* Write to parents to tell them about the Fun Week and ask them to collect items for it.
Three weeks before
* Get topic webs written and displayed.
* Have some large wooden boxes (1m cubed) made for the garden.
* Bring dinghy (donated by the Environment Agency) to school.
* Build a mast.
* Make paddles.
* Get a carpenter in to build a veranda outside the special needs unit.
* Send out invitations to parents, governors, members of the Education Committee, children from the local primary school, local county councillor and members of the local community to take part.
* Write to parents again asking them to volunteer their help.
* Put up a begging notice on the front door.
* Ask each parent individually to come and help.
* Buy acrylic paint for the boat.
* Order fish and fish posters from Billingsgate fish market.
* Ask parents again for net curtains and newspaper.
* Sort out dressing up clothes for outside.
Week before
* I put black material up in the hallway. The children say, 'It's spooky. Why is it night-time?' A few parents ask, 'What is this all about?' * Brown Bear class make first cave. Children start piling in.
* The children sit inside the large boxes in the garden and fill the boat, which has been placed on uneven grass so that it rocks.
* I come into school on Sunday to finish putting up the black material in the hallway and prepare activities for the next day.
Monday
* Everyone in at crack of dawn to start.
* Put up description of what is going on in each room every day of the week, for parents.
* Panic as teacher in 'Hermit Crab' room drops a tin of yellow acrylic paint on the carpet just inside the classroom door. Frantic scrubbing and mopping! Newspaper on carpet to soak it up.
* Heavy rain holds off for the morning. Boat taken under the new shelter for painting. A dad works with a group of children.
* Eight Year 6 children from local primary school arrive with their teacher. Two go to each room.
* Their teacher is set to work stapling long strips of coloured crepe paper on the ceiling in the 'Hermit Crab' classroom.
* All parents and children asked to draw a firefly as they enter the building, then cut it out and stick it up on the wall.
* Fairy lights put up across the ceiling in the hallway.
* A huge piece of fabric is painted with yellow acrylic paint (from the tin that fell on to the carpet) representing the sandy seafloor painted under loggia.
* When children begin to make pictures of the characters from the firefly story, Chloe is painting a cat. 'What different colours are cats?' I ask. 'Pink,' she replies. 'Have you ever seen a pink cat?' I ask. 'Yes, there's a pink cat in Mrs Taylor's room!' (the Brown Bear room). Creativity versus observation. Creativity wins!
* Children all incredibly focused on what is going on.
* Father painting the boat with a group of children says, 'We've made a hippy boat. Just look at the colours.' Children have acrylic paint all over them. Hope there are no complaints from parents!
* The parents are really enjoying themselves. Some ask if they can take paper home to draw fireflies.
* One parent says she is glad she didn't apply for the recently advertised SNA job at the school. She doesn't know how the staff cope with the pace!
* Bring in crab, the first fish of the week. All children pass it round. Lucky member of staff gets to take crab home for tea.
* Carpet looking better. Scrub again tomorrow.
* A salesman who regularly brings in samples for staff arrives. Among his bits is a singing Tommy the Trout. It is removed from the box to be 'borrowed' for tomorrow.
* I photocopy and laminate some fireflies to hang from the ceiling.
* Everyone exhausted but rooms looking great.
* I have a doctor's appointment. I sit in the waiting room cutting out laminated fireflies. He tells me that my asthma is very bad and I should be admitted to hospital. I tell him I am too busy to be ill.
* I get home to find consignment of fish has arrived from Billingsgate, including a five-foot-long swordfish (including the sword).
* What shall I do with the swordfish? Wrap it in black bin bags, surround with ice and put it in the utility room.
* A friend arrives with carrier bags of fish ornaments and pictures - she has stripped her whole bathroom! Included are two more singing fish, a lobster and a bass. They can join Tommy the Trout for a band!
