Dear Parents,
We have had a wonderful start to the new academic year. The prolonged warm weather has enabled children to make the most of the open playground and to mix with children throughout the school. Once again, we are a whole-school community with parents welcomed back into the playground and classrooms. Nothing has made me happier than seeing children from Reception playing confidently with Year 1 and 2 friends. The stress of covid restrictions has finally fallen away. The mini astro-turf sports pitch has been a great success at playtime and has enabled us to teach PE out of doors. Classrooms have returned to pre-covid normality, with children working cooperatively in groups and soft furnishings creating comfortable reading corners. You can explore your child’s classroom during the open morning before half-term.
A warm welcome to all of our new families, both at the Nursery and Upper School. We are thrilled to have you join us and hope that all newcomers will experience the kindness of the parent community. Provided we manage to keep covid at bay, this year will be filled with school events for both children and adults. All of those events that used to punctuate the school year, have been on hold for eighteen months. The Upper School will hold a mini-farmers’ market at the end of British Food Week, next Friday. We are raising money for the St Stephen’s drop-in centre for the homeless. Please make a note in your diary for the school auction on 3rd December, our biggest fundraising event of the year. It is hugely enjoyable, whilst raising money for local youth charities. The auction is being organised by the parent committee who will write to you with details.
We also welcome Sinead Matthews to the Upper School staff. She is a calm and capable presence in the school, and we are very happy to have her as part of our teaching team.
We are suddenly seeing an increase in the number of children with sniffles and cold symptoms. A huge thank you to parents who have kept those children at home and have had them tested for covid. There have been no confirmed cases this term, but I am grateful for your thoughtfulness in keeping even mildly ill children at home. Once again, the local health authority has offered flu immunisations to all of our children. The immunisation is not at all painful and is administered via a quick nasal inhalation. The immunisation team will visit us on 23rd November and will send out agreement forms for you to sign next month.
This year the school has moved to a new information management system, iSAMS, across both sites. It enables us to keep all child, child-progress, staff, parent contact information etc. in one place. Class registers are now electronic. We have begun to communicate with you via iSAMS and you might have noticed a slight change in email format. Unfortunately, there have been teething problems and I know that some emails have gone astray, so I apologise if this has happened to you. We have been working hard to remove any glitches in the system and hope that iSAMS communication runs smoothly in future. Please let us know if you are aware of any emails you haven’t received that others in your year-group have.
The after school enrichment clubs have been well attended, but fewer children are coming to the after school care club. A reminder that your child can attend this at short notice and you don’t have to book a place for the term. It is a useful service if you are held up at short notice and cannot collect at the usual time.
Your children are probably tired after a full fortnight back at school and the raised expectations in a new year-group. They have been working hard, so I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.
Warm wishes,
Kate