Time just seems to be flying by at the moment –I cannot believe that another week has passed and there is just one and a half weeks until the end of term. I know people are starting to feel a little tired because it has been a long term but I can still remember the beginning of September like it was yesterday. It is actually starting to feel a lot more like Christmas because of the frost that has appeared this week –the children were very excited when they came into school and saw that our field was totally white because of the frost.

We had another lovely end to the week again as the children who are learning to play the piano put on a recital in assembly this morning. They played a mixture of Christmas songs and exam pieces that they have been learning in their lessons and it was a very enjoyable event to watch. I would like to congratulate all of the children for the commitment they are obviously giving to their piano learning and to their teacher Ms Moldova who is inspiring them to achieve great things. I look forward to their next performance

As you all know we had our first Christmas event this week. We had our Christmas lunch on Wednesday and we also made this our Christmas Jumper Day to help with the atmosphere. We played Christmas music in the playground for the children outside and then we finished the afternoon off with a film. I do love occasions like this because fun events have such a positive impact on the children. I would like to thank all the parents who volunteered to do playground duty with me so the majority of the staff could sit down to have their Christmas lunch served to them by the Year 6 (another thing that they really look forward to) and I would also like to thank everyone for their contributions towards Christmas Jumper Day – we raised £226.

Next week there are lots more Christmas events taking place in school. The Foundation Stage and Key Stage One will be performing their Christmas shows to the school and their parents and I know they are very much looking forward to doing that. If you have not ordered your tickets make sure that you do get them quickly because any unclaimed tickets will be made available to those who want additional tickets for their families and friends. Foundation Stage and Years 1 and 2 also have their Christmas party on Thursday afternoon but their teachers will have provided you with more details about that.

Raffle tickets for the Christmas hampers and the World Cup football and coins are still open so if you have not purchased tickets for those please do so. They are both very good raffles and the prizes are worth winning.

I am sure that along with most of the rest of the country you will be watching the football to see if England can beat France in the quarter finals of the World Cup. According to my husband (who thinks he is an expert about such matters) the teams are evenly matched so it is hard to predict the result. As it is so cold outside it is good to have events that we can do together indoors. Let us hope that we are still in the World Cup when we all return to school on Monday. Even if we are not we have lots to look forward to in school to help cheer us up.