Governors, to tell her she was famous too! The best bit was seeing year 5 talking about their writing and how it’s been much more fun and how much progress they have made.

I know who is really responsible for all this and it is actually Mr Sloan, and every child, parent, member of staff and visitor who has been on the blog or on the film - THANK YOU!

This brings me to the best day out I have had in a long time. I was very lucky to go to Wales with Year 5 and I was really pleased to be inside the tardis (yes it is bigger on the inside!)… However I also broke 3 school trip rules and had to report myself to Mr Mackie when we made it back to school. Unfortunately I may not be going on any more trips! So please remember that you need to know what the rules are and then you need to follow them if you want to have trips! Just so you know, you are not allowed any electronic equipment, fizzy drinks or chocolate… Can you hazard a guess as to what I might have done wrong, just by not thinking carefully enough? Don’t make the same mistake; Mr Mackie can get quite cross!!

However the trip itself was great and I am so proud of our school!

We are also in the middle of producing a truly excellent school prospectus and I need your help to get it finished. We have had some lovely photos taken by a professional photographer (let me know if there is any reason you don’t want to be in our prospectus) and now I need you to give me 3 words (I know we could have hundreds) to describe what our school is actually about. What is it that is really good about our school? What is it that is totally unique and makes our school the best one to learn in? We will use your ideas to create our new school slogan which we will use in the prospectus. So they need to be good words as they are going to convey a powerful message, one that tells people just what we really stand for as a school community and what we really think is important.

So please help me out! Just three words is all I need, but they need to be top quality so get thinking please!

I am so proud that we have come third in the Blog Awards! I can’t believe how much of a difference our school blog has made to children’s enjoyment and learning; I certainly didn’t believe it would have such an impact when we started. When I see the writing that children are doing I am so impressed and also it gives me much more of a chance to dip into their work and leave comments. I am really, really pleased with the way this blog has made a difference.

Mr Sloan has even been invited to train up other teachers in Haringey and has put together some videos to help them learn how to blog so they can make the difference to children’s learning in other schools. I am going to look at his videos carefully and see if it helps me to get better at blogging too!

Year 3 have also made a brilliant start to their blogging and I have enjoyed reading their work, keep it up! I was also impressed that individual blogs are being organised in Year 5 and 6. I can see that Year 4 have been really enjoying learning about rainforests and I am looking forward to reading your posts carefully this holiday!

I juts really wanted to say THANK YOU to Mr Sloan for starting it all but a really big WELL DONE to all the children, staff, parents and visitors from all over the world for contributing and making this one of the best school blogs in the country! Keep on blogging!

This weekend I went to watch the London Marathon because my cousin Peter was running to raise money for a children’s hospital. I think this is the third time he has run the London Marathon and he has also completed the New York one too. It was a great day out with a lovely atmosphere. I can’t believe how many people ran for charity and some of their outfits were pretty funny! You might have seen it on TV, you might even have gone along to watch and cheer. The website is www.virginlondonmarathon.com if you want to find out more. Some of you will know about the history of marathons if you have studied the Ancients Greeks. I will be impressed with whoever can tell me how they came to be called marathons!

I was really pleased this year because I actually saw Peter run past as we were standing outside the Tower of London. I also saw the winners of the men’s race run past me, including Mutai, and the people in wheelchairs were amazing; I don’t know how they managed to wheel themselves for such a long way. Some of the wheelers and runners looked very tired when I saw them but they were kept going by the cheering of the crowds, which is why it’s so important to go along and cheer, even if you know you are never going to run one yourself! (My nephew thought he saw me running on TV but I can assure him that was not me!). Peter had trained really hard for this race and he finished the marathon in 3 hours 2 minutes and 6 seconds which I think is unbelievably quick. Peter was quite disappointed as he really wanted to finish in under 3 hours. He said afterwards that he had found the last 2 kilometres really hard going and nearly had to give up. But he heard the crowds cheering and also the stewards encouraged him and he was able to finish. I think he should be very proud of his achievements!

The cheering of the crowd helps to keep runners going.

I wanted to share this story with you as a lesson never to give up. If you believe in yourself you can do it! I think we should always try to challenge ourselves to do that little bit better and you could think about what it is you would like to improve on. For year 6 it might be that last bit of revision before the SATs? Maybe you feel you need to practise your handwriting more or get more involved in science? Perhaps it might be doing something with your family? The possibilities are really endless and each of you will have different ambitions and goals. Whatever they are, it’s important not to give up. You don’t know what you can do until you try. I am in the middle of writing another essay for my course and I am finding it really hard. But I am hoping I can still finish it in time!

Tired, but proud to have completed the marathon!

Going back to Peter, he had said this would be his last London Marathon, but now he is thinking he could do just one more! I really hope to see him run again next year and I KNOW he can do under 3 hours. Even if he doesn’t he will have raised a lot of money for a children’s charity and at the end of the day, that’s what the London Marathon is really about; ordinary people making a difference by doing something extraordinary. See you next year Peter!

On Thursday 7^th of April we shall be holding an event after school in the Main and Community Halls celebrating the conclusion to our Ferry Lane Identity Project. Make sure you’re there!

Over the last half term parents, children, governors, teachers and support staff have been thinking about what it is that makes them the person that they are – culture, friends, family, experiences and so on. We then asked everyone to try and think of an object that would represent what it is that defines them. Each person was then photographed with their item and then had to design a little poster which included their photograph and a brief written description of their object and why it was important to them. I chose a strange little vase that had belonged to my grandparents. A whole range of objects were chosen from Turkish instruments, Ghanaian cloth, special coins and National costumes to jewellery and photographs. Ms Pattison chose her childhood Teddy…

We have put up the posters all around the school and they look fabulous as you can see#

We are delighted to have this opportunity to celebrate the diversity of our school community and will be looking forward to the exhibition. In addition to the Identity work guests will be able to look at the KS2 topic work that will also be on display – we have already had a sneak preview of Year 4’s Iron Man models which are terrific. International Food will be provided by Parents who always do us proud at these events. What a wonderful conclusion to the Spring Term.