Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• GOLD! Reading Quality Mark Celebration

  Sat 01 Oct 2016 Mr. Simpson

  Following the fantastic award of Gold in the Reading Quality Mark in July, five Y6 children, Miss Gold and I went to the prestigious award ceremony at Central Library in Liverpool city centre yesterday.

   

  Our plaque and certificate were presented to us by Assistant Mayor, Nick Small (see pictures).  This award is a huge achievement for the school and demonstrates our ambition to reach the highest standards at Norman Pannell.  Congratulations to Miss Gold for leading this year-long project so successfully.

  

• Fabulous Forest Fun at Delamere Forest

  Thu 22 Sep 2016 Mr. Simpson

  We've just returned from a wonderful Autumnal trip to Delamere Forest with Y1 - Y6.

   

  The trip was based around Geography - bringing the curriculum alive by spending the day out in the great outdoors, improving skills such as map reading, environmental awareness, survival, and orienteering.

   

  The children in the juniors spent a session building dens for survival with our fantastic forest ranger, Ben.  He taught groups the four basics of survival out in the wild: warmth (fire and clothes), water, food and shelter.  Groups then had a den making competition using a variety of sticks and forest materials (see pictures below).  Children in the infants spent their ranger session learning about directions and helping each other to navigate in the wild.

   

  In glorious late summer sunshine, the children and staff had a wonderful day, with Geography suddenly rising up the popularity charts at Norman Pannell!  Thank you to Mrs. Size for organising the trip.

  

• New creative Sand Pit area for EYFS

  Fri 09 Sep 2016 Mr. Simpson

  During the last week of the summer holiday, a wonderful group of people from British Gas gave up 3 whole days of their time to come and create a brand new sand play area in the EYFS garden.

   

  This project was kindly led by Steve and Diane, dad and mum of two of our girls in Y2 and Reception, with the generous support of British Gas.

   

  In a 'DIY SOS' style invasion, the team created from scratch an area that will hugely benefit the children in Nursery and Reception for many years to come.  The new sand area will promote creativity, team work and communication skills as well as being lots of FUN!

   

  We are very grateful to Steve, Diane and the British Gas team for their vision, hard work and generosity.  Thank you!

  

• Whole school enjoy sunshine at Chester Zoo

  Tue 19 Jul 2016 Mr. Simpson

  Today the whole school set off for Chester Zoo for an end of year treat.  The children (and staff) soaked up the scorching summer sunshine whilst enjoying fantastic views of the animals.

   

  Many thanks to the PTA who contributed a huge amount of money towards the travel costs, allowing us all to enjoy a fabulous day!

   

  Below are some of the photos taken from Y4's point of view...

  

• Y6 Leavers' Celebration

  Sat 16 Jul 2016 Mr. Simpson

  This afternoon, the Y6 children entertained a big audience of parents, family and friends in the school hall in their leavers' performance.  That was followed by their graduation, with children receiving graduation certificates dressed in fabulous caps and gowns.

   

  After an hour at home, the children arrived back at school for the Leavers' Party and Sleepover.  In fact, I'm writing this at 12:20am in the school hall to pass the time, as there is very little sign of SLEEP actually happening...

   

  Everyone is having a fantastic time but I suspect the kids will be returning home tired in the morning...

  

• READING QUALITY MARK GOLD!

  Wed 13 Jul 2016 Mr. Simpson

  On Monday, after over a year of hard work and whole school improvement, we were delighted to be awarded GOLD STANDARD in the prestigious Reading Quality Mark.

   

  Miss Gold, ably assisted by a dedicated team of teachers, children, school staff, governors and volunteers, led the project brilliantly and impressed the external assessor with the incredible progress the school has made in the development of reading.

   

  Initiatives such as Reading Revolutionaries, "Stay, Read and Eat" reading breakfasts, the Reading Garden development, Extreme Reading and many more combined with rapidly improving school reading performance data to provide the evidence needed to achieve such a huge achievement.

   

  Congratulations to Miss Gold and all involved in the project - this is acknowledgement of huge improvements at the school and a job very well done!

• SPORTS DAY POSTPONED

  Wed 13 Jul 2016 Mr. Simpson

  Unfortunately due to heavy rain overnight, Sports Day has been postponed today.  The reserve day is next Wednesday 20th July - again weather permitting.

   

  Apologies for any inconvenience caused.  

   

  Children may still come to school in P.E. kit as classes will be able to use the hall and yard to practise for next week.

• Children's University Graduation 2016

  Tue 28 Jun 2016 Mr. Simpson

  Congratulations to the 64 children from Norman Pannell who received an award from Children's University yesterday.  At a wonderful ceremony held at Liverpool University's Carnatic Halls, the children donned the special caps and gowns to take part in this prestigious event.  

   

  Children's University rewards children for taking part in a wide range of extra-curricular activities including sports, art, music, drama, cooking, school council, academic activities and much more.

   

  This year's awards were even more special because for the first time, 17 children went beyond the bronze award to achieve Silver Award (65 hours), with a further 5 superstars achieving the Gold Award (100 hours).  The children looked magnificent and rightly proud of their achievements.  Thank you to parents for attending and for supporting children to participate in all the activities that we run in school.

   

  A great day for Norman Pannell!

  

• Barnstondale - Day 3

  Sun 26 Jun 2016 Mr. Simpson

  Good morning parents!  I hope you have all enjoyed a quiet weekend but are now looking forward to a big squeeze from your kids when we arrive back.  The children have all had a wonderful trip and are nearly packed up ready to get on the bus at about 11am. We may be a little early arriving, but please be outside the school to pick up your child by 12pm at the latest.

   

  Thank you - see you soon!

• Barnstondale - Day 2

  Sat 25 Jun 2016 Mr. Simpson

  What a fantastic day!  When you ask one child what their favourite activity was, they say kayaking, when you ask another it is archery, or 5-a-side in the sports hall, or climbing... the list goes on.  

   

  After not nearly enough sleep, we all got stuck into a cooked breakfast this morning before heading out for a big day of activities.  Kayaking on West Kirby Marine Lake was a big hit with all of the children and staff (see pictures).

   

  "I loved archery!" said Lacey, "it was fun learning how to shoot the bow and arrow and trying to hit the target.  I hit the red but Ellie hit the gold bullseye!"

   

  "The food here is outstanding," enthused Leighton, "I can't say a bad thing about it!  My favourite was the chicken nuggets."

   

  Louis says: "I liked kayaking the best because it was fun to learn how to turn and move forward, and it was funny when Mike (the instructor) made us do the surfer challenge.  I was the best surfer all day because I stayed up for 9 seconds before I fell in!"

   

  The children are currently enjoying the games room all around me, playing pool, snooker and table tennis whilst spending their tuck money on sweets and gifts for their brothers and sisters.  Soon we'll be lighting the coals for the evening BBQ.  I have a feeling they will be tired tonight!