We have come to the end of a busy week so thank goodness it is the half term break.  There has been a ‘sea of red’ in school today as all the children and staff have been wearing red to show their support for the anti-racism movement. We have supported this in the past as we think this is a very important principle to reinforce in school and I think that with the atrocities that are happening in the world at the moment it is an even more important message to reinforce.

I hope you all found the parent consultations useful. All the people that I have spoken to have told me that they found them very useful and I hope you all found them that way. Although these meetings do involve a lot of work for the teachers I know that they do enjoy these meetings because they know how important parent involvement is to helping children succeed. When children see their parents interacting with the school in a positive way it helps them to view school in a positive way which helps to have a positive impact on their achievement.

We have had a celebrity in school this week and although many of you will have seen them when you came into the school you may not have realised it. For those of you who do not know who they are I have included a photograph below.

 As you can see there are a bunch of flowers but they are no ordinary bunch of flowers. These are flowers that were bought for Madonna to have in her dressing room at the O2. When she left she left the flowers behind but somebody who has been working at the 02 gave them to us and they certainly helped to make an impressive display in our main entrance.  Just imagine the stories they could tell us if only they could speak.

I hope you all have a fabulous half-term. I know from speaking to some of the children that some of you are heading for sunnier climates and I am very jealous. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday, October 30th. 

 I know the school had a lovely end to the week because it was the Year 5 assembly. I unfortunately had to miss it because of another appointment that I had to attend but I have been informed that Year 5 put on a really good assembly and that all the pupils did the school proud. I would like to thank them for all their hard work and I would like to thank Mrs Cresswell and Mrs Stevenson for all their work in supporting the class.

Next week, as we did last year, we will be supporting ‘Wear Red Day’ on October 20^th which is a day of celebration of the anti-racism movement. To do this we are holding a non-uniform day but the children must wear at least one item that is red. In exchange for doing this we would like the children to bring a donation of at least a pound for the charity. The children can either make the donation in cash and bring it into school or you can make the donation on your child’s Arbor portal.

It is also parent consultations next week when all parents can meet up with their child’s teacher to see how they have settled in their new year group s and to see how they are progressing with their learning. The teachers look forward to these meetings because they know how important it is to have parental support for children to achieve their potential. May I remind you that these appointments are for 10 minutes (15 minutes for Year 6) and if at the end of your appointment you feel there is something you would like to discuss with the teacher in more detail could you please make an appointment for a later date. If everybody runs over by just a minute or two it can cause a big delay for parents who come after them and also may cause them to be late for their appointments with other teachers.  

Unfortunately, it does appear that the beautiful Indian summer that we have all been enjoying has gone. However, I am sure that will not stop you all enjoying your weekend. I look forward to meeting up with you all again on Monday morning. Just one week until we can all enjoy a lovely break.

 

 We certainly had an exciting morning in school as it was our annual Harvest Festival event. I really enjoy this as it gives me an opportunity to meet lots of parents. The children performed some lovely songs connected with harvest and it certainly appeared that a good time was had by all. I would like to thank our wonderful PTA for organising the drinks this morning and I would like to thank all you parents for your kind donations of cakes and biscuits and for the money donated in purchasing them at the event. This year we are supporting Water Aid which I think is an amazing charity because it helps bring clean water to parts of the world where they do not have this. I really find it hard that everyone does not have access to clean water in the twenty first century which is why I think that this is a really important charity to support.

This is obviously a big week for saying thank you because I would also like to thank everyone who purchased a book from our book fair. I do think that teaching children to read is the most important skill that we can teach them in education and if they have access to good books it makes the task so much easier.  We will let you know how much we have raised when Scholastic let us know and we will use this money to purchase new books for the children to read in school.

There is more to look forward to next week as Year 5 will be presenting our first class assembly of the year. I always enjoy these and I know parents really enjoy seeing their children on the stage as well. An awful lot of work goes into putting these assemblies on so I would like to remind you all that whilst we love to have families come to watch these events that if you bring young children and they start to make a noise or become upset that you take them out of the hall so that the children on stage do not become distracted and are unable to perform. Presenting in front of an audience at such a young age can be a nerve –wracking experience but we feel that it is an important skill to master and we do not want them to be put off from taking part by a distraction in the audience.

Looking at the weather today summer has not left us yet and apparently it is going to remain warm all weekend so I do hope you all have a chance to enjoy it. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.