Thursday 21 June 2007

I went to another great school this afternoon...

I visited Fieldhead Carr Primary School and I was met at the school by my brilliant tour guides, Teshweer, Casey, Abbie and Poppy who gave me a great tour around the school including the 'Wake Up and Shake Up' session for the whole school. They were working on the next issue of their Fieldhead Carr Primary School News which they produce weekly... so I was interviewed and photographed!

I also met five of the schools' FAB Friends, Renee, Oliver, Shannon, Chloe and Kyle. FAB Friends is a brilliant whole school anti-bullying programme, and was set up to help the children have fun at break times, support children in recognising incidents of bullying and how to work together to stamp it out for good. Children in Years five and six are invited to formally apply for the job of FAB Friend for a term. They are interviewed and six children are appointed and trained to work with lunchtime staff and the schools' learning mentor. At the end of each term, the FAB Friends produce a questionnaire, and working with the deputy head and learning mentor, analyse the results to monitor the childrens' opinion about the quality of playtimes and level of support the programme offers in stamping out bullying... FANTASTIC!

You can find out more about this wonderfully creative initiative at the schools' web-site at http://www.fieldheadcarr.leeds.sch.uk/. Fieldhead Carr Primary School was recently judged by OfSTED as a satisfactory school with several good and exemplary features. I suppose I saw the best of the school during my visit but for me this is a great little school where David Wisnia, the headteacher, and his team are doing some brilliant things and releasing a special kind of magic.
Chris

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