Week 14

Dear Parent/ Carer,

One more week before our break for Christmas ! 
Last night's Christmas Fair at Haseltine was the last of our partnership Christmas Fairs this year.  All three of our schools are well along the road with Christmas Concerts and Nativities and we look forward to our final performances and parties next week.

I am able to reflect on a successful term for our partnership.  We have strengthened the links between our schools through teachers and leaders working in collaboration together for the benefit of their own schools, thereby benefiting the whole through the sharing of knowledge and expertise.  We are beginning to see some evidence of that collaboration through the work of our Pupil Parliaments/ Councils and through our initiatives around enhanced communications with parents and the communities.

Given that ofsted are very active in Lewisham at the moment, we have been expecting... and hoping for... an inspection at Haseltine.  The progress at the school since the beginning of the partnership has been rapid and sustained.  We are looking forward to welcoming ofsted and celebrating with them the fantastic progress that has been made at Haseltine.  All credit goes to Ms Brumby and the wonderfully dedicated staff at the school.

In a week that you may have read about Mr Gove's call to Headteachers to consider pay deductions for teachers taking industrial action short of strike action, I can only reflect upon the dedication, passion, enthusiasm and commitment to the children demonstrated by staff in all of our schools this term and in these final pre-Christmas weeks.

Have a lovely weekend,
Mark Wilson

Week 13

 Dear Parent/ Carer,

A combination of the Christmas Fayre at Fairlawn and my family joining me for the weekend kept me away from the computer last weekend.  Apologies for last week's hiatus...

Since my last post, we have had School Achievement Reviews at our three schools - all of which evidence the continuing progressive journey that we are taking.  I am very grateful to Adam Higgins, our School Improvement Adviser, for his support and input and to our Heads of School and staff for their incredible hard work.

I had the pleasure of attending The Turning of the Year concert last week at Blackheath Hall.  My mother and father were down for a short visit and attended the concert with me.  It was beautiful!  I was quintuply (if there is such a word) proud that:

• our Fairlawn children gave a great performance, 
• our Kilmorie children gave a great performance
• all of the children from the Lewisham schools that participated in the event gave a great performance
• and that our wonderful Anne Rennie (Fairlawn) 
• and our fabulous Daisy Moon (Kilmorie)

had done such a remarkable job in bringing the event together, in developing such a high level of quality with their choir and in leading the singing in the way that they did.

We are fortunate in our schools to have such wonderful talent amongst our teachers, talent that can bring the very best out in children and help them to connect with that joy of performance and pride in the quality of their endeavours.

We are, of course, in the midst of Christmas recitals, concerts, performances, and all.  I am sure that you are enjoying them as much as the children are.  Two more weeks until our Christmas break.  My... how quickly this term has passed!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Mark Wilson
Executive Headteacher

Week 11

Dear Parent,

I attended Coffee Mornings at Fairlawn and Kilmorie last week and continued to learn about the schools.  The fascinating thing, of course, is that this process of learning about the schools never stops, nor should it stop.  Schools are by their nature dynamic places.  Things inevitably change over time.  The task of school leadership is to remain in tune with the community, respond to shifting landscapes, anticipate the future… and try to make coherent sense of it all in terms of policy and practice.

 

The Heads of School and I attended the Lewisham Headteacher’s Conference this week.  The highlights were talks by Prof David Hopkins and David Cameron (not that David Cameron) about research-informed practice and Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.  These talks provoked thoughts for us all about further developments and enhancement for all our schools.

I had a conversation with Lewisham Heads about the future of our partnership Teaching School.  The Teaching School is a ‘Virtual School’ that aims to develop teachers and leaders in schools and act as an Action Research hub.  The Teaching School has a great deal to offer the community of Lewisham schools and vice versa.  The Teaching School is now actively recruiting Schools Direct teacher trainees to train with us in 2013-14.  The idea here is that the schools have far more input into the development of trainee teachers than was previously the case.  This enables us to bring a constant stream of new and exceptional teachers into our schools year-on-year. 

Please share with friends, family and neighbours the fact that we are actively seeking graduates with the drive, energy and passion to be outstanding teachers to join our Schools Direct training programme for 2013-14.

These are exciting times for all of our schools.  I look forward to keeping you informed of developments, as they happen.

Have a great weekend,

Mark Wilson

Week 10

Dear Parent/ Carer,

We are beginning our preparations for Christmas performances at Fairlawn, have had a School Review at Haseltine and are deep into our learning at Kilmorie this week.  I have been pleased to meet more parents on the playground and during the Coffee Morning at Fairlawn and on the playground at Kilmorie.  I have learned more about the unique eco-system of the area... specifically the South London Parakeets and the South London Stag Beetle Belt.... fascinating stuff!

I will be attending the Monday Coffee Mornings at Fairlawn for the next few weeks and have a Q&A Meet and Greet Evening at Fairlawn on Thursday 29th November, 8.00pm-9.30pm.  At Kilmorie, our Q&A Meet and Greet Evening is on Wednesday 28th November, 7.00pm-8.30pm.  I hope to see many of you there.  There will be further opportunities throughout the year to meet informally with myself and the school leadership teams at each of the schools throughout the year... dates to be published soon.

Our schools collaboration continues to grow.  Last week, Maths Leaders from the three schools came together to look at how their subject operates across the three schools.  Our aim is to take the best aspects from each and build that into the best in all aspects for all.  Similarly, our Pupil Voice leaders met.  We have exciting ideas in mind for how a strong voice from our children can help us to shape and develop our schools and our partnership.  Further and deepened collaborations are both planned and are in process.  I am sure that you will begin to see the fruits of the great work that is happening between colleagues from the three schools in the weeks and months to come.

 Some super Artworks and Homeworks from Kilmorie to share and celebrate this week....

Well done to our all of our Homeworkers and artists.

Have a lovely week,
Mark Wilson
Executive Headteacher

Kilmorie webstats

40,662 visitors to the website in the past year

116,249 total page views
7,779 views of the kids zone, which links to activities and games
4,187 views of the class pages

1,556 in October
1,022 visits so far in November


7,638 ( 56%) of visits are from UK
4,330 (32%) USA
47 visits to the website from Australia
43 visits from china
20 visits from Spain
14 visits from Japan



This is great!
Thanks to everyone for visiting, and do tell us what we could be doing better, how we could be making navigation easier, etc.

Week 9

Dear Parent/ Carer,

The first week back after the first Half Term always puts me in the mind that Christmas concerts, Carols Around The Tree and more will be upon us very soon.  I am looking forward to celebrating Christmas with our children and with you all.

First, the business of learning.  We have hit the ground running again after the break.  I have asked all staff to set themselves small achievable goals for every Half Term.  Goals for how they will help our children to progress; to acquire a new skill, to secure new learning, to breakthrough a barrier from the first Half Term.  The business of learning is a joint enterprise, and I would encourage you to build that rich dialogue with your child's teacher in support of their learning.  Ask those questions that you don't know the answer to, give us feedback on your child's learning.

Our unique partnership of schools has been on my mind this week.  One of the many attractions for me in this post was the opportunities that the partnership offers to all of our children and each of our communities.  Our teachers this week began a collaboration on developing Pupil Voice in our schools, all of our Maths leaders met together to plot how we will together improve our provision for Maths.  I am meeting with teams next week to look at building a World Class curriculum that uses London as its inspiration... together.  In the background, teams are collaborating on ICT, assessment and quality of teaching.  I am sure that as the year progresses many and much more tangible examples of our partnership will be in evidence.  We are, for instance, planning joint sports and Arts activities.

I am also very keen to develop further - from what is already a very well established, very rich and very diverse range of community-based activity in our schools - our engagement with our communities.  Again, a huge attraction for me was the richness and the depth of talent and creativity that exists within our school communities.  I am eager to tap into that in any way that we can, for the benefit of our children.  The more experiences that we can give them, the greater the breadth of opportunities they have, the more experts and inspirational role models that they meet... the better.  The schools themselves don't always have all of the answers and sometimes we can overlook the blindingly obvious... Please, let us know what skills and talents you have, if we don't know already, and if you are able to make them available to support children's learning and experience at our schools.

Have a great weekend,
Mark Wilson

Fairlawn web stats

Fairlawn web stats from 23 Sept to 23 Oct:

3,511 visitors to the Fairlawn website.
2,057 unique visitors (first visit)
11,688 pages viewed
An average page visit of 3.32 pages.
Average time spent on the website is 3mins 37 seconds
53% of users returned back to the site during the month

Of the 3,511 visitors, 630 were Mobile device users.  iPad users were top (314 visitors), followed by iPhone (204 visitors)

UK is top for visitors.
Outside of the London... Croydon (55 visits), Wembley (42), Birmingham (22) and Slough and Hull (19).
We had some 224 visitors from the US and 11 visitors each from France, Australia and South Africa.

The most popular blog during the month has been 'tell-the-story-of-the-little-red-hen/' with 121 visitors, followed by the Fairlawn Fun run (85)


Thanks for visiting our website and blogs.

Weeks 7 & 8

Dear Parent/ Carer,
Last week was spent in Australia.  I had been invited to speak and host workshops at a conference for School Principals from Melbourne.  During the trip I visited five Primary Schools and met with the school leadership at each.  I saw innovation in building design and use - that included a single classroom housing one hundred Year 6 pupils and five teachers - excellent sporting facilities that are supporting exceptional sporting performance, specialist teachers who are achieving great things in terms of creative and performing arts, great facilities, innovative teacher practice - that included use of an iPhone and bluetooth device that enables teachers to self-evaluate their teaching by recording their lessons - and leading edge use of technologies - that included 1:1 pupil:iPad schemes.  I had the privilege of spending time with Jim Wilson, Principal of Woodlands Primary School, Langwarrin  http://www.woodlandsps.vic.edu.au and Russell Gascoigne, Principal of Linbrook Primary  http://www.lynbrookps.vic.edu.au
I have brought many ideas back from the trip and hope also to develop close and sustainable ties between our partnership schools and the Australian schools in the coming weeks, months and years that will benefit children in all of our schools.

We have had Parents Evenings at all of our partnership schools this past week.  I have spent some time in each and have continued to meet parents.  I have also had my son with me this week.  He has done a week of work experience in a Reception class at Kilmorie, and has thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Joe was able to sample the delicious School Dinners that I've been telling him about at Kilmorie - our children certainly do enjoy fabulous lunchtimes there.  We have enjoyed a range of community events at all three schools this past week.  The community spiritedness at each of our schools is a source of great strength and great inspiration.  My sincere thanks to all of those people who make a contribution to the planning, preparation and management of those events... and to everyone who 'makes' them by actually turning up to participate.

I feel that at each of our schools we can reflect upon a great first Half Term.  We can look forward with excitement and eager anticipation to next Half Term which will, of course, culminate with our Christmas Performances.  A magical time of year....

Have a wonderful Half Term.

Mark Wilson

Week 6

Dear Parent/ Carer,

I have met with more parents from the schools this week and we have had a great and a very busy week in all of our schools.

Fairlawn:

The Fairlawn Fun Run took place on Sunday.  The weather really helped and there was great support for the event from the community.  For anyone wanting to see them, there are photographs of the event on the Fairlawn facebook and twitter pages, and on the school website.  Our thanks to the many parents and volunteers who helped organise and run the event and to everyone who took part.

In school we have begun our whole school Explorers topic. Each KS1 class is buddied up with a KS2 class. They have each chosen a country that a child in their class has links with. The Juniors are then reading the stories in assembly and the Infant class is providing the illustrations. They look great on the big screen.  Some of the illustrations are on the Year Group blogs, which can be accessed via the website.  Staff held a reading meeting for Year 3 parents this week.  Our thanks to the staff and to the parents who attended.

Haseltine:

First, a 'thank you' to parents of our KS1 children for their patience as the children spent time in a spare classroom while their rooms were being re-wired last week.  We have a rolling programme of re-wiring that will be ongoing in school for some months to come.  On Thursday this week we had Beth Gill (an elite Ballet Dancer from the American Ballet Theatre) and three of her dance troupe from the USA working with our Year 6 pupils.  The visit was arranged in association with the American Embassy, who we have worked quite closely with on previous projects.  Next week, we are having an open morning on Wednesday.  Parents are invited to go into class and spend the first thirty minutes observing a writing lesson, then join Ms Brumby for refreshments and a discussion about what they've seen and how to support at home. 

Kilmorie:

I enjoyed leading an Assembly at Kilmorie on Monday this week.  The link for the Will.i.am video that I used is ow.ly/ed4uE.  We had a full meeting of the Governing Body on Monday and I enjoyed meeting the Parent Council on Wednesday.  I am looking forward to meeting more parents next Wednesday during the Parents Evening and Liz has been offering tours to parents around our fabulous new building after school.  Pupils from both Kilmorie and Haseltine competed in the  Sydenham & Forest Hill Primary Football Festival 2012 this week.  Below is a copy of the report from the event.

Report on Sydenham & Forest Hill Primary Football Festival 2012

What a way to continue the year of sport, competition and festivals! The football festival organised in conjunction with Glen Burt (Sports Coordinator) and Millwall Football Club was a great success. Approximately 100 year 5 & 6 girls and boys played some amazing football. Six primary schools took part, three of which entered a boys and a girls team. The weather was not brilliant but no one complained about the rain!
The boys teams each played five matches, 7 minutes longs at Elm Lane Fields. The standard of passing, shooting and working as a team was outstanding and the competition was very close indeed. Rathfern won the boys competition with Haseltine a close second. Rathfern will now look forward to competing in the Lewisham Borough finals on 29th November. Well done!
The girls also played really well on grass and again the standard was very good. They only played two matches each, but the matches were 10 minutes long. It was great to see the girls passing and controlling the ball before attempting to score a goal. They all enjoyed playing and watching each other during their rest game. Dalmain won the competition with Kilmorie a close second and Perrymount third. Dalmain girls will also look forward to competing in the Borough finals on 29th November. Well done!
All pupils received a Millwall certificate and and a ‘kick racism out of football’ sticker. The winning teams were awarded a medal from Glen Burt and a trophy from Millwall. The teams who came second received a ‘kick it out’ rubber wrist band from Millwall. All other teams received a metal badge. One other award was given out during the afternoon for exceptional play, this was awarded to David from Rathfern and Tiana from Dalmain.
It was also fantastic to see so many parents and carers supporting this event. It is so important to see people enjoying sport whether they are playing or watching. I would like to thank all teachers, teaching assistants and Millwall referees for making the festival so memorable.

Week 5

Dear Parent/ Carer,

It has been another busy and very productive week in our schools this week.  We are in the midst of our first round of lesson observations in each of the schools.  I have had the pleasure, and will have the pleasure this coming week also, of observing lessons alongside the Heads and senior members of the school teams.  Lesson observations are a key tool for us in helping to improve standards and enhance the quality of teaching in all classrooms.

The real value of our partnership is really showing itself in the opportunities it creates for colleagues from each of our schools to work with one another and to broaden their experience and worldview by observing and working in one another’s school.  Every day this week we’ve had colleagues from one of the schools in the others schools.  I am very excited by the TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) ethos that we are creating and the enhanced opportunities that this presents for our children.

I was pleased to meet Governors at the two Body meetings last week at Fairlawn and Haseltine and am looking forward to the two meetings at Kilmorie and Fairlawn this week.  This coming week finds me at Kilmorie all day on Monday, Haseltine and Fairlawn on Tuesday,  Fairlawn and Kilmorie on Wednesday, Kilmorie and Haseltine on Thursday, and Haseltine and Fairlawn on Friday… so another busy week ahead!

I was pleased to see the community events that have taken place in our schools this week.  All three schools have a strong, and very distinct, identity that is underpinned by a very strong community spirit.  The coffee morning and singsong for parents of our Reception children at Fairlawn was a great success.  I was very disappointed that I was not able to attend, but aim to be at one of the Fairlawn Monday Coffee Mornings in the coming weeks as I continue to build a picture of our schools from parents point of view.  It is very important to me that we engage fully with our parents and keep you as informed about your child in school as we possibly can.  I am attending the Kilmorie Parent Council meeting on Wednesday evening this week and am looking forward to conversations there.

Have a great weekend,

Mark Wilson

Week 4

Dear Parent/ Carer,

I had the pleasure of observing lessons at Haseltine on Monday this week alongside Ms Brumby and Ms Bernard.  I spent some quality time with Liz Stone at Kilmorie on Monday and Tuesday that included sitting in on pupil target setting meetings with Liz and the teaching team.  I was very impressed with the rigour of this work and the determination of all staff to help our children to succeed.  I met with Governors and colleagues from Lewisham at Fairlawn during Tuesday and visited the DfE building in Westminster to discuss the next stage of development of the Teaching School, based at Fairlawn.  Wednesday was spent between Haseltine and Kilmorie, followed by a trip North to Nottingham for training with ofsted on Thursday and Friday at the National College for School Leadership.  A busy week, and another week spent deepening my understanding of the workings of the schools and identifying the opportunities for us to work more closely together for the benefit of our children.

I am looking forward to the week ahead and to shifting my focus slightly, after spending these first weeks establishing our ‘baseline’ across the partnership, onto the development opportunities ahead.  Key amongst these are developing outstanding communication with parents and developing a really strong and influential ‘pupil voice’ in our schools.  These aspects are really important to me and are, of course, an important measure of really successful schools.  Educating your child is a partnership… and every good partnership is based on good communication.

Finally, congratulations to Eva Lee (parent), our gardening clubs and parent volunteers, for winning 1st prize in the school's category in Lewisham in Bloom Awards for Kilmorie. Our first prize of the year with, I am sure, many more to come...

Have a lovely week,

Mark Wilson

Week 3

Dear Parent/ Carer,

First... an apology.  My blog posting is 'late' (posted Monday morning) this week due my Friday “sleep-over” at the Science Museum with children from Haseltine.  Sleep-over is deserving of the inverted commas… there wasn’t a great deal of sleep involved.  Below are some photographs from the visit… which was very much enjoyed by all.  Our thanks to the Sage charity and to the Science Museum staff for making this event possible for our children.  Sincere thanks also to the staff from Haseltine who participated in the visit.

 

This week, Ms Brumby, Chair of Governors Victoria Widdows and I enjoyed a Learning Walk at Haseltine.  We were all very impressed with the purposeful learning evident in the classrooms and with the calm and happy atmosphere in the school.  From there, I went to Kilmorie for a tour of the school with Chair of Governors Anita Gibbons.  This was Anita’s first visit since the refurbishment and she shared her delight with the quality and finish of the building that we have taken over.  At Fairlawn this week I was fortunate enough to be present during the Fairlawn Singers and Friends performance.  It was a lovely community event.  My thanks to Shirley Streets for being the inspiration behind the event.  I spent some late nights at the schools last week as I work through my ‘baseline’ fact-finding at all three.  I, and a team from Fairlawn, met with Teaching School Alliance partners this week and shared a vision for how we might develop the Teaching School in the coming months and years.  The Teaching School offers some exciting possibilities for our three school partnership and, indeed, for our Teaching School Alliance partners and wider network.

It is endlessly fascinating… and also a real privilege… to work with the Heads of the respective Schools and with the staff and children within.  The Executive Head teacher role is evolving week by week as we talk, assess and evaluate and work out the differing needs of the Heads, the staff and the schools themselves.

I shared a quote from Jim Collins’ fantastic book Good to Great with the teaching staff at Fairlawn the week before last.  I think it bears a wider circulation for our partnership of schools.  The book begins with the following:

“Good is the enemy of great.

And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.

We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools.  We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government.  Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.  The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good – and that is their main problem.”

Jim Collins, Good to Great

Our collective aim throughout the partnership is to push through good, always, to outstanding and beyond.

Have a lovely week.

Mark Wilson

Week 2

Dear Parent/ Carer,

I began my week at Fairlawn this week, where I led the Monday Whole School Assembly – The History of the Olympics in 15 minutes.  ‘Heroes’, by David Bowie, played as the children came into the Hall... We can be heroes!  I was glad for support from Remarnae, my impromptu Assembly sidekick.  The History of the Olympics in 15 minutes, Part 2 is ready for this coming Monday.  I have enjoyed meeting many children at Fairlawn this week and to meeting parents in the playground before school.  My thanks to those children, parents (and indeed staff) who have taken the time to introduce themselves.  That really helps me to quickly get to know people and to gain a deeper insight into the school.  I led the staff meeting at Fairlawn this week, too, and met with the school senior leadership.  Together, we are beginning to take those small next steps that will lead to larger strides in the weeks and months to come.

Things are going well for us at Haseltine.  Ms Brumby and I spent some more time this week preparing for the visit from ofsted that we expect this year.  The improvement that the school has made in recent years under Ms Brumby is truly impressive and is a testament to the hard work, commitment and impact of the whole Haseltine team.  Ms Brumby and I talked about some exciting developments that we would like to see at Haseltine.  We will be working on these in coming weeks.  I had a learning walk around the classes and was struck by the calm and purposeful atmosphere everywhere.  I also spent time on the playground before and after school meeting parents and talking to children.  There is a real community spirit at Haseltine.  It is a truly caring school, one in which parents recognise the value that the school gives to their children.  

After a delayed start, Kilmorie finally opened to children on Monday.  This was a huge relief to Liz Stone and I.  After spending most of the summer at the school, Liz was there until after 10.00pm on each of the weekend nights and was back early the following mornings.  Liz and I did a final site risk assessment at 7.00am on Monday and were pleased to be able to declare the school ready for occupation.  Though there is work on the building still to do, we have been delivered of a beautiful environment for learning.  Lakehouse have done a wonderful job at the school, achieving a truly impressive quality of finish and attention to detail.  It was a delight to speak to parents and children on Monday morning, all of whom were amazed at the building.  Children at Kilmorie have been saying all week how wonderful the building is - which is lovely to hear.  The building refurbishment is another step on our journey to outstanding in every aspect at Kilmorie.  

The ofsted report from the July inspection was published this week.  This is further concrete evidence of the continuing improvements at the school, improvements that we are determined to build upon.

Teaching School

I met with a National College Associate this week to discuss the Teaching School, based at Fairlawn, given the change of leadership.  I was able to satisfy the College that there remains a strong vision for the future development of the Teaching School.  The Teaching School is a very important part of our drive for continuous improvement, development and innovation at all three schools.  All three benefit from the trainee, teacher and leadership development that the Teaching School gives access to and all three will benefit even more as the Teaching School grows into an important School Improvement driver for Lewisham and South East London.

Week 1

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Dear Parent/ Carer,

It has been wonderful to welcome you back to the new school year at two of our schools this week.

I had the privilege of talking to staff at all three schools on their Training Days this week.  We will be unwavering in our ambition to achieve World Class for our schools and for our partnership and I hope that it is a vision that motivates, inspires and enthuses our staff to give their very best for your child. 

At Kilmorie, of course, we are still to open to children.  All staff have been working incredibly hard – under very difficult circumstances – preparing the building for occupation and for the job of learning.  We have a building to be very proud of, one in which it is our duty to look to help children enjoy it and get the very best from it.

I met parents in the playground at Fairlawn this week, said a few words in the Assembly and visited classes.  I was delighted to hear the very, very positive sentiments expressed by parents about the school.  As I said to the staff, there is a very deep feeling of love for the school... amongst parents and staff.  That is a wonderful and a very powerful thing.  I found a couple of fellow Leeds Utd supporters at Fairlawn… who will now be my friends for life.  It was great to see rich and powerful learning in every class.  My special thanks this week go to Mrs George, who is taking children to the Thames Festival today (Sunday).  It is the willingness of staff at our three schools to commit extra time to the children and to wonderful experiences like this for them that makes the difference… I am inspired and hugely grateful that there are a great many examples like this going on at all of our schools, all of the time.

There was a brilliant start to the school year at Haseltine.  We get up to full speed at Haseltine very quickly.  I have had my lunch with children there twice this week and have learned a great deal.  Two of the girls were telling me how Mr Buxton is their hero.  He is Ms Brumby’s and my hero too… after the immense efforts that he put into ensuring that Haseltine was able to open on time on Wednesday.  We breathed a sigh of relief as the last truck rolled out of the playground at half past eight on Wednesday morning.  I met parents in the playground after school and was taken with the community spirit there.  I am always taken with the sheer passion and enthusiasm for the children amongst the staff at Haseltine.  It is quite breathtaking. 

I said to the children at the Fairlawn Assembly, my job as Executive Headteacher simply means ‘Best Job in the World’.  It is a privilege to be working with you all.   

I am settling into life in London... and am not 100% reliant on my Sat Nav to get around now and am managing a level of domestication and self-reliance that remains a bit of a surprise to my wife (my family having remained in the North of England).  I have only managed to get to one session of British Military Fitness thus far and haven't got out for any runs yet... I do hope to improve this miserable record soon.  My eldest son has identified the  weekends that he wants to come down to London... which just happen to coincide with Leeds Utd games against Palace and Charlton. So all is going well...

I hope you enjoy a super week ahead,

Mark Wilson

Summer Works and the journey ahead

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Dear Parent/ Carer,

Wow!

It has been an extremely busy summer for many of us.  My very sincere and public thanks to all those colleagues who have spent a substantial part of their summer both in the schools and at home preparing for the new school year.  I have been struck this summer with the level of dedication that I have seen from staff across our partnership of schools.  Very particular thanks go to Liz Stone at Kilmorie and to Jeanette Brumby and Vince at Haseltine for their brilliant management of the huge projects that have been going on in their schools.  The sheer number of hours that these colleagues have put in this summer is in itself worthy of very special praise.

Kilmorie will be hosting some open visits when the new school year starts.  I would encourage you to visit, if at all possible.  Lakehouse – the project contractor – have delivered us a building that we can be very proud of, one in which an exceptional quality of education for children will be suitably housed.

My goals for this year include fostering closer partnership working, achieving an improved level of communication and information for our stakeholders and communities and enhancing both pupil provision and the quality of the experience for children in all of our schools.

Welcome back to the new school year and I look forward to travelling alongside you on our journey to World Class.

Welcome

Dear Parent/ Carer,

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for visiting and formally welcome you to the f-h-k Executive Headteacher blog.  The purpose of the blog is to keep you informed of developments at Fairlawn, Haseltine and Kilmorie and to keep you as informed of my work as Executive Headteacher as is possible.

That I am spending time as evenly as possible between the three schools... and with the Children's Centre and the Teaching School, based at Fairlawn, added in to that mix... means that I will not always be present on any one particular site.  This blog is one way of maintaining a good flow of communication between us.

Look out for a twitter feed and a facebook page, coming very soon.

I am very much looking forward to working with you, with your children, with the community and with the partnership of schools.

Mark Wilson
Executive Headteacher