Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope all our families enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations as well as the half term break.  At the beginning of this week the teachers had two very intense days working on our curriculum design.

We have managed to fit so much into the three school days this week which has been great  but so incredibly busy.

We began the Wednesday morning with a Pentecost assembly which was a lovely,  celebratory way to begin the school week.  Mr and Mrs Fox have also led their video assembly on Pentecost.

Bullfinch had such a treat after the assembly and had a visit from The O'Connor family tortoise.  The children have spoken about it with such knowledge and excitement and this has supported some great writing and art work.

Year 6 have taken part in Bikeability and they have all received their certificates today.  There is a change this year; all the children are awarded a certificate whether they have passed or not.  It is important that parents read the reverse of the certificate to see what their child can do and if they need supervision etc.  This is very important to ensure they are safe when cycling on the roads.  The Bikeability team enjoyed working with the children and it was a pleasure to have them working in school.

On Wednesday afternoon, we welcomed two moderators into school to meet with Mrs Wirth and look at our Year 6 writing.  This is how Wokingham monitor teacher assessments and ensure consistency across schools.  The two teachers were very complementary of Mrs Wirth, how thorough she is and how well she knows the children.  They also commented on how creative our children are with their writing.

On the same afternoon, Mrs Lynsky kindly took 4 of our Year 5 children to Luckley House School for a Maths challenge.  They did really well and Mrs Lynsky was impressed with how well they worked in their teams.  Well done to them for representing our school so well.

We are pleased to be starting some new intervention groups. We have two Circle of friends groups starting which is a wonderful opportunity and I thank Ms Bardsley for her work on this.  Mrs Dodds is also beginning a new ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) club which I know will be a valuable experience for all those participating.

Mrs Guillaume has carried out our Phonics testing this week with the Year 1 children and some of the Year 2 children.  She has been so pleased to see the progress they have made, thank you Mrs Guillaume.

This morning Mr O'Reilly and I took the Year 3/4 football boys to Madjeski for a tournament.  It was beautiful in the sunshine but got a little hot in the end for the footballers.  They played so well and were unbeaten for the first 4 matches.  We had some super goals and great saves.

We finished the day with the Netball team playing against the parents and some staff.  It was great fun and I am pleased to say that the parents won!  The netball team show great commitment on a Monday morning and they played with far greater skill that the adults!

Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson have led so many rehearsals and the choir, percussion group and the dancers should be very proud of what they achieved.  I can't wait to see them perform on Sunday at the Hexagon.  If any families have any concerns regarding WASMA over the weekend, please email me.

I am hoping next week will be a little calmer.  We will be doing the Multiplication test with Year 4 pupils, another football tournament but this time for our Year 5 girls and then Mufti and the fete to look forward to at the end of the week.

I wish you all a lovely weekend, hopefully in the sunshine. I have added some photos from today.

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone