Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back! And to our first parent newsletter using our new design. As with anything new, it will evolve further to feedback so that we can ensure all messages are being received in an easy and accessible way.
Apologies this is a long one, but we have lots of important information to share. Grab yourself a cuppa.
This week, my whole school assembly looked at the history of New Year and how the month of January came about as the time to reflect as well as look forward. We unpicked why it is important to look back and reflect on all that we have achieved and how by doing this helps us to focus on building on our success, as well as thinking about how we can improve and identify what (and how), we can achieve this year.
Your voice is important: In my last newsletter of 2022, I requested for you to support me understand your views on the school and asked for you to spare 5 minutes to complete our Parent survey.
Last year (2021-22) the parent survey highlighted the need for an overhaul with our communication structure. This led us to reviewing, researching and redesigning our website as this is our most important vessel to be able to communicate with our community. We have also redesigned the office structure to have a communications and IT administrator to ensure our communications are streamlined.
In order for us to get a good understanding of what we do well and things we can develop, we need a larger number of responses from across the school. If you have children in different phases, we understand that the opinion may be different for each child, but ask that rather than doing more than one survey, you answer with the ‘best fit’ view. You can find the survey here.
Today we sadly said goodbye to Megan who for the last two years has worked across the lower and early phase and more recently has been supporting children on a 1:1 basis. She has decided that she would like to explore other career avenues and possibly do some travelling too. She will be sorely missed but am sure you will join me in wishing her every success, wherever the future takes her.
Staff changes: This week:
- We welcomed back Sophie who is covering Ashleigh’s teaching in the Nursery and Kath who is joining Ladybirds.
- Philippa is covering Ashleigh’s Assistant Head for the Early Phase role and will be working Tuesdays to Fridays.
- Nicola will not be working on Wednesdays for the rest of this academic year.
- Irene has joined Kilmorie and is Lions class teacher.
- Simone has taken over from Jane W, in Year 3.
Do please join me in giving those new (or returning) to the school or post, a warm welcome.
This week the DfE published back-to-school advice amid continuing high levels of flu, COVID-19 and scarlet fever. The key advice is:
- Children who are unwell and have a fever should stay home from school or nursery until they feel better, and the fever has resolved.
- Good hand hygiene is key, with the focus on regular hand washing with soap and warm water.
- Catch coughs and sneezes in tissues and bin them.
- Adults should also stay home when unwell and if you do have to go out, wear a face covering.
- Flu vaccination is still available for all eligible groups and is the best protection against the virus.
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Email communication: The info@ mail box is incredibly busy and gets very full. At times, things can get missed. To ensure your question / query does not get missed and arrives in the inbox of the person you are trying to contact, please use the dedicated mail boxes:
Cutting through the Playground: Please can I remind parents that at the beginning of the day you can only cut across the playground to the Early Years and not the other way around. If you...
- are dropping children to Nursery or Reception and also have a child in Years 4-6, they need to use the alleyway to enter the main playground.
- have a child in Years 1-3 and in Nursery and/or Lions, please drop off at Nursery/Lions first, then use the alleyway to reach the main playground.
- have a child in Years 1-3 and Tigers or Bears, please drop off the child in Years 1-3 first, then make your way to the Early Years.
The above supports us in keeping children safe and helps the Early Years area to not too congested, especially with the current building works. Thank you for your support.
Children’s Mental Health week 6-12th February: The theme is ‘Let’s Connect’. We would really love to give the children the opportunity to participate in a range of ‘wellbeing’ activities throughout the week. If any parents/carers have any expertise in the following areas (or know of anyone who might be able to help) and would be willing to offer up some of your time that week, to do a short workshop with some of the classes, please let the office know. Children’s yoga, mindfulness, meditation, diet/nutrition, storytelling, art/craft activities, nature/forest school activities are some of the areas we are thinking of. However, we would be interested in anything that could benefit children’s mental and physical wellbeing. We would very much appreciate your help in making this a fun but mindful week for the children.
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I hope you have all had a lovely holiday and are enjoying the 2.5 minutes of extra daylight each day.
Happy New Year.
Kind regards
Julie
