Posted on: Monday 20th November 2017
Last Friday we took our staff INSET programme to The Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley. ‘No school, so the staff can have a day out at the cinema?’ I hear you say… Yes! At The Phoenix, we turned our attention to developing our collective understanding of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how to best support […]
Posted on: Monday 13th November 2017
I was lucky enough to visit China last week, taking part in an education conference in the city of Hangzhou, a historic and very beautiful garden city two hours west of Shanghai. This really was an adventure into the unknown. With the knowledge that I would be teaching a class of 46 Chinese students in […]
Posted on: Thursday 9th November 2017
Parent Handbook We thought it would be a good idea to create a handbook for parents, new and established, to help guide you through life at Highgate Primary School. Of course, you can always chat to our lovely Office Team or your child’s teachers as well. As a reference and guide, we hope it is […]
Posted on: Monday 6th November 2017
In education, over the years, some things change and some things stay the same. Some things on the school curriculum go out of fashion, and come back in again, depending on which way the wind is blowing. Other things have been taught forever and continue to be taught in primary school today, capturing the imagination […]
Posted on: Monday 16th October 2017
Hooray for the statement put out last week by the head of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, ‘Schools in England are focusing on tests and exams, rather than giving pupils a good grounding in a wide range of subjects.’ She is absolutely right. Talking to colleagues, this is exactly what is happening in so many schools up […]
Posted on: Monday 9th October 2017
Having worked in education for quite a while now, I’ve seen an awful lot of stuff, of varying quality, come out of the Department for Education. But amongst this sea of initiatives, one document stands out amongst all others as eminently far-sighted and sensible; ‘Development Matters’. This document considers how adults working in the early […]
Posted on: Monday 2nd October 2017
Following last week’s excitement, it was interesting to see the latest consultation document from Ofsted. Its introduction states that ‘short inspections that immediately convert to full inspections have proven to be challenging for inspectors…’ One of Ofsted’s new proposals is that school’s that are thought to perhaps be outstanding are graded ‘Good’, and then re-inspected […]
Posted on: Monday 25th September 2017
It’s been quite a week at Highgate Primary School. On Monday morning our children in nursery and reception started school. You could feel the excitement of the children as they skipped in to what will be their home for the next seven years. The atmosphere in the early years was so special; you could sense […]
Posted on: Monday 18th September 2017
Although I will often struggle to remember things from last week, I am fortunate to have an unusually good memory for my early childhood. I can genuinely remember waiting outside the greengrocer in my pram; lying in the long grass having a 2-year-old tantrum and conversations I had with friends on the way home […]
Posted on: Monday 11th September 2017
I wonder how many members of our community actually know what an INSET Day is? For our children it’s definitely an Insect Day, possibly where teachers come to school to prepare lessons on those mythological creatures, ‘mini-beasts’. For parents it’s simply another day to wait before term starts. For teachers in some schools, I hear, […]
