Expansion Update

Expansion – I have been over to see the site manager, David Mosedale, and he believes that we will be close to completion of the main part of the project on the 16^th February. It remains to be seen as to whether or not this can be achieved but it is a positive step in the right direction. I have visited the new build today and I am very impressed by the progress which has seen the painting completed – the colour schemes look good – and all vinyl coverings laid.

Over the next week the team aim to lay the carpets, install the canopies for EYFS and playgroup, fit notice boards and remove their cabins (please not that this will happen next week and will see a number of lorries visiting the site throughout the day. The next phase is then for them to complete the ground works outside and the internal works of the current building. It is here that delays may occur although I think we are beginning to enter a very exciting phase. Below are recent pictures of the site.

 

No.2 Beijing Experimental Primary School

During the past six days I have been fortunate enough to visit the No.2 Experimental School in Beijing which is ranked as the best primary school in China and is renowned for its innovative approach to learning. The visit was in partnership with Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham who have been linked with the Beijing school for five years and as a result have developed a vibrant curriculum which centres around the teaching of Mandarin. Richard Hunter, the executive headteacher of Robin Hood, led the trip.

No.2 Experimental School is an incredible five storey school which has:

1. Three storeys of classrooms which hold 4000 children.
2. An underground Olympic size swimming pool.
3. An underground theatre that enables teachers to demonstrate lessons to other colleagues from across China.
4. A school television channel which is recorded from their own studio and is beamed into each classroom – this enables key messages and learning to be seen by the whole school at key parts of the day.
5. Two full size indoor gymnasiums.

The main building campus.

During the visit I was able to gain a real insight into the Chinese education system and how they approach learning. The school motto and ethos is ‘Love Fosters Love’ and this comes through in every aspect of the school. Miss Lee is the headteacher of the school and the deputy is Mr Sun – both made us feel very welcome along with the rest of the staff who couldn’t do enough for us which included giving up their evenings and weekend to ensure we got the most out of the trip. The children, all of whom were able to greet and speak with me in English, were very positive about their school and the learning that took place. I was able to witness excellent practice in a range of areas but particularly in the following:

• Problem Based Learning (PBL) this is an approach they use to engage their children in topics and is centred around ‘off site’ learning. On this visit we took part in a session at the Summer Palace and the approach is something we will look into further at Park Hill.
• Reflective thinking – this is encouraged by the school through the use of indoor and outdoor reflective areas that promote deeper levels of thinking by the pupils.
• Calligraphy sessions – it was was interesting to see how the approached the writing of Mandarin symbols and I believe that we may look to introduce this into some parts of the school as a way of developing fine motor schools. As a wider community it is also not uncommon to see adults practicing the symbols in parks (see the image below).
• Staff professional development – the school have created a theatre which is specially designed to demonstrate lessons. There is a real emphasis on sharing best practice across the school.

In many ways, Park Hill and No.2 Experimental School are similar in terms of philosophy and the approaches towards extra curricular activities and yet in other ways we are poles apart. As a school, we have more autonomy and yet they have been deemed so successful by the Chinese government that they now run 30 other primary schools which is on a scale not seen in the UK. Following the visit we will now be exploring how we can move things forwards but in the interim we plan to invite the Mandarin teacher and MFL teacher from Robin Hood over to our school to work with the children and staff on Chinese language and culture.

 

The next few days

Dear Parents/Carers,

As you will be aware, I am visiting the Beijing Experimental School No.2 from Wednesday 21st January and will be back in school on Wednesday 28th January. The focus of the funded visit is on mental maths, leadership and staff development. In my absence Mrs Bailey will be running the school for the next week. If you have any issues or queries then she will be happy to meet with you.

Have a great few days and I will see you all next Wednesday.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Steve Taylor

 

The end of the week

This week has been a busy one at school with lots going on in and around school. On Monday KS1 had a launch day for their topic on space which involved the National Space Centre coming into school to work with the children. It was a fantastic day which saw children and staff dress up as astronauts and visit a mobile planetarium in the hall. Since the launch day, I have dropped into a number of KS1 lessons and it is really pleasing to see how enthused the children are with the topic and learning linked to this.

On Wednesday Upper School took part in the Young Voices event at the LG Arena – this is something that has taken place for a number of years and the children get so much from it. The staff have informed me that the children were superbly behaved and had a wonderful time.

I had a meeting this week regarding the expansion and I am now in a position to share more details with you. The projected end date for all major works at school is the 2nd of March – this should then see the school in a position to take control of the new build and begin to kit out the classrooms. I envisage that Wates will have a presence on the school site until roughly Easter but this is dependent on weather. The new build is really taking shape and from the outside you may have noticed that the wood cladding is nearly complete whilst the inside is coming along as well. Over the next few weeks we will begin to think about and plan how and when we move classes into the new build and as yet we are undecided as to whether we will stagger the approach across the summer term or have a joint move ready for September.

I believe it is forecast to snow this weekend and it seems that we are entering into a cold spell of weather. As normal, if you wake up on a school day and see snow then please check this blog, Twitter and the radio for more information.

Have a great weekend and thanks for your support.

Steve Taylor

Headteacher

 

Welcome back

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Park Hill Primary School. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break and had the opportunity to spend time with your friends and family.

Following the holiday period you may have noticed that two significant landmarks have been removed in the form of the two large conifers at the front of the school. Over time these two trees have grown enormously which has seen them block large amounts of light into the lower classrooms and their roots enter our drainage system. In the short term we will level out this area and plant grass but in the long term we plan to develop this space further to have a greater impact on learning.

As you are aware, yesterday we had a teacher training day and a number of areas were covered with the staff including:

• Working on the vision of the school – this is something we plan to do with the whole school community over the next term.
• Due to this being the last year that we will be working with levels to inform you of how your child is progressing, we have begun to implement a new assessment model which will hopefully be easier to access for parents. In the summer term we will write to you about this and hold some workshops.
• The behaviour policy was reviewed to further ensure a consistency of approach in how we deal with behaviour. The policy, which has been in place for the past year, will remain (although there have been slight tweaks as a result of the review) and in the course of the next week I will send out a summary of this document.

Working with other countries has been a huge focus of the curriculum at Park Hill for a number of years and is something that we feel passionately about. In the past few years we have worked with schools from Turkey, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Romania and Germany which has seen us work on a number of collaborative projects. Currently we are looking at how we may move this forward and explore links with other countries and cultures. With this in mind, we have gained funding for a trip to China which I will be attending in collaboration with a Headteacher from a primary school in Birmingham. The focus will be to establish clear links with the school (it is rated as the best primary school in China and has 4000 pupils) and gain an insight into how they educate their children. In this visit we will look at ways we can work together collaboratively, see how they teach mental maths skills and also review their approach to staff professional development. The trip will take place from the 21^st of January and will run until the 27^th of January – in my absence Mrs Bailey will be leading the school.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Steve Taylor

Headteacher