The Chronicle

Dear Parents

We have enjoyed another busy week, with more inter-school sports fixtures and quite a bit of rain!  I hope that you are looking forward to the weekend ahead which, with any luck, will bring some fair weather.

As mentioned, we were fortunate enough to be able to hold a sporting fixture on our school fields this week when Crescent School visited and took part in the cross-country event.  Children from Junior 5 and 6 were involved and, as you will see later in this edition, their smiles and look of determination is evidence of a wonderful afternoon.  Thank you to Crescent School for joining us, Mrs Vaughan and the Estates Team for setting the course and to Mrs Stephenson for capturing the event on camera.

I was delighted to welcome Father Kevin and Father David back into school, albeit briefly and socially distanced, as a number of our pupils received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and also to prepare the children for Holy Communion.  It is hopefully not too long before Mass can be celebrated in school again.  Thank you to both Fr Kevin and Fr David and also to Mrs Jackson-Mayne and Mrs Simmonds.

In assembly I congratulated our Stars of the Week:  Ryan, Ashleigh, Teo, Will, Mahnoor, Lizzie, Beatrice, Jia, Lucas, Dexter, Aaron, Sam and Maxwell.  Bronze merit certificates were ‘presented’ to Lexi-Jean, Elsie, Dillon and Henry with Oliver in Junior 5 receiving a Silver award.  Congratulations to you all.  Well done to all our netballers on their performances and to Georgie, Julia, Jia and Chloe for delivering the match reports so well.  To end the assembly, we were all treated to a drumming performance by Olivia in Junior 5 and I can vouch that Junior 3S enjoyed it judging by the foot tapping on my office ceiling whilst they tried to ‘drum’ along to the beat!

There was evidence of exemplary work displayed in many areas this week as Junior Da Vinci’s were awarded to: Isaac, Evie, George, Alex, Isabella, Penny T, Ding, Noah (x2), Yung, Annalise, Niamh, Woody, Joseph, Finlay, Thomas (x2), Helayna, Jasper, Lily and Isabel.  Super work from everyone.

From next week, should lockdown measures ease as planned, we will be able to make some minor changes in school which will have a positive impact in classes.  For example, children will be able to return to sitting in small groups facing each other in their class bubbles and some year group gatherings will be able to take place under in certain conditions.  We will continue with our rigorous cleaning of high traffic areas, lateral flow testing and other measures such as staggered arrival and dismissal times, limited and controlled visitor access to the site, amongst other measures.  All the while, we will be keeping a close eye on government guidelines and adhering to Princethorpe Foundation decisions and approaches.

As you will know, we take the safety of pupils, staff and visitors very seriously and we continue to take various measures to minimise the risk of an accident involving a vehicle on the school site. Please take care when driving onto the school site, particularly at busy times such as the start and end of the school day.  During busy times we usually have staff managing traffic on site and all drivers are asked to continue to cooperate and to follow instructions.  Thank you to all our parents who work with us in this regard. We have recently reviewed our risk assessment on the management of traffic on site, to ensure the safety of pedestrians and vehicles, which you will find here . Please remember to be mindful of your speed approaching school, ensure your car is stationary until your child has left the vehicle and switch off engines whilst waiting in your vehicle for any length of time. 

I hope you have a restful weekend with your families.

God bless,

Mr Duigan