Dear Parents and Carers,

solidarity to all of you with poorly children. I’ve been suffering with this dreadful cold myself but at least I’m not nursing an eight year old through it too. I hope the weather cheers up and you are able to get outside and breathe some fresh air soon.

The website editor is playing up today and I’m not able to post the beautiful pictures that I was looking forward to sharing with you. Hopefully, that will resolve itself next week and we can have a bumper, rollover picture edition of the newsletter then.

Drumming Workshops

James Carr from Devon Drums came to school this week and ran drumming workshops for the children. They learned how to play some authentic African rhythms on the Djembe drums and then took their learning over the Atlantic to play those same rhythms on Brazilian Samba instruments. James was just terrific with the children teaching with patience, kindness and humour right through the day – we couldn’t recommend him more highly. For me, it was particularly lovely to see some children who don’t always find the classroom the easiest place to be dialling right in to this learning and showing real focus as they got absorbed into the rhythm. What a lovely, enriching experience for our pupils.

Wreath Making Workshop

Thank you so much to Gemma and the KSPA who ran a beautiful wreath making workshop for parents and carers on Wednesday evening. I was sorry not to be able to attend myself but the staff who did go along gave me the warmest reviews and were happy and proud to show me their creations. It looked like everyone had had a simply beautiful time – it seemed that the drinks and snacks had gone down well too!

 

Readathon

The final number are in and it seems that our Readathon raised an impressive £696:50 – with the KSPA pledging to double that, it looks like we will have nearly £1400 to spend on new books for the library. Choosing those books is going to be the most delicious job! Thank you to everyone who took part, everyone who donated and, of course, to our amazing KSPA for their awesome doubling!

Attendance

This horrible bug that has been going around has knocked our previously quite impressive attendance data for the year so far. With so many poorly children needing to be away from school, today’s attendance is 71% – a real low. We do understand and if your child is poorly, you must keep them away …

however

(you knew there was going to be a however didn’t you?) we do encourage you to bring them to school if they are at all borderline – err on the side of bringing them in. We very often find that children perk up once they are at school – in a different environment and with something to do they can forget about feeling unwell – maybe the change of scene is what they need. At this time of year there’s a good deal of weariness about, don’t mistake it for illness! If we find they do go downhill rather than perking up, we can always give you a call and let you know. I would love to see a recovery in numbers over the next couple of weeks before Christmas. There’s the Christmas fayre to prepare for, the concert and the nativity to practice, the Christmas Dinner coming up, Christmas Parties and all sorts of other fun – it would be such a shame to miss all that’s going on.

Biscuit Questionnaire

Last week’s biscuit questionnaire focussed on the important question of Best Christmas Songs. There was a very wide range of opinions on offer from the traditional songs like ‘Away in a Manger’, to pop classics by Slade and Wizzard and much, much more. I was pleased to see a couple of votes for my own favourite ‘Stop the Cavalry’ by Jona Lewie but, by a decent head, the overall winner was ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’ as performed by Brenda Lee. Consequently, to keep my end of the bargain, I have to sneak that song into the line up for our concert at the church on Thursday. That will be something to look forward to! The biscuits, by the way were won by the Sennit family who had voted for ‘Christmas’ by Darlene Love on the Phil Spector Christmas Album – a very satisfyingly unexpected choice!

This week’s questionnaire is back to some information that I really want to know – do click this link to take part and to take a chance to win those biscuits!

Dates for Your Diary

Carol Concert in the Church – Thursday December 11th, 5:30 p.m.

Nativity Play in the Hall – Thursday December 11th, 10:30 a.m.

KSPA Christmas Fayre – Friday December 12th

Pantomime Visit  – 15th December

School Christmas Lunch and Christmas Parties – Thursday December 18th

End of Term – Friday 19th December

Spring Term Begins – Monday 5th January