Dear Parents and Carers,

welcome to our new look newsletter – congratulations for making here! And rest assured that, yes, there is a biscuit questionnaire somewhere on the page. Answer one simple question before next Friday and your family could be the winners of the very nice Lidl deluxe biscuits.

Forest School

As this is a brand new look newsletter, I wanted to start with some lovely pictures. And what could be lovelier than our brilliant pupils enjoying the sunshine out at Forest School with Ginny.

Building Update

We are still on track to instal the school hall over half term provided that the weather is kind on the delivery days. You will have seen the signs on the road suspending parking on East Town Lane for the 23rd and 24th of October so that they can get the eleven big sections in. We know that this will be an inconvenience for the residents while the delivery is happening – we would like to apologise and thank local residents for their patience, hopefully the new school hall will make it all worthwhile. We hope to give residents back their access to the tennis court as soon as we can.

Remember that for two weeks after half term, while the installation is finished off, we are expecting to have the children back on the ‘little’ playground and therefore that there will most likely not be any parking for staff or parents over that time. Plan to walk up from the triangle.

We are already planning events to share the new hall with you when it is ready for us to use.

Welcome to Mrs Best

We are very pleased indeed to welcome our newest staff member Mrs \Best who has taken over as Administrator. She has been with us just five days now but has already shown herself to be a very strong appointment. She is getting her head around all the various portals and platforms, is quickly learning names and has very much enjoyed supporting on the playground and helping out in Nursery at lunchtime. Thank you for joining us Mrs Best – we are so pleased that you have joined us.

Readathon

Once the new hall is in place we will be moving the library across to that space – freeing up room for Willow Class. With more space there will be room for more books. Children will be taking in a fundraising Readathon to raise money for lots more beautiful, inspiring, fun books to spark their pleasure in reading. With extraordinary generosity, the KSPA have offered to double whatever the children raise so please, help us to get the children super excited and ready to go. More details on this will be with you very soon.

Safeguarding at School: Information Meeting and Q&A

14th October

9:00 a.m. (stick around after drop off)

and

5:30 (come along after work)

Unless they work in education themselves, most parents don’t really understand how a school works to keep children safe. It’s not a part of the job that many of us talk about – for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, it’s something that we feel passionately people should know more about. Together with Jess and Pippa’s mum, we will be running a short meeting to help people understand what the designated safeguarding lead does in school and how that dovetails into other forms of support. There will be about thirty minutes of presentation followed by plenty of time for questions and conversation.

This may not sound glamorous but I think you’ll find it’s more interesting than you might imagine. We will have tea and biscuits on the go too!

We have scheduled two opportunities for this – come along immediately after drop off in the morning or at five thirty after work. Children are welcome and we’ll pop some colouring activities and lego out for them but this really isn’t a meeting for them so come without if you can.

Class Cake Sales

The festival of deliciousness that is the traditional Cake Bake series will take place next term with each class taking centre stage for a week. I’m sure that more detail will go out via Seesaw but the dates you need to remember are below. We aim to raise some funds, have some fun and dangerously increase our blood sugar.

If anyone wants to practice and try out their bakes ahead of the day, Mr Finch and Mrs Best will be very happy to taste and give feedback.

Chestnut 7th November

Oak 14th November

Willow 21st November

Biscuit Questionnaire

This week I’m asking about Reading with Your Child. I will be running some workshops on this topic in the near future – I’d love to know how it’s working for you and what support we can offer.

Just click this link to answer the questionnaire and to enter your family for the biscuits!

Upcoming Events

We are looking ahead to next term and starting to think about all the events we have planned. This is not an exhaustive list – I am one hundred percent sure that more will come along. But we can make a start by getting these in our diaries

Safeguarding Workshops – Tuesday 14th October – 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Break up for the half term break  – Friday 17th October

First day back after half term – Tuesday 5th November

Bikeability for Chestnut Class – 24th and 25th November

Nativity Play – Thursday 11th December – 10:30 in the school hall

Carol Concert – Thursday 11th December – 5:30 p.m. at the church (tbc)

Christmas Fayre (with KSPA) – Friday 12th December 3:30 in the school hall

Christmas Parties – Thursday 19th December

Break up for the Christmas Holiday – Friday 20th December

Beautiful Charcoal Art

Oak Class had lots of fun creating large scale charcoal art. The children were inspired by the gift of a copy of James Carter’s new book ‘Who Are We’ – poems about all sorts of different animals. They also drew on their learning about Cave paintings from the Stone Age. They made a big mess as well as creating gorgeous art – I love these happy photos.