Welcome to Miss Offord’s Blog

It’s been lovely to see everyone back in school this week and finally the weather is warming up and we’ll get our playtimes back! I hope all our children who received trips as a reward for good attendance, enjoy themselves.

Miss Offord

Well it looks like the freeze is going to last another week at least but it will be business as usual at Birchfields. We have had a great two days of learning and exciting new snowy experiences in school. All the children who have made it into school are still in the running for our attendance prize but even better they are having the advantage of resuming their learning after the winter break. All of our staff have made it to school even those living in Lancashire and Derbyshire well done to everyone! Lets hope that we have ALL of our pupils back with us on Monday – we miss you!

Miss Offord

I just wanted to share the comment left by our Chair of Governors with all of you:

Hello

Just would like to say a big 'Well done' and 'Thank you' to all the staff, parents
and pupils for coming in to school today (Thursday 7 January 2010). Everyone of you
is to be congratulated.
 
Leader of Manchester City Council Sir Richard Leese said: "Manchester has risen to
the challenges posed by the extreme weather" and I can say that Birchfields Primary
School definitely falls into this category. The decision to open the school today
was also endorsed by Sir Richard who went on to add that "Many more schools are open
today and, while it is a decision for headteachers, I expect schools to be open
unless there are exceptional circumstances." Sir Richard's statement that
"Manchester residents have proved that community spirit is alive and well by helping
their neighbours through the cold snap." was also highlighted by some of Birchfields
parents and ex-pupils who came into school to help the headteacher, Ms Offord, and
some members of staff to clear up the snow yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 6 January
2010) when the school was closed.

Rabnawaz
Chair of Governors

Welcome back to the new term at Birchfields, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. What a shame that we have had to close the school today. This is the worst weather I’ve ever experienced in Manchester and I had to consider everyone’s safety. I’m hoping we’ll be back in school very soon and look forward to seeing you all then.

Miss Offord

We would like to start a monthly meeting when parents can come into school and talk about an issue with Mr Akbar our Chair of Governors and I. The first meeting will be in December, when we will be talking about playtimes. If any parents or children have any comments about playtime would you please add them to this blog so that I can try to sort out any problems.

Thank you,

Miss Offord

We’ve had a good start to our second half term this week. I have been especially pleased with all the hard work that some of you have been putting in over the holidays, which shows great enthusiasm for your learning so well done!!

Unfortunately, I had to go to my Grandparents funeral over half term. However it was a chance to celebrate their lives – my Grandma was 92 years old and my Grandad 97 years old and they had been married for 70 years. After they retired they worked for many years for 2 charities Age Concern and Oxfam. It made me think of all the people in their generation who had to live through the first and second world wars and how much we owe to the older people in our society. Next week we will be remembering especially the people who fought in the first world war as the last people who fought in that war died this year too. Maybe we could make a special effort next week to help the older people in our family and ask them what life was like before we were born.

Miss Offord

Well, we are coming to the end of our first half term and the weeks seem to have flown by. Everyone is settled in their new classes and all our new staff and pupils have fitted into Birchfields really well. We have had our parents meetings and celebrated Eid and Diwali. We also held a really successful European Language Day. So well done everyone for a good start to the school year.
Miss Offord

Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all looking forward to the exciting activities that are planned for tomorrow’s European Language Day. We are lucky at Birchfields that many of our children, parents and staff are bilingual and we will be celebrating many different languages tomorrow. We will have a special assembly on Monday to show what we have learned. I can’t wait!
Miss Offord

Happy New Year to all the staff and pupils at Birchfields. We have had a great start to the year and all of our new staff and children have settled in really well. It was a funny day to start the year (Thursday). But I was really impressed with everyone who made it into school punctually on the first day. I have set myself the learning challenge of being able to speak and understand some Urdu and to read a story in Urdu by July. Lots of children, parents and staff have promised to help me so I’m hoping I will be able to meet my challenge. As a school we have really improved in reading and mathematics but our writing is letting us down. If you haven’t thought of a learning challenge yet; perhaps it could be to improve some aspect of your writing. I’m also hoping to write in this blog more often! I will be dropping in to every class over the next few days to see how everyone is settling in. So good luck to everyone with your learning challenges this year.

Miss Offord

I have just been at the Y3,4,5 Sports Day and it was absolutely terrific. The parade was very colourful and everyone was very sporting. Well done to Water who won with 212 points.

We are getting close to the end of term now and I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone at Birchfields who have worked so hard to make this our most successful year ever. Standards are up in every year group, attendance is up and our teaching staff are teaching outstanding lessons.

I am looking forward to the Leavers Assembly next week and I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Miss Offord x