Aspirations Week!
Aspirations Week was wonderful because so many people visited to tell the children about their work and hobbies. They explained how important education has been to them and inspired children to think about their hopes for the future. The main themes were self-belief and determination and we were reminded about our ‘Yes you can!’ approach to school life.
Mr Howell from the Forestry Commission talked to the children about the minerals and mining in the Forest of Dean and explained that the Forestry Commission deals with more than trees. He shared his love of his subject and his knowledge about how people work to look after the local area.
Jamie McDonald was inspirational! He talked about his battle with illness as a child and his epic fundraising run across Canada and bike ride from Asia back to Gloucester Hospital. He explained that anyone can achieve a goal if they put their mind to it and stay determined. He has since written a book about his adventures, called Adventureman, which also inspired the children.
Mr Morris shared his love of flying as he is a British Airways pilot. He showed lots of photos of planes and explained the instruments panel and technical facts about flying. He also explained about the courses and training he did to achieve his goal of becoming a pilot.
Mrs Mellor from Dene Magna School came in to explain about different courses and careers, as she is a careers teacher at secondary school. She was very interested in hearing what our children aspired to be!
Mr Cotterell showed lots of meteorites, fossils and crystals, speaking about geology and working at Cardiff Museum. It was great to welcome him again as part of the museum’s outreach work with schools to promote STEM (science, technology and mathematics). The children remembered him coming to our last Aspirations Week and some have been collecting fossils since then!
Mrs Fawkes and Kevin, her dance partner, demonstrated four dances-two ballroom and two Latin. Mrs Fawkes explained to the children that she took up dancing a few years ago as she had always aspired to do it. She has to practice a lot and show determination as the dances are tricky. We were very impressed!
Mrs Maxwell explained that at the age of 15, she aspired to be a maths teacher. She shared photographs and stories of her time at school and her graduation ceremony. She explained how she worked as an accountant then was determined to retrain as a maths teacher. She is starting her teaching post in September! Congratulations and thank you for sharing your ‘journey’ with us!
We were visited by Jono and Aaron, two local firefighters, who brought a fire engine and fire fighting equipment to show the children. They explained how the equipment was used and children realised how important their skills and jobs are. Thank you to Mrs Tippins and her brother for organising this for the children.
Mrs Hoare showed her trophies from horse dressage and explained to Fallow Deer class that she works hard but loves working with her horse. She talked about how she looks after her horse and that she had always wanted to do this hobby since being a child.
On Friday afternoon, Mr Cordell brought two barn owl chicks and a kestrel to show the children. He explained that when he was in primary school, he loved learning about science and nature and aspired to be a falconer, as a hobby. Mr Cordell shared that he has worked hard in the airforce and as a builder as well as developing a wealth of knowledge, training and experience about falcons. Mr Cordell summed up our Aspiration Week by saying that dreams can come true if you are passionate and work hard.
Rachel Shilston spent three days with us creating a beautiful mosaic as a long-lasting reminder of our Aspirations Week. She used our children’s ideas for the design and the picture is based on an oak tree, which represents us as a community as well as education. The tree’s trunk represents all the staff who support the children; the green leaves are our growing children! Our school value of FRIENDSHIP is on the mosaic as well as two children holding hands, to represent our community. On the leaves, numbers and letters represent the learning that takes place here. The mosaic is displayed on the hut wall so that all children can see and touch it at playtimes. All are welcome to come and see it! The design can be seen below.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to Aspirations Week and for supporting our love of learning. Children have been writing letters of thanks to our visitors this week.