The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Happy feast day to all in our school community – past and present.

Welcome to this week’s Chronicle which is brought to you on St Joseph’s Day, our Patron Saint.  It has been a day where we have celebrated with an online Service and children enjoyed St Joseph cupcakes, baked by Mr Sansum.  Although it would be preferable to celebrate a Mass in school, I would like to thank Father Kevin, Mrs Jackson-Mayne, Mrs Paphitis, Mrs Olden, Mr Sansum and Junior 6 for making this event as special as it can be given the circumstances.  I hope that you also enjoy watching the Service.

This week Junior 3 enjoyed a virtual visit from Severn Trent Water where they learned about the water cycle and the journey water makes to and from our homes.  Mrs Stephenson visited school this week to capture the event and you will be able to read more about this later in this edition.

Junior 5 and Junior 6 have been involved in their LAMDA examinations this week and we look forward to hearing the outcome of their efforts early next term.  Thank you to Mrs Wildey for organising these examinations and to our Drama staff for preparing children for LAMDA.

In this morning’s assembly, I announced our Stars of the Week: Ryan, Jai, Jessica, Leyton, Leo, Isabelle, Ivy, Elena, Jakob, Harry, Jack, Rosa and Amelia.  RE book of the week was awarded to Alexa in J4B.  Merit Certificates (Bonze) were given to Evelyn and Grace in J2, Arisha, Sebastian and Jack in J4 and Anabel in J6.   Julia in J4 received a Junior da Vinci today for her wonderful work in RE.  To conclude our assembly, Thomas, our Head Boy, played a superb piece on his cello.  Congratulations to everyone, I am always so pleased to see your continued determination and hard work.

The PTA met online this week to discuss forthcoming events and they have been most busy trying to discover more innovative, COVID-safe ways of how to involve everyone in fun and fundraising events.  Next Thursday we will be holding a pre-loved book sale in school which will be managed by teachers and TA’s and on the last day of this term, Tuesday 30 March, there will be a non-uniform day.  Please do try and support the PTA whenever you can, all proceeds go directly back into school which will benefit all the children.

I am ever-more aware some parents are eager to come back into school and take up their volunteer roles once again but unfortunately, we do not have a date yet when this will be restarted.  This is not only due to COVID but also to safeguarding practices.  As soon as I can welcome parents back into school, I will let you all know.  Thank you for your interest and, in the meantime, I would ask for your continued understanding.

As in previous messages, I would like to reassure parents that we are doing our very best to follow the current lockdown guidance which includes class bubbles, staff wearing masks when moving around the school site, thorough and regular cleaning and all staff taking twice-weekly lateral flow tests.  I would respectfully ask that families also follow the guidelines so that we all do our bit to keep everyone safe.  This also extends to childcare bubbles; please do not ask for your child to accompany another child home unless you have formed a childcare bubble with that family.  Whilst we do not wish to seek information regarding individual family arrangements, if you are bringing or collecting another child to and from school, we will assume that you have formed your childcare bubble with that family. Further clarification regarding childcare or support bubbles can be found on the government website Making a childcare bubble with another household - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

We have a good weekend of Six Nations rugby to look forward to, with both Wales and France feeling particularly confident.  The French looked particularly good in the first half against England last week, before succumbing near the end.  I think that England started the competition too slowly.  It’s also interesting that all three remaining English clubs in the Champions League have managed to avoid one another in the draw for the quarter-finals.

I hope that you all have a restful weekend with your families.

God bless,

Mr Duigan