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Showing posts from July, 2017

Robinwood Residential

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I was very fortunate to go on our Year 6 residential last week. We went to Robinwood's Dobroyd Castle complex in Todmorden.

We left on Wednesday and returned on Friday afternoon. We had an amazing time! I cannot recommend Robinwood enough. From the moment we arrived, the organisation, enthusiasm and effort from the staff was first class. The pupils had an amazing experience, as did the staff. The range of activities available to the children was great - click here to see.

I decided to use the trip as another great example of how social media can be utilised to share what we were doing with parents. There are so many reasons why I encourage schools to utilise social media and giving parents an insight into what their children were doing on residential is another. Our school has a blog, twitter, facebook and youtube channel. We find Facebook to be the best channel to engage our parents and we regularly update and share what we are doing through it. I particularly love the live featu…
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I Didn't Know

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No one forgets their first class. When my first class left Davyhulme, I was able to share this poem at the leavers assembly. I remember tearing up as I read it and thought I would share it as I am sure many followers of this blog can relate.

I found it online and have struggled to find the author. So if anyone knows please let me know and I will add it in. Here is the poem (I have adapted a few words):


I Didn't KnowI didn't know that years of school and a college degree would be of little consolation when facing a room full of bright little eyes on the first day of school. I thought I was ready,
I didn't know that five minutes can seem like five hours when there is idle time and an eight hour school day far too short for a well-planned day of teaching.
I didn't know that teaching children was only a fraction of my job.
No one tells you about the conferences and phone calls, staff meetings and committees, paperwork and paperwork...
I didn't know that it took so long to c…
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Welcome to Davyhulme Primary!

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My golden rule of teaching is 'Make Them Care.' Making sure there is a purpose to everything children do in class for me is imperative. Assessment is never the purpose, that happens due to effective and engaging teaching. I truly believe technology can add a real purpose in lots of different ways. Here is an example using one of my recent purchases - The UpAir One Drone.

I picked this up for around £300 from Amazon (click the picture for the link)
I have to say so far I have been incredibly impressed. The quality of the camera is amazing and it is very easy to use and set up. The battery lasts around 15mins flight time, which is probably the only downside. 
I knew the children would absolutely relish having a go with this and so my Year 6 digital leaders were able to fly the drone over the school grounds, recording their journey. Once we shared the footage to our iPads, the pupils wrote and performed a guide in iMovie adding a soundtrack composed in Garageband. 
Knowing this w…
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A Lovely Poem for Your Leavers Assembly

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I am always asked to put a little video together for our Year 6 show and end of year assembly. Each year, I always include a special poem that I finish the end of year video with. It is called Leaving School by Jade Hughes and it is beautiful:


We've now left school,
It's how the story ends,
Tears of happiness is what we recommend,It's what we say,
But there's always a little pain,
Because once you've left,
It's not the same,You could walk through school and you would see,
Your friends who have grown up incredibly,
But now you've gone,
It's not the same,
As you may never see them again,Your friends who have grown up right beside you,
Who have helped you through your daily strife,
Will go ahead and leave behind them,
You who wants the same old life,But you can not live your life in the past,
Hoping that the same memories will last,
You have to move on and just be glad,
That leaving has made you so sad,
As this just shows that you have loved,
Your days at school here with …
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Homemade iPad recording booths

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One question I am always asked on my training is how do I manage multiple children all recording on the iPads in the same classroom. Over the weekend, I decided to make some iPad recording booths to help reduce background noise when recording content on the iPad.

Each box cost approximately £10 each. I bought the materials to make 6 boxes which would be perfect as a class set. Here are the links for the materials:


Foldable boxes
Soundproof foam panels

Here is a video explaining how we put them together with help from my sons:



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#BeLikeTheRenegade Another Adventure with Mrs May - The Joke Machine!

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