The end of term is finally upon us –although a little earlier than I anticipated just a couple of days ago. As you will know we are now finishing the term today and not on Tuesday, 21^st December. With the huge rise of the number of Covid cases caused by the exponential spread of the Omicron variant and the increase in the number of cases of Covid infection in school the Governing Body and I thought it was the best decision to make in the interests of the health of all members of the school community so that we could minimise the spread of virus and allow as many people as possible to have a happy and healthy Christmas. I know the majority of parents were in agreement with us.

We have also been disappointed this week because we could not put on the live performances of our Christmas shows due to the advice given to us by Public Health because of the spread of Covid cases in our school. However, you are going to get to see the shows thanks to Mrs. Robinson’s son Jake and Mr McDermott who is the dad of one of our Year 2 children. Between them they videoed the shows and took lots of photographs for us to put on our website. We really appreciate all they have done so that all our children’s hard work has not been wasted and you will be able to enjoy watching your children perform over the Christmas holidays with all your relatives. We will hopefully have the link for the infant shows and the KS2 Carol Concert early next week and we will send it to you as soon as we receive it.

As it is Christmas time I have been very fortunate in receiving some lovely gift and cards. I would like to thank everyone who sent them to me. They were not necessary but very much appreciated.

All that is left for me to do now is wish you all a happy and healthy Christmas. It has been a long and challenging year for everyone and I think at times everyone has felt disheartened or felt like giving up. However, as a community you have all been very supportive to the school and even though we do not know what the new year has in store for us I do feel that with all your support we will be able to manage anything that is put before us. I look forward to greeting you all in 2022 on Thursday, 6^th January.

 There has been a sea of colour in school today as it has been ‘Christmas Jumper Day.’ It is amazing since this day took off all the amazing and creative jumpers that people can wear – when I was younger it was considered very uncool to be wearing a ‘Christmas jumper’ but now you are considered uncool if you do not wear one. I would like to thank you all for your generous donations towards this cause - at the minute we have raised £266.10 but I will give the final amount next week just in case we get some late donations from people who have not had time to do it yet. Remember you can either give us cash or make a donation to the link that was in our last newsletter - I have included it below.

https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/cjd21001426

Next week in school we are having our younger children perform their Christmas productions to parents. As you will know from my newsletter we have had confirmed cases of Covid in school but at the moment the performances are still going ahead. They are not being held as they normally would be (because of Covid) but we are hoping that we are still able to put them on. I would like to remind all parents who attend that they need to wear a mask when they watch a show and take an LFD test before they attend. We would also ask that if anyone is not feeling well that they do not attend the performance.

Next week I have to attend some training on Thursday and Friday so will not be in school. If you have any concerns that you feel cannot be addressed by the class teacher Mr Gradwell will be in charge in my absence or you can make an appointment to see me on my return on December 20^th.

I hope you have a great weekend. I know it can be very busy at this time of year so I do hope you find some time to relax. We only have one full week to go before the end of term so a break is on the horizon. And I think after the year we have had it is certainly well deserved.

 Christmas has certainly arrived in Little Heath. Our Christmas trees have been delivered and decorated and the corridor and halls have all been decorated as well. We have also had lots of Christmas produce in school today as it was a PTA Mufti Day and the children have all had to bring in items to make up Christmas hampers which are going to be raffled to help to raise money for the school. I have managed to resist pinching the chocolate items and leaving them all for the hampers. I will be purchasing some tickets when they become available though in the hopes that I can be lucky again and win one of the hampers.

 I do love this time of year (as do the children) but it can also be a challenging time for us in school because the children are very excited for Christmas (as they should be). However, it is also drawing towards the end of the longest term and the children are starting to feel tired. This means that we start to get a few more ‘falling outs’ and arguments than we normally do so to help to address this can you please make sure that your children are going to bed at their usual time so they do not get too tired during the day. Tired children become irritable children and we do want them to enjoy all the fun of the Christmas end of term.

Getting back on a more positive note we have lots of exciting things to look forward to next week. On Wednesday it is Christmas Dinner Day when all the teachers serve the meals to the children who have a school dinner and then the children watch a film in the afternoon. Then on Friday it is Christmas Jumper Day which is always loved by the children (and the staff). Remember you can make donations to this cause by bringing money into school or by making a donation on our ‘Just Giving ‘ page. The link for this is listed below.

https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/cjd210014268

That is all for now. I do hope you manage to get some rest this weekend with all your Christmas preparations. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.