Headmaster's Message
Dear Parents
The staff here have been hard at work this week getting ready to welcome the children back to school on Monday morning. We enjoyed a fascinating training session on our whole school target of improving outcomes for children through smart feedback, as well as English curriculum training for our much-valued teaching assistants and safeguarding update training for all staff. We have been delighted to welcome our new modern foreign language teacher Mme Tatton, and we wish her all the best for her lessons when she meets the children for the first time next week.
Lots has happened on the school site, including a brand-new IT suite and a completely refurbished Year Five and Six corridor area. We have also had work done on the Reception and Year One classrooms and I’m delighted to say that things have gone smoothly across all of these projects and the school is looking spic and span and ready for the new term.
We have had the Year Six children in today for their pre-season brain training session and it’s good to see them looking refreshed and all geared up for the new term. They of course have their entrance exams coming up in the next weeks and months and we wish them all the best as they get ready. As we reminded them today, this has been a marathon and is not a sprint. They have done the hard yards and now it is a question of putting the finishing touches to their preparations. There is no need to panic and no one expects them to do more than their best and we know they will do that, as they always do.
You should by now have received your new school calendars and I hope this is enabling you to plan the term ahead. We also have a session for parents in the diary on Friday next week with Andy Compton, our Digital Director, where he will provide guidance on the use of the new school portal. When this is launched it will serve to bring the different modes of communication that we use together in one place and thereby make life easier for us all. In the meantime of course we are always open to feedback and want to get communication with you as slick and as quick as it can be as I fully appreciate how important this is in running a busy household with young children.
I am sure I will get the chance to catch up with you all personally over the next few days in school and I look forward to hearing from you and the children about all of your exciting adventures over the summer. My son Hugh and I have been in some serious pre-season training in the run-up to the return to school making sure we get in a session of tennis, swimming, running or cycling each day so we are fit and ready to go. Having children is a great way to keep you young! I hope you all have a great last holiday weekend with your own children and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning.
