SCHOOL DAYS: Gooderstone Primary - SEE PICTURES
School Days at Gooderstone Primary School - LtoR, Ronnie Eastick, Alfie Burge, Sophie Norman, Cioran Osborne, Summer Hird-Lewis, Zac McCallum.
THERE was a surprise in store when School Days went to interview staff and pupils at Gooderstone Primary School – the pupils had beaten us to it.
Interviewing was already underway as part of a Year 5 and 6 English lesson.
Robert Johns, 10, was questioning classmate Dan Fullilove, 10, about an incident based on a children’s story entitled Tuesday in which “frogs start flying on lilypads though a town”.
Dan said: “The frogs hit the sheets on my washing line and turned into mini-ghosts. And they used my sheets as capes and parachutes.”
Robert said: “The interviewer gets to ask the questions. I think it’s easier than having to give the answers but you should be a person who likes to talk a lot. I don’t really like talking that much.”
He added: “After we’ve done the interview, we have to write it up our English books.”
The class also watched School Days interviewing teaching assistants Shirley Jones and Stephanie Lord, who specialise in art and design.
Mrs Jones enjoys her work so much she still regularly “attends” school at the age of 70. She said: “I started out by helping as a mum. I sometimes think of retiring but I still enjoy working with the children.”
Miss Lord, 39, who trained in textiles at the Norwich School of Art, said: “I enjoy seeing the children being inspired by each new project we do.”
Especially successful was a hats and fascinators project at the time of last year’s royal wedding. “We put on a fashion show at the end with a catwalk and music – the whole works,” she said.
Former Gooderstone pupil Mark Chalkley has now returned to the school as a sports apprentice as part of a Loughborough College course. Headteacher David Baldwin said: “He is here full-time for a year. To have a young male in the school who is good with younger ones is fantastic. We are really lucky.”
Mark, 23, works with all the children, supporting the curriculum through physical activities and outdoor sessions, including using playground games to teach numbers and phonics.
He said: “I think it works really well. I don’t think the children realise they are learning.” He also helps older pupils improve their social interaction and provides physiotherapy for a pupil with lax ligament syndrome.
“I’m really enjoying it. It’s varied and rewarding work because you can see the children improving” he said.
The school is taking part in a Virtual Olympics project, focusing on a different activity each week. Mr Baldwin said: “This week it’s a hula hoop challenge. We have discovered two or three pupils who are fantastic at hula-hooping and several members of staff who are completely atrocious.” Coming weeks will see the children throwing bean bags into “Olympic” hoops and stacking cups, which helps develop their motor skills.
Girls in Year 6 have a special link with East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices and hope to visit the hospice at Quidenham this year. Jodie Bell, 10, said: “They make the last days of children’s lives happy ones.”
Briony Clark, 11, said: “We are raising money for EACH by making badges to sell in the playground.”
Alisha Reeves, 10, said: “We are making jewellery as well and have made bracelets with beads and elastic.”
At the end of last year, the school was graded as outstanding by Ofsted and Mr Baldwin paid tribute to the team effort by staff, children, governors and parents. Few areas for improvement were left but Mr Baldwin said: “One of the areas was the work we do with children from different cultural backgrounds. We will be looking at forging links with other schools in the country.”
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Weather for King's Lynn
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
