Back to School for Parents Morning - November 2003
| Recently I spent a morning at a parents back to school session at Flax Bourton School below is a short overview of this. The purpose of writing this is to encourage other Parent to attend if this is planned again as hopefully you will find it fun, useful, rewarding and I also think the children enjoyed it as well. Tuesday the 18th December 2003 and I rise slightly later than usual as I am in for a treat as for the first time in 19 years I will be returning to school. As a person who did believe that my schooldays where some of my best I am looking forward to it. However, I am not returning as a pupil but as a proud parent of Jessica my daughter who is presently in the Reception class at Flax Bourton Primary. The day started very similar to when I was at School, in the playground. The girls were talking at the edges and the boys everywhere else running and shouting, I guess somethings will never change. The teacher then appears and I join the orderly queue with Jessica and her classmates and the other visiting parents. We all walk to the classroom and all the children seat neatly on the floor in front of Miss Colbran the teacher, well almost all, don't worry Will, Tom and Ollie I did not tell your mum and dad. The 1st difference from my schooldays then appears the teaching assistant which I have to say must be a must for controlling 15 children age 4 to 5, and in my opinion certainly added value in the time I was there. Miss Colbran takes registration and performs other various admin tasks relating to lunches etc. Then we started JOLLYPHONICS. I will not attempt to describe the exact details of Jollyphonics other than to say it is a great method for teaching kids the Basic literacy skills using pictures and hand signals. This was a great session as all the children loved it and the parents all struggled a little and got slightly embarrassed. I am not a school inspector so do not fully understand the exact stage of where the children should be but I was very impressed with the level of knowledge that they showed for their age, what was also very pleasing was the fact they all enjoyed themselves in the learning process. After the Jollyphonics, the children split up into several groups to work on understanding textures, after the start of this session, the parents left to ensure we did not disrupt the school day too much. As we walked out the playground had an exciting buzz with all the parents discussing how much they had enjoyed themselves and how things had changed. I think the session was a success and if ran again would strongly encourage you all to try to attend. I think it demonstrated to me how dedicated the staff are and what a great atmosphere the School has for Learning. PS, I think the Children also really enjoyed sharing what they did at School with Mum/Dad. |
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