Day Eighty Six “The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.” Edward de Bono Thank you to Mia Gore in Year 6 for her poem. It’s a beauty Mia.

Live the life that is waiting for me, The un-paused, free life.

Two lovely lines Mia, that sum up the situation many of us have been in, these past 86 days. Your idea of ‘life on pause’ is spot on. It’s not that most of us haven’t been busy, most days doing things and learning new stuff too. Some of us have created new bubbles (I have come to dislike that word which is a shame because ‘bubble’ really has done nothing to offend me) and some of us have travelled to familiar places (socially distancing of course). So, whilst things are shifting, here and further afield, there remains a lurking sense of pause – perhaps it’s just me. Great poem Mia – I really like the fact that you have used some of the things we have learned in our poetry sessions, like anaphora and flight. Most of all, I am pleased to see your poetry engine is still running well and that you are making the effort to compose. Poetry writing isn’t an easy option – it takes a real effort to capture your thoughts, to say exactly what it is you want to say or as Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, to put “the best words in the best order.”

It’s good to hear from the Cripps family and to keep up to speed with their learning and lockdown life. I understand that father has taken on the role of coordinating a lot of this now… I recognise that lake where you are sailboarding…Ashton, you are looking directly at my allotment from your sailboard. If I see you one evening, I’ll throw a vegetable at you. I’ve got beetroot and potatoes at the moment, so choose your weapon. Glad to hear you have got out into the New Forest. It is such a special place and I have spent many a day over the years exploring this unique habitat.

Good morning Mr Wildman, We hope you are well and enjoying the Monday morning sunshine. Sorry we haven’t been in touch recently but Daddy is now in charge of lots of the home learning and although he’s doing a fab job he’s not so good at taking pictures. We have loved our new school packs and have enjoyed learning about ‘Funnybones’ and ‘The Jar Wizard’. Our beanstalks and sunflowers are growing nicely and we have just planted our onions. We have been doing lots of art work included making our paper plate dinosaurs. Today we are going to start work on our mosaics. Our new favourite exercise is paddle boarding and we have enjoyed days out exploring the New Forest. Hope everyone at school is safe and well. Ashton and Eva Cripps

Thank you to Mel George for sending this in. I love it when I see archives that relate to the school’s past. Apparently, Mel’s mum kept everything from Mel’s days at Wicor many moons ago. Here’s a letter from 1990 featuring the retirement of the headteacher, Mr Ray Brooks. I took over from Mr Flynn, who followed Mr Brooks, but I have met Mr Brooks on a couple of occasions. Top bloke in my book. I couldn’t help smiling at the last section, “…you will have noticed that our corridor space has been altered.” If Ms Jacobs could drop in now she would see more than a few altered corridor spaces! Made me smile too, seeing training on reading development; plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Thanks to Liddell McNie for her response to my lost words bit in a previous update. Clearly Liddell’s work was riveting to the point she actually read my update during work time. I think someone has to be desperate to do this. It’s a cry for help. I’ll see what I can arrange Liddell.

Acorn Squirrel cheek extenders

Adder Mathematical rope

Ash Hot snow

Blackberry

The strawberry you find in a lunchbox that has been missing for 2

weeks

Buttercup The cup you use to scoop butter with

Catkin Your cat's family

Clover When you really love the letter C

Cowslip When cows slide down a hill.

Dandelion A French lion whose name is Dan

Fungus Gus is really fun

Hazel My favourite Aunt

Hazelnut Well she is a nutter - but we don't like to say it to her face

This is what our learned colleagues might call lateral thinking. I love a bit of lateral thinking and get great pleasure from seeing how these things work. I was once challenged by a child many years ago on teaching practice that he would speak a sentence I could not write. This challenge was announced in the middle of a rookie lesson. He clearly sensed I was weak and he was moving in on the kill. Kids are like that. I immediately said that he would be using words I had never heard of. No, was his reply. You will have heard of every one of the words I am about to speak. None of them are words you don’t know and you will be able to spell them all but you just will be unable to write down the sentence. I was now properly intrigued. I just could not think of where this was going. I grasped my piece of chalk and waited for the sentence. It felt more like a death sentence at this point. The class had fallen silent (there was a miracle) and all eyes were on me. The child continued. There was this farmer and his wife. The farmer was out in the fields throwing corn seeds on his fields. His wife was in the farmhouse mending his trousers (I need to say we hadn’t heard of gender stereotypes in those days, so I let this go…besides my wife repairs my trousers…). Ok, sir, here’s the sentence (it was a middle school and I hated being called sir…but there you go). “They were both sewing.” I admire this kind of thinking and of course he was right. I couldn’t write the sentence. If you haven’t twigged why, I’ll leave you to figure it out. Those of you with a thirst for this kind of word play might like to create a similar impossible sentence. What I liked about this one was its neatness, the simplicity of the idea and the fact that I had been ‘got’ fair and square. There is a lot to be said for lateral thinking, borne of creativity. These are skills that we need to promote in our classrooms be they in the home or school.

The Wicor Man