I have had quite an exciting day today because I have spent the majority of the day at the Royal Veterinary College planting some trees with a few children. This is part of a campaign run by the Woodland’s Trust called ‘The Big Climate Fightback’. The official day for this campaign is tomorrow but they chose to do the tree planting today to enable more people from the local community to attend. It was a thoroughly enjoyable event and all the children I took really enjoyed the experience.

I do not think that we can deny that Christmas is on the way. We have started some preparations in school in readiness for the festive season but we do tend to ‘keep a lid’ on Christmas until December as the children can become overexcited which can make them tired and irritable. However, next week we are putting up our Christmas trees and decorations and we will also be starting our daily Christmas card delivery service. For this to happen, we put a post box at the entrance where the children walk into the school (not the main office area). During the lunchtime, the Year 6 children empty this and then deliver the cards to the correct classroom. To make this possible, we do ask parents to ensure that when their children are writing their Christmas cards they put the full name and the year group of the child they are sending it to.

Another Christmas event that is being held next week is our PTA’s ‘Christmas Café. This is taking place in our Foundation unit and outdoor classroom on Friday, 6^th December from 3.15pm onwards. It is going to be similar to the Easter event in that the children will be able to take part in a treasure hunt where they have to hunt for clues so that they can claim their treasure at the end. Refreshments will be served in the Foundation block and you will be able to toast marshmallows in the fire pit in the outdoor classroom. There will also be a raffle draw with the possibility of winning a Christmas hamper full of goodies to treat your loved ones over the holidays. The outdoor area is going to be decorated with Christmas lights so it should look like a Winter Wonderland and be a great experience for the children to take part in –I hope to see many of you there.

I am sure that all your weekends will now be busy in preparation for Christmas but I do hope that you find some time to relax. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.