I can’t believe we are already 4 weeks (or half way) in to the term! What a busy four weeks it has been.

It was lovely to see so many of our newest parents on Zoom for our Reception Curriculum Workshop on Tuesday and we look forward to welcoming them into school in the future to see the children’s learning in action.

I previously mentioned how we have had the old conservatory at Key Stage One replaced with an amazing new learning space, and now we have had the most beautiful library installed at Key Stage Two (pictures attached). Our wonderful FOGS will be substantially funding books for both these areas through their fundraising from last year and we cannot thank them enough.

As a school, we feel it is so important to develop leadership skills in our children and to give them a say in how the school is run. Last week, our new School Council were democratically elected for the year and what a great choice the children made! Their role will include a half termly meeting linked to our school values, supporting with charity and school events, greeting visitors to the school, giving out a School Council termly award and monitoring the class reward tokens. Myself, Miss Whiteley and Mrs Ashton are working on job descriptions for many other student leadership opportunities, which will be advertised before the end of the half term.

Last week we welcomed our new Chair of Governors, Peta Cocker, to both sites to meet the children and staff. She was very impressed with what she saw and will be regularly visiting us over the coming year. As a retired headteacher, she brings a real strength to our governing body and will provide myself with great support.

This year, we are focusing on understanding and celebrating disabilities and we started this work with marking International Sign Language Day. I couldn’t believe what our children had already picked up in our assembly last week. I know there are videos on Seesaw of children learning to sign greetings and their names.

As you my already know, we have a SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) and have trained many teachers over the years, some of whom now work for us. We currently have three student teachers based with us and we welcome them to the team: Mr Birro in Year 1, Miss Senior in Year 2 and Miss Woolnough in Year 3. In addition to this, all the SCITT students visited our school last week to enhance their learning on the teaching of reading and many children benefitted from reading aloud to them.

As you will have seen, members of the leadership team at KS2 are coming out onto the roads outside school at the end of the day. We have noticed that some of our children who walk home from school alone are not taking care crossing roads. Please could we ask that you all reiterate the importance of road safety with your children. This includes running down School Street and round the corner into the road.

Fogs have released the details of our annual Halloween disco which will be held on the last evening of this half term- 21^st October. They will also be running a pre-loved costume stall which is such a good idea particularly in these difficult financial times. We intend on doing something similar with World Book Day costumes at the beginning of March and don’t forget we also have an array of pre-loved school uniform to purchase for a small donation.

Finally, if any of you know someone looking for a place in Reception starting next September, please direct them to our Facebook page where there is information about how they can book a tour of KS1.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend- I’m looking forward to next week where I get to do a story time with our Reception children.

Mrs Crowther