Well what a strange few days weather-wise it was at the end of the week. I sat looking out of my office window on Thursday afternoon watching the trees swaying all over the place with some of the worst driving rain that I have ever seen hammering down on the concrete and fields! Fortunately, by Friday morning, the 'ponds' that had gathered in the corners of the playground quickly dispersed and the children were able to go out for break time and lunch which I know the teachers were very grateful for as the dreaded ‘wet play’ is not always the most conducive to learning. Apologies to those parents of Nursery and Reception children though who had to duck as they dropped their children off on Friday morning –I’m glad to say that Rudi jumped into action as soon as he could to remove the offending branches!

Earlier this week, Mrs Robinson, Mr Chanter and I welcomed some of the parents from Reception and Year 1 to a phonics meeting after school and it was lovely to see those of you who were able to attend. I was going to say at the beginning of the meeting how strange it was going to be not leading the meeting as I have done for the last couple of years, but Mrs Robinson did a grand job of introducing the scheme and passing on information to best support your child at home learning to read –and more to the point, learning to enjoy reading! If you were not able to attend the meeting but would like further information on how best to support your child with their phonics, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Robinson who will be happy to help.

As was mentioned in the newsletter yesterday, it is our Harvest Coffee morning on Friday morning and we would like to request donations of cakes and biscuits to be sent in on Wednesday and Thursday that can then be sold at the event to raise money for charity. We always like to involve the children in helping to choose the charity to donate to so I will discuss this with them in assembly next week so that we can announce which good cause will benefit. The Harvest morning is a lovely opportunity to hear the children singing the Harvest songs that they have been learning –I’m just gutted that I won’t be able to be there this year due to a Headteachers' conference that I am attending. Mrs Robinson and Mr Chanter will be leading the event this year in my absence and I know that it will go as smoothly as ever.

I won’t repeat everything here that I mentioned in the newsletter, but I did want to end with the request that I wrote in it about the children’s belongings. Please do ensure that all of your children’s belongings are clearly marked with their name and class so that in the event of them getting lost, we can return them as soon as possible. Also, please do be vigilant about any items that your child brings home and return anything that does not belong to them if/when you notice it. I discussed in Thursday’s assembly this week how some items had gone missing despite being clearly labelled and asked the children to look out for any such things and also to bring in any items that are left outside when they come in from break and lunch. I was very pleased to see a few girls then doing exactly that yesterday –I won’t name them on here but they know who they are and so I wanted to say well done to them and to remind everyone to do the same so that I can praise you too and ensure that the problem of missing belongings doesn’t continue.

Due to a course and the Headteachers’ conference that I am attending on different days next week, I am not going to be around on the gate much, so Mr Chanter will be out there on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and once again, if you have not had the chance to speak to him, do pop by and say hello if you can.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you all again on Monday.