We wish! I get asked this question quite a lot at this time of year. Far from it. The end of term is often the most hectic as the school timetable is bursting at the seams with events and activities. We have had an extrememly busy term with the HMI Inspection, French visitors and parents and relatives coming to the French Breakfast. We are now in the throws of Enterprise. The children come up with something for the whole class to be involved in in an enterprising way. It might be an event, a community linked project or even a make and sell type idea. It doesn’t have to be profit making but any projects that are profit making, the children usually decide to give their profit to charity.

We only had 3 and a half weeks to organise something. Help! The class were amazing and came up with fantastic ideas like a cookie stall, smoothie bar, chocolate stall, sponsored walks etc. Their final decision last week was that they would have a Giant Water Fight with a difference. They chose their company name; Mission Imsplashable (quite a mouthful, isn’t it?!), they had a logo and tickets were designed. The finance team had decided on how much they would have to charge in order to make a fair amount of money for giving to the Rwanda project which PC Walker is involved in.

As Enterprise is very much a child-centred learning activity, the children have been pretty much left to get on with little input from their teachers. We oversee things, make sure people are involved and are getting along etc but to make it more meaningful the children work together and make the decisions based on liason with the other teams. They have managed to get on well within their teams; Finance, Market Research, Advertising, Selling, Production and Finding Resources. They’ve chosen managers and admin assistants and managed to get on quite well with the task.

However, no-one thought to ask Mr Barnes’ permission! A sharp learning curve, I’m afraid. Unfortunately due to the huge amount of activities we have at Law during the final week it was just not possible to proceed with the project. They’ve thought of making it a paintballing type activity but with water instead and they were going to have inflatable and static items to dodge round and hide behind etc.

However, the class have been BRILLIANT. They’ve not let it get them down and they are now in the process of finding another project to do in a much shorter space of time. The ideas are flowing so watch this space!

Please help us to raise money for Cancer Research uk. Many of the Law staff and I are doing the Race For Life on Sunday and we’re hoping to raise as much money as possible.

 www.justgiving.com/jacqs3280

In March, we finally moved into our new home. Cody is really beginning to become territorial. He defended his garden from another cat this morning. It was quite funny! He loves the garden and the fields. He’s not brought back any little gifts for us yet thankfully but I’m sure he will once he becomes stronger and more confident. The house is still a bit bare but gradually we’ll start filling it and making it our own.

What a great day it was today!

To be honest, I thought it had the potential to be organised chaos but the weather was just perfect and the organising was totally spot on. Thank you to all the staff who helped to sort everything out. Apologies if this post makes no logical sense! I think I’d give myself a Level B for this effort…

Over the last few months at Law, we have been planting daffodil bulbs to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. We planted a bulb in an individual pot and decorated a pot cover in order to sell them to parents and relatives. Today was also Sport Relief so it was decided that we’d make an event of it!

The WHOLE school kicked off the day with aerobics in the playground (despite the CD player decided to do its own funky DJ moves!) with the stars of the P7 Musical ‘Uncle Crumble’s Mad Machine!’ leading over 600 children with their dance moves. I will never forget the image of P7s dressed as hippies teaching us the ‘windmill dance’ and P7s dressed as dogs doing the ‘Who let the dogs out?’ dance!

We invited parents and relatives to come and join us and were very pleased with the turnout! Some parents had to be gently persuaded to join in with YMCA and Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ but once they did they had a great time! I spoke to several parents after and they admitted that they had a wonderful morning and wished they could do it every Friday. Well, if only!

Afterwards, each class was put into a group numbered 1-4. We were group 2 so we started in the middle area playing with the crazes. Hula hoops (I tried!), bats and ball, the parachutes, basketball. There were about 150 children all really really enjoying themselves and learning some new tricks. Once Mrs Lauder blewher whistle that was our indication to go to the next playground. When we arrived in the Infant are (through the skipping in the upper area, maybe not such a good idea in hindsight!) there were so many things to do. There were markings on the ground to play on, French skipping ropes, and wooden planks with ropes attached (not sure what they are called!). I decided in my wisdom (hmmm) to try out the French skipping. Despite concern from the parents, I went ahead. I managed it (second time lucky) but within 30 seconds my foot started to complain. I learned my lesson…well for about 30 minutes, I did. Power walk came next then skipping…that is where I was naughty. To include some children who were totally exhausted and getting a bit fed up I tried to do Double Dutch. We did one turn so practice is needed me thinks!

The day was a huge success and we think we’ve raised in the region of £500 (still some to come we hope).

 Well done to everyone involved. It was a great way to involve the parents and allow them to see their children with their classes and teachers. Together, we celebrated the success the children can achieve through hard work, team work and with a little (ok…a lot) of blood, sweat and tears from the management!

Vive la France!!

Our French friends are coming to visit us at Law Primary on Tuesday 27th May. They attend a school in Paris called Ecole Primaire Nanteuil. CLick on this link to see their blog. They set it up especially to communicate with us!

http://cm2b-nanteuil.blogspot.com/

Today was my first day back after 4 weeks absence. I am totally exhausted! It was so nice to see the children again and I was welcomed with lovely smiles and even a bunch of flowers. Thank you again for all your cards and kind gifts which were gratefully received.

I must dash now and get myself organised for next week. (Happy Valentine’s Day!)

  So far the following pupils have made comments on this blog. They will gain ten house points for each comment they made. Well done to all of you.

Last night we had the first viewing of the flat. We didn’t want to get too hopeful so decided to think the worst and assume noone was going to come to see it. Boy, were we wrong! Five minutes later we had a viewer, then another, then another and then a couple arrived and then two minutes later another one! All in 45 minutes!

We are pretty tired today after all the excitement so I decided to chill today. Hope you are all well and that you enjoy your long weekend. I hope you were all good for Mrs Williamson because it was very good of her to teach you while I’ve been off. Who KNOWS who you might get on Thursday! You’d better be good for them!

 Oh by the way, I have a photo for you to see. Click on the link below if you are NOT squeamish about feet or scars! If feet offend you…go no further! You HAVE been warned!

YUCK!

Wow! North Berwick was on the TV last night. Well done to all the pupils who did so well in the interviews. I am so proud!

The For Sale sign went up on the flat today and I approved the sales particulars so they should be on t’internet by the end of the week. It is bizarre looking out the kitchen window to see the big sign up. It all seems real now.

How was school? You busy at home making pancakes?? I think we might! Yum!

How was school today then? Bet you’re glad it’s not your parents night just yet! Got that to look forward to, haven’t you? Sorry, just teasing.

 I’ve just checked the internet and my flat is now officially on the market. No photos yet but they are to follow. It is weird seeing it on there having searched and searched for houses over the years and now mine is on there too. It is a strange feeling but quite exciting too. I think the ‘FOR SALE’ sign should go up soon too. So fingers crossed that people are interested!

I had a nice quiet birthday yesterday. My friends and family had been to a ceilidh the night before so that felt more like my birthday than yesterday! My friend made me the most unusual but fabulous birthday cake. It is small but quite thick. The best bit is that it is COVERED in sweets. Sweets I used to love when I was your age (longer than you think blub blub) like candy necklaces, white chocolate and brown chocolate discs, fizzy cola bottles etc. It looks so good I am scared to eat it!

I hope you had a good weekend and a good day at school.