Headteacher diary on the expansion of the school

13 /05/ 14

Today was the first time that we were all able to visit the new building.  Having donned hard hats and hi-vi jackets we were ready to enter the site. We were all delighted with how light and airy the new classrooms felt. The classrooms were all much bigger that the rooms that we have the main school and staff will be able to be very creative in the layout of their classrooms.

The views of the staff can be readily judged from the comments below:

“I as so excited to see the finished building after our tour earlier this week.  It was fascinating to learn about the sustainable approach to the building,” Heather Underwood, Year 2 class teacher.

“I loved the round windows – the children will enjoy peering through them!”  Karen Kerr, support staff

I was fascinated to hear about the eco- friendly aspect of the building,” Sarah Spencer, Foundation class teacher.

Feedback was so enthusiastic that a further visit has been requested by staff who were unable to attend the initial site visit. 

02/05/14

The latest site meeting brought the good news that the building will soon be watertight as the roof and windows are due to be constructed and installed within the next few weeks.  Although there is a very slight delay of a few weeks, the build is on schedule to be completed in June.  This will leave plenty of time for the work on the landscaping to be completed this term.  Work will then start during the summer holidays on the installation of the new playground.

The staff and governors will soon be able to visit the new building - as soon as the high level work is completed.  

We now have the list of children who have been allocated a place at the school.  Although this is the first year of the expansion, we were surprised that the school will be full.  We are  now looking at our plans to welcome the new children to the school to make sure that all goes smoothly and we have catered for the increasing numbers.

25/04/14

The changes to the main school have been particularly successful and both the children and staff working in the newly developed classroom have given very positive feedback.  By the end of this week all the displays and learning resources were back in place and work was continuing as normal. 

22/04/14

Wednesday, 24/04/14 and Thursday 24/04/14 marks the introduction of the school’s “Passport to Success Scheme”.  This, hopefully, will give us all a chance to reflect on the school’s mission statement: “Guiding Small Steps to Lifelong Learning”.  We will all be taken out of comfort zone as we try to learn the skills of the circus! The value of persevering and not giving up will be key if we are to learn any new skills. 

The importance of contributing to our community will be emphasised as each class is given a challenge to complete- some practical and some when we can use of skills to create reminders for others!

By the end of the week every child should be able to contribute to each year groups’ newspaper about the event.  These should make interesting reading for us all!

18/04/14

While all the changes are in progress, it is important not to forget that the main school environment needs to be maintained and kept fresh ready to welcome the new children to the Foundation classes in September.  A freshly decorated entrance area and new blinds in the school hall (all completed in the Easter break) should help to maintain a welcoming environment for the all at the start of the new term.

4 /04/14

The term ended on a very positive note as the school successfully appointed a new member to the leadership team.  Our new appointment will be taking a lead in planning for the schools future needs in ICT.  All members of the recruitment panel were delighted that the successful candidate brings considerable experience not only in ICT, but also as a highly skilled teacher.

As part of the expansion some changes needed to made to the configuration of the classes in the main school.  We are all very confident that the work will be completed within the timeframe of the Easter holidays and that the changes will not adversely impact on the smooth running of the year 1 class affected by the changes to the building.  However, just in case the school has arranged for year 1 to start their topic work in art (if necessary in the hall) with an exciting and creative introduction by an art specialist!

28 /03/ 14

Choosing colours is such a personal choice!  Sitting in my office are samples of paint colours, examples of carpet tiles and floor vinyls. I have just three days to check with staff what colours we should choose.  Initially my eyes were drawn to bright and vibrant reds and oranges.  However, we have to think about working in the building each day and maybe walking into a rainbow styled classroom might be a little tiring after a while!  So sensibly, and hopefully tastefully, I think shades of calming blues will win the day!

21 /03/ 14

All is progressing well.  The children are now used to the changes taking place and just occasionally go and watch development on the site.  However, behind the scenes many decisions have still to be made.  We are all keen to maintain our current ICT provision and so our ICT lab is safe for at least a further year!  This gives some much needed time to fully research our future needs.

To help the school make the right decisions, I am so pleased that one of our governors Ahmad Goheer has considerable expertise in ICT and that we are also in the position to recruit a middle leader to help us further develop ICT.  This is the time of the year when, like so many headteachers, I keep my fingers crossed that we are able to recruit the staff we need and keep our much valued staff within the school team!

14/03/14

The Foundations of the building are completed, and the sun is shining allowing work to progress quite rapidly!  The outline of the building is clearly visible and it is now possible to start to visualise how the building will sit within the site.  Early consideration has been given to the type of flooring in the new building and so everything is progressing very smoothly.

While all this is very important and rewarding, the building is just one part of the expansion of the school.  It could be argued that of greater concern is how the school as a community of people, working together, is going to be developed further.  Luckily the staff have lots of great ideas to take this forward and so early next term, the school will be launching its “Passport for Success” to the children, which will focus on four key themes:

·         Contributing to our community

·         Learning new skills

·         Keeping a fit and healthy body

·         Clever fingers and useful hands

We all asked the question, “How can we show the children clearly how they can quickly learn new skills?”. The staff came up with the brilliant idea of learning circus skills.  At the start of next term even I will be learning to walk on stilts, juggling (something I feel I am already quite adept at – although maybe not with skittles!) and using the diabolo!

The goal of enabling children to see the importance of developing themselves as whole people working as part of a growing school will, I feel, help to put in firm foundations for us all as part of a growing community. 

 7/03/13

“We have all gone Health and Safety mad is an often quoted phrase!  However, in reality I think we are all grateful to live in safe environment, despite its constraints.  However, at Howe Park we decided that Health and Safety can be interesting and fun! 

On Monday  3/03/14 the school welcomed Mr Alan Fletcher who has responsibility of the building site on the school grounds to talk about Health and Safety and how important it is as part of the school’s expansion programme. 

The children were intrigued as he brought out pink fluffy clippers, a faux fur fabric jacket and a soft hat with earflaps for warmth.  The children who dressed up in these garments were quick to realise that they were not properly attired for work on a building site.  Hard hats, steel capped boots and high visibility jackets are much more appropriate!

Mr Fletcher then presented the prizes to the  winners of the school’s health and safety poster competition.  These are now laminated and proudly displayed on the safety fences surrounding the building site so the children can be reminded  through their own phrases and pictures of the importance of Health and Safety! 

28 /02 /14

My first feelings at the start of the day were of disappointment as I peered out of the window at the steady fall of rain.  The floods across the roads on my way to work did little to raise my mood.  During my drive to work I had mentally re-arranged some of the programme for the important assembly that was planned for the morning.

The expansion of the school has now officially started with an assembly to celebrate cutting the first sod on the site.   The school was pleased that so many governors and representatives from the local authority gave up their time to join the school in this celebration.

As ever the youngest children from the school’s nursery and foundation classes almost stole the show with their opening song based on the well- known children’s character Bob the Builder.  Members of Ashe construction company could not help but smile as the children sang their song and did the actions to create our new building.  Councillor Dransfield went on to emphasize how important it is that children from Milton Keynes have the opportunity to attend very good schools and the importance of creating enough school places in the rapidly growing town of Milton Keynes. 

A representative from the Inclusion Quality Mark presented the school with its flagship award, which reflects the hard work and dedication of the whole staff team, and the support given by the governing body and families.  We had been unaware about how few schools across the UK have achieved flagship status and even more delighted when he decided to re- name the school “WOW Park!”  While this is a great compliment, it does remind me how much we have to achieve and that there is plenty of hard work ahead!

Milton Keynes Council Press Release

21/ 02/ 14

Work is continuing during the half term holiday.All important changes to the school’s ICT infrastructure have taken place.Part of the INSET day on 24 /02/14 will be an opportunity for the school to review its current resource (software and hard ware) and plan for the future.Important questions need to be considered carefully – Should we keep the ICT lab for a further year or should we have the facility of a spare classroom and rapidly invest in additional lap tops?Having consulted both staff and governors, the decision has now been made that the school’s ICT lab will be kept for a further year and then converted back to a classroom ready for the academic year of 2015-2016, when the 90 Foundation children move into year 1 and the space is needed.This should be a bonus for the children as the school will have the ICT lab as well as the new lap trolleys.

It was a great pleasure to give the news to EIBE, the playground provider, that they had won the contract to develop the school’s play area.This will be a substantial project which will see an additional £50,000 of play equipment installed in the play area.Governors, aware that there was a need to make substantial changes to the play area, have for some years reserved funds from the school’s capital budget.This project will now coincide with the expansion of the school and provide lively and creative play experiences for the children. Families can see the plans which are displayed in the school’s parent information area.

14 /02/ 14

Well the diggers have finally arrived!  A phone call from Ashe the builders during the day meant that the building of the two class extension to the school is finally underway.  Months of planning and discussion will soon lead to the transformation of part of the school grounds with the building of the light, airy eco build which will allow the school to admit 90 children to its Foundation classes in place of the current 60.  Poor Mr. Brown, the site manager,  watched his two much loved sheds disappear- no longer a place to store long since discarded furniture, which had been carefully kept – just in case!!!

The  nursery car park is now rapidly being transformed into a secure, storage area for all the equipment and I know the school will be able to rely on the consideration of its very supportive families to allow a few extra minutes to park in the Valley sports club or the shops. 

Plans are already in hand to promote the benefits of walking  to school thus minimising congestion in the neighbourhood around the school.   This will be a project for the school council who will be leading this for the school.