Monday 25 July 2016

Day 2 of the Summer

Friday was day 1. I never count the weekends as we get those anyway. 
Guess where I'm going today....WORK! Just popping in to move some stuff in preparation for my new role in September and to do some illicit printing! 

The last week of term was mad! It was so hot. I spent about 50 hours, going through 5000 photographs making the end of term tear jerker Y6 Leaver's videos. It was a great success. Maximum parental crying ensued and the children were sobbing messes! The songs I went with in the end...started with Keane - Everything's Changing and ended with M People - Moving on up. They fit the photos and the children perfectly. I wish I could share it with you! The best reactions went to the Then and Now photos. The children did not know why I was getting them to pose in these certain ways last week ( and some staff came in on them too! ) but absolutely LOVED the end results!! Most of the then photos were from my PHSE lessons in Y1 when I was HLTA ing and we did lots of acting and stuff around relationships and friendships. We also held our Oscars night where the children get dressed up in their finest attire and are awarded their awards. We base them on the Mr Men books so the children each get a title. The hall was decorated, by two parent helpers, out in black and gold. 
The children get to walk up the red carpet. They each read out their Thank you speech and I got so many mentions and Thank yous, my favourite being thanked for being funny! They have mocktails in cocktail glasses with fancy straws etc. They eat and watch montages of their year. At the end, the parents collect them and we release balloons and they plant a tree to mark their time at school. There was also the Leaver's Service in church and then one back at school. 

Even though I never expect anything, this year's cards and gifts were so thoughtful and lovely. All chocolate is gratefully received and wait until you see the innards from the Memory Jar that one of my cherubs gave me. This is the cherub who's parent sent me that lovely email. It had me in tears. 


Awwwww 
The children had written some really lovely stuff in my cards too. I was really touched. 

They will all come back to see us as they always do, looking all grown up in their new smart uniforms. I wish them all good luck! They were a fantastic class. 

Right, it's time for me to dash off to school to get ready for next year. For the first time in years, I'm actually really looking forward to starting in September! Easy to say with six glorious weeks off and a week away in Northumberland to look forward to. A luxury log cabin with Sauna and hot tub. Romantic holiday for three. Mr 19 is coming along! He was given the choice. I'm quite pleased really that he wants to spend his free time with his folks. Probably the last holiday. We've much planned. First time trip to Edinburgh for us too. We can go see Miss 22, her beau and Freddie, the new puppy. My grand puppy she says!! They are only getting him the week we are away and they've both taken time off work. There's absolutely loads of great castling opportunities too. I cannot wait to go. Who needs abroad? 

Ok, I've waffled on enough. Catch you later. 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *chilled out* Radiostar xxx  



24 comments:

  1. That sounds like pretty fabulous end of year stuff!

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    1. It was brilliant. We made it so, for the cheeldren!

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  2. Your Oscars night sounds incredible and I can appreciate just how much work is involved in organising an event like that. Your children are lucky to have somebody like you who's prepared to put the effort and work in. Love the idea of awards based on the Mr Men books, did you come up with that? I'm smiling at the amount of tears = good leavers service or not. Glad they all blubbled like babies :)

    What a lovely thoughtful gift the memory jar was. The comment about 'letting me talk' made me laugh. When I did after school club one boy talked about nothing but Pokemon.

    Sounds like you have a lovely summer planned. I read recently that 'children' are still happy to go on holiday with their parents well into their 20's now, because they tend to get paid for, so maybe it won't be the last hollibobs with Mr 19!

    Still on my 'don't do it theme', just remember puppies are like babies - cute and cuddly but hard work. And the best part is giving them back :) xx

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    1. I'm listening! The urge to have something to nurture and love is overwhelming - but I will see how my first trial week goes in November before committing to one maybe this time next year! I'm laughing at the thought of Mr 19 being eternally on holiday with us! I did once joke I'd made him like Norman Bates - he'll never want to leave his mama!!!!
      The hours I've spent listening to the child talk to me about Terraria is 1000s. I still don't know what it is. But I feigned enough interest, they believed me! I'm gonna miss that kid. It was the memory that made me laugh out loud too.

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  3. Enjoy your break, the end of term leavers events sounded brilliant, what am amazing memories you have given them.

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  4. Isn't it lovely, your hard work is noticed xxx

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    1. It just makes you feel,valued and that you domactually make a difference - so you carry on. X

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  5. All sounds perfect. Enjoy your very well earned break.

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    1. The end result was perfect - lots of swear words were used beforehand!

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  6. So glad you had a fabulous end to the school year. It all sounds very emotional and wonderful-x-

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    1. It was such a good send off, but they were such a lovely class. Last year's the teachers were waving them off for WHOLLY different reasons!

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  7. Enjoy your holidays. That's sweet that your son wants to come, too. -Jenn

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    1. I'll not be fretting about him if I can see him! Win win.

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  8. It all sounds absolutely wonderful and there were tears in my eyes as I read and looked at the photos. I am so glad you are so thoroughly appreciated!
    J x

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    1. You will truly know what it feels like to set them all out into the big wide world. Job done!

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  9. "Thank you for helping me to learn how to use my imagination". What an interesting thank you to single out, and a world away from SATS. I like the idea of each completing year 6 planting a tree.

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    1. Those personal thank yous really touched me. It's always interesting to get someone's view on you. The message we gave our kids this year was that SATs were NOT important enough to worry about. We worked on our lessons instead of endless SATs papers.

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  10. Hard work done now. Enjoy and relax on your holiday.
    xx

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    1. I am doing! Though I am already starting to think about September. I'm brimming with ideas!

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  11. Oh that's so sweet. Those little messages are wonderful. Had mee in tears too. I love the idea of planting a tree every year for the Y6 leavers. In many years to come the feild will be a forest (imagine the fun the children will have at break times).
    It's good to know that the leavers assembly went down well. Is it the same every year? It sounds amazing. At Laura's primary Y6 assembly they did a play but there was still a lot of tears.
    Carolx

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    1. We've had the Leaver's assemblies every year but the Oscars is only about about three years old now.

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  12. Wow Rach, what a fantastic year end way of celebrating. My mum calls ted and pops her grand-dogs :-). I think you may want to smuggle Freddie home! Have a fab hols, it sounds perfect xx

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  13. We are already down for a week's 'baby' sitting in November when the kids go away.

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