Friday 29th January
The end is nigh…well of January at least, only another 11 months until Christmas!!
Last week I was at the BETT show in London looking at what technology is offering for schools in the coming years; as we try to equip the school to allow the children the best experience possible.
I must start the summing up of the week by congratulating our Year 8 boys on reaching the last 8 of the National Playstation Schools Cup with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Westley Middle School. We await the draw on Monday to see who (Or where) we will be playing next (Mostly to decide if the minibus can make it there and back!!).
This week assemblies were handed over to Year 5 and they did a fine job!! On Wednesday B5 tried to induct an honorary ‘Ralphie’ – John Logie Baird. They talked about his achievements and how he displayed many of our values; and so I am happy to award the inventor of the television
his honorary status. This has given me an idea and I have challenged other tutor groups to use their class assemblies as opportunities to choose a potential inductee of their own and I am thinking of creating a display on one of the notice boards around the school.
It was interesting that the inventor of the television was chosen on the week it was revealed that children now spend more time on devices than watching
TV. Research firm Childwise found that on average 5 to 15-year-olds were spending three hours a day using the internet, compared to 2.1 hours watching TV.
A Cambridge University study published in September suggested an extra hour a day of television, internet or computer game time in Year 10 was linked to poorer grades at GCSE. The researchers recorded the activities of more than 800 14-year-olds. When they analysed their GCSE results at 16, they found those who had spent an extra hour a day on screens saw a fall in results equivalent to two grades overall.
A regular feature of the Blog will be a subject specific focus, starting with MFL. The Year 5s have been creating monsters and labelling their body parts; In Year 6 the children have been working on animals and colours; the Year 7s have been planning and taking part in their speaking assessments; and Year 8s have been revising sports and leisure activities. Miss Hampshire has been busy herself, putting up french labels all round school.
Today D5 started our day by introducing us to people who inspire them; it was a wonderful assembly with a touching mix of mums, dads, aunties and great-grandads to world famous footballers, illusionists and paleontologists. The reasons given were considered and thoughtful, explaining why each of them were inspiring to them. It is important to have aspirations and role models who inspire us to achieve them. A lot of our values are skills we want to equip our ‘Ralphies’ with in order to help them achieve their dreams and be successful in life, because life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.
