Dear Parents,
We have reached half-term without a COVID closure; I couldn't be more relieved. If you are spending the week overseas, please let us know whether you have visited an amber listed country, as quarantine is mandatory for children as well as adults. We are desperate to keep COVID out of the school, and it could so easily be transmitted by children returning from holidays abroad. Next week's forecast is for warm weather at last, so it should be an enjoyable week for the children.
We continue to prepare for School expansion and will introduce chess to the Year 2 curriculum from next September. After-school chess club, which has been a great success this term, will continue. We are organising regular Year 2 visits to the King Henry's Walk adventure playground from next term so that our older children can experience large-scale physical play.
We are in the process of implementing iSAMs, a school management information system which will automate internal pupil data across both sites. This will not affect the way in which we communicate with you via email, however you will notice a change in the look and feel of our email correspondence. Next term we will move from paper to digital attendance registers, and we will begin to create online club sign-up and permission forms.
Many of you are beginning to organise childcare and pick-up arrangements for September, so a reminder that we will be running daily breakfast clubs at both sites, open from 8.00pm every morning. There will be a choice of after school clubs available from Monday to Thursday, ending at 5.00pm at the Upper School and 4.30pm at the Nursery. After school clubs will be offered to all children, from pre-reception at the Nursery to Year 2. Details of clubs and registration forms will be sent to you after half-term.
Teachers at the Upper School have completed a term's training in Philosophy for Children (P4C). P4C enhances children's ability to ask deep questions about the world and solve problems through enquiry. The work has been so inspiring, we are introducing it to the Nursery from September.
There are many positive changes in the pipeline as we head towards prep-school opening in September 2022. Many of you have questions about these changes, so we have arranged for members of the steering committee to attend the open classroom/drinks evening on 30th June. They will give you as many answers as possible.
Enjoy reading about the incredible variety of work that has taken place over the past fortnight. Wishing everyone an enjoyable and relaxing week with the family.
Warm regards,
Kate