I hope that you are all having a wonderful summer holiday. The weather has certainly helped; I cannot remember a summer quite like it.
I just wanted to update you all on two things ready for the children coming back in a couple of weeks.
You will be aware that Miss Drummond was unwell last year and has been absent from school since Easter. Whilst she has been recovering at home in this period, she has informed us that she is not well enough to return to school for the start of the academic year in September and will require some additional time off. We continue to send her our best wishes and our prayers - hoping that she will be back with us soon.
When a key member of the staff team is off, especially as we head into a new academic year, my absolute priority is getting someone in place to ensure that the children feel settled and welcomed as they start their new year group. Having a familiar teacher in place is absolutely essential. I am delighted that Miss Brookes will be joining us and taking charge of Year 3 in Miss Drummond’s absence. The children know Miss Brookes incredibly well as she taught them in the final term of Year 2 as she completed her teaching qualification. She can literally hit the ground running with them; she is so very excited and has done a wonderful job of getting the classroom ready. Miss Brookes is the perfect teacher for this role and we are very lucky to welcome her to our class team. All of the teachers will be writing a welcome blog in the coming weeks so I will let Miss Brookes take over then. I know you will all support her and welcome her formally to Our Ladys.
Secondly, you will be aware of the closure of St Annes Swimming Pool, which now appears to be closed for some time. Year 3 is our school swimming year and St Annes is the swimming pool that we use; infact, all of the schools in our cluster use it. As a team of Headteachers, we have been trying to problem-solve what we can do to ensure that our children keep swimming as the information from Fylde came to us quite late. We are currently in the process of working with Palatine Swimming Pool in Blackpool to see if they have a slot in which they can accommodate us; which we think they do. This is just taking some time to organise the logisitcs. As soon as we have a plan, we will let you know when the children will be swimming. The curriculum requirement is that all children should be able to swim 25m by the end of primary school; we want to do that as soon as possible, given where we live. If your child does not have swimming lessons, I wuld urge you to get them swimming as soon as possible then as soon as we have a school swimming plan, it will help the children further.
I am really looking forward to welcoming the children back in September. Enjoy the last few weeks of your Summer!
Mrs Gregan