Today we held our bi-annual Y6 Learning Review Meetings.

These meetings always have been a good chance to catch up with parents and carers to discuss the expectations for the year ahead. But for the second year, our Y6 pupils have played a leading role in the meetings.

Throughout the day, sixty children have presented their opinions on their learning: what piece of writing are they most proud of? Why? What maths task did they find a challenge? What helps them to improve? What do they think are their next steps?

Using their 1:1 iPad, each child displayed a prepared keynote to their parent/carer, teacher and to me. This takes self-confidence and maturity and I saw both in abundance today. Each child has a secure understanding of their learning – their successes and challenges, and they own their learning. Today’s meetings highlighted how important it is to put the child at the centre of the learning process.

I know that the children have worked hard to prepare their presentations and I know they will be valuable to look back on as the year progresses. I am very proud of our Y6 pupils.

As our new starters settle into school and routines are embedded once again, it is lovely to stand back and watch our school at work and play.

This week, I have spent time doing just that in our canteen – ‘The Hub’.

I can’t explain how proud we are of our facilities at Prescot Primary – and the food that is served. Our children have a large, bright space in which to eat with their friends. Our teaching staff regularly eat alongside the children, enjoying the food and a little catch-up on the day’s or weekend’s events. It is a relaxed, social time that we all appreciate.

Our meals are freshly prepared, with a wide variety of hot and cold, nutritious meals that offer a great deal of choice. We all have our favourites and word soon spreads around school as to what is cooking in the kitchen today! My favourite? Pulled pork served with rice, sweetcorn and apple coleslaw. I can’t resist it!

It was wonderful to welcome so many parents and children to our exhibition showcasing our vibrant curriculum! Planned in line with our Family Consultation meetings, the showcase was intended to give the school community a chance to see what our curriculum offers.

With help from our brilliant pupil leaders – including House Teams, Digital Leaders and Sports Leaders – we were able to demonstrate a variety of activities from across the school.

Here is a list of what was on offer:

• Sporting challenges lead by Mrs Watts – the plank, hula hooping and football ‘kick-ups’;
• Science activities including ‘build-a-skeleton’, label a heart, floating & sinking and ‘create a new animal’;
• News about our educational visits and visitors to school;
• Maths activities using Numicon and Cuisenaire rods;
• Grammar activities – how well do you know your grammatical terminology?
• A display of Y5 art with a chance to sketch British bugs;
• A focus on how we use our iPads;
• A chance to take part in a parental survey, lead by our Digital Leaders,
• Examples of ‘writing across the ages’ from our two-year olds to Y6;
• A list of questions to ponder, aiming to encourage more philosophical thinking as part of our SMSC curriculum;
• A chance to listen to our pupil safeguards explain how we keep safe in school and out.

We had lots of positive feedback from our visitors – especially about how confidently our older children spoke to adults and how proud they were of their school.

It’s good to share!

This week, we have enjoyed the company of Simon and Jonathan from Rock Kidz. This initiative aims to share strong PSHE messages with children through the medium of ‘Rock’.

The children from KS2 began each morning with an hour of singing, learning 4 main songs all with positive themes. On Thursday morning, Rock Kidz recorded a CD of our children singing their new rock songs and on Thursday evening, a concert was held at The Prescot School.

This concert was so well-supported by parents, carers and friends and the children performed their songs so well. It was an exciting, enjoyable experience for all with a really important message.

We are the PCP Bears!

What makes a healthy friendship?

Giving our feedback!

A compliment shower to start the day.

Today, Y6 experienced their very first conference with the theme: ‘Mindset’. Throughout the day, the children discussed ways to help ‘grow’ their mind, recognising what and who can support the learning process. We also explored ‘healthy friendships’, ‘rights and responsibilities’ and ‘digital reputations’.

Our ‘Bears’ were also pleased to receive their unique hoodies which they wore with pride throughout the day. We are looking forward to the year ahead!

On the 13th September, we decided to celebrate Roald Dahl’s birthday by creating some new words in the style of Roald Dahl. We asked our children to talk to their families and create a new word with it’s very own meaning! We had such words as ‘rumblicious’, ‘babbelswine’, ‘fufflebonk’ and ‘razoopel’. Can you guess what they mean?

Our Senior Reading Leaders are now collating all of our new words so that we can create our very own dictionary.

The Senior Reading Leaders alphabetise our new ‘Dahlisms’!     

Once again, we have had a very settled start at Prescot Primary. The children have returned looking smart and prepared and have shown us that they are ready to learn. I am in the privileged position to be able to walk from our Two-year old provision, through the Early Years to Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, listening to wonderful stories and news as I go.

It is also a joy to spend time in our Creche and Breakfast & After School Clubs, where children of all ages meet to play games, create or enjoy a book together. There are lots of smiles and a real enjoyment of the wrap-around care and environment we provide.

Our new House Teams have taken up positions and wear their House colours with pride. They have poured the new potions and have started off the competition for this half term – which House will collect the most potion? House Team Leaders have also completed their first playground duties; the older children really do enjoy supporting the younger children at play.

Our trained Peer Mentors have also begun their timetable of duties, as have our Senior Reading Leaders. Recently, the Senior Digital Leaders have assisted with the Y5 Digital Leader applications – quite a responsibility.

Thank you to everyone for a great start to the term.

During the last week of term, our successful Y5 House Team Leaders were announced. In the final school assembly, the outgoing Y6 Leaders ceremoniously handed over their team’s T-shirts, watched by the whole school. Our new House Captains: Maisie, (Red), Joseph, (Blue), Luke, (Green) and Libby (Yellow) are looking forward to starting their new jobs in September.

Our thriving pupil leadership initiative also includes Y6 Senior Leaders for ICT, Reading, Maths and Sport. We know that we can rely on our pupils to offer alternative viewpoints, support and inspiration to our younger learners. It’s part of what makes Prescot Primary special.

Y6 Leaders hand over their t-shirts.

Happy Y5s ready to take over!

I was so inspired by our Y5 artists during the last week of term. They have been working with an art teacher from The Prescot School, Jane Lawton. The six week long project – entitled ‘Bugs in a British back garden’ encouraged the children to look for detail in photographs and enlarge them to create more abstract views of the bugs.

The resulting individual and class canvases were truly impressive and were enjoyed by pupils, staff and parents during the morning gallery. Thank you to Mrs Judy Walker, Head Teacher of The Prescot School, for loaning Jane to us and also coming to view the artwork.

July is always the time when we start to look ahead. Choosing a new team of House Leaders is a serious business at Prescot Primary.

We want our older children to fully understand the process that sits behind ‘getting a job’. So, Y5 children are expected to write a letter of application that is read by a team of people. This year’s letters were so professional and so well linked to the job specifications that had been previously sent out.

After that, we set the pupils a task that sets them before younger children. This year, our Y5 hopefuls were asked to choose and read a poem in front of a class of younger children. Once again, they all did very well. It is at this point that the current House Captains play their part in the process. They watch the applicants and give feedback to the team. We have had some really positive, reflective comments.

This whole process is hard work – especially for the Y5 children who really want to have this role in school. But it is also hard for the teachers who have to make the final decision. This year, we had 28 applications for 16 posts. Too difficult!

Children will be informed of the decisions during the final week of term. Good luck everyone!