Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year to all parents, children and staff of Oakfield and Temple Hill.

It seems as if we have been back in school for weeks, and that Christmas and New Year is but a distant memory!  On behalf of my staff, thank you very much for all your kind cards and gifts we received.  They were all greatly appreciated.

I am looking forward to this term, as this is often the term we see most progress from our children.  There are very few distractions this term, which means good progress can be made in reading, writing and maths.

During the Parent Consultation meetings held this week, please make sure you speak with your child's teacher about their learning targets.  Each child has a set of targets.  These are displayed in the back of their work books and "flip out" at the beginning of each piece of work, as a reminder to your child what they should be working towards.  A target is a small step towards achieving the next level or sub-level.  A child's target might be "To use exclamation marks in my writing" or it might be "To recognise the names of common 3D shapes."  Whatever the target, we would appreciate your help at home to ensure your child achieves it as quickly as possible!

I just wanted to mention that on Friday, we interviewed some trainee teachers for places on the School Direct programme for September 2014.  This programme supports the training of teachers in a school setting. This year we have 5 trainees - Vikki Coombes, Tom Gale and Layla Priddy at Oakfield and Charlie McCarthy and Amanda Robertson at Temple Hill.  All five trainees are doing a great job, and I can't wait until they are fully qualified.  They are a credit to our schools and to the fine teachers who are currently supporting their training.  Thanks to Sue Malone, Rachel Smith and Kari Hillkirk at Oakfield and to Emma Watson and Richard Moore at Temple Hill.  Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

For September 2014 we have been successful in recruiting 3 trainees so far, with just one space left.  Thank you so much to Sara Hawkins and representatives from Oakfield's School Council for putting the trainees through their paces during the pupil voice interviews.  It is very important to me that our schools are led by our pupils.  That is why six of our children had the opportunity to grill these new trainees, and feedback their findings, enabling the interview panel to make informed decisions about who to recruit for next year.  Well done children - you were excellent!

GR