The Easter holidays will bring with it a significant moment in the Lyons household as we will find out the name of the primary school our son will be attending from September. We spent a few months last year visiting our local primary schools to see which one would be our preferred choice. It was a slightly strange experience for me to be considering the merits of a school as a parent rather than as a teacher. Things like the Ofsted report and the website had some significance to me, but what intuitively seemed to be of most importance was the feeling I got when I walked around the school and the impression that was left on me by the staff team. I guess what I was looking for was some evidence that the school would be one that understood my son’s unique qualities, nurture his growth and development and bring out the best in him. Talking to parents in my professional role I’ve known for years how important this was to them. Sitting on the other side of the fence however, and living this experience from the parent’s point of view, really brought home to me the true significance of living up to these expectations.

Over the years I’ve found that we have the most success when we work collaboratively with our parents to tap into the expert knowledge of their child. As professionals we have a breadth of knowledge and experience that enables us to begin to develop engaging learning experiences for individual pupils. However, when we add to this a partnership with our parents in which we communicate openly and honestly with each other in order to truly understand the specific needs of their child, then together we can create genuinely personalised learning opportunities that lead to the destinations we all aspire to. I know that our staff team here at New Bridge have a deep desire to ‘get it right’ for each child. Equally we recognise that understanding the unique and often complex needs of our pupils is not something we can do on our own. For all our parents reading this then, we welcome your support, your advice, and your challenge so that together we can create meaningful futures for your children.

This week Mrs Fennelly’s class had a brilliant day out at Smithills Farm, just look at these lovely pictures..

Our Bronze DofE groups tackled their first ever practice expedition along the Monsal Trail this week and coped with some decidedly wintry weather! We’re very proud of how they all supported each other and successfully completed the challenge, please click here to read Mr Taylor’s report on their adventures.

I’ll leave you with another challenge from Mrs Needham for the Easter holidays – how creative can you be with Maths?

Happy Easter!

Gavin

You can find Dawn’s blog for the Learning Centre here

For news on our Key Stage 5 pathway groups at Medtia Square please click here

Click here to read this week’s news from Graham

You can find my previous blog posts here