The Courier

Dear Parents and Friends of the School

The last two days have been the two hardest days of my career as a teacher. It is hard enough to hear and accept the news just for myself. Like many staff here, I have built a special bond with Barnaby over the years he has been with us. To have to share the news of his passing with so many of his friends and peers who knew and cared for Barnaby, makes it even harder to bear.

I would like to thank all of you who spoke to your children on Thursday evening. I felt it was the right thing for the children to hear the message from their own parents, in the love and comfort of their own home. You will know better than anybody how to manage this with your children and hopefully the guidance that we provided gave you some helpful starting points. 

I have to say, the children today have been really sensible and calm in school. We had an assembly this morning based on a story book called Always and Forever. This is a lovely one to share with your children and deals with the process of grieving in an easy-to-understand way. There are links from the Child Bereavement website, that I signposted for you yesterday, to other similar resources that you might find useful.

I hope that the half term week will be a good time to begin to come to terms with what has happened. On our return, to some extent, it will be business as usual, but we will continue to protect and care for the children and offer them the support they need. As time moves on, I know many of us will want to remember and celebrate Barnaby’s life in different ways, and we will make sure that the children’s and the family’s voices are heard loud and clear. We will of course be back in touch when any details are agreed on.

In the meantime, thanks again for everyone’s support, both with your messages and kind gestures. They are really appreciated by me and all of the staff.

I can only finish by sharing my most sincere condolences with Barnaby’s mum and dad, and all of his loving family, on behalf of the entire Crescent community. They have been an amazing support to Barnaby throughout, and I know your thoughts, like mine, will be with them over the coming weeks.

With all of my very best wishes for a peaceful half term break.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster