I cannot believe that we have been back a week and we are nearly half way through January. Although it seems a long time ago I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I did enjoy my break although it was marred slightly by having to have a wisdom tooth out at the very end but at least that is behind me now.

As usual the children have settled back into their routine very quickly. School will fully return to normal for them next week when all the extra- curricular clubs start up again so if your child participates in one of them make sure they have the necessary kit in school. Can you also make sure that they have warm clothes to put over their PE kits because it is the middle of winter and I do not think that shorts and T-shirt is sufficient to keep them warm in this weather. It does not have to be anything elaborate – just a well-worn jumper and some old jogging bottoms will be sufficient.

A bad thing about the winter term is that we have more illnesses in school. May I just take this opportunity to remind you that if your child suffers from any form of stomach upset that they stay off school for 48 hours after they were last unwell e.g if your child is  sick on the a Monday the earliest they should return to school is Wednesday. If your child still feels unwell they should remain at home because children’s learning suffers when they are ill and we do not want them passing their germs to everyone else in the school. We also do not have the facilities or staff to take care of them when they are unwell. If everyone could make sure they all follow this practice we will be able to keep the spread of illnesses down in the school to a minimum and help reduce the number of days the children are absent from school.

We had our first snow this week but thankfully it did not affect the running of the school. May I ask that when the weather is bad that you check your phone for updates about whether the school is open or not. I will only close the school if I absolutely have to so I do leave it as late as possible to make that decision so you may also want to have contingency plans ready for your children in case the school cannot open.

That is all for now. I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the snow if it does turn up.