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11th July
Well, this is it. Holidays at last!
Reports are over. The Play is over (although I still have the sound and lighting to strike) and the holidays have begun.
Wasn't the play good!. I thought that Bill Jones was very brave to take it on and did a great job. I must congratulate everyone involved but specially my sound and lighting crew who were really magnificent.

Now I am catching up on jobs: getting the website updated, tidying the lab (yes I do tidy it occasionally!) and getting ready for next term.
Then off to France, then the GH Camps (which I hope your children are coming to).

Did you come to Camp Night?
If you didn't you must come next year. It really is good fun for children and adults alike.

Have a great Summer.
If any parents are passing Spring Grove I hope they will drop in to say hello.

29th June
This is a busy weekend.
Getting ready for the School Play. Reports. Marking.
And of course the Ball which was great fun. When one of the Ball guests discovered that I taught science he asked me if I knew the formula W=VI. I told him I did, only too well, as I had spent a lot of the afternoon and evening repairing the results of four heating trollies and two hot water boilers being plugged into one 13A extension lead. I find it difficult convincing people that, just because there are four little sockets, it does not mean that you can always plug four things into it.
My kitten, Tiger, seemed to enjoy the Ball as well. He has led a very sheltered life up to now and rather enjoyed wandering around a marquee with 200 guests.
If you want to be reminded of the Ball I have put a couple of images onto the P.T.A. Page.
Images from the children's Prom will be added when I have finished writing reports... which I had better get on with now rather than getting side-tracked up-dating this website.

2nd June
I am back now from all my trips to France (The Chateau trip followed by a day trip to Boulogne).
Both were excellent but very different to each other and both provided unforgetable memories.
The children in Prep 4 showed so much excitement and curiosity while exploring Nausicaa and the Prep 5 children learnt valuable lessons on living, working and playing together as a team while at the Chateau.
We were all very lucky to get a chance to stay at the Chateau de la Baudonniere. It is very professionally run and a lot of thought has been put into looking after the children from an educational view as well as keeping them safe and letting them have a good time.

Nausicaa is also an amazing place. If you haven't been there it is well worth a visit.
Boulogne is only a 20 minute drive from Calais and is a very interesting town.
Click on ghe Nausicaa link below to get a flavour of how good this sea-life centre is.
[Boulogne-Sur-Mer] [Nausicaa]

I have moved the Chateau pictures to the 'Photographs of Outings and Other Events' page which is also where the Boulogne pictures are.
.....And the pictures taken during the Disney Character day are also now uploaded and are available on the Photographs page.

At the Chateau they had some Kune Kune pigs.
This breed of pig looks just right to have as pets at Spring Grove. If anybody knows anything about keeping Kune Kune pigs I would love to chat to them.

Mike

6th June
I have just come from our Informal Concert. I thought it was excellent. I enjoyed the singing best myself. Some of those children are very talented..

Many of you will know that I am now the proud owner of a kitten (Tiger).They do some strange things don't they. (Well, young humans do some strange things so I suppose kittens do as well.)
He likes chasing his own tail .... and then discovers it moves away when he tries to catch it. Daft!.
He's having his second injection tomorrow so he can released into the ouside world when I get back from France.

23rd May
Hmmm ... now no more chickens. I will make a cage this time before the chickens go in.
I was going to do it last time but the chickens arrived at very short notice.
Still, we still have four ducklings and all of the adult ducks (and lots of Moorhens)

18th May
I have decided to give our Forum another airing.
I took it off-line about 2 years ago because it was being abused but now we are on a new server I can keep more of an eye on it. Be warned! I can block any computer that mis-uses it!

If it is used well it can be a good place to exchange information and ideas

The chickens are all very well settled now and have (nearly) stopped trying to escape.
If anyone has any old nesting boxes (or even a chicken coop) that they want to sell I would be grateful if they could let me know.

One other thing: I want to set up a 'Local Events' page on the website to advertise local events.
Things like Gardens being open, charity walks, charity rides, farmers' market dates and so on.
This is much to help me know when things are going on as well as everyone else!
If you are responsible for or help run such an event then maybe you could let me know its details or you may know the contact details of the person who runs the event.

15th May
Meet the latest members of our Spring Grove Community!

The ducklings hatched sometime on Wednesday night

And we also have some rescued chickens



These chickens were kindly given by Mr and Mrs Wanstall
(we won't dwell too much on where the other 7,994 chickens went)
Thank you very much.
(They are all called Henrietta by the way, named by Izzy)

The surviving 6 seem very happy clawing away the dry leaves and pecking away at whatever chickens peck at in the dirt.

4th May
Some of you have noticed our Website being unavailable for a short time last week.
I must apologies for this but it was caused by the website being moved from one server to another.

The move was needed to give us more webspace and improved facilities
This has allowed the feedback forms to work again and to celebrate their return I thought I would include a small survey in this weeks Noticeboard.

26th April
WOW, SUN! Summer at last: swimming, tennis, cricket, BBQ's, Pimms on the lawn!

The School Swimming Pool is up and running.
The current water temperature is 28C.

Princess Lea and Power Ranger are the friendliest of our ducks :they like being hand-fed and will let themselves be stroked. Thanks again, George!

And have you seen our pheasant? The incubation period is 22 days so there is still about ten days to go before the eggs hatch.

19th March
We are all very sad about the loss of Donald, our white duck, on Friday
but we now have two new ducks to look after!

Meet Mr and Mrs Duck
(Power Ranger and Princess Lea)
(Kindly donated by Mr and Mrs Coles and christened by George!)

What is Good Teaching?
(in less than 50 words)

Facilitating pupils accessing, processing and expressing knowledge in ways that match their individual preferences whilst simultaneously developing their skills, attitudes and values such that they can survive and succeed in life, work and learning of the 21st Century.
Plus humor, fun and friendship.
(43 words)

"Standardised tests don't work for non-standardised kids" A lot of the children at Spring Grove are not standardised. They are all unique and it is this uniqueness that makes them special They can often out-create and out-imagine the adults looking after them (well me anyway!) They are certainly better at Wii play.

I hope these skills won't ever be tested and standardised.
That would be like pinning a butterfly to a wall rather than watching it fly.