Interesting Times!

Thursday 4 October 2007

I went to another of our brilliant primary schools first thing this morning..

I visited Roundhay St John's Church of England Primary School where Georgina Winterburn and her colleagues are releasing a very special kind of magic. I met with the team for a coffee before school and we talked about the challenges we all face and why the work they do is so important... after all the most important thing we do here in Leeds is educate the future!

The school has made real progress under Georgina's leadership and the standards are flying, but it can seem like hard work in terms of all the changes we are managing.. changes to the curriculum, new assessment, tracking and monitoring, intervention programmes and everything that is going on with phonics, the curriculum and assessment in the Foundation Stage.

The key is to ensure that everyone is happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... children, the learning team and the patents and carers. Chocolate helps, red wine and laughter are also good but exercise is one of the keys. Not surprisingly then, we all went outside and took part in their innovative collective worship and 'Wake Up and Shake Up' session to, yes you've already guessed, YMCA! The whole session was great. Barbara, the Deputy Headteacher, passionately led the collective worship and the 'Wake Up and Shake Up' was led by Sarah, a really talented, enthusiastic and energetic colleague, and the children were fabulous!

What makes Roundhay St John's Church of England Primary School such a brilliant learning place? The answers...

Georgina's strong, focused and passionate leadership;
a talented, energetic and enthusiastic team;
clear values and beliefs driving the work of the school;
a focus on standards, behaviour and discipline;
good teaching within a positive learning environment;
high expectations and hard work!

This is a brilliant, talented, gorgeous and wonderful team led by a great headteacher. Georgina, Barbara, Sarah and their learning team are doing a brilliant job and are building something really special at Roundhay St John's Church of England Primary School .

Chris

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Brilliant Quotes!

“I must accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.”
Margaret Lee Runbeck

“Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.”
John B. Sheerin

“Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline.”
William L Shirer

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: If you pursue happiness you'll never find it.”
C.P. Snow

“Doubly rich is the man still boyish enough to play, laugh and sing as he carries and emanates sunshine along a friendly road.”
Charles R. Wiers

"Faith is not a shelter against difficulties, but belief in the face of all contradictions."
Paul Tournier

"Convictions are the mainsprings of action, the driving powers of life. What a man lives are his convictions."
Francis C. Kelley

"To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger; but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can."
Sydney Smith

"It is often just as sacred to laugh as it is to pray"
Charles R. Swindoll

"Things never go so well that one should have no fear; and never so ill that one should have no hope"
Turkish proverb

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"
Chinese proverb

"Don't bother to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
William Faulkner

"In times of change, learners will inherit the earth,while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists"
Eric Hoffer

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
John Lennon

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
Robert F. Kennedy

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
Mahatma Gandhi

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."
Abraham Lincoln

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is nothing in life so difficult that it cannot be overcome. This faith can move mountains. It can change people. It can change the world."
Norman Vincent Peale

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

"Life isn't measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments that take our breath away."
Anonymous

"Patience and perseverence have a magical affect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and woman to win them."
Ralph Waldo Emerson