Welcome back to school! I hope that you all have a lovely summer in the beautiful weather that we have had; we have certainly been spoilt. I am definitely ready to get back into some routine now and get started with our new year together. There is quite a bit of information in this blog - nothing too drastic - so please have a good read.
Throughout the holidays, although the school has been closed to our children, it has been a hive of activity in so many ways. For the first two weeks, the cleaning team completed a deep clean of every room - by the end of the year, this is essential before we let the staff team back in. There has also been some building and grounds work taking place. For a few years, our boilers have been temperamental and always a worry when we hit the winter months. After a carefully written bid, we were lucky to secure the work to have all 3 of the boilers replaced this summer. You will have also noticed that a new fence has been installed alongside nursery and Reception, all the way down the field too. It is a little higher and green to blend in a little bit more.
By far, the most exciting development this summer has taken place on the field. Thanks to the Pemberton and Appleton family, a large tractor appeared on the field last Friday to reseed it. We all know how thin the grass has got in recent years and the colour of the children’s t-shirts as a result has been filthy; so I am incredibly grateful that this has taken place. Ideally, the reseeding should have taken place earlier on in the summer, but the hot weather has made this impossible due to the hardness of the ground. As a result of it taking place last week, whilst the seed grows, the field will be closed for around 4 weeks. St Thomas’ have been very kind and will be letting us use their field for football training as we start to prepare for matches. We need to really look after it in its growing stage to ensure that it grows as we want it too. In October half term, we are hoping that the floor around the trim trail will be barked - the perfect conditions to start our OPAL journey this year.
New Beginnings
Last Wednesday, after spending a day in school, I wandered through each and every classroom with a huge sense of pride. So many of the teachers are changing classes this year and taking on a new challenge. With the new challenge, it has brought so much enthusiasm and a determination to learn. I cannot begin to tell you how hard they have worked this Summer and how excited they are to get going next week. There is so much to look forward to this year and plenty of ways that we will evolve - lots of opportunity for parents to support and get involved too!
Over the next few days, all of the teachers will be popping a welcome blog onto their page with some key information for the start of the year. Please do have a read and know exactly what is going on in your child’s classroom; I will be reiterating some key school messages within this blog too. We will welcome 30 new Reception children into school and a few new staff too. Miss Edwards will be teaching Year 1, Miss Brookes will be teaching Year 3 and Mrs Hunter and Miss Canham will be joining the support staff. Over the summer Mrs Ely has been recruited as a Speech and Language therapist with a consultancy company that we use in school. I am so excited for her - but we will miss her dearly here in school.
On Wednesday 9th September, there will be an opportunity for you to come into your child’s class and meet the teacher. These meetings are for parents only so we ask that you find alternative arrangements for your children on that night. There will be two meetings, 3.45pm & 4.45pm, so that you can choose which one to go to or if you have multiple children in school. Please do make an effort to come so that key questions can be asked and you can hear about your child’s year in school.
Key Messages as you get ready to return:
New uniform guidance was issued at the end of last academic year to give you plenty of time to adjust. Please make sure that you are familiar with it and that you come back to school prepared. I am aware that there has been a delay with the supply of the final batch of PE tops so please do not worry if your child has not got one initially. I am told that they will be in the shop by 19th September. Also a reminder that no jewellery is to be worn in school (including earrings) - just an analogue watch please. Smart watches are not permitted.
Please make sure that you have read the class blog for your child over the coming days. All of the information will be on there for what they need and when PE days are etc. Every child from Year 2 - Year 6 have a chair pouch where they store their reading books and water bottles so they can be accessed during the day. Mrs Naylor has had her sewing machine in this summer ensuring that they are all hole free! For the water bottle to fit in these pouches they need to be no higher than around 22cm tall. We can then keep them in the chairs for the children and not outside the classroom.
Snacks: In line with our sustainable outlook and school focus, we will again be wrapper free this year for snacks. This is the same as what we requested last year, we will just be enforcing it this year. There are so many ways in which snacks can be brought into school; avoiding wrappers and recycling these properly at home. We do not have the correct school recycling and it costs us a lot of money for weight of the waste. Please get into good habits each morning and help us to become more sustainable. This is big focus on our School Improvement Plan this year. All KS1 children have access to fruit daily. Any wrapped snack will be popped back in the child’s bag and sent back home; not consumed in school. We will again have the opportunity to order snacks on a weekly basis. All orders need to be placed each week by 8am. At lunch time, packed lunches can be eaten and wrappers will be sent back home, not placed in the school bin. Please get into the habit again of avoiding wrappers at lunch time to continue us working towards being sustainable.
Smartphone free - Last year we became a smartphone free school and started the campaign for our children to be smartphone free. We changed how children could bring phones into school, with the information that from September 2027 we would be completely smartphone free and no child phones will be brought into school. We are working with other schools on this campaign and also about walking home from school too. Year 6 are the only year group who will be permitted to walk home from school from September, as per previous years. We will allow Year 5 in the Summer term as they prepare for Year 6.
Class certificates - after a lot of discussion at the parent coffee morning and also with the student council, we have decided to no longer award certificates at the end of the week for learning. Instead there will be a much more immediate celebration when the child has achieved something; rather than waiting until the end of the week or when they receive the certificate. Stars will be staying - the children love these - but will be awarded in class and celebrated in assembly. We still want parents to come to our Friday assembly and will plan what this will look like on our staff INSET days next week.
We are really excited to welcome the children back next Thursday morning at 8.45am. Our new Reception children will be joining us in two groups for the first two days, before starting fully on Monday 7th September. Our first Sunday family mass of the year will be on Sunday 27th September - the Feast of Our Lady Star of the Sea. We look forward to welcoming our new school family and starting the year together.
Have the most wonderful Bank Holiday weekend and I will see you next week.
Mrs Gregan