Monday April 23rd 2012

As we start another week at Copthorne the diary is full of so many, varied activities which help to support our children's learning and development and strengthen further our links with the community. This week, however, is also as sad one for our school as it is Mrs Strubing's last full week with us as, on Monday 3oth, she will be retiring from teaching after nearly 20 years with us.


Goodbye Mrs Strubing
Mrs Strubing began teaching at Copthorne in January 1996: 16 years ago! During her time with us Mrs Strubing has taught in 1 Ash, Reception, 3 Larch and, most recently, 4 Poplar. Very soon after joining us she became known by the pupils as a kind, caring teacher who valued every individual in her class and would always do her best to give her pupils interesting and exciting experiences.
Mrs Strubing has decided to take early retirement in order to spend more time with her daughters and grandchildren though we do hope that she manages to find some relaxation time for herself.
She will be very much missed by all Copthorne's children and staff but we hope she takes this opportunity to enjoy a much deserved rest. We wish you good luck for the future and hope that you will come back to visit us as often as possible.

Copthorne's Chicks
Spring has well and truly arrived here at Copthorne: all of our eggs have successfully hatched and our 9 chicks are cheeping away constantly. We all arrived at school last Wednesday morning to find that in addition to Charlie, who hatched late Tuesday afternoon, 8 more chicks had hatched during the night. 9 fluffy chicks and their eggs shells all crammed into the small incubator caused quite a commotion when we first saw them.
As soon as we arrived at school the chicks were transferred into their much larger home, which has a lamp to keep them snug and warm, where they were able to sleep and have their first taste of seeds and grain. They have had a constant stream of children coming to see them and help to care for them since their arrival.
Nearly one week on and it is amazing to see the change in them. They have all developed their own personalities and are now beginning to lose their down and grow real feathers. The staff and children have named the chicks as follows:


Charlie, Lola, Spike, Fluffy, Scruffy, Rosie, Violet, Betty and Zahra

Charlie hatching from his egg

Nearly there!

Charlie's out

All safe, sound and sleepy.

Lola - 5  days old

Violet - 5 days old

Charlie - 5 days old

Spike, Violet and Lola - 5 days old

Fluffy - 5 days old

A sleepy pile today!

We will be watching our chicks grow for at least one more week before they are sent off to their new homes in the countryside from where we'll be kept informed of their progress and supplied with the first egg that each one lays.                                                                                                                       

Ladies' Shopping Trip

This Saturday, 28th April, 72 mums', daughters, friends and members of staff from the Copthorne community will set off for a day of shopping in Birmingham. The day promises to be great fun and, I am told, there will be singing and dancing on the coach. Birmingham beware!

This event has been organised by our Home/School Liaison officer along with the Cothorne Association at the request of our families and the local community and is a lovely way of bringing the school and community together. I hope everyone has been saving up and that there's enough room in the coach for all the new clothes and, of course, shoes!

Nursery Farm Visit

On Thursday, the first of Nursery's trips to St Leonard's Farm will take place. The children, staff and parents/carers will spend the whole day there looking at all the animals. This promises to be lots of fun whilst supporting Nursery's theme of of farm animals and their core story 'The Little Red Hen'. I am sure that they will have a fabulous time and we look forward to hearing all about it when they return to school on Friday.

Supporting and developing future teachers

One of the many things we are proud of at Copthorne is our work with local teacher training colleges and universities. We take our responsibility to help develop the teachers of tomorrow and, therefore, provide a significant number of initial teacher training placements each year. In addition, this week, we welcome 15 student teachers from Bradford College.

The students will be observing teaching in Reception classes and getting to know the children focusing particularly on how their language develops. Then, in 4 weeks time, they will return to read stories to the children and observe the teaching further.

Another busy week at Copthorne!

I hope it's a good one for you too.

Mrs Shepherd