Good afternoon

It has been such a pleasure to see so many parents this week at our Learning Reviews.  The children are always proud to share their learning with you and the positive feedback is lovely to receive.  We have had parents celebrating how hard the children are working, the level of progress being made, their attitude to learning and their resilience, the full breadth of subjects taught, the level of knowledge, detail and creativity.  Well done to all the children, thank you to our wonderful staff, and thank you to parents for showing such great support and championing.

World Book Day was a real celebration of books and reading.  Our school community holds such a love for reading throughout the year.  Last year, we were the only school in Wokingham to achieve 100% in Year 6 SATs Reading. This was a great achievement and whilst it shows our high aspiration, days like World Book Day show our ongoing passion for books. It was wonderful to see the costumes and to see the children enjoying books together, especially in the sunshine.

I wanted to thank you for the support with the book sale and Bags2School. Our next fundraising opportunity will be our Mother's Day breakfast on Friday morning.  Please sign up on the form and add the number attending.  We will be in the nest from 8.30am to 9.30am. https://forms.office.com/e/jUNn9ePBTL?origin=lprLink

Mrs Dodds held a School Council meeting this week.  I was pleased to be able to join them for part of the meeting.  The children spoke with such commitment and care, and they have exciting plans! We currently offer a broad range of clubs from Chess to Gymnastics but our School Council have even more ideas for the Summer term: we can't wait!

On Wednesday, Goldfinch were great advocates for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.  They led an assembly which shared a lot of information through creative powerpoints as well as an emotional video which showed the value and importance of their chosen charity.  This work on courageous advocacy is going to be enhanced further on Wednesday next week when we welcome some Wellington College students to share their experiences in an assembly.  I encourage you to ask the children all about it on Wednesday evening as I am sure it will be very inspirational.

I thought a list of next week's events would be helpful as a reminder:

Tuesday - Year 2 Football and Netball tournament

Tuesday - 3.15pm,  Mrs Fox will be selling some Easter treats from Quench Bookshop.  Mrs Fox kindly collects a range of their wonderful Easter cards, gifts etc. and has them available for you to purchase from school.  On Tuesday she will be in The Barley Barn at pick-up time.  Please pop in and have a look.  She will be able to take card and cash payments.

Tuesday - WASMA rehearsal

Thursday - 2.15pm - Goldfinch Learning Event - all families are welcome to join the children for their learning.

Friday 8.30am - 9.30am – Mother's Day breakfast – cash donations towards school would be welcome as we continue on our mission to raise money towards the playground work.  Everyone is welcome – treat someone else or treat yourself!

We are finishing this busy week with another football match.  Well done to our Chaffinch boys!  They played well and worked hard in the pouring rain.  Thank you to the parents who helped pack away the goals, Mr O'Reilly was very grateful as am I.

I wish you a lovely weekend and once again thank the staff and governors and yourselves for the support you show us.

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone