Posted on: Wednesday 11th December 2019
Make a Donation Friends of Highgate Primary Fund Due to the erosion of school funding over the last decade, we need to raise funds which will be ring-fenced to ensure children can continue to enjoy the enrichment and broad curriculum that make our school so special. Giving can be through a one-off donation or through smaller […]
Posted on: Wednesday 4th December 2019
With ever more pressure on children to ‘achieve’, other things will inevitably become squeezed. Add to this a collective fear of what might happen if children play unsupervised and we have a national crisis – high quality, joyful, uninhibited play is under threat This is of concern because play lies at the heart of […]
Posted on: Friday 22nd November 2019
On occasions, when things aren’t going so well for a child, I’ll often find myself asking the question, ‘why have you come to school today?’ It’s a good question guaranteed to make a child think – and it will elicit a range of responses. The response in most cases is to say, ‘To learn?’, answered […]
Posted on: Thursday 7th November 2019
With the new inspection framework out there, it seems that schools around the country have gone into overdrive writing and reviewing their curriculums to ensure it measures up when the inspector calls. It seems desperately sad that it takes a change at the top of Ofsted for schools to feel the need to create a […]
Posted on: Wednesday 30th October 2019
I attended a conference recently that addressed the big question of how education can prepare children for a future in which the majority of jobs do not yet even exist. What are these jobs of the future that everyone is talking about? Of course, nobody knows. I imagine in an increasingly automated world, there will […]
Posted on: Wednesday 9th October 2019
It’s been a long time in the planning, fundraising and building, but last night the teaching staff stayed behind after school to try out our new cookery classroom. We weren’t the first to use it as on Monday those pesky children in Year 1 beat us to it, cooking up a rather delicious blackberry […]
Posted on: Wednesday 25th September 2019
Hearing people say ‘I told you so’ too often can become rather tiresome, but on this occasion, I’m pleased to say that I was right and they were wrong – and even more satisfying when the ‘they’ is Ofsted. To see, in black and white, that Ofsted has manoeuvred a rather public U-turn with regard […]
Posted on: Thursday 12th September 2019
As a teacher, I once was given a T-shirt which listed all the different jobs that teachers do. Unfortunately it was rather too embarrassing to wear, so it went in a special place – along with my ‘World’s Best Teacher’ spoon and my ‘Best Teacher Ever’ mug. These days there is an equally long list […]
Posted on: Monday 10th June 2019
This week is a really significant week for five and six year olds up and down the country, a week that will most likely determine their whole future. Pass the phonics screener and academic success is ensured, a university place guaranteed – because phonics is the key to being an effective reader. Each child in […]
Posted on: Friday 7th June 2019
Art Exhibition Fundraiser What a fantastic evening – thank you to everyone who donated, supported and joined in the fun. All funds raised will go towards our new cookery studio. You can read more about the evening here. The Live Auction: Here are some of the stunning artwork that was featured in the live auction […]
