What an amazing year –and all over already! I cannot believe that it is the end of another academic year at Millfields, and for me a  special anniversary,  as the end of this term, marks the end of my 25th year at Millfields as NQT, class teacher, subject leader, SENCO, Deputy Head and for the last 5 years,  Head teacher. It has been an amazing journey and I feel extremely privileged to have worked with so many talented, committed and special individuals in all areas of the school. And I feel especially privileged to have worked with so many brilliant children and their families and I truly feel like a part of this community. Thank you to everyone who I have met on my way –you have made it such a great job to come to every single day.

And this year, there have been so many great events and so many curriculum learning highlights, that I do not know where to begin. We started this week by the Year 5 children winning the Inter-London Chess tournament –they were brilliant and really made us all proud of the way they have taken on the challenge of learning to play chess this year, and then developed the skills needed to play competitively. Well done to all the children in Year5, but especially the ones who competed and won! We will be continuing this initiative in Year 5 again next year.

Also this week, the children from the Arsenal Double Club made their annual trip to the Emirates Stadium as their end of year treat. We found out that Millfields is actually the longest-serving school that has been committed to this football and learning club that children love! Thank you to Sharon and Dwayne for all their support and enthusiasm. (Of course it is probably quite easy for them as they are Arsenal fans!)

Year 3 children rounded off their topic on the Tudors this week, by holding a special Tudor Banquet that was organised by the teachers and Leea, our Catering Manger. They all looked the part and certainly tucked in to a very authentic meal and drank pints of ale! (non-alcoholic of course!)

And if your ever need your car washed –look no further because the Nursery and Reception classes have been running their very own car-washing enterprise over the last 2 weeks. The child have had a fantastic time visiting the local carwash, and then washing staff cars in the school playground. They had great fun and learnt about managing their own business at the same time.

Finally, we were all treated to the Year 6 end of year show, and what an outstanding performance it was too! The children (and staff), all worked so hard to produce, Joseph the musical, probably the best show we have seen for many years. There were plenty of staff and parents with a tear in their eye. Well done Year6, and hope that you will all have a good break before embarking on the next part of your learning journey at secondary school. You have been an amazing group of children to work with, so I hope you will come back to let us know how you are getting on. Good luck!

And last, but certainly not least, we are saying a heart-felt goodbye and a huge ‘thank you’ to some members of staff who are moving on to many varied and exciting ventures in the UK and the rest of the world! Farewell to teachers -Leon, Cheryl, Gemma, Nicole, Clyde and Sara, and to support staff –Omrum, Emma, James, Mahalia and Claire. I know you will join me in thanking them for all their work at Millfields, and wishing them all good luck for the future!

Have a great summer break, and see you on Wednesday 3rd September. Best Wishes, Jane

Thank you to everyone in the community who came to support the school at the Summer Fair last Saturday. Despite the threat of rain, we managed to enjoy lots of lovely food, tried to win prizes on lots of games and had great fun buying lovely gifts. The sun did come out briefly and was met by a cheer fro the crowds that attended. Thank you to Paula Hughes –Chair of the PSA and all the other parents and committee members who worked so hard to ensure it all ran smoothly –setting up and clearing up at the end of the day too.  It looks like we have made a grand total of nearly £4000, which is fantastic, so thank you to you all.

Following the Summer Fair, lots of the local community gathered at Millfields Park for a football match which is now an annual event, in memory of one of our parents and well-known member of the local community –Solly Vesamia. Rushmore and Millfields parents played a hard fought football match that saw Millfields 2-1 victors! It was lovely to see so many of the local community gather to raise money for the Homerton Hospital -the total raised is now over £1200 so thank you for all your support.

We have also had a busy week with other events in the community. Members of the Millfields and Hackney Cycling Clubs spent the day at the Olympic Park and watched the Tour de France and took part is all the special events that had been organised. The children, parents and staff that attended had a great day, and will certainly remember the event for many years to come.

Thank you also to all the parents that came to Parents’ Evening to discuss your child’s end of Year Annual Report. The vast majority of feedback on the report evaluations has been very positive, and we appreciate all the comments and your time in completing the form. Thank you also for all the questionnaires that were completed during Parents’ Evening –we have had a huge response this year with over 120 forms returned. The comments will be collated and any issues raised or comments made will be responded to and reported to parents who are interested—we will inform you when a copy is available from the office.

Finally, the children have all met their new teachers for next year today. We have lots of new staff joining us in September as some of our teachers are moving on to pastures new. Welcome to Emma Ruane –Y1 teacher, Wayne Freeman –Y2 teacher, Alison Taylor –Y3 teacher, Mathew Otto –Y4 teacher, Keli Tawiah –Y6 teacher and Kingsley Fry –Y6 teacher. I am sure that your children will tell you all about them later, and you will of course have an opportunity to meet them at the beginning of the new term. Also, for the academic year 2014-15 the names of each class has changed. Classes are no longer the names of Olympic Cities, but are named after British Cities –please ask your child which city their class represents! Also, over the summer break we have set a homework challenge for the children to find out interesting facts about the city, and maybe find postcards, pictures or other souvenirs from the place. I hope that some of you may even be able to visit the city –although Belfast or Glasgow may be a bit too far! The full list of classes is on the inside of the Mag.

Finally, I hope that Year 6 parents will all be able to attend the end of year performance of ‘Joseph and his techni-colour dream coat’ on Wednesday 16th  July at 7pm.

Have a good weekend. Best Wishes, Jane

The school and a children's Centre is closed today due to industrial action, in the form of a strike, by both teaching and support staff unions.

The School and Children Centre will be open again as usual on Friday 11th July.

We have had an exciting week of enrichment activities, as we have celebrated ‘Speaking and Listening’ as a very important part of the curriculum. All of the children have taken part in drama workshops led by external providers that we will hopefully be using for PPA cover next year. The feedback from the pupils has been really good and the engagement and enjoyment levels have been very high. It has been amazing to hear all the children and some of the staff learning and reciting poetry this week. All of the classes had an opportunity today to share poems in assemblies, and there was a grand final yesterday for each key stage. The judging panel that was made up of Diane Abbot MP, Susannah Hamilton –actress, and Gordon Murray –Parent Governor and lecturer at Winchester University had a really tough job choosing the winners. Well done to the overall winners –Sebastian Quinn, Louise Nginamau, Charlotte Eastwood-Grey and Lilah Forde. They each received a signed performance poetry book, DVD, certificate and small trophy! All of the finalists also received a certificate, so well done them too!We have also seen two lovely sharing assemblies today from Calgary Class and Moscow Class –the children all performed well and showed off all the exciting work and activities that they have been doing in class. Well done!Last Friday evening the Year 6 pupils had their ‘Leavers Prom’. A group of the Year 6 parents worked really hard to make the top hall look fabulous, and the children had a brilliant time dancing, eating and having fun. A special ‘thank you’ to Ann-Marie Dawkins –Romario’s mum who planned and organised the whole event. The staff and pupils all had a great time.The Arsenal Double Club visited the Emirates Stadium this week as part of their end of year treat for all the hard work at the after-school club this year. Thank you to Sharon and Dwayne who organised the day and work hard every week, making the club so popular and such a success.Reminder: It is the Summer Fair tomorrow -Saturday 5th July –starting from 11am until 3pm. Thank you to all the parents, especially the Chair –Paula Hughes and all the committee members  who have been working so hard over the last few weeks to bring it all together. I know it will be a fantastic community event as always, and hope to see lots of you there. The money raised will continue to fund playground developments. Also to update you on the playground improvement programme, the next stage of the changes will begin on the first day of the summer holidays. There will be a new entrance area and a staging area, and the current stage area will be adapted as the first stage in redesigning this area too. Thank you to parent, Linda Culverwell for all her work on this so far –she has been amazing!Again  a reminder that there may be a strike on THURSDAY 10th JULY which means that some classes may be closed to pupils. I will let you know on Monday  7th July of the final decision.Also, you may already know, that the ‘Tour de France’ is going to be passing through Hackney on Monday 7th –there  will be road closures to the area towards the Olympic stadium, for most of the day, so please make sure you take this in to account when travelling to and from school and work that day. The children from Millfields who are going to attend the event will tell us all about it in the Mag next week. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and that I see you at the Summer Fair.

Best Wishes, Jane.

The sports theme continues this week, as we recognise the amazing efforts by Millfields pupils, parents and staff at the Hackney Half Marathon last Sunday. Well done to everyone that took part in the run itself and I know that you all had an amazing rest of the day enjoying the sunshine, games, big screen, food and fun that was part of the wider event. This is a fantastic achievement for Hackney, and the Millfields community was very proud to be part of it! Thank you to Heidi for organising everyone, including leading the pre-event morning runs before school, collecting monies and distributing t-shirts etc, as well as taking part on the day –much appreciated.

Also, you may be aware that on Monday 7th July, the Tor de France will be passing through Hackney, and there will again be celebrations and fun to be had at the Olympic Park velodrome and surrounding area. There will be a big screen “Spectator Hub” on the North Park, which will show the race from Cambridge through to the finish point at the Mall. The approximate timings for this are 11am to 5pm. It is free of charge and un-ticketed. Estimated timings for the Tour coming through Queen Elizabeth Park area are as follows:

13:26 - Tour’s Publicity Caravan arrives  (a convoy of floats, vehicles and entertainers who travel ahead of the race handing out promotional goodies)

15.11 – fastest cyclists arrive. The children from Millfields Cycle Club will be visiting and will have the opportunity to cycle the cycle tracks, so we look forward to hearing all about it.

Also, I am sure that you are all aware by now that it is Millfields Summer Fair on Saturday 5th July. We are as ever looking for donations and volunteers to help before, during and after the event. Please email Paula Hughes –PSA Chair on polly0309@gmail.com if you can help in any way. We need face painters, stall organisers, henna artists and nail artists. There will be a table in the playground all next week to receive donations for toy stall, book stall, tombola, water/wine stall. Please have a good look over the weekend and see if you have any unwanted gifts, tins, boxes of food etc. And of course we are looking forward to seeing everyone at the event next Saturday.Let’s hope that the sun will be shining!

I am also pleased that the rain has stayed away today as some of the Year 3 children are taking part in the City of London Children’s  Parade. The children were very excited as they left with their costumes this morning. I hope that they have a brilliant time and look forward to hearing all about it! Thank you to Hellin who has organised Millfields taking part in this special event.

It is already that time of year when we are looking to September and new classes and teachers.  Transition Day is ion Friday 11th July, so your children will meet their new teacher and spend some time in their new classroom that day.

Again  a reminder that there may be a strike by lots of unions on THURSDAY 10th JULY. I will of course keep you informed and will not be able to make a final decision on whether the school will be able to stay open or not on that day when the results of the balloted members is announced.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Best Wishes, Jane

We have had a fantastic week of sporting activities and the weather has been kind for once during Millfields’ Sports Week. Thank you to all the parents who came to cheer on their children during the different sports days on Hackney Downs, and well done to all the parents and carers and staff who took part in races and the tug of war. The children will be awarded with certificates and medals in celebration assemblies over the next few days. Marc and Jack from the LONDON Football Academy organised and led the sports days brilliantly, so thank you to them for all the hard work behind the scenes and on the day! Also, just to say that we do always appreciate all the positive comments about how much the children have enjoyed the activities on offer, so thank you,  and we have also taken on board concerns around the timings of the sports days and when parents are able to attend -we will be taking this in to account when planning Sports Days next year.

Another huge ‘thank you’, to the PE teachers and Y11 Sports Ambassadors from Clapton Academy who have led the morning aerobic sessions this week. The children from reception to Year 6 have all taken part in a morning wake-up routine, and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience as well as being awake and alert to start their learning in class afterwards. I will be looking at organising this as a regular morning before-school activity in the Autumn term.The children have been delighted with the range of activities on offer, and have taken part in the following as part of sports and healthy living activities this week: netball, badminton, football, swimming, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, biduco, yoga, multi-sports, skipping and personal bests. Every year we try to introduce new sports for the children to try and hope that they may want to continue as individuals or that we, as a school may continue some of the most popular activities in school or as after-school clubs. We will be asking for more feedback at Parents Evening on Wednesday 9th July.

Also this week, swimmers from Years 4, 5 and 6 took part in the Hackney Swimming Gala. The children have been practicing before school, with a particular focus on participating in a race –how to turn, and how to start races. The children did Millfields proud and brought back several medals including gold, silver and bronze for different races!

Also this week, the Year 1 children have completed their Phonics Screening tests –this is a national statutory test for all Year 1 pupils, that asks the child to read real and nonsense words to ensure that they have acquired the basic phonics skills that help them to read. Well done –you have really worked hard in your learning. Well done also, to all the Year 2 children who are finishing up their KS1 SATS tests this week –these test the children’s reading comprehension, maths and writing skills. They have also worked really hard and tried their very best!

We have also just had notification that there may be a strike by lots of unions on THURSDAY 10th JULY. I will of course keep you informed and will not be able to make a final decision on whether the school will be able to stay open or not on that day.

Finally, good luck to all the Hackney Challenge runners this weekend! I know all the before-school training on Tuesday and Thursdays will pay off! I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best Wishes, Jane

We know it was the start of the World Cup yesterday, but football fever arrived early at Millfields, as on Tuesday, the FA Cup that was won by Arsenal this year, visited Millfields. The children from the Arsenal Double Club, that is run by Sharon and Dwayne in conjunction with Arsenal Football Development Team, were delighted to be able to have their photograph taken with the FA Cup and actually touch it! Then lots of the other children in classes from across the school came to look at, pose with and touch the famous trophy! Their photographer will be sending through his photographs in the next week or so if any parents would like copies. This visit was organised because Millfields has one of the longest associations with Arsenal Double Club. It runs after school every week, and is a mixture of football skills as well as Literacy and Maths skills. Please see Ifeoma for more details if your child would like to join in September

Also, as World Cup fever takes hold, Millfields will be getting in to the sporting spirit next week as Sports Week commences, followed by a World Cup inter-class football competition during the week beginning 23rd June. Please remember that your child should be wearing sports clothing every day next week, as we start each day with the  much-loved daily aerobics sessions in the playground. In addition to the Sports Days, there will also be lots of other activities happening including additional swimming lessons, basketball, Biduco, skipping, personal bests, tennis, badminton, gymnastics and netball. The timings of each year groups’ sports days has already gone out, but please check the school noticeboards for all the details or check with the main office.The children and staff always have really good fun during sports week, so let’s hope that the weather holds and we have a glorious week of sport! There will be more details of the football tournament coming soon.

We also have a new theme week coming up during the week beginning 30th June –it will be ‘Speaking and Listening’ Week. Part of this week will involve a poetry competition that is open for all children to enter –please ask your children to start thinking about whether they would like to take part and start learning their favourite poem off by heart.

You should have received the ballot form with candidates for Parent Governor but a reminder–the voting is taking place now until 18th June. Please come to the main office and see Heidi to cast your vote, or look out for the Parent Governors in the playground.

Another reminder please -now that the weather is getting hotter, please make sure that your child wears appropriate clothing and footwear –open sandals or shoes are a health and safety issue, so please try to wear alternative summer shoes. Also, please bring labelled sun cream and leave with the class teacher if your child needs it. See the Sun Safety Policy on the website and the top tips inside the Mag for more information.

And finally, the Leadership Team have been looking at the children’s learning this week by observing classes during Topic lessons. We have some brilliant learning taking place and have seen the children really engaging and enjoying their tasks.

Have a good weekend.
Best Wishes, Jane