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A trip down memory lane at Victoria Road
I always get an immense feeling of both nostalgia and pride when I set foot in Victoria Road, because it’s 100% the reason I am here today, I work in Plymouth and the LAT as we know it exists.
36 years ago, I started a 10 week PGCE placement at the school in a year 5 class with a Mr. Emery. The following September, I took charge of my first year 4 class as an NQT (ECT now) and had a fantastic 5 years in the school, teaching in year 4, year 6 and leading PE. When I left the school 31 years ago, it had 630 children in 21 classes and it was bursting at the seams!
There was no PPA time, a very different Ofsted, the first trials of some new tests they called ‘SATs’ and we had 1 TA across a year group of 3 classes. We hand wrote our planning in an A4 exercise book and gave it in to the head on a Monday morning. There was NO PPA and we had the equivalent of about a 1/3 of a TA a week support….. and Victoria Road had the same significant deprivation challenges it still has today!
Can you spot me in the picture below?
I did actually have hair once!!
Anyway, the world has changed, education has changed and my hair has gone. Victoria Road has changed too, but its still a cracking school, under the exceptional leadership of Cheryl Brake.
The school felt incredibly calm and the children were all fully focused on their learning.
The school also looked pretty good too and the environment for learning was fantastic, bearing in mind the ongoing challenges of working in a big, old Victorian building.
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The LAT Quiz
It really is time to get your teams together and entered. There’s less than 3 weeks to go!
It’s at the Steel Brew in the Royal William Yard on the evening of Thursday 2nd April, the day we break up for Easter.
Sign up on the link below. The event is already nearly full!!
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Prince Rock girls football success
Last week Mr Harrison and Mr Stewart had the pleasure of taking the Prince Rock girls football team to participate in a tournament.
When leaving we had a mixture of both nerves and excitement, however, they were able to get the better of their nerves and they won all of their games.
They were all a real credit to the school showing sportsmanship and kindness throughout.
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Science at Plaistow Hill!
This week, the children from Plaistow Hill enjoyed a visit from The Ocean Conservation Trust on ‘The Lights of Plymouth Sound’.
The children learnt about the History of The Sound, the wide range of marine life in our waters and conducted experiments linked to different sources of energy.
A fun time was enjoyed by all!
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Strong Foundations in the LAT!!!
Earlier this week, our EYFS, English and Maths leads met. Their focus was centred around securing strong foundations and unpicking what this means (through the research and Ofsted research findings) and how this looks in EYFS and KS1 in our settings as well as the expectations around securing these for all children across our schools (so any children in KS2 who haven’t secured these, ensuring that we focus on these elements of teaching and learning first).
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Next week we will have some photos from World Book Day and hopefully, the news on Knowle’s inspection!
Have a fantastic weekend and please fill in the survey.
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Simon