Welcome

Last night was intake evening for parents of children who will be joining us in September. It’s an exciting time of the year - a mix of anticipation and excitement as we prepare for the year 2s, with a twinge of sadness as we see the year 6s prepare for their leavers’ evening and make visits to their respective secondary schools. Sometimes it means saying goodbye to parents who’ve had several children go through the school which feels like we’re saying goodbye to family – such is the good relationship we’ve built up with many of our parents. Anyway before I get carried away on the sentimentality of this time of the year – we’ve still another 4 weeks to go – hello & welcome to any of our new parents who might be reading the blog for the first time. I mentioned it at last night’s meeting and it may be that some of you are having a read (I hope so!). Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you’d like to read.

The Boy Friend

Fancy watching a show over the half term holiday?

Heanor Operatic Society Youth Company are presenting The Boy Friend at Heanor Gate Science College from Wednesday 31st May to Friday 2nd May at 7.15pm each night. Usually a really professional kids performance.

If you would like to go, please book your tickets from the Box Office on 01773 762042. You may or not see me there....I'l be supervising the children back stage this time!

Alternatively, you may like to wait until October half term when I'll be conducting the orchestra for Beeston Muiscal Theatre Group's performance of Viva Mexico. Check out the website at http://www.bmtg.org.uk/

I'll be doing the same job at Heanor Operatic Society during February half term when they put on The Pajama Game.

Race for Life

On Sunday several members of staff are taking part in the Race for Life at Darley Park. This is the UK’s biggest women-only fundraising event and involves a short (did I say short?) 5km walk or run to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. I'm sure there'll be lots of parents and girls from school taking part as well - so wish us luck and here's to raising lots of money for Cancer Research UK.

Guys and Dolls

Follow this link to a slideshow of this year's Guys and Dolls:-http://www.cjs.derby.sch.uk/drama.htmh.uk/drama.htm. It's the first time I've used this software and it loads relatively quickly on our broadband connection. If you find it takes too long to load/view, can you please leave a comment and I'll change it.

Katie's also written a review on the show - you'll find that on the Drama page too.

The TES have introduced their first photoblog – where pictures do the talking. They are looking at ways of approaching the theme of personal identity through photography. They ask "How do we define ourselves? How can a picture communicate our identity? What does that picture look like?" Anyone want to share a photograph that they think looks like them or defines their personality? Email me at admin@cjs.derby.sch.uk.

Where's the crap game?

Luck be a lady tonight?

Who needs luck?

Where's the crap game?

There's nothing rubbish about this performance!

Sit down you're rocking the boat?

You won't throw the passengers overboard on this one!

I've never been in love before

You sure will be when you see this baby!

This doll is considerably.....a...a...choo......pleased.

Well Done!

Guys and Dolls

Ladies and gentleman........

Chellaston Junior School Drama and Choir clubs are proud to present Guys and Dolls Junior!

We have been slaving away at rehearsals since September, and now there is just over a week until our opening. Let me tell you......it is going to be a fantastic show.

Well done to all of the year 5 and 6 children who have been involved in this production. Their commitment has been great. All we need to do now is to add a few finishing touches to it, and we're ready for curtain up. Thank you especially to parents who have helped to get children to rehearsals and sort out costumes. Special thanks goes to Miss Smith, Mrs Macdonald and Ms Savidge for their help and support at rehearsals, to Mrs Slack for organising the programmes and tickets, Mrs Royston-Webb for co-ordinating costumes and props, and to Mr Bemrose and Mr Mr Macdonald for their fabulous efforts with the scenery.

BREAK A LEG EVERYONE!


Miss Fogg

SKIPPING CHALLENGE

Following the skipping workshop that visited school, 160 children have signed up to take part in an in-school skipping challenge. The children have been divided into eight teams and will skip for 5 minutes each week. There will be awards to boy/girl in each year that have skipped the most and also to the winning team!
Hopefully we will have some very fit children at the end of it!

Action Aid Coffee Morning

Thanks to those that came to the Coffee Morning and special thanks to Mrs Brady for donating the Fairtrade Hamper. It was won by Mrs Savidge - Ticket no 152.

Road Safety Quiz Final

Last Thursday, eight of our children took part in the Road Safety Quiz Final organised by Derby City Council Road Safety Team. The whole school took part in an earlier round and Chellaston Junior School came in the top four.

The children did really well and obviously knew all about Road Safety. After a couple close rounds we finally came joint second with Oakwood Junior School coming first. The children were awarded a goody bag and the school were given a certificate. It was a lovely evening with refreshments and a Magic Show.

Special thanks to Alice, Rhys, Emily, Daniel, Tianna, Eliot, Daisy and Harry for a really good effort and also to parents for taking their children to the event.

Goodbye and good luck!

Today we said goodbye and good luck to our ICT Technician, Sarah Humphreys. Sarah has been with us almost 5 years and I can't begin to imagine how many new aspects of ICT she's been involved with during that time (even this week she was in Cromford class demonstrating the new Qwizdom devices). We're indebted to her for sharing her vast knowledge of all things technical and staff and pupils will miss her enormously. Recently Sarah's been sharing the joys of the school's intranet and website with me and I've learnt even more aspects of how technology can be used to share information in a collaborative and learning environment.
Thanks for all your hard work, enthusiasm and support, Sarah. Good luck for the future!

Exhibition

http://firstclass.ultraversity.net/~Maureen.Slack/Exhibition%20Photos
This link will take you to a slideshow of the static display in the school main reception. I hope it gives you a flavour of the exhibition.
Please come and have a look or visit the online exhibition.

Exhibition and online presentation

Thank you to everyone who responded to the questionnaire and to the brave parents who kindly agreed to be interviewed. An exhibition (sounds a bit grand, but that's what we're supposed to call it!) of my research will be held in the main reception from Monday, 28th February to Friday, 3rd March and everyone is invited and will be made most welcome. I'd welcome your feedback (critical as well as complimentary!) on both the presentation of the exhibition and the findings. This can be done either in person or by a feedback sheet.

As the degree title suggests (BA (Hons) Learning, Technology & Research), technology has been an integral part of my learning and we have been encouraged to be creative in the way we use technology to present our work to the University board. As my research is to investiage the use of technology in improving home-school communication, I thought it would be beneficial to present my exhibition in an online presentation so that parents who aren't able to come into school can view the research at a time/place to suit themselves. The presentation can be viewed at http://firstclass.ultraversity.net/~Maureen.Slack/EXHIBITION. It's different from the static exhibition as it contains audio files (thanks to Jack and Katie (pupils) for their input here) and again, your feedback on the presentation & content is very important.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks to everyone for attending the Coffee Morning, it is always nice to meet with parents and have a chat. I hope it helped to answer any questions that people might have about the school or my role. I can be contacted on 01332 701460 or 07989516912 if anyone needs to chat to me in confidence about any worries that they might have regarding their children. The next Coffee morning is on Friday 10th March supporting Action Aid.

This week's letters

Central Soccer Schools half-term coaching - all school
Legion XIIII visit - Year 3
Aztec visit - Year 6
CJS Buzz - Number 12

What's lurking in the bottom of your child's bag?

Apart from a broken pen, empty crisp packet and other assorted "stuff", you might find:-
The lastest Buzz (Number 11)
Year 4 - termly topics
Opus Concert Club - all pupils
Hockey Club - Year 6
International Week - food allergies letter - all pupils
Aztecs Workshops - Year 6
UNICEF's Day for Change (next Friday) - letter to all pupils
Saisnbury'sActive Kids 2006 - letter to all parents

That's about it for the week. Have a great weekend everyone.

Feedback

Welcome
Thank you to everyone who has responded to the questionnaire sent out regarding the use of technology to improve home-school communication. Quite a few parents have had a chance to look at the blog as a result of the questionnaire, so if this is one of your first visits - welcome!

Jack and the Beanstalk

Can I just say that those of us who went to see Jack and the Beanstalk on Saturday afternoon enjoyed it thoroughly. Chellaston Players put on a great show....I especially liked Sophie's dad as Dame Trott!

The children were a credit to the school and were extremely well behaved.

(oh no they weren't!)

MF

Message Board

I have been asked whether it would be possible to set up a message board where parents can post comments on a particular topic. This is an experimental message board and is on the subject of School Dinners. To take part, please follow the link on the left of this page. Please let me know if there are any other subjects that you would like a message board to discuss.

Parents' Questionnaire

My questionnaire is now accessible via the school website http://www.cjs.derby.sch.uk/questionnaire.doc and can be emailed back to me at admin@cjs.derby.sch.uk. Although it is addressed to CJS parents, I am also interested in other people's opinions too, so if anyone wishes to complete the questionnaire, please do so. Many thanks to those of you who have already completed the paper version.

Miss Joynes and I visited the BETT exhibition at Olympia last week and were amazed at some of the ideas being exhibited. We particularly liked the Qwizdom interactive remote response system (http://www.qwizdom.co.uk/) and have arranged for a demonstration to teaching staff. Some of the ideas seem so far advanced you wonder if they will ever find a place in school, yet it was just two years ago that I first saw the GroupCall SMS text messaging service for parents being exhibited at BETT, and now we have been trialling the system at CJS for the past three months to great effect. In fact, of all the technological changes we have introduced, this seems to be the one that has attracted the most positive feedback from parents. I'm looking forward to seeing if the questionnaire backs up my thoughts on this!

What you might...should...have received so far this year!

All parents - summer flowering bulbs letter & catalogue
All parents - KS2 Maths study materials
All parents - International Week letter
Year 3 - visits to Pizza Express (Food Technology)
Year 4 - proposed trip to Stratford
Year 4 - invitation to parents' lunches
Year 5 - Badminton Club
Years 5 & 6 - letter from the Modern Foreign Languages department of Chellaston School