The Courier

Dear Parents and Friends of the School

I do hope your weeks have gone well and you are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Here in school, it has been another hard working week with lots to enjoy and celebrate as we move through the second-half of this autumn term.

Many thanks to everyone who has come along to the Scholastic Book Fair with their children this week, as well as a particular thanks to those parents who have given up their time to help serving in the shop, many of whom have kept on going well past the normal departure time for the children. This is a really important fundraiser for our library and keeps stocks at good levels, adding to the budget we already allocate to this each year. Reading for all ages remains perhaps the single most important skill the children can develop in their primary school years, opening up the entire curriculum to them as they grow and mature. Our library is full of inspirational reading material and even in this digital age, I don't yet see an end to the centrality of the traditional written word.

This week, we have continued talking in school about out new ‘learner profile’. Each month of the year we are introducing a new word for the children to consider, focusing on the qualities of a successful learner. We have already looked at ‘resilient’ and ‘curious’ and this month we have been looking at ‘determination’. Thank you to the children in 3SS who helped me brainstorm lots of really helpful ideas around this theme which we delivered to the rest of the school in our assembly on Tuesday morning.

We prefaced this message with the amazing life story of Wilma Rudolph, who had begun life in the 1940s with polio and ended up winning four gold medals in the 1960 Olympic Games. I think the story really resonated with the children and gave a glimpse as to what can be achieved through the power of sheer willpower.

One other footnote from the week was the visit from the ISA compliance auditor, who visited us on Wednesday to look at all aspects of the school's policies, risk assessments and safeguarding procedures. The gentleman who ran the audit was enormously impressed with what he found here and said this was simply one of the best run schools he had the experience of visiting in many years of experience. I would like to thank everybody involved in making our school such a safe and happy environment for the children and I think it is reassuring for you as parents to know that we are getting this stamp of approval from outside agencies in this way.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster