Thank goodness that the temperature has gone up since the beginning of the week although the weather could still not be described as warm. On Monday it was below freezing and I was certainly wearing many layers so I could be outside. What amazes me is that many of the children do not appear to feel the cold and they were coming outside in just their school shirts - they certainly must have different blood running through their veins compared to me.

You will have noticed that we have been displaying our lost property outside in the hopes that it finds its rightful owner. We have accumulated this because too many children do not have names in their clothing and therefore we cannot return it to whoever it belongs to.  I know I keep saying it but can you please make sure that all your children’s school items are clearly labelled so that we do not end up with a heap of clothes at the end of every term. With everything going up in cost at the moment I would think that this is a time that we ensure we take care of all our things so we do not have to replace them.

I know that next week some of you are going to be inconvenienced by some of our teachers taking strike action but I hope you can understand why they feel it necessary to do so. As the NEU leaflet explained there are problems in education because of a lack of funding and resources. We find it very difficult to recruit because people find that they are better rewarded in other occupations for doing less work and we are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the needs of all the children because we do not have access to all the resources we require through a lack of availability or funding. This situation does need to change if we want our children to develop to their full potential

I do hope that you all have a great weekend. Apparently the weather is going to reach double figures next week which is going to feel tropical compared to the -6 degrees that we started last week with.

 We had a lovely end to our week today because we had the Year 3 assembly this morning. The children were presenting all of the learning they have completed so far in Year 3. Whenever we have assemblies like this I am always amazed by the amount of learning that children do cover in class. I would like to congratulate the children on the great job that they did in presenting their learning and I would like to thank Ms Davis, Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Ameen and Miss Weller for their support in putting the class assembly together (and for all the support with the children’s learning across the whole year).

For some children in Year 3 it was their second performance of the week because many of them, along with children from other KS2 classes, performed at the O2 this week in a ‘Young Voices’ concert. As I explained in my last blog we have not taken part in one of these concerts for 3 years so it was a real delight to be back. All the children who were there really loved taking part in the concert and all of the families who were there, thought it was a really amazing spectacle to watch. Some parents have actually told me that they were ‘blown away’ by how good it was. I am really pleased that everyone involved had such a good time – it is really great that we are taking part in events like this again. Even though I did help out on the day the main thanks for their support should go to Mrs Lawrence and Mrs Robinson who have spent months preparing the children for the concert. I would also like to congratulate all of the children who took part. As well as performing brilliantly they were also really well behaved for the whole day and were a real credit to the school.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend. I think the weather has certainly let us know that we are in the middle of winter this week but at least it has been bright and sunny -so much better than the rain and darkness that we experienced last week. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

 Welcome back after what I hope was a great Christmas break for everyone. I certainly enjoyed having the time off after Christmas because it allowed me to recover from all the events over Christmas and I was really looking forward to getting back to work on Monday morning. The children must have felt the same way because they have settled back into school very well

Next week all the clubs start again which does bring more energy into the school. We have some new clubs starting next week as we now have a Lego Club on a Monday and a dance class starting on Thursday for our younger children. I do think it is good that we have such a diverse choice of clubs for the children to take part in - they do help to enrich the provision that we provide for our pupils.

Next week, as well as all the clubs starting again, we also have some exciting events to look forward to. On Tuesday the choir are going to the 02 to take part in a ‘Young Voices, concert. We have taken part in these concerts in the past but because of Covid they have been cancelled for the last couple of years. It is great that we can take part again and I know that the choir are very excited about performing in such an iconic venue. On Friday we also have the Year 3 assembly taking place. Class assemblies are always enjoyable events and I know that the children do love presenting them to their parents.

That is all for now. I do hope you all have an enjoyable weekend. I know we are experiencing some miserable weather (it is January after all) but I am sure that will not dampen our enjoyment. I look forward to seeing you all again next week.