Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been great to see parents/carers at the welcome meetings over the last few weeks and at the parent coffee morning last Friday.  We look forward to seeing you at the next coffee morning on 25th October.   We are focusing on building our work with our school and parent community as part of our school improvement plan this academic year and are also hoping to grow our Parent Staff Association (PSA).  Miss Donald can be contacted via the school office if you are interested in supporting our PSA with events and would very much welcome some support.  

Part of our work with parents, involves improving communications. We will be sharing with you our new code of conduct and home-school communication procedure once it has been reviewed by various stakeholders.  To enable you to keep up to date with all of the school events that will take place this academic year, please see the school calendar on the school website. You will see we have endeavoured to add all events that we are currently aware of up until July 2025.  We hope this will enables you to make arrangements and to plan your diaries well in advance.  There are of course some events that have not been arranged yet as this have to be done nearer to the time but we are aiming to get these out to you will plenty of notice.

In other news, over the summer, decorators were busy working in the school.  The Reception toilets were redecorated along with the KS1 classrooms and corridors.  This improvement work will continue during this academic year. The school has had a thorough deep clean and the staff filled a skip clearing out classrooms and shared spaces.  Thank you very much to all of those involved in the work over the summer.  It has been wonderful for the children to return to a refreshed learning environment.   

Year 6 have kicked off the school year with the school's first trip.  They visited the Natural History museum this week to consolidate their learning on evolution and inheritance.  They really enjoyed their day.  See below for Mr Freeman's blog for further detail. 

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. 

Kind regards,

Mrs Wright

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We are excited to share the highlights from our Year 6 trip to the Natural History Museum in London. This was an unforgettable experience, especially for some of our students who were on a train for the very first time. The excitement was palpable as we set off on our adventure.

Upon arriving at the museum, we dove straight into a fascinating evolution workshop. The children learned about the four stages of evolution, exploring how organisms adapt over time due to changes in their environments. One of the hands-on activities involved organizing the leg bones of horses' ancestors, which sparked lively discussions about how these magnificent creatures evolved to suit their habitats.

Another engaging part of the workshop was the natural selection activity. Students participated in a lizard simulation, where they discovered how environmental factors can influence survival and adaptation. It was a fantastic way for them to grasp the concept of natural selection in a fun and interactive manner.

Of course, no trip to the Natural History Museum would be complete without a visit to the dinosaurs. The awe-inspiring exhibits left the children wide-eyed and filled with wonder. After all the learning, we took a well-deserved brain break in the River Soundscape exhibition, where students enjoyed the calming sounds of nature.

A massive thank you goes out to our wonderful parent helpers. Your support made this trip possible, and we truly appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to ensuring our students had a fantastic experience. These trips are invaluable for our students, and we couldn't run them without your help.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to more adventures together in the future.

The Year 6 team.

Every third week, we will be sharing a book review written by one of our pupils. These book reviews will be about one of our 100 books. 

Every Tuesday after school, Mrs Kennedy hosts the 100 Books Club. This is an opportunity for children to borrow one of the 100 books and read it at home. When they have finished reading the book, they can write a review and these will be published in the newsletter. When  they have read 25, 50 , 75 and 100 books, they will receive a certificate in celebration assembly. 

This week's review has been written by Lakshmi in Willow class. She has reviewed the book 'The Day the Crayons Quit'.