The Courier

Dear Parents,

It was very encouraging to see so many of you here for the Harvest Service on Monday morning. I hope that bringing the event forward to a 9.15am start made it easier for many parents to build it into their busy schedules, and of course I know the children love it when their parents are able to come, although we do understand that this is just not possible for everyone. It was a really good occasion and an opportunity for everyone to think about how fortunate we are to have food so easily accessible and affordable to so many. Historically, and geographically today, this is not the case for many people around the world and it doesn't do any harm at all to remind ourselves of that.

I have been really impressed with the work of our school orchestra this term, never an easy task at this age range, and the choir also performed beautifully, as did our readers. Almost as soon as the service concluded Mrs Forth had the Year 6 children help her load up her car with all of the very generous gifts of groceries and toiletries and they were all delivered to the local foodbank charities before the end of the school day. As a reward, the Year 6s all got to choose one of the posh biscuits we had put out for the post service reception.

I also finally got the opportunity to come out and watch some of our sports teams this week, as the U11 boys and girls travelled over to Crackley for football fixtures. I am delighted to see that opportunities for girls in some of the traditionally male sports are routinely available here and it was pleasing to see all of the children getting involved and performing admirably in school colours. We managed to win three out of the four games and there was a good deal of wholehearted effort and not a little skill on display. I always say that in sport you can't always control who wins or loses but you can control the manner in which you play. On that note, it was great to hear some very positive comments from the opposition coaches on the behaviour and manners of our children for which I think the children, and the staff, should take at least as much credit for, as they can the results.

Have a good weekend.

Joe Thackway