Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
-
Head Teacher's Blog
Fri 20 Mar 2015On Monday and Tuesday, Jan Connor and Roary Pownall, Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, made their long-anticipated monitoring visit to school. It was a positive visit and details are expected to published to all parents next week. This will take the form of an official letter which will emailed to you as soon as it is released to us.
Also on Monday, Steven in Class 5 astounded us all with a 4th place ice-skating ranking at national competition level. You can find out more further down the "Latest News" tab.
On Tuesday, the boys football team played an away friendly match against Bleasby Primary near Southwell. Congratulations to Manni and Josh C on their goals, and to the team on securing a 3-0 win.
The netball team has been very active this week. Last weekend, some tough tournament matches were played; there were no wins but we did mange some draws, including a draw against a "vicious" team (the children's words not mine!). On Wednesday, the team attended a training event at Tuxford Academy and enjoyed learning more technical skills. Thursday's tournament at Lilley and Stone saw five matches with a mixture of wins, draws and losses. Well done to the team on their improvements as they get used to having new players.
We enjoyed the eclipse this morning. Children who had prepared safe ways of viewing the phenomenon tried these out on the playground whilst everyone else enjoyed the BBC's live coverage and scientific explanations on the big screen in the hall.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend.
Mr Gray
-
Welcome back Miss Pimperton
Thu 19 Mar 2015I am pleased to be able to tell you that Miss Francine Pimperton will be returning to work with Class 5 from next week. Miss Pimperton will be undertaking a “phased return”, building up to her expected teaching commitment of 2.5 days per week over the period to April 24th.
As when Mrs Marvin returned to work, Miss Pimperton will join the class as an additional teacher. This arrangement has been funded by Nottinghamshire County Council in recognition of the difficult circumstances that Class 5 has experienced.
The intended teaching arrangement is:
- Mrs Marvin and Mrs Carroll will teach the first half of each week; Mrs Marvin will continue to lead and Mrs Carroll will continue to provide the targeted support and intervention needed to close identified gaps in the learning of individuals and groups of pupils.
- Mrs Thacker and Miss Pimperton will teach the latter half of each week. They intend to “team-teach” the class, providing a “double-act” teaching arrangement with both teachers supporting all children equally throughout each lesson.
- Mrs Fryer will continue to provide Teaching Assistant support to the class.
Providing an overall adult to pupil ratio of 1 to 7 for the rest of the school year, I again share my confidence that this solution is the very best offer for Class 5 as they prepare for high achievement in Year 6.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
-
Congratulations Steven!
Thu 19 Mar 2015Congratulations to Steven Akers in Class 5 for his achievement of 4th place at the Skate Southern competition at Lea Valley this week. What an impressive achievement! We are very proud of you.
-
It's good to be me!
Sun 15 Mar 2015This week, pupils from year 6 performed a short play in assembly. This involved caterpillars and butterflies as part of our whole school 'It's good to me' PSHE work. At the end of the assembly one of the children watching explained that he thought the play was about each of us all being unique and that this was a good thing.
We are constantly teaching our children these very important social values through assemblies and classroom discussions. Thank you to the year six pupils for their contribution.
-
Mrs Power is moving on...
Mon 09 Mar 2015Dear Parents and Carers of Class 4,
Re: Class 4 Teacher, Summer Term
I am writing to inform you that Mrs Power will sadly be leaving Muskham Primary School at Easter.
Many of you will know of the national-level development work that Mrs Power has been engaged in as a nationally recognised Specialist Leader of Education in Primary English as well as her work with trainee teachers and newly qualified colleagues both at Muskham and within Tuxford’s Trent Valley Alliance. Her expertise in these fields has led to an exciting next step for Mrs Power’s career as she takes up the position of ‘Lecturer in Primary Education’ at Nottingham Trent University.
I am delighted to tell you that Mrs Rachel Hill and Mrs Karen Robinson have agreed to job share Class 4 for the remainder of the year. Mrs Hill and Mrs Robinson are already working with Class 4 and will continue to work alongside Mrs Power for the next month. This will ensure a smooth and purposeful transition between the teachers which is intended to create seamless provision for the children as they move towards Year 5.
Mrs Hill and Mrs Robinson have already begun to make plans for the Summer Term and are very much looking forward to meeting you. Both teachers will be available in Class 4 after school tomorrow (Tuesday 10th March) should you wish to call in and meet them both informally.
I am confident that this solution is the very best possible offer for Class 4; should you have any questions or concerns however, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
-
Head Teacher's Blog
Fri 06 Mar 2015In the last week, there have been many events which have continued to make me proud of our school community.
Last Friday, our Football Team played a friendly match away at William Gladstone Primary. They faced a strong challenge and had to work hard to secure their 6-1 win. Well done to Manni who scored a hat-trick, and to Josh for setting up many of the goals. It was good to see Jake being made to think whilst in goal too! Their next match is a league match on Thursday 12th, at home against Tuxford Primary Academy.
On Monday, senior County Council officials visited the school in the morning and left us with very positive feedback. The positive change to the children's attitude to their work is really noticeable, as are the improvements to the school environment. As HMI have not yet made their visit, the meeting scheduled for March 18th will be postponed in order that the community can receive full feedback from the County Council at the same time.
Wednesday and Thursday saw many of you attend parents' evenings. I hope that the information you received was clear and useful. Remember: if you couldn't make it, have reflected and would like to hear more, or feel that you need to keep in touch more regularly, you are more than welcome to contact your child's teacher for an appointment at any time. It is so important that children see their parents paying a keen interest in their learning - in fact, parents showing that they really care about education and support the work of the teacher and child together is proven to have even more impact on children's learning between ages 7 and 11 than the teacher that they get!
Also on Thursday, Class 5 performed at the "Primary Partnership Festival" at Tuxford Academy. They were our representatives within a group made up of five local primary schools who were led by our very own Mrs Thacker. The children performed a range of songs alongside the Academy's orchestra and choir. Muskham performed fantastically and, as always, were a credit to their parents and the school. It was great to see them taking full advantage of such an opportunity.
Thursday was a very busy day, as it was also the day that we interviewed for a new Head Chef! Parents who were around "at the right time" on Parents' Evening, "loaned" out their children to judge the food samples cooked by the candidates. The children, alongside Mrs Crossland, Miss Lavignasse and I, judged the appearance and taste of the food and gave our feedback to the Notts Catering Managers. I should be able to introduce the successful applicant to you next week. Thanks to the children involved - as the "clients", it was great that you were able to play a role in choosing our next school Kitchen leader!
It was nice have a more relaxed end to the week with lots of World Book Day activities to engage the children in the huge possibilities presented by "a good book"! After such a busy week, I think I'll go and start the weekend by relaxing with mine!
Mr Gray
