Friday 9th September
Welcome to the first blog of the new academic year…
Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday afternoon, we have ended our first week back on a rather sad note. This morning, year one through to year six, gathered in the hall to celebrate the life of a much loved monarch. The children were able to reflect on our Jubilee celebrations from the previous academic year and share their knowledge of the Queen. The children were able to articulate why she had been so loved by many and enjoyed being reminded of her sense of humour, including her meetings with James Bond and Paddington Bear. We send our condolences to the new King and the rest of the Royal Family. Rest in peace, your majesty.
We hope that our families enjoyed the summer break. The children have returned to school ready to learn and quickly settled into their routines, some would say it is like they have never been away! We are looking forward to the coming year and all that they will achieve.
The children have returned looking very smart in their school uniform, we do have lots of school uniform available in school, should you require anything please do enquire at the school office as we know that every little helps in the current circumstances. Please can you make sure your child is wearing plain black footwear (plain black trainers are permitted). Individual year groups will communicate your child’s PE days. On these days, the children can come to school dressed in their PE kit with their school jumper or cardigan.
Regular attendance at school is vital for all of our children to succeed. We expect all children to be in school, on time, every day. The school gates close at 8.55am and children arriving after this time will be late to their classroom. It is important that children arrive at school promptly as this gives them time to get ready for the school day along with their friends and school staff. It can be very difficult for children who arrive after 8.55am as their class will be settled and learning will have started. The government has recently published new information with regards to school attendance and we have a new policy in place that reflects this. The policy can be found our school website.
Over the holidays our nursery was refurbished and it looks fantastic! Many of you will know that we moved our nursery environment during the covid pandemic to create two reception classrooms. This improved outcomes for our reception children but meant that nursery had a much smaller environment. We are very pleased with our new nursery environment - it is now much bigger and offers the children so much space in which to do their learning.
We would encourage all families to read the blog on a weekly basis. We use the blog as platform to share some of the things that have been happening around school during the week and to communicate different messages. The blog is usually written by Miss Grasby, but I do need to occasionally draft in a guest writer, this is usually Mr Priest.
Before I sign-off for the weekend, I just wanted to share a story with you from our new reception cohort. Phonics is a vital part of a child’s development and we start teaching phonics without delay. Today they were looking at the word ‘cat’, their teacher asked them what sounds they could hear in c-a-t. They were all very keen to answer, the teacher was expecting a ‘c’, ‘a’, ‘t’ but instead got a meow! This has made many of us smile (and of course, they went on to learn about the sounds in the words).
Wishing you a good weekend.
Stay safe.