The most common thing that I have heard this week is, “Hasn’t it gone cold!” I think we have certainly all noticed the change this week. I thought that my summer wardrobe could last another couple of weeks but I certainly think that I will be getting my winter wardrobe out of the loft this weekend.

I am afraid that I am going to have to have a little moan this week. As usual, a lot of the children have been leaving their school jumpers out in the school playground (they do not appear to feel the cold like I do). Unfortunately, we have only been able to return half of these jumpers back to their rightful owners because the other half did not have any names in. Throughout the year I am constantly reminding parents to label children’s clothes and yet we still find uniform that is unmarked. We do have a lost property box which is overflowing with un-named uniform and that is a real shame. I do have some parents complaining that their children have lost uniform but if it is un-named it makes the job much harder to return it to its rightful owner. Please do check your children’s uniform over the weekend to make sure that it is all clearly labelled so that if they do lose it they can have it returned to them.

The main event of next week is our Harvest Festival event which is happening on Friday. The time slots went out in the last newsletter but I have listed them below to remind you of when they are. Remember that if you have two or more children in the school you can just have them all in one slot if that is more convenient for you. We are asking for donations of cakes and biscuits to serve at the event and these can be brought into school from Thursday.

Harvest Festival Times

9.30 – 10.00am – Years 1 & 2

10.00 -10.30am – Nursery & Reception

10.30 -11.00am – Years 5 & 6

11.00 – 11.30am – Years 3 & 4

I hope you all have a great weekend – even though it is getting colder we are due to have some sunshine. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

 It has been a very busy day in school as all the children have been having their photographs taken. I do laugh at the different approach that the children take to getting their photograph taken as some children make a big fuss with their appearance and others just plonk themselves in front of the camera without a care of how they look. I do admire people who have this attitude towards having their photo taken as I am not a fan of having a camera placed in front of me. They say a mirror never lies but I do think it is kinder than a photograph - especially for those who are advancing in years. 

Next week is a very busy week in school because we have the ‘Bikeability ‘ team in school to help the Year 6 improve their cycling skills. I do think that this is a very important thing to do because there is a lot of traffic on the roads and if children are going to ride their bikes to and from school they need to know how to keep themselves safe. As the children bring their bikes into school on the Monday morning it may be a little more crowded in front of the school when you drop your children off at school.

We also have a Book Fair arriving in school next week and it will be open to purchase books from September 29^th –October 4^th from 3.15pm -4.00pm (Nursery parents will have an extra session on Monday, 3^rd October from 11.45am -12.15pm). We have not held one of these for the last couple of years because of Covid restrictions but I do hope that as many of you as possible can attend. Remember – the more you buy, the more money will be awarded to the school to buy books for our own library which means that all the children benefit. You have all been so generous in the past and I hope you will be able to show the same generosity again.

I hope you all have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again next week.

 The summer seems like a dim and distant memory now – not just because we are back at school but because there has been a definite change in the weather. There is certainly a chill in the air now and it is strange to feel this because it has not been cold for such a long time –I will have to start digging out all of my winter woollies soon if the weather gets much colder.

All the extra school clubs started this week which gets the children very excited and this year all the sporting leagues and events should be running as normal which is even better for the children. Let us hope that nothing happens this year to stop all these events taking place because it can be very disappointing and demoralising for the children.

Fortunately, this year there are no sanctions in place which affect how the children arrive and leave school. However, may I remind everyone that children are not allowed on the school climbing equipment before or after school and they should not be playing football at this time either. I have had a couple of complaints from parents about children being hit in the face by balls at this time and this is not acceptable. We will be reminding the children in school about this and we would appreciate it if you can remind your children about not doing this as well. We do not want a child to get seriously injured before we all start following this request.

We have not had a full normal start to the term because of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. As you know Monday 19^th September has been declared a Bank Holiday so that most of the country can watch her funeral. I will certainly be watching because I really think that she served the country the best she could during her reign. I look forward to seeing you all again Tuesday, 20^th September. 

 I am sure you would all agree that the main event of this week is the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. This was always going to be a sad time because she has always been a part of everyone’s life and it is going to be very strange knowing that we will never see her again. However, she served this country well and when looking back at her life there is a lot to celebrate and be proud of. For me she set a brilliant example with her work ethic and the fact that no matter what life presented her with on a personal or public matter she kept going, keeping all her troubles to herself or trying to inspire the country to keep going through a difficult period. This morning we did an assembly with the children to commemorate her life and her service to the country. Next week we are planning to do a couple of age appropriate activities with the children based on her life and her service to the country.

We wanted the children to have a really good first week back at school so we have had a themed week based around ‘Outdoor Learning’. The purpose of this week was to allow the children to gain from the benefits of outdoor learning and also emphasise the importance of the need to take care of it so that we can sustain the quality of it for generations to come. We did plan to have this the first week back because it is usually very sunny when we return to school but there has been some heavy rain showers this week which I know we should be happy about. Fortunately, the majority have taken place outside of school hours so the children’s learning has not been affected apart from some of the surfaces being a little wet for them to complete their work on. They all appear to have had a very good week and have settled back into school life well after their long break.

Next week all the extra-curricular clubs start again which really helps add a buzz to school life. If you have not already done so, please make sure that you sign your child up for the clubs they want to attend on the Arbor system.

I am sure this is going to be an unusual weekend as the whole country mourns the passing of the queen. When we find out any details about how the national mourning may affect the running of the school we will let you know as soon as possible.