Latest News
Posted on: 20/11/2020Message from Caroline Lancey, Acting Head of School
Dear All,
We have had another busy month. Mr Ripley has started a new Twitter feed and there has been a great response to it. In fact, we are increasingly getting positive responses to a lot that is happening in school. This is great and I am glad that more and more of you are feeling positive about the school. It was really bought home to me when I received this lovely e-mail message from Pedro’s mum, who sadly has had to return to Spain:
I would like to thank everybody as Pedro is so happy here since the very first day. He has been enjoying the school every minute that he has been here and he loves it...his favourite one ever.
it is very sad for him and for me to have to leave but it is the best thing for us at this moment.
I would like you to thank everybody because all of you made him love learning, reading, writing, sport, forest school...he loves everything you do at this school and that makes him be sad today but he had very wonderful moments sharing with his teachers and friends that I think
he will never forget...
I am sure that, as a school, we have really turned a corner, we just need to get that message out to the wider community. Schools are often living on a reputation that is several years out of date both positive and negative.
Several children had their work form part of a display for Remembrance at St Andrews, which was lovely. It was great to see so many spotty creations last week for Children in Need. It was good to be able to raise money for such a good cause but also it allowed the children to feel a responsibility to their wider community. Badger Class have been working with an artist this week. The theme of the art work is nocturnal animals and will be part of the Winter Wanderland displays in the area. All the other children will have an opportunity do their own art work in this style with Mrs Cullen next week. We are hoping that you can put your child’s work up in one of your windows for your neighbours to enjoy; you could use it as inspiration and add to it. In these difficult times wrapping up warm and going for a walk to see these wonderful windows is a great way to entertain the children. In my house we used to call it ‘A no money fun day!’ There will be lots of houses decorated beautifully for Christmas as well to look at.
The roof is now finished and the scaffolding is coming down so, hopefully we won’t be having the unwanted attention any more. The heating work is continuing which is great as we now have hot water in most of the classes.
We are now getting ready for the build up to Christmas. Next week the winter displays will be up. This year the story is ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ which has a wonderful wintery feel. The younger ones are preparing for the nativity; all the classes are practising things to share with you on the Advent calendar. There is also the Christmas lunch, Movie night and the end of term party. Phew it has made me tired just writing it.
Posted on: 23/10/2020Message from Caroline Lancey, Acting Head of School
A message from Caroline Lancey
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome to our second newsletter of the year. School life seems to be getting back into its stride, even though it is a little different to how it has been in the past. We have had two class assemblies and our Harvest Festival which have gone well. It's great that so many parents have joined us, I'm really grateful. The way a zoom meeting works is that it picks up the loudest noise and shows the screen of that person. That's why during Badger Classes assembly it kept moving away from them and onto other screens. Therefore, it's really helpful if you join with video off and muted.
I have recently been reminded of Anne Herbert's words when she said; 'Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of Beauty.
COVID has allowed us to come at things from a different angle and many have been an improvement. Our lunches are much more settled with us being able to give time to work on table manners and the use of cutlery. Children have games to play after they have eaten but before they go out to play. Several staff have brought in packs of cards, Top Trumps, Uno, sets of dominoes, Connect Four in fact all sorts to entertain the children. These have been given as gifts and it is wonderful to see the children engaging with these games more and more; but more than this they having conversations with each other. Every member of staff has volunteered to help run our breakfast club it isn't just the food, it's the conversations with adults and the calm start that is the great delight. I have worked in several schools and I am really lucky to have worked with brilliant and committed staff in all my previous schools but I have never worked with a group of people who put children and their needs at the fore front of EVERYTHING they do. They should be treasured.
Many thanks to Robyn who has donated two folding benches that we can use for sports fixtures when they restart. We have also had a donation of lovely books, toys and clothes to our nursery from a local health visitor and our local councillor donated a beautiful book called 'The World made a Rainbow' by Michelle Robinson. It is a lovely story about how young people have responded to the current crisis. Several parents sent in gifts for our Harvest Festival and as a result we were able to donate 44kg of food to the Taunton Food bank. Others have sent photos so we have created our COVID memories board, which reflects heroes, our new normal and random acts of kindness. These acts of kindness and beauty have touched us all.
PARENTS EVENING
We have has several successful evenings which I hope you found helpful. We have been so lucky to be able to offer face to face meetings, I know it was only with one parent and the children couldn't be there. It did allow you to see their work and in most cases the classroom they are in too. We hope you found the leaflets useful. If you weren't able to be with us we will send a copy home.
PE and FOREST SCHOOL
It is becoming a bit of a problem that a small minority of children are regularly turning up without a PE kit or Forest School clothes. It is really helpful if they keep their PE kit in school. If they need to change it useful to have their own clothes in school, it is also helps them not to have to drag two extra bags into school each week. On the whole children like being the same as all the other children in their class and we need you help to make this happen for them.
HALLOWEEN
The children looked amazing today and I hope they all had a lovely day in school today. We had such fun.
CHRISTMAS
It is highly likely that we will still have the COVID restrictions in place at Christmas. As a result we are planning to carry on with a Nativity for Owl and Hedgehog class. We are planning to video this and broadcast it to you. We will do the same for the carol concert. Whilst this isn't ideal it would be such a shame if we just said we can't do it and the children didn't get the opportunity to perform.
UNIFORM
The government guidelines are clear that all classrooms must be well ventilated. As the winter is coming on we are aware that the classrooms may be a bit chillier than usual. The best way to keep warm is thin layers so I would suggest that they wear T shirt under their normal school shirt. We may even see the reappearance of the old fashioned vest!
Have a wonderful half term and keep safe.
