Next week’s value is Love

“Love doesn’t hurt others.  So loving is the same as obeying all the law”.  Romans 13:10

Dear parents/carers

The events of this week have certainly served to inject a real flavour of Christmas into the school. Since the opening of the Christmas Post Box on Monday, there has been an escalating sense of festive cheer.

On Tuesday, we welcomed visitors from the local Village Nursery to the Dress Rehearsal for our Nativity performance. Reception and Key Stage 1 children performed brilliantly and they have continued to perform well throughout the rest of the week. Well done to Reception and Key Stage 1 children and a big thank you to Miss Howells and all the teachers for their hard work in preparing our very youngest of pupils for their outstanding stage debuts!

Christmas is no excuse for staff training to cease and, on Monday afternoon, we invited a representative of the Guildford Science Learning Partnership to carry out a joint ‘Learning Walk’ to establish the quality of teaching and learning that takes place in our science lessons. All classes were observed carrying out a wide variety of exciting, explorative investigations. The observer commented on the enjoyment of children and the great links to class topic work – for instance Year 2 were designing a waterproof bucket with which to carry water to put out the Great Fire of London and Year 4 children were deciding on the best material to insulate against the sound of the World War 2 Air Raid Sirens! The afternoon’s Learning Walk was followed by a twilight staff training session, during which teachers engaged in some experimental work of their own and were given tips on further embedding children’s understanding and use of scientific vocabulary.

Well done to our Sports Crew who has been inspiring others with their determination and resilience this week! A big well done too, to Year 5 and 6 pupils who participated in the Barrow Hills Cross Country event on Tuesday. Thank you to Mrs Wright who quietly engineers these exciting sporting opportunities for children. Read more about our sporting successes below.

Please can I remind all children and parents that the outdoor Adventure Play Areas are out of bounds after school. There is signage to this effect in the vicinity of the play areas and we implore parents to discourage children (including pre-school siblings) from using the equipment. Aside from the obvious health and safety implications and lack of clarity regarding attribution of responsibility, the areas cannot be supervised by school staff and they do need to be available and safe for legitimate use, by pupils attending Koosa After School Care Club. Thank you in anticipation of your kind cooperation.

Finally, tomorrow is Mufti Day (in return for donations for the PTA Christmas Fair). It is also the day of our final Nativity performance (9.30am) and a celebration of excellence in our final REACH assembly of the term at 2.15pm.

Please note there will be no Celebration Assembly next Friday as the hall will be in use for the Christmas Fair! We look forward to seeing you there!
Have a super weekend!

Janis Radcliffe

Head teacher