If you are an optimist – if you have an optimistic view on life and if you are full of optimism, you see the best in the world. the word derives from the Latin ‘optimus’ which means the best – and it’s lovely to want and to be the best. I hope that all Ivanhoe children have an optimistic outlook because positive thinking can do wonders…

Our other words this week are as follows: pharmaceutical (G), which means relating to medicinal drugs or their preparation – so you go to a pharmacy or a chemist to get your medicines; supersede (L), which means when one thing is replaced by another – it has been superseded; isthmus (G), which is a strip of land between two bodies of water; apprehensive (L) – which means you are a bit nervous of something; and acquisition (L) – which means you have got something.

Try and use one or more of these words in your writing this week…

We are going back to having a word of the week – both at KS1 and KS2 and the word of the week for KS2 is innocuous. This word comes from the Latin innocuus: in meaning ‘not’ and nocuus  meaning ‘injurious or harmful’ so innocuous means – not harmful, like safe or harmless. The antonym of innocuous is ‘harmful’. You could use it like this: ‘don’t take it to heart, it was an innocuous remark’ or ‘that wasn’t a penalty, it was an innocuous clash.’

We also were given the word, phosphorescent which means glowing without heat, inquisitive, which means curious or showing an interest. In addition, we had stooping which means with your head and shoulders forwards and downwards, and impertinent, which means rude, or not showing the proper respect.

Why not try to blog a sentence using one of these words (or several sentences using them all…)

Teachers have been thinking a lot recently about how we can make sure that children go on some amazing and wonderful trips while they are at this school. We want to know what parents, children and teachers think are things that ALL CHILDREN should experience by the time they leave primary school. Some things that teachers have said include a theatre trip, a zoo trip, a visit to a stately home, looking for fossils in Whitby, a foreign residential, a trip to a lighthouse and so on. Mr Brian thinks that all children should visit a Cathedral…

I would like to know what children have done that they thought was wonderful and that they would like other children to experience or what they would like to do – but bear in mind that it mustn’t be too far away. Please blog them and you never know, it might be an idea that we use so that ALL CHILDREN enjoy it.

We are definitely coming up to Christmas – we now have less than three weeks to the end of term. I am looking forward to Christmas Jumper day and Christmas dinner on the 14th December and the Nativity, the church service, the Christmas parties – and maybe even a visit from Father Christmas :-).

My favourite part of Christmas is seeing how excited my children are. Jude was incredibly excited just at the thought of opening his advent calendar on Saturday – he was jumping up and down with the excitement! Last year, on Christmas Eve, we actually went to see Santa in Wentworth and Jude was completely enthralled by the experience. My favourite thing leading up to Christmas, is putting on the radio and hearing Christmas pop songs from the past – I love them. I also love standing in St Peter’s Church and imagining all the people that have stood in that church in the past 1000+ years as I look at all of KS2 sitting there. I love Christmas – what do you love about it – let us all know.

I went to Norfolk during the half-term holidays for a few days in a caravan in Hunstanton. It was lovely to be away with the boys, though it could get pretty cold at times – and one morning, the electricity switched off and we had to wait a while until someone came to fix it while we sat under duvets, shivering.

One of the things Jude really loves about being in Hunstanton, is going on the 2p slots at the arcades. He spent ages trying to win a large, pink ‘gem’ from one machine – he was so determined to win it and wouldn’t stop until he had achieved his aim. I really quite admired his ‘stickability’ – he was not giving up until he had succeeded. In the same manner, when I taught my Y4/5 class this morning, we started with handwriting – and I could see some children with the same determination as Jude, really putting everything into the task – and they were the ones that succeeded :-).

What is it that you are going to try hard with this term? What are you going to keep woking at until you succeed. Jude ‘won’ a big, glass gem – but you will be winning something better as it will help you get the best education that you can. Tell us about it – and you might even win an extra play…

The first day back in September is such a special day for teachers and children alike – it is a day when we can look back to the freedom of the holidays and look forward to a brilliant year ahead: I was greeted with ‘Happy New Year’ by a member of staff this morning, and I know what they meant.

I had a fabulous holiday in Norfolk with my boys; the weather was great and we were on the beach every day, almost up to sunset. We also went camping…when it rained all night, and I went to London with Stella to see a play in the Globe Theatre.

What did you get up to? What was the best part of the holidays for you…holidays can never be as much fun as school, but they give us some happy memories – please share them.

Well – we are on day1 of a transition period that takes us up to the end of term – so congratulations all you Y2 children who are now juniors and the Y4 and Y5 children who are now Y5/6 and choosing their own uniform colour :-).

I would like to know what you all think of this experience. There are hardly any schools in the whole country that do this – but we want to be better than most schools, which is why we have tried this. It should mean that when we begin school in September, you already know your teacher and they know very well how to make lessons a success for you.

Please blog and let us all know how you are enjoying this… I included the picture below because that’s when our new Y6 were in Nursery: that is how quickly time passes…

At the moment of writing, the Just Giving page at school has raised £3,251 of the £4,000 that we hoped to achieve. Last Friday, just one person donated £1,000 – which is amazing!!!

Getting to the £4,000 mark is not easy, and we are all working hard to achieve it because it is really important to try to succeed when you have set yourself something difficult to do. This weekend, I tried to change an area of garden into a paved area at my house and it was VERY DIFFICULT INDEED :-(. My problem was that the paving stones I was using were massive and very heavy – so moving them was extremely hard, but then getting them into position was very hard as well. By the end of four hours work I had got myself sweaty, tired and covered in dirt but only managed three paving stones (three more to do.) When have you been faced with something difficult and how did you manage to beat it? Let us know and we can encourage others to keep going and not to give up…

Last year, the school supported Cancer Research UK by some children and some members of staff giving up sugar in February.This year, the staff are not going to do it in the same organised way, but I certainly will be going sugar free, and I would like to encourage children to do the same. February starts on Thursday of this week!

The first benefit from eating less sugar is that sugar is bad for your teeth! Having just had a tooth out last week, I know how important it is to look after them – your teeth will have to last you a lifetime. When I give up sugar I give up cakes, biscuits, sweets, ice cream, fizzy drinks, pudding and all those things that are obviously bursting with sugar which means that I tend to eat more foods that are healthy – so instead of a cake, I might have a satsuma so that I might get natural sugars instead of refined sugar. There are all sorts of health benefits associated with giving up (or cutting down on) refined sugar – and it makes you think about your diet, which is something we all should do.

So, do you think you will be joining me? What do you think will be hard to give up? How determined do you think you will be to stick it out.