William Hildyard Church of England
Primary and Nursery School
Easter 2015
Message from the Chair of Governors
2015 has been a very busy year so far. Term 3 saw the commencement of the consultation period
relating to the federation of William Hildyard with St George’s School in Stamford. Following this, two
open meetings were held, one at each school, so that parents, carers and staff could raise their comments
with governors from both schools. In addition, views were sought from the Department for Education,
the Director of Children’s Services for Lincolnshire and the Diocesan Board of Education in Lincoln, all
of which have been positive. The decision to Federate, or not, will be made before Easter. If we do enter
into a federation it will mean that we will be saying goodbye to some governors at the end of this school
year as our two governing bodies join together to form a single body which will oversee both schools.
We will keep you up to date with further news of this later in the year.
Every Spring Mrs Griffiths and I are invited to the Heads and Chairs Conference in Lincoln which is
organised by the Diocesan Board of Education. It is here that we receive the most up to date information
on and approaches to raising standards in our schools and how to achieve this for our children within a
Christian environment. This year we were privileged to be addressed by two eminent and inspirational
speakers who spoke on Pupil Premium and Inclusion – both key topics in schools at the moment. Many
of the ideas from both the speakers and the discussions in which we were able to take part will be helpful
in enhancing the education for our children.
Also Mrs Griffiths and I were asked recently to support four Church of England Primary Schools in
North Lincolnshire. Initially they visited us towards the end of last year; this was followed by us
spending a day with them this term to work closely with the individual schools and then hold a joint
school workshop in the evening. This involvement with other schools presents a valuable opportunity
for us not only financially, as the school is paid for the time we spend working with other schools, but
also because it gives us an insight into what those schools are doing too, and some of those insights
might just find their way into our school, again enhancing the learning environment for our children.
Finally, on behalf of the Governors may I thank you for the support you give to the school from
volunteering in school and working on the PTFA to bringing happy children to school who are keen to
learn – and wish you all a very Happy Easter.
Christine Bish
Chair of Governors
Easter Letter from The Bishop of Lincoln – Bishop Christopher
Hands up if you like jam! Hands up if you like Easter eggs!
One of my favourite books when I was little was called Alice in Wonderland. Maybe you’ve heard of it.
It has lots of strange characters in it with funny names like the Mad Hatter or White Rabbit, the Queen of
Hearts or Cheshire Cat.
One of my favourite bits in the book is a conversation between Alice and the Queen of Hearts and
they’re talking about jam.
“The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday”, says the Queen, “but never jam today”.
“It MUST come sometimes to ‘jam today’,” Alice objected.
“No, it can’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam every OTHER day: today isn’t any OTHER day, you know.”
“I don’t understand you,” said Alice. “It’s dreadfully confusing!”
And it IS dreadfully confusing, isn’t it? Just imagine if we were talking about Easter eggs instead of
jam, and the rule was Easter eggs tomorrow and Easter eggs yesterday, but never Easter eggs today?
That would make me very fed up!
The thing is, you and I know that we CAN eat our Easter eggs on Easter Day. That’s because the way
God sees things is very different from the way the Queen of Hearts sees things in Alice in Wonderland.
At Easter, we remember that Jesus died on the cross. For the people who believed in him at the time,
that seemed like the worst thing possible. It seemed as though Jesus had left them for ever. But then incredibly - three days’ later, God raised him to new life. That was one of the best things that has ever
happened. From something which looked utterly hopeless, God did something amazing: something
which seemed impossible. God did that because he wants us to be his friend and to be able to enjoy
good things and be happy.
Bishop Christopher of Lincoln
Governor Profile – Mrs Liz Blackler
Hello! My name is Liz Blackler and I am currently one of the Foundation Governors at our school as
well as being the Forest School leader and coordinator of the Forest School Project. You may well
recognize me more by my green jacket! I have been a governor now for over 5 years, having served one
term as a Parent Governor.
I am from Middlesborough originally, trained as a Geography Teacher at Durham University and am
proud to have taught in secondary schools in Teeside, North Yorkshire and Derby before moving to
Market Deeping with my family over 10 years ago. I am married to Paul and have 3 children: Sam 17;
Beth 14 and Eve 6 who is currently in our Year 2 class.
In those 10 years, my career in education has had a change in direction and I have been involved in
William Hildyard School in various guises, initially as a parent helper, then as literacy support, one to
one teaching assistant and supply teacher. Nearly 7 years ago, we had our 3rd child Eve and for a while I
took a break from work and became a Parent Governor to keep in touch with our school and its
development. In that role I voluntarily set up and ran the very successful parent and toddler group
‘Acorns’, which had a big emphasis on outdoor learning, on our school site. As a parent and teacher I
have always been convinced of the physical, social, emotional and educational benefits of natural and
outdoor play for all (not just children) and it was during my time running Acorns that I discovered
Forest School.
Forest School is an approach to teaching children, which promotes children’s self-esteem, confidence
and a love and respect for the natural environment. It caters to children’s interests and the way they learn.
I set out on a mission to offer it to all our children and maybe other children in the Deepings too.
Having completed my Forest School Leader training and with the support and encouragement of Mrs.
Griffiths, my fellow Governors, the teachers and an army of dedicated volunteers, we are on our way to
achieving this goal.
As a Church School the ethos of Forest School fits hand in glove. It puts Children First and massively
promotes our core values of Friendship, Caring, Thankfulness, Forgiveness, Respect and Hope. I am
very proud of the fact that as a school we are now able to provide such a valuable complement to our
children’s learning.
The governors and staff wish you all a very
joyful Easter.