The Courier

Dear Parents

It has been a wet and windy start to the half term but nevertheless we have really enjoyed welcoming the children back from their two-week half term break. Quite a few of you seem to have got away to exotic locations and all the children are back refreshed and ready for the learning ahead. This half term culminates with our Christmas celebrations, with carol services, bazaars and nativities to look forward to. I do hope I am able to catch up with you at one or more of these events.

We managed to fit quite a bit of sport in despite the showers, and the house competitions in hockey and football started off on Wednesday to great enthusiasm from all the children. These competitions have mixed boys and girls teams which is really pleasing to see and works very well. You will read about the winners and losers in our sports roundup, but of course the real winner is the esprit de corps that taking part in these events builds. We also got over to the ISA swimming gala at Walsall that we attend each year and enjoyed the opportunity to showcase the swimming skills of our children who do so well in this sport.

Year 6 deserve a special mention this week as many of them are heading to Princethorpe College on Saturday for their entrance exams. They have worked hard and prepared well, and I hope they go in feeling confident and excited about the challenge ahead. We spend a lot of time speaking with them about managing their nerves and expectations, but of course there will still be anxiety on the day. They go with our very best wishes and we look forward to hearing about their achievements in due course.

I have prepared a small bonfire at the back of my garden for Saturday evening, as despite my children being quite a bit older nowadays, they still enjoy bonfire night celebrations. That is of course if we are able to get the thing started with all of the wet weather that we have had. The School Promise this week is to keep safe and be responsible and I will be bearing that very much in mind myself, if we do go ahead as planned.

Whatever you were doing this weekend, I hope you have an enjoyable and peaceful time with your families.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Thank you to all of you who completed the Survey, we had over 80 responses.  We do value your input in order to help shape the information we communicate.

We have made changes to the order of articles in the Courier and introduced an Important Information seciton to highlight key information. Activities outside of school will now feature in a monthly round up during Assembly on a Friday so we celebrate them properly with the children. Commencing next week we will take a new approach to the popular Around The Classes section with Pre-Prep and Upper School featuring on alternative weeks. Each class will have an article in their respective week's edition.