The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Thankfully we were not too adversely affected by storm Arwen but my thoughts are with those families who have been without heating and electricity for almost a week now.  The school building and grounds looked particularly beautiful on Monday after the brief snowfall and the children enjoyed being able to go outside to experience the frosty weather.

I would like to begin this week’s Chronicle with a thank you to the PTA who have been working exceptionally hard behind the scenes this week preparing for the Light Trail, which starts this evening, and the Christmas Fayre which is being held in school on Monday.  The children will be visiting Father Christmas and fayre in their year groups and be able to choose from a variety of stalls.  Your generous support has raised over £1,700 for the PTA which will, in turn, benefit the whole school.  I do hope that you are able to participate in the Light Trail which promises to be a wonderful festive start to the season and I look forward to seeing the local decorations.

We hosted several sporting fixtures this week and were expecting more but, due to confirmed COVID cases in other schools, they were forced to cancel.  I am grateful to Mr Stedeford for co-ordinating these fixtures and the wider sports team for their support.  Our catering team should also be thanked for providing hot teas which were very welcome on such a cold afternoon on Wednesday.

In assembly this morning, Nursery, Junior 3 and 4 parents were treated to a performance from Penelope in Junior 6 and our orchestra played everyone into assembly.  Penelope’s performance can be viewed on the recorded assembly link sent to parents earlier today.  I also congratulated our Stars of the Week: Anas, Ryan, Grace, Arabella, Aaryan, Isabel, Henry, Jude, Phoebe, Josie Jean, Adreena, Emily, Sebastian, Agnes and Jack.  Junior da Vinci awards were presented to Jude in Junior 3, to Ted, Elsie, Darcey, Phoebe, Sienna, Isabelle, Joshua and Harry in Junior 4 and Marley in Junior 6. Next week, Reception, Junior 1 and Junior 2 parents will be invited to join the live Celebration Assembly audience, along with any parents whose child is receiving a Star of the Week certificate.  All the current arrangements will be subject to us risk assessing against Covid conditions at the time.

I do hope that you have been able to book your seats for our nativities and Advent services next week but if you have any difficulties in doing so, please contact the School Office.  Please remember that we ask that attendees wear a face mask while on school premises and have recorded a negative lateral flow result within the 24 hours before entering school.  I hope that by following these measures, we can continue to invite families into school to enjoy live performances.  As there will be increased traffic next Tuesday and Wednesday, please follow the arrival times and parking instructions sent in the performance letter as this will help ensure that you arrive and depart on time, children are collected safely and local residents are not inconvenienced.   Your co-operation is much appreciated.

As next week will be our last full week of the Michaelmas term, we will be hosting Christmas lunch on Wednesday 8 December and we will also be supporting Save the Children once again on Friday 10 December.   Our last week of term will be upon us very soon and school will then close until 5 January but holiday club is still currently available to book.

I was delighted with our performances and results on the sports fields this week and I hope to be able to share full reports from the games staff, on all matches, next week.  I can report on two particularly excellent results, besides the super performance by the girls hockey team.  The U11B football team (which had 3 A team players included) beat Crescent U11A 6-0 and the U11A rugby team beat Bablake U11A, scoring 11 tries to 0 in the process.  Special mention must be made of our swimmers who went to the Independent Schools’ National Swimming Gala.  Issey Cleary returned home with three gold medals, including a win in the 50m U11 breaststroke finals – a simply outstanding achievement!

Well done to all our pupils on their hard work over the past week. Thank you to our staff for their hard work and dedication over a trying term and thank you to our parents for your support and understanding through the term thus far.  As mentioned, we have many events, activities and treats planned for which parents and staff have planned and worked so hard.  My gratitude is extended to everyone in this regard. Our school felt much like it used to since we have been able to hold assemblies and ‘socially distanced’ gathering again. It is part of which helps to make us the school we are.

I wish everyone a happy and relaxing weekend with your families.

God bless,

Mr Duigan