End of year gratitude

• WW1 choir which had 52 children from ages 7-11 singing an entire concert by themselves of WW1 songs which they repeated in a Elderly Care home and a Senior Special School.
• Christmas performance in the church- premiere of my new song, excellent part singing, huge parental audience who actually listened!
• Borrowing a pair of Timpani from my old Primary School for my little year 5 girl to play in Pomp and Circumstance.  Her eyes and her comment when she first saw them arrive were a sight to behold.
• The performance of Pomp and Circumstance (Land of Hope and Glory) with added Timpani and Snare Drum made me really proud.
• The whole summer concert in fact made me so proud. My children were fabulous!
• Most lessons with Year 5- I have to say that they are amazing kids and I am gutted I only have one year left of them- they make it a pleasure.
• 30 days wild feature in Singing Assembly this June.  This really has created an extra bond for the children with me.  A week ago or so, a year 6 teacher came up to the staffroom to say a mob of children were looking for me because there was a Red-admiral butterfly in the quiet area and would I please come?  I was dragged by the children to go and see it on the Buddlea and we all stood and talked about it for a good 10 minutes before I was allowed to leave. The boy I talked about still comes to tell me what he has seen and another girl has had much success with her bird feeder.
• Getting my year 6's performing on the Javanese gamelan- was great!
• The enthusiasm of Year 2 comparing Benjamin Britten's Sea interludes.
• Having my deputy head tell me that my summer observation was, "The best she'd seen me do."
• Having my Headteacher tell me, "It just proves to me that's the reason why we need a specialist music teacher in school," after my Spring observation.
• Christmas KS1 nativity- 180 kids singing 8 songs off by heart that you taught them and REALLY singing out.
• Making it into the paper again with the recorder festival! Ha, my kids always manage to get into the photos!
• Having a little girl who was a shy little mite singing solos in the summer concert to her Mum, she's come so far. In fact, all of them singing solos willingly. Having that confidence makes my heart soar.
• Getting my year 5's super enthused over chords and chromatic clusters this term!
• Running my first parent workshop successfully.
• Making my school blog updated regularly with children commenting and using the site regularly and saying it's useful
• Having a year 4 comment that he "LOVES fugues!"
• Finally managing to crack the 'Medieval plainchant' composing aspect of year 5- it's taken me 3 years to get it right so they compose it effectively (could be those magical year 5's though...)
• Discovering today that I had actually paid off my student loan over a year ago and I am due over a year's rebate!
• Managing to stay relatively patient with obnoxious year 2's.
• Managing to go through "Threshold" 

 Chocolates galore and some fancy earrings.
 A cute mug.
 I found this stuffed in my pigeon hole- when I thanked her later, my piano-player, she said she was worried it would all tip out as she tried to stuff it in!  Just the message on the top meant to much to me.

 Ha, this present was brilliant from my Deputy Head.  It was in a cute box and she kept asking me if I had looked inside the box yet.  Finally I did and it made me squeal in delight!

I hope the next year is as successful as this one!

xxx