Friday 10th March

Happy Friday!

What a week! The unpredictable British weather has certainly made this week a difficult one. Prior to the snow causing so much disruption, we were having a perfectly normal week.

Both our male football team, and our female netball team, have been in action this week. As always, they showed great sportsmanship and it is always a pleasure for the staff to accompany them.

Thank you to all the year two parents who attended the SATs workshop on Tuesday afternoon. We hope that you found the information provided useful. Currently, the year two statutory assessments are an important milestone in the children’s educational journey and they are currently used to measure progress from the end of key stage one to the end of key stage two. The repeat of ‘currently’ is deliberate, as we are expecting things to change in the near future.

Despite the snow beginning to fall on Wednesday, Hazel class were able to go ahead with their trip to Saltwells. Luckily, Saltwells have a classroom that can be used so the children were able to keep warm. The purpose of the trip was to look for signs of spring, amongst the snow! We may have to visit it again! The children had a wonderful time and enjoyed taking their learning outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, due to the snow, Holly class were not able to attend their visit to Saltwells but we will rearrange it, and they may even get to see some signs of spring!

We were also able to host the first of our spring term parents’ evenings. It was lovely to see so many parent’s from year two, three and four viewing and discussing their children’s learning. The children work really hard in their lessons, and they love to show off their achievements. Unfortunately, the second of our parents’ evenings was postponed due to the snow. We will rearrange the appointments before the Easter break.

The snow that fell on Thursday and Friday can only be described as disruptive! Although the children may disagree and describe it as fun! We can control lots of things, but the weather is not one of those things.

On Thursday most of the staff had made it safely to school, however, the snow then began to fall heavily precisely at the time when many of you would have started making your journey to school. Due to safety concerns, we had to make a very late decision to partially close the school. We were very hopeful on Thursday evening that we would be able to open the school on Friday - Mr Weston worked really hard to clear the paths ready for your return. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Friday morning saw even more snow, with it falling heavily a little earlier than the previous day, we were able to make a decision before most of the staff had left to make the treacherous journey. Most of you would have been asleep when Mr Weston kindly picked me up from my home (he has a vehicle made for snow, I don’t) and we headed to the school site. Unfortunately, we saw a few cars that had come off the road. The Breakfast Club staff were also struggling to get through the snow - Mr Brady abandoned his car, started walking and then had to help lots of people with their cars; Mrs Birch used the bus, but it got stuck; and Mrs Aziz and Miss Clarke started out, but it was becoming dangerous for them to continue. On arrival at the school, all the paths Mr Weston had spent ages creating were completely covered with snow. Fingers crossed, it will have all disappeared by Monday.

We have loved seeing your pictures of snowmen on the children@ account. There are some very creative sculptures, including one with a skateboard!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend, and see you on Monday - hopefully with some signs of spring on the ground.