Interesting Times!

Thursday, 25 February 2010

My colleague Stefan Frontczac, headteacher at Primrose Lane Primary School, Boston Spa, sent me this letter from Derek Gallamore his Year 6 Teacher...

"Dear Chris, I was reading your blog this week and noticed that you welcome news from schools. I would like to share and celebrate some exciting work my class have been undertaking recently. As part of a design project to design a 'House of the Future', we have made a link with an internationally renowned architectural practice based in London - Amanda Levete Architects (formerly, and more widely, known as Future Systems). www.amandalevetearchitects.comThe project started on Tuesday 12th January, when we video conferenced with an architect at Amanda Levete Architects (AL_A). The video-conferencing call lasted over an hour, with the architect talking to the children, showing them a PowerPoint to show how the design process and architects work. He talked to us about design and showed us lots of inspirational pictures. The architect then 'employed' the children as architects and gave them a brief to design a 'house of the future'.Over the last month the children have been really busy designing, writing, making models, playing with materials and exploring ideas in groups. Our work has touched many curriculum areas beyond art and design, including Literacy (e.g. writing booklets to accompany their designs), Numeracy (3D shapes, area, costings of buildings), ICT (control technology), PSHCE (sustainability, team-working) and science (e.g. materials). Having been invited to London by AL_A to present our designs and share our ideas, we are visiting London by train this Friday (26th February). Each group is to present to the architects in London verbally and using A1 graphical presentations which they have created. After visiting the architects on Friday morning, the children will be visiting the Media Centre at Lords Cricket Ground (designed by Future Systems) followed by a ride on the London Eye. There is no cost for this visit to either school or children - the Year 6 pupils and parents have raised over £2000 to fund the visit! Finally, our school badge is on Amanda Levete Architects website (alongside an article about work being exhibited at the Guggenheim museum in New York!) Thank you, Derek."

I am constantly amazed at the work talented colleagues are doing across Leeds to release the magic and the WOW factor.
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