Dear Parents/Guardians

Thank you for all your amazing support and kind comments to myself and to staff this week.  We are blessed to have such a strong and positive community.

As you can imagine, it has been quite a busy week in school, but our focus on doing the right thing for our children has really helped us to stay on track.  Some of the highlights from this week:

• Our Reception Nativity plays went ahead more or less as planned on Tuesday.  
• Our KS1 Nativity didn’t go at all to plan – no pianist, no Y3 main part actors – but our Y2 and Y1 children delivered a lovely rendition of the Nativity story for their parents and we all greatly enjoyed their amazing singing and actions.  
• Year 5 enjoyed their Christingle workshop with Mrs Sharp in the hall and you can see the Advent Reflection they shared here
• Year 6 went to St Erconwald’s church to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in preparation for the coming Feast of Christmas.  Afterwards, they told us: “I felt very peaceful.”  “My mind feels kind of clearer now, like it’s been new.”

Looking ahead to next week, we will review on Monday the viability of the KS2 Carol Service and the PA outdoor fair.  Our hope is that the Carol Service will go ahead in some guise, if only to Y6 and their parents, but it is best to make those decisions after the weekend when we have a clear picture of the current situation (and pending any further guidance changes nationally!).  Thank you for your patience while we plan to do what we can as safely as we can.

Other events planned for next week include:

• Our traditional Christmas panto (Scroogical) for all children on Tuesday 14^th December
• Christmas lunch on Wednesday 15^th December – please could children come to school in their normal school uniform, but wearing festive jumpers / headwear if you have them
• Prayer Council trip to the outdoor production of the Wintershall Nativity
• Christmas parties in class (children to bring a few wrapped items to share – no nuts please)

We will do our best to enable as many things as possible to go ahead this year for the children, with the appropriate precautions in place, especially next week!  Please do work together as a community and take your children to get a PCR test if you have any doubt at all about their fitness to be in school.  Many of our families (and staff!) are hoping to go away over the break, or hoping to visit older or more vulnerable relatives, and it is important that we support each other to keep the community fit and well as best we can!  Thank you for your help with this!

Our Nativity recording (thank goodness we managed to record it before we had to bubble classes!) will soon be ready and is available to purchase at £5 with all funds raised going towards the school.  You can order it on Scopay.com.  Thank you for supporting this and we hope you will really enjoy it! 

Just a reminder – as we come into this very expensive season of Christmas – that the school will do all we can to support families in need.  It may be families briefly in need as well as those who have longer term financial difficulties.  We have access to supermarket vouchers which may be helpful to some families – please let me know if you would like to access these.  Children who receive Pupil Premium will also qualify for vouchers over the holidays and these will be coming out to you next week.  A final reminder that Pupil Premium children qualify for some support with clubs – including free access to Homework Club – and that school will do our best to support families with the cost of trips where a request is made.  Please do get in touch if there is anything we can do to support you.

Wrap-Around Care

We have had strong interest in places for Breakfast Club and After-School Club this year and we have taken the decision to continue with the expansion of Whizz Kids from Easter 2022.  There will be additional places in both Breakfast and After-School Club.  As these are new places, we will follow our Whizz Kids Admissions Policy with one small amendment - preference will be given to children looking for 5+ sessions in the week e.g. 5 mornings or 5 afternoons or 3 days morning and afternoon) as this is most financially viable for the school.  All children – including children on the current waiting list - should also register interest by completing and returning the forms available here . A hard copy is available at the school office. 

Finally, a huge THANK YOU for all your generosity towards our Community Christmas project!  The Chapel has been filled with bags and bags of wrapped gifts, and we have begun to allocate these to the projects identified.  A lunch club for the elderly was delighted to receive our donations of gifts for all their members – these are often elderly and/or housebound people who may not have family living locally.  Your gifts make a real difference, helping them to feel loved and supported in our community.  Thank you!  

All best wishes for the coming weekend. 

Catherine Burnham

Weekly Awards

Week ending 10^th December 2021