The Courier

Dear Parents

I hope you have all enjoyed a productive week at work or home, just as we have done here in school. With two weeks of the new term under our belt we are looking forward to the longer weekend and possibly a little bit of spring sunshine.

My highlight from the week was the Inter-House Geography final, and there are pictures for you to see elsewhere in today’s newsletter. Despite the lockdown and the home learning, the 2021 class of Year 6s have achieved just the same levels of expertise as those in the past and it was great to see a really closely fought final on Tuesday. Many of the children had been doing lots of extra revision and practise and it really showed on the day. I did say to them all that there are not many 10 or 11-year-old children who could tell the river Tay from the river Tamar or the Caucasus from the Carpathians. Hopefully, it was a good example of learning made fun.

We are hard at work here planning for next September and we have interviews for a new art teacher and teaching assistants taking place in the next week or so. Once these are finalised, the details of the timetable can be worked out. Please keep a look out in the newsletter for news of the appointments and you will have a chance to meet all of the new staff in person at the Welcome Evening in July.

One new appointment we are delighted to announce is Jacqui Johnson, who will be joining us as our new Science and DT teacher across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 from September. She will replace the excellent Jo Byrne who announced her semi-retirement earlier in the term. Jacqui comes to us with from St Laurence’s Schools where she worked as science coordinator. She really impressed us with her enthusiasm, calm approach and her skills and knowledge during the recent recruitment process.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend and May bank holiday and I look forward to seeing you all back here on Tuesday

Best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Jacqui Johnson will join us in September as our new teacher of Science and Design Technology. Jacqui will be working with children from Year 1 to Year 6 and teaching them all aspects of these two important subjects. Jacqui is a Psychology graduate comes to us from St Lawrence Primary School in Southam, having trained as a teacher at Warwick University. Whilst at St Laurence’s, Jacqui has been involved in STEM initiatives as well as guiding her school towards the Primary Science Quality Mark. We wish Jacqui every success in her new role.