Headmaster's Message

Headmaster's Message

Dear Parents

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the holidays that are now just around the corner. These last weeks in school are always some of the busiest of the year and the week gone by has been chock-a-block with special events for the children to enjoy.

The Year 6s have enjoyed the premiere screening of the self-made murder-mystery movie as well as taking part in their community week. This has included a range of activities from a walk around Draycote Water on Monday through to archery, fire building, to learning about the workings of parliament and the basics of first aid. We have had house sports matches going on throughout the games afternoons and these have been interspersed with picnics and water fun. Move-up day went really well on Wednesday and it was great to see the children spending time with their new teachers getting used to their new classes. I hope that following our Welcome Evening yesterday, both children and parents feel as well prepared as possible for the new school year that lies ahead.

Today will also see the last set of reports going out to the children from Reception through to Year 4. This concludes the reporting cycle for the year and I know the tremendous number of man hours that goes into the writing of the reports, and I do hope that parents find them informative and helpful. My advice is to share the content of the reports with your children and accentuate the positive feedback, of which there is lots. Of course, there are also plenty of targets in the reports and these are something that we need to bring into sharper focus at the beginning of next term when we start again for another year of learning.

On a more immediate note, we have all been watching the growing numbers of infections in the local area for coronavirus with a good deal of concern. As you may know, this has resulted in year group closures in a number of schools locally, including over at Princethorpe College. We intend to keep going for the remaining two days just as we have done throughout, and we will not be relaxing any of our bubbling restrictions during that time. I cannot thank you enough for all of the support that you have given to the school throughout the pandemic. It is this support that has given us and the children the very best chance of reducing infection and therefore reducing time missed in school.

Let us all hope that things will be better when we return in September, but we are fully prepared for more restrictions being in place if that is the case. We have learned that we can cope with any scenario that is thrown at us and we will continue to be creative in the way that we meet the safety needs of all and align these with the learning and social needs of the children.

I hope you enjoy the weekend. You may be watching the England game on Saturday evening, as I intend to. The fact that we are playing so called easier opposition means inevitably England will make a meal of it. I predict an England victory via an unwatchable penalty shootout.

Best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster