Dr. Seuss "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" 

The Grinch Grow Your Heart Game Game

In preparation for Fareham Library's Storytime Special in January 2010 (see News Page for more details) this special Christmas blog pays homage to the wonderful Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904) and his brilliant, gravity-defying imagination. And what a wonderful time of year to celebrate the capacity of a child's imagination; especially when stretched beyond boundaries.  After all, this is the season we convince children that a female soap star really IS a prince (with lots of thigh-slapping involved) and a jolly old man called Santa creeps down the chimney and eats our mince pies.   Now you may not be aware that Dr. Seuss as a young man was a brilliant student at Oxford University majoring in classical literature.  He was preparing for a PhD and had plans to become a college professor.  But one day he found he was bored about the whole plan and decided he would take an extended trip through Europe. It was at this point he realised his love of imaginative stories and pictures…and so his brilliant career began! 

"From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere"

Of course Seuss’ illustrations only heighten the insanity of the formula. For instance his animals are strange, alien-looking beings and although they look soft and furry, they appear to have no bones or joints. “My animals look the way they do because I never learned to draw”, he once said.  Theodor was educated in the days before 'a rich and varied menu of extended school activities' of course!  What’s more, his physical objects seem to have a rather unsteady relationship with gravity and with their surroundings. Homes don’t nestle on mountainsides, but perch uncomfortably on the edges of cliffs. Cars drive down impossibly windy roads on two wheels. Plates and fish bowls balance in ten-foot high stacks, the whole construction a whisker away from total collapse - all of which delight the imagination of children. Yet within each story, this madness has a logical factor, therefore nonsense does not disintegrate into anarchy: in fact it encourages children to think and see the natural world not as it is to the rational mind, but as the world could be.

Once you’ve accepted the premise of a talking cat in a tall red and white hat, then you’ve taken a tiny step towards staving off, or even reversing, the process of conservativeness and narrow-mindedness that afflicts us all as we get older (or spending too many years working as an Ofsted Inspector).  Now I challenge you to step back into your childish shoes and try this Seuss Christmas tongue-twister (and it's more fun after a glass of sherry!):

To keep this 'Seuss' Christmas blog as logically brief as possible I shall simply offer you a sneak preview of this extended school news items that I shall be disseminating in the New Year...

"So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads"

Now you may have noticed a very 'last minute' e-mail popping up in your inbox on the last day of the school term?  Please accept my apologies for my incredibly poor timing (I promise that I do try to keep my e-mails to a minimum), but I thought it was important to give you a little bit of notice before the Christmas holidays about a Becta run scheme funded by the DCSF.  This amazing scheme offers £600 worth of FREE computer equipment and Internet access to economically disadvantaged families.  Now the insane part of this deal is not only the lack of information, but also the crazy timeframe I have been given to inform all of our partners - as I have heard that the application form will be available from the 7th January 2010!  Rather than go into lots of detail, you can access the e-mail I sent to head teachers about this fantastic opportunity for disadvantaged families to join the digital age.  Please click below (file will open in a separate window as a Word Document):

Free Computers for Disadvantaged Families

As soon as I receive the application forms and further information about the scheme then I shall send the information to all schools via your Extended Services Coordinators (or directly to all head teachers in the case of our CAPP schools).  Now this is the really important bit and where I need your help - please, please, please can you spread the word about this amazing scheme.  It is an offer too good to miss, and personally I would not wish any families to be missed simply due to our Grinch-like complacency.  In the present political climate, I suspect that an offer like this will not pop up again in the near future so I will need all the help I can in finding these families - and we will not be able to do this without the full support of all school staff.

"And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed"

I am also happy for any families (from any of the Fareham cluster schools) who require a little extra help to fill in the 16 page application form, or who require training in the security software, to make an appointment here at Community Action Fareham in the New Year.  Please feel free to ring/e-mail me for the most convenient time. 

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple"

Here are a few other news items from the CAPP cluster before I take a well-needed week's break from the office.  Please take an opportunity during the holidays, if you have not already done so, to take a look at the Channel 4 News Bulletin about Portchester Community School.   The partnership are very much looking forward to the updated news story from the school in early March when the Unicef assessors make a return visit.  May I wish the school, staff, parents and students all the best with the visit, and I shall keep my fingers crossed that the media get the head teacher's name correct!  Please click below to read the article and view the video:

Another exciting development in the New Year for our partnership is the expansion of the Cams Community Club.  Already confirmed for the New Year, and the result of our consultation with existing members, is the Cams Singing Club.  This session will be running on Tuesday mornings from 11.00am - 12.00 noon.  Very shortly we are also hoping to confirm our Tai Chi classes at the school for retired residents.  All Community Club sessions also include refreshments in the Dining Hall where Community Club members have the opportunity to socialise and enjoy some delicious homemade cakes and biscuits from our excellent catering staff.  

May I take the opportunity to offer a very warm welcome to Del Ward, our new Cams Community Club Volunteer Coordinator.  I hope everyone makes Del feel very welcome, and I'm sure that his help and support will be invaluable to the school.  Also thanks must go to all of the staff involved in this project, especially my close co-workers, Mette van der Heijden (Cams Hill, Head Teacher's Secretary), Emma Barrett (Community Development Officer, Health and Well-Being, Fareham Borough Council), Liz Francis (Cams Hill, Catering Manager) and Alaric Govan (Cams Hill, Ass. Head Teacher) who I have had the pleasure to work with since the planning stage of this ambitious project.  I hope Cams Hill will not mind me posting a link to their special Christmas bulletin, so we can all share the delightful pictures from the Senior Citizens Party with the partnership:

Cams Hill Weekly Bulletin -18th December 2009

May I also take this opportunity to say a big end of year thank you to all of the schools who have completed and returned their extended services audit document, to the staff at Portchester Community Centre and Keepsake Children's Centre for an invite to their Christmas party, to Northern Junior School for an invite to their carol concert, to Jude Ramshaw (Head Teacher, Uplands Primary School) for the beautiful Christmas bouquet and lovely message attached, to Chris (Youth Worker, XP) for the homemade biscuits (Annabelle and her grandma had a very happy afternoon decorating them), and to everyone who sent such wonderful festive wishes via cards and e-mail.  This job would be a thankless chore without your co-operation, cheerful support, enthusiasm, hard work, laughter and amazing support.

I look forward to building upon all of the great work and successes we have achieved collectively during 2009.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose"

If you fancy a little 'light' (Ho Ho Ho) reading over the Christmas holidays then please feel free to take a look through the vaults at the Learning Exchange (there are some real gems here), or if you prefer to switch off from work and fancy something a little more digestible, then please feel free delve into my Christmas Pudding Recipe:

Christmas Pudding Recipe

from your Cams and Portchester Extended Services Partnership Coordinator

Susie Higgs (ESCO)