The Courier

Dear Parents

I was delighted this week to stage the Crescent’s first ever Inter-House Geography final. It is something I have brought with me from my previous school and Class VI have been great fun to take through the process again this year. It is an opportunity to learn about all of those geographical facts everyone is expected to know but never actually get taught in school, or at university for that matter. Longest rivers, highest mountains, the Dnieper or the Danube, the Baltic or the Black Sea, the Severn or the Trent. I normally find that this sort of thing really appeals to some of the children, and this was certainly the case again his year, but also that everyone benefits their own personal development with an understanding of the world and how things are connected and related.

Starting in September I was in two minds as to whether to continue teaching as it does of course involve a significant commitment with all the planning, marking, assessment and delivery it involves. The great thing of course is that it keeps me in close contact with the children as well helping me better to understand and assess the systems we have in place in the school.

 

One important landmark this week has been the online assessments that the children have completed. This has run very smoothly thanks to the careful planning of Ms Forth who is the deputy head here, as you know, and she has responsibility for the academic side of what we do. The information that we gather will of course be very useful in assessing children’s progress and helping us understand where each child is, as well as their areas for further improvement. Of course, the exams are only a snapshot and we also look closely at the ongoing assessment of the children’s work in lessons throughout the term, where their knowledge, skills and understanding are assessed against the criteria of the National Curriculum.

 

This exam fortnight will then feed in to the end of year reports that you will receive in the final week of term. Between now and then, the staff have a tremendous amount of work to do synthesise the data and provide important feedback for you that will help us all plan for the future fulfilment of the children’s academic potential.

One very important aspect of this is managing stress around this kind of formal assessment. There is of course no way of avoiding exams as you pass through the educational system and hopefully having your first experience of this in a friendly, supportive environment is the best preparation for what lies ahead. For Class V, of course, the entrance exam season is not too far away and this fits in well with the careful preparations that we are making for them to go into these fully prepared and ready.

The forecast for the weekend is good. My garden is now fully out of hibernation and I have my beans and courgettes in the ground and getting established. I am also taking part in my local 10km run with my son on Sunday, a family tradition that goes back to the 1980s when my brother and I ran with my dad.

I do hope you are able to spend some quality time enjoying the spring weather with your own wonderful children.