BlogBook

Blogbook Absence Apologies

Apologies for lack of updates to the Blogbook during Term 2. All due to technical issues - now resolved.
Happy Christmas everyone!

Let It Be

part 1 / part 2

Rec/Y1 Nativity Movie

Y2 Nativity Movie

Term 2

Term 2 began today.
The last fortnight of Term 1 included the formation of a new Friends of Hawkes Farm committee. The school's Harvest assemblies took place on Wednesday 10th October. The school's new peer-mediation team were introduced to everyone in a special assembly and have already been used to successfully resolve a number of disputes.
Mr Thorn and Mr Alexander attended a Learning Platform demonstration day on Monday 15th October. Parent Evenings took place on Tuesday 16th and Thursday 18th and the last day of Term 1 was an INSET day which focused on school performance and results alongside priorities for school development.

Updates

The Friends AGM on Thursday 20th September failed to appoint a new Chair and other offices, so a further meeting is planned for Monday 8th October at 3.30pm.

All children had their annual photographs taken on Monday 24th September.

The Governors Curriculum Committe met on Wednesday 3rd October.

Today was Jeans for Genes day.

New School Year

The Governors' Formation meeting was held on Monday 3rd September, at the end of the inset day.
Children returned to school on Tuesday 4th September.
The month so far has been sunny and warm and children have been able to play on the field nearly every day, making up for some of the days lost to wet weather in the summer.
On Friday 7th September Mr Thorn attended a CAF (Coomon Assessment Framework) workshop at Hailsham Community Hall East.
Mrs Van Dijkhuizen and members of the new Eco-team launched the new initiative in assemblies on Monday 10th September.
On Tuesday 11th September, KS2 children were given a presentation about Peer Group Mediation and invited to apply to become peer-group mediators in school. Children selected will receive several mornings of training and preparation.
Later in the day the Senior Management team were given an explanation (by Janine Godly, the Pilot Leader for our area) of how the Making Good Progress Pilot would be implemented.
On Thursday 13th September Mr Thorn attended a Learning Platform briefing. During the next 2-3 months the Learning Platform for a county-wide procurement will be selected, after which a pilot group of schools will be identified for implementation in January.
Mrs Cobb attended a Hailsham Field Trials meeting on the morning of Friday 14th, and a local headteachers' meeting in the afternoon.

Term Ending

The term continued to be affected by the poor weather right up to the last. In the end neither KS1 nor KS2 Sports Day was able to go ahead. And the Y6 leavers' party (held last night) had to be an indoor affair. Y6 didn't seem to mind and, true to form (they have been a magnificent yeargroup), there were no complaints from them. They just got on with it enjoying the disco and barbecued food.

The Y5/6 production of Aladdin was performed to parents on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th July. Here are the links to the picture galleries and movie files.
Wednesday movie

Thursday movie

Wednesday gallery

Thursday gallery

Year 3 Drinks Fair

As the culmination of their design-a-drink DT week, Y3 held a drinks fair in the infant hall this morning. Each design team had worked during the week to create their drink, give it a name and produce an advertising campaign for it. Y2 came to the hall for the tasting. Tasters were limited to a certain number of drinks, which was where the advertising and marketing skills of the groups really came into play and impressed their teachers, Mrs Harley and Mr Alexander.

Mr Thorn attended a BECTA conference on Wednesday, and Mrs Cobb was out of school three days this week attending various courses and meetings.

The KS1 Sports Day was once again cancelled after overnight rain and heavy morning drizzle. The swimming school has once again been out of use following recent analysis of the water. The water was retested on Thursday with the results and hopefully a resumation fo swimming announced on Monday.

Mr Procter is still standing in for Mr Driver.

Picnic Day

The whole school had a special picnic/mufti day. Although the weather precluded sitting on the field, at least the afternoon was dry so most classes were able to eat their snacks and play games outside.

At the end of the day children took home their school reports and a letter from their next year-group telling them which class they would be in.

New Reception

Children who will be starting Hawkes Farm in September had their first taste of school this week, coming to spend an hour in class during the afternoo - autumn-born on Monday, spring-born on Tuesday and summer-born on Wednesday. On Wednesday evening it was the turn of their parents to come in to school to attend the New Parents' Meeting and meet the team of adults who will be working in Reception next year.

Mr Procter's Return

Mr Procter, who retired at Christmas, is back in school for a few days, covering for Mr Driver. It is hoped that the pool will be ready for use again at some point next week.

East Sussex Schools Book Award

Hawkes Farm hosted the presentations of the 2007 East Sussex Schools Book Award on Wednesday 20th June. The event was attended by six schools. The winning author, Rick Riordan, was unable to receive the award in person as he is American. But a message from the author was displayed:

Reading groups from participating schools had been reading the five shortlisted titles for several months before voting for their favourite book. Here is the Hawkes Farm Book Group holding up copies of all the shortlisted titles. Michael Morpurgo's Adolphus Tips came second.

Sports Days :(

The bad weather which has already resulted in the postponement of KS1 Sports Day (now on July 13th) has also affected KS2 Sports Day. After continuous rain on Sunday, and more very heavy showers on Monday we have had to postpone KS2 Sports Day until Tuesday 3rd July.

UPDATE: KS2 Sports Day has now been put back to Friday July 20th.

Week's Summary

A decision was taken on Monday to postpone KS1 Sports Day because of heavy rain over the preceding weekend and a poor weather forecast for Tuesday 19th. It will now take place on Fiday 13th July.

There was a full meeting of the Governors on Wednesday 20th June.

The cricket team took part in the annual Herstmonceux tournament yesterday. Despite Zack's equalling of Gary Sobers' six-sixes-in-one-over feat in the final match, our team was not placed in the first three. But with no Y6 players in the side this year (our squad included one from Y2, two from Y3, with the bulk of the side from Y4) Mr Thorn is confident that Hawkes Farm's prospects for cricketing success in 2008 and beyond are looking good. In fact, just this lunchtime, he was talentspotting on the field and found a Y1 boy with a great bowling action.

The swimming pool has had to be temporarily closed, becuse Mr Driver, site manager is unwell.

Rehearsals for the Y5/6 production of Aladdin are well inder way.

Multicultural Arts Week

The school enjoyed an exciting week of multicultural arts activitites which included dance workshops, music workshops and drama workshops in a programme devised and organised by Mrs Harley, MIss Graves, Miss Porter and Mrs Stockdale.

Instead of regular Good Work assemblies, each class shared their experiences with the rest of the school by giving a short presentation.

Step aboard Y1's flight to Spain - Gallery
pictures by Katie Y6

PGL Gallery

Full PGL Gallery

Residential Visits

Year 6 left after lunch today for their 3-night/4 day PGL visit.

Their recent taking of the reins of Blogbook was cut short when Mr Thorn was called away to Pyke House to join the Y5 residential visit after Mrs Burke had injured her ankle and been forced to return home.

Pyke House -
5GB gallery

Playtime PhotoStory