We were delighted to have a visit from Ye Olde Redtail Falconry today. For an hour and a half, Ray and his beautiful birds of prey kept us completely enthralled. Some of the children were even lucky enough to be part of the actual demonstration with the free flying birds and  we were grateful to Mr. Beckett who was a willing volunteer to hold a dead mouse as an early dinner for one of the hawks!

Both the infants and juniors are looking forward to their trips to RHS Wisley tomorrow and Thursday - more news to follow shortly.....

Day 2 of Enrichment week.....

Already the children have experienced "Science - the best bits" - a fascinating insight into what makes the world around us such a fascinating place. Today, it was "Zumba" and the children found it impossible to move without smiling - everyone is becoming very coordinated ! The children are looking forward to trying out their new moves at Thursday evening's Valentine disco.....

Tomorrow, Year 2 are off to Reading Museum, 12 children from Years 5 & 6 will be competing in an indoor athletics tournament, Years 3,4 & 5 will be having their own inter house tag rugby tournament and anyone else who is still left in school, will be trying their hand at kite making!!

Birthdays can be confusing............ When  you have a birthday and a party on 2 separate days, then it is a little bit like the Queen having an official and actual birthday... On that topic Mrs. Lakhani asked a Year 3 boy if he would be buying a yacht for the Queen, this year. Quick as a flash came the response, "Not with this debt crisis!" - a very sensible head on some young shoulders, I feel!

Meanwhile, back in the office, we are making the final arrangements for next week's enrichment activities. It promises to be packed with lots of fun events and for the first time, we are hoping that some parents will be able to join us for each of the events. We hope they will enjoy themselves as much as the children!

A touch of glitz and glamour came to The Priory this morning when we were treated to a display of Latin dances from former pupil Leah and her dance partner George. Leah and George, both 12 , delighted us as they jived and cha-cha-ed across the floor. They were certainly a credit to Neil and Sarka, their "Strictly School Dancing" coaches. Leah and George are already competing most weekends and some of our younger children will follow in their footsteps in the next few days when they take part in an inter schools competition. We wish them well and as Tess and Bruce say, "Keep Dancing"!

Later today, our footballers and netballers braved the drizzle at Silchester school. The games were played with great sportsmanship and we are pleased to report impressive victories in both the netball and football matches.

Showing prospective parents around the school is one of the perks of my job. The children are always keen to chat to visitors and they love to speak in glowing terms about life at The Priory. Naturally, they like to talk about the topics thay are currently studying and I was most impressed with Year 4's knowledge about rivers. They showed me that they know lots of very impressive vocabulary - tributary, estuary and confluence although the influence of a BBC comedian could perhaps be felt when "Miranda" was substituted for "meander"!!

Meanwhile in Year 2, the children are learning about the Battle of Hastings as part of their topic on castles. Means of communication were obviously quite sophisticated in 1066 as, according to one child, two of the chief protagonists "foned" (phoned) one another!

Today saw a return visit from the Brodowski String Quartet. They entertained the children (and staff) with 50 minutes of fantastic fun, games and music/ If it is possible to smile for 50 minutes, then we did just that !

But of course it's not just classical music that leaves a lasting impression. Obviously one of our Year R children has been listening to the radio as he treated Mrs. Collisson and me to a very acceptable version of a Justin Bieber track as he went happily down the corridor to the playground!

Sometimes Year R seem so small and not least when they are entangled in a football net! This lunch time, fortunately Mrs. Candy was on hand to rescue one little boy who somehaow had managed to get himself completely snarled up in the goal mouth! A crisis was averted and lunch time resumed happily!

We were pleased to welcome Kirsten (Mrs. Sowden)  and her husband, Darryl to school this lunchtime. They are the proud parents of Benjamin Christopher who made quite an impression in the staffroom. A smaller version of his daddy, Ben is very cute indeed and, who knows, in a few years time, he may be a Priory pupil, too?

Elsewhere in school, Year 3 have had a particularly busy day. This morning, they started their ukulele lessons with the "other Mrs. Kelly", Georgina's mum, and then this afternoon they, plus 6 Y2 children visited Asford Hill School to take part in an outside Mathematics trail. Apparently, great fun was had by all, although the trail was rather difficult (even for the accompanying adults!)

On days like today, The Priory looks particularly stunning. Early morning temperatures of -5 C produced a thick frost  which in some places has lingered until the middle of the day. The children, however, do not appear to feel the cold; perhaps because they are always on the move when outside. It is really only the heaviest of rain that keeps them inside!

Meanwhile, out in the rear playground, the new drop and drive arrangements in the morning are working very well. We are enjoying personally greeting parents and children  and we estimate that this is taking about 45 cars a day away from the front of the school, thus reducing congestion, improving traffic flow and keeping our children safe.

It is always nice when children feel able to experiment with language. Today, I have been wearing purple tights and a little girl in Year 3 felt that I looked " like a beetroot" - she continued with the agricultural image by describing my boots as "soil". Everyone had a good laugh - it was perhaps a particularly apt description as my dress has flowers on it, too!

Children, thankfully, are no longer "seen and not heard"!

Today saw the start of the Spring Term at The Priory. 2012 promises to be an historic year for London with the Summer Olympics and we hope, as a school, to celebrate in style!

Last term certainly ended on a high - we achieved an excellent position in the DfE Annual Performance tables, putting us in the top 1% of schools nationally. We hope to continue to hold such a high ranking status in 2012.

Despite the extremely windy weather today, the children returned in high spirits, eager to take part in this term's new topics. With only 2 months to go until the choir's performance at The O2 Arena, rehearsals were in full swing after school with the children getting to grips with the grand finale - a long Queen medley. There is almost as much emphasis on the dancing as there is on the singing and as one choir member said, "we don't just sing, we boogie!".....

Christmas is in full swing at The Priory. We are now in the middle of the "party season" and for some children, the excitement is all too much. For the first time ever, I have seen a little girl fall asleep whilst sitting up Still, only 2 more days to go...

Let's hope we don't have too much Christmas post left in the postbox this year. The children have been very good and have addressed the their cards to include last as well as first name. However today there was one card that was puzzling our Year 6 postmen . "Who's Mr. Shed?" one was heard to say to another. Fortunately, just the right person was at that very moment walking past - "I think you'll find that card is for Mrs. Head!" she said, took the card and went on her way.....