It has been a very exciting week in school because of all the jubilee activities going on in school. As I type this we are preparing for our last activity of the week which is to have our little jubilee concert on the field and hopefully many of you were able to join us. I would like to thank everyone who sent in donations to be served at our refreshment stall. The children have had a lot of fun with all the baking and art activities and hopefully, those of you with children in Years 1-6, will be proudly displaying the jubilee plates your children have made in your homes.

Another exciting event that we had this week was the return of the ‘Oakmere Mini Marathon’. It has not been held since 2019 so it was great to be taking part in a sporting event with all the other schools. I know that some of the children (and parents as well) worry about this event but when I spoke to the children afterwards they all said they had a great time. I think the word ’marathon’ puts a lot of people off but the course is actually just over a mile long and the important part is the taking part and not where you finish. I know that the Oakmere head was particularly pleased to be able to hold the event as she is leaving the school this summer and she wanted to hold one more mini marathon before she left. Hopefully the new head continues the tradition of hosting this annual event.

All that is left for me to do is to wish you all a fabulous holiday. I hope that you enjoy any jubilee events that you attend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday, 7^th June. When we booked the occasional day for the 6^th June we did not realise that it would follow an extended bank holiday so it will allow everyone a day to recover from all the celebrations before they return to school.

 I am typing this whilst I am waiting for Year 6 to return from their trip to Kingswood. I know they have had a great week which I am very happy about and I am sure it will take the whole weekend for them to recover. The Year 6 school trip is one of the highlights of a primary pupil’s life and I am very pleased that it has been able to take place this year – it will give the children pleasant memories for many years to come. Of course it would not be possible if members of staff were not willing to leave their families and join the children for the week and so I would like to thank Mr. Gradwell, Miss Russon, Mrs D’Avella and Mrs Friedman for giving up their free-time to make this trip possible –I expect they will be very tired over the weekend as well.

 In school we had a wonderful end to the weekend with the Year 1 assembly this morning. Due to Covid restrictions this is the first assembly that this class have done and I think they did themselves very proud. The assembly covered the learning that the children have done in class and everyone who watched it was very impressed with what they saw. I would like to thank the class for putting on such a great assembly and I would like to thank Miss Davis and Mrs Alimadadi for their hard work and support in putting the whole assembly together.

As you know we are carrying out activities to help celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next week. Children in Years 1-6 are going to be decorating plates to bring home to help commemorate the event. We are asking for a £3 donation towards this so if you have not already done so can you please make your payment on Arbor – if you have any problem doing this please contact the school office. Children will also be preparing work to put in time capsules which we are going to hide in the school to be opened in 70 years time – who knows what the world will be like then. We will be ending our week with our Jubilee Event where we are inviting parents to come and watch the children perform songs from across the seven decades that the queen has been on the throne. This will begin at 2.00pm next Friday.

As well as all the jubilee activities some of the children will be taking part in a Sharing Assembly on Monday morning and the KS2 children will be taking part in the Oakmere mini marathon on Thursday morning. With such a busy week in place I am glad that we have the half term holiday the following week so that we can all recover.

Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday morning. I have to attend a meeting on Monday morning so I will not be in school until the afternoon.

  It has been a week that all Year 6 pupils dread– SATs week. However, the tests finished yesterday and, as usual, the Year 6 found they were not as bad as they were expecting and they were over before they knew it. I know that all our children did the best they could and that is all we can ask of them. They have their school journey next week so I am sure they will have a more relaxed weekend compared to last week with that to look forward to. They can also enjoy the rest of their time with us without that black cloud hanging over them.

It will be quieter in school next week as Year 6 will not be in but there will still be plenty going on in school to look forward to. Firstly -it is ‘Walk to School Week’. This is a week when we highlight the benefits of coming to school either by walking or riding a bike or scooter. The health benefits of not coming to and from school by car are huge (both emotional and physical) so even if you have to come to school by car you should try and build time into your journey to allow yourself to park 10 minutes away and walk the last part of the journey. I hope we can all make an effort next week to get out of our cars and use our legs to either walk, ride or scooter to and from school.

As well as the ‘Walk to School Week’ event we also have some of the older children taking part in an athletics event at Dame Alice Owens and at the end of the week we have the Year 1 Assembly. I am really glad that events like this can take place again. Life in school during the Covid sanctions was very monotonous and it is nice being able to hold all the extra- curricular events again because they really enrich the school life of the children.

I hope you all have a great weekend. It looks like it is going to get a little warmer so let us hope that summer is finally on its way and we can start enjoying the great outdoors without having to wear lots of layers.