Dear Parents and Carers
We have now reached the end of the Spring Term – an extremely busy one in which the weather seems to have come full circle! Hopefully the weather will be kind during the holiday, as I am sure the children will be very keen to be outside.
The children have, of course, continued to work hard this week, but have also had a full range of additional activities to vary the diet. Our footballers tried hard on Wednesday at the tournament in Mere, braving the icy winds, and their play improved hugely with each match. As always, their sportsmanship was exemplary and it was a super experience for them to take part. Thank you to all the parents who transported the children and cheered on our team. The children all seemed to enjoy the Tennis Roadshow yesterday, too. If your child would like to take up tennis coaching next term, please see the posters in school.
Last Friday’s Quiz night was a great success; thank you, PTFA for all the organisation involved in providing such an entertaining evening for us. Well done to the winning team for answering so many tricky questions! Congratulations, too, to all the prize winners of the excellent Pre-School Raffle.
On behalf of the children, I would also like to thank the PTFA for the now traditional Easter Egg Hunt, which the children all enjoyed hugely. Their self-control in not eating any of the chocolate on display today was truly impressive!
Attendance
Congratulations to the 21 children who received their 100% attendance certificates for this term, successfully dodging chicken pox and the various other nasty bugs that have been laying their classmates low since Christmas. Although currently lower than this time last year, our attendance figure overall is still good compared with the national picture. We will, however, continue to follow the locally agreed procedures: for children whose attendance falls below 93%, a letter will be sent home advising you of this, a further letter is sent if the position doesn’t show signs of improvement, and if attendance slips below 90% (equivalent to half a day missed every week), the Local Authority Attendance Officer is involved. Whilst illness is, of course, unavoidable and our policy of 48 hours away from school for recovery after sickness adds to the absence level, we are obliged to follow this procedure for all children. Thank you for your understanding and support in this matter.
Building Project update
The first phase of toilet refurbishment is now virtually complete, and the contractors will hopefully make the most of the next nine working days to push on with Phase 2 – the boys’ toilet. The children have been brilliant at compromising and deciding whose turn it is to be first, but we are looking forward to normal service resuming. When the site facilities have been removed from the front, we will also be able to see the full impact of the new paintwork – it is beginning to look very smart.
Finally, my thanks go to Oak Class for their Easter-themed poetry and pictures shared in this morning’s assembly. They showed careful thought and it was good to hear so many confident voices. I know many of them are looking forward to next term’s Summer Play – Alice the Musical – which will provide them with the opportunity to develop their performance skills further.
I hope you all have a very happy and relaxing Easter Holiday, and I look forward to welcoming everyone back for the Summer Term on Tuesday, 23rd April.
With best wishes
James Stanford