Friday 13th December 2019
Dear Parents and Carers
This has been as busy a week as anticipated! The Christmas Bazaar was a great success with some lovely stalls and a good crowd of people to enjoy it. Many thanks go to the PTFA for the superb organisation as always, and to everyone who contributed to a wonderful total of over £300 – final figure to be confirmed.
Some of the PTFA’s annual takings pay for the transport to the Pantomime, with this year’s event – Snow White – being a huge hit with the children as always. Well done to everyone for arriving early at school on Tuesday; those extra few minutes makes our arrival in Yeovil a much more relaxed affair than if we were to be running late. It was lovely to see the enjoyment on the children’s faces; they were brilliantly behaved as always, and it is such a good experience for them to see live theatre. Thank you for your support.
Thank you, also, to everyone who brought their bags of unwanted clothes into school for the Bags to School initiative. More than 608kg of clothes (and rain!) were put into the van on Thursday morning, raising an amazing £243. This is another brilliant fundraiser for us, so do keep saving your unwanted clothes for the next collection, due to take place in March.
Well done to all the children involved in yesterday’s Christmas Counts Nativity play. As usual, the children put on a delightful performance, singing with gusto and speaking their lines clearly. Thank you to all the staff who organised the show, and to the PTFA for arranging the refreshments beforehand.
This morning’s Celebration Assembly was another busy occasion, with certificates for this term’s Swimming Gala and Cross Country Running involving many children in Key Stage 2. I am always delighted to hear about the children’s achievements in their out-of-school activities, so if your child has a significant Cubs badge, music certificate, swimming level or martial arts grading, please let us know.
More congratulations need to go to the school for Resilience! Having heard of many local schools with high levels of absence of both pupils and staff, I am (touching significant amounts of wood) very pleased to let you know that our current attendance figures overall are extremely high. Class attendance rates are Hazel – 97.0%, Chestnut – 97.2% and Oak – a brilliant 98.7%, with an overall rate of 97.6%, putting us in the top category with Ofsted. Furthermore, with more than a third of the children still with 100% attendance for this term, I am hoping to be presenting many of our new certificates next Friday.
Staffing Update – Hazel Class
You will be sorry to learn that Miss Jennings and Mrs Carter will be leaving us at the end of this term. The school has benefitted greatly from their energy, enthusiasm and expertise since they started with us. We are very grateful for all their work for the benefit of the children and wish them well as they embark on the next stage of their careers.
While it is obviously disappointing to be saying goodbye to them, I am pleased to tell you about our plans for the rest of the academic year. On Tuesday next week, the children will be introduced to their new teacher, Mrs Cheeseman, a very experienced Key Stage 1 teacher, when she comes into school to meet the children and prepare for the new term.
I will be arranging a time early in January for you to come and meet Mrs Cheeseman and to hear about our plans for Hazel Class for the rest of this year. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me in school.
Stamp Collecting for RNIB
From next week there will be an envelope in reception to start our Stamp Recycling initiative. We are collecting used stamps trimmed with about 1cm of paper around the edge – British or foreign – which will be sent off in support of the RNIB, a charity which does fantastic work to support the blind and partially sighted..
Don’t forget the many other events for the children leading up to the end of term, including on Wednesday the Christmas Lunch and Carol Service (all children are involved and needed at the church in Stower Provost at 4:00pm), and on Friday the PTFA’s Christmas Party Lunch, before the end of term.
With best wishes
James Stanford