Dear Parents and Carers, 

We have been bringing learning to life as always over some of the events the children have experienced over the last 2 weeks. KS1 have been fully immersing themselves into the history of Dunstable high street over the past fortnight with a visit to the town centre and a special visit from a local resident, Mrs Slough. She was able to bring a personal account of how the high street has changed within her own lifetime; the children have been very excited to learn their history through these sources. Reception have also been lucky enough to enjoy a 'magic moment' linked to their learning recently through a trip to Stockwood Museum. They enjoyed a workshop based on a Quentin Blake book that they have been reading in school, 'Mrs Armitage on Wheels' and also spent some time looking at the transport in the museum linked to their focus topic, 'Above and below'. Last week some of our Year 5 finalists visited The Bett Show in London to present their equality idea on the main stage as part of the Design4SDGS competition. Mrs White accompanied them for this visit and we were so proud that they had been selected to go through to the final. They did not win but learnt so much in the process; bravery, boosted confidence and oracy skills; amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed a later visit to The Bett Show during the same week when our Digital Leaders had the chance to learn more about what is new across technology in education and industry. We came away with bags of merchandise, lots of ideas and an understanding of how companies market their ideas. It was a fun and tiring day and I lost track of how many children told me it was their best day ever! We are definitely cultivating some leaders in technology for the future! Huge thanks to Mrs White for orgnaising this experience for the children. Last but not least, LKS2 were shocked to find that our school had succumbed to a visit from a troll! Our outside classroom had been left in a mess after a naughty troll invaded! Thankfully Miss Warren was on hand to help to restore the area. The excitement is now building in the run up to their Harry Potter immersive day before half term. 

We are looking forward to many more exciting 'magic moments' across the school in the run up to half term; keep an eye on social media for an update of how we are enriching the children's learning across the curriculum; there is so much to look forward to! 

Thank you for visiting school last week for a learning update across English and Maths; it was lovely to see so many of you. We hope that these meetings supported your understanding of where your child is currently working and their next steps. We will continue to send home written progress of how your child is performing in line with the document 'opportunities for parental involvement' that we shared at the start of the year. We hope that these meetings and the written feedback keep you fully informed but please get in touch if you have any questions or if there is anything that you are unsure of. 

This week we were full of smiles to welcome Mrs Berry back into school. Mrs Berry is supporting a number of charities in her retirement but remains to be our link to the important work that she carries out in India. It was lovely to see our value this half term of 'unity' and 'tolerance' in action as we listened and looked at the photos of the work that our money goes towards supporting. The children had remembered how they had supported the hospital previously and were pleased to hear that their money has gone towards a new piece of equipment; an oximeter to measure oxygen levels and pulse.  Thank you to Mrs Berry for sharing this wonderful work with us and taking the time to come in and deliver an assembly. We are looking forward to maintaining this support through Mrs Berry's incredible work when she visits India again later this year. 

I hope you all have a great weekend with your families and look forward to seeing you all on Monday. 

Mrs Romina Lang

Headteacher