End of the first term

We have made it to the end of the first half term of the year! And what a term it has been!

It has been lovely to see how well all of our children have settled into school life once again, and we have enjoyed a gradual return to some aspects of school life we have had previously to put on hold. For me, having all the children together in the hall to run our celebration assemblies and singing has been wonderful. It really does bring the school community together in more ways than one- and it helps us to celebrate all our children's efforts and achievements throughout the curriculum and beyond. It also helps the children to see how our values of passion-wellbeing-respect have such importance at FPJS. Our newly elected housecaptains have once again had an opportunity to show their leadership skills by running house meetings across the year groups, and our librarians are now able take up their vital role of running our fantastic library and of course we are now able to have visitors in the school- and how wonderful it was to have such a well-known children's author at our school in the first term back!

However, I have to admit, things are far from "normal" yet. This term has been very challenging due to the continued high rates of covid-19. Although children aren't required to isolate as close contacts any more, we have been experiencing a high number of children and staff absent due to illness- both coronavirus and other viral infections which seem to be creating havoc on our weakened immune systems (probably due to so much confinement over the last year!). Fortunately , we do have a very strong team of staff at FPJS, and when staff are absent, we do have a number of in-house cover options available to ensure the smooth-running of the school and we rarely need to turn to supply staff or outside agencies- so all our children experience quality lessons even when their teacher can't be there!

It feels as if we all need a bit of a half term break to recharge our batteries, rest up and look forward to the second term with all the excitement of heading towards Christmas events!

I hope all of our FPJS families stay well over the half term and enjoy the break! We have included some top tips for both Halloween and Bonfire Night which may be a good reminder for children over this time (see section on Useful reminders for parents). Don't forget we have an Inset day on Friday 22nd October and we return to school as normal on Monday 1st November.

Anna Clark, Head of School