Dear Parents and Guardians,

I find it amazing how the weeks fly by but also how much we fit into every week.  This week I have had the pleasure of working with some of our Year 2 children whilst they completed their SATs assessments.  They worked with such resilience and I know they enjoyed a treat on Thursday.  Mrs Metcalfe organised the SATs brilliantly and the whole Bullfinch team should feel proud.

Mrs Guillaume was straight in on Tuesday to some Early years training on Therapeutic thinking which I know she enjoyed and found valuable. 

I am sure you will have seen the Goldfinch DT projects.  It has been great to see them working outside with such focus and determination.  The thunder and lightening on Wednesday night caused great concern but that was followed by relief that their houses had survived!

Each Wednesday the teachers have a staff meeting and this week we were moderating our Year 6 writing.  It is a wonderful opportunity to see the progress the children have made as well as to make sure that as teachers, we agree with our judgements when assessing each piece.  The writing in KS1 and KS2 is teacher assessed and we will continue to collect pieces of evidence over the next month.

On Thursday Mrs Dodds attended an Emotional literacy training session which gave me the opportunity to teach in Chaffinch.  It was such a pleasure and I was impressed with their Maths work on Time.

As a school we are always keen to support Reading University with trainee teachers.  This week we welcomed two trainee teachers who have come from Bohunt to experience a day in Primary.  What a difference that must be!  They both enjoyed the day and spoke highly of our children, their questioning, independence and their attitude to learning.

Our governors have met this week which provided time for celebrate all that we are achieving as well as the various aspects of school development. We currently have two parent governors, Sam Lamb and Keith Thomas. Sam was elected a few months ago and it is great to have her onboard. Keith has dedicated so much time and expertise to our meetings and to the life of the school and he has enabled us to make some significant changes over the past few years. Keith is keen to continue in his role once his term of office comes to an end but at that time, we will send a letter out to parents offering the opportunity to stand as parent governor.

This afternoon we had Bullfinch parents joining their children for the after school sports club.  We had a great number of parents joining in and the sun even managed to come out.  Thank you to everyone who joined in, Rebecca and Florence as Sports leaders today and Mr O'Reilly.  Next Friday will be the Year 6 football team with parents/grandparents (or a teacher depending on who the children can convince to play!) from 3.30 to 4.30 so I am looking forward to that; I think it might be quite competitive! I will email the parents of the relevant children to see if they wish to participate.

Looking ahead, we have further rehearsals for WASMA next week. Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson are working so hard to prepare everything and I am so proud of our strong involvement as always.  

We will be celebrating the Platinum Jubilee on Friday 27th May, we will have a special picnic lunch with school lunch and packed lunch children all eating outside together.  We have some activities planned for the day and invite the children to come dressed in red, white and/or blue for the day.

We have had a couple of Covid cases this week with a headache being the main symptom.  I thought it may help to remind parents that if a child tests positive they should not attend school for 3 days and can then return if they are well.

I would also like to remind parents that we are a no nut school and it is important that no nut products are included in packed lunches or as birthday treats.

I would like to thank Adele Baker and the FOFSA committee for their hard work  with all sorts of school developments as well as the enormous job of organising the Summer Fair.  A sign up sheet has been put up and we would be grateful for any help that can be given on the day.  We have such a dedicated committee and they really need everyone's support.

There are a job opportunities with Caterlink (the company who provide our lunches), Beehive and we also have a lunchtime position available.  On Monday I will share the relevant information on the Office Updates page but please contact me if you may like to have more information.

I wish you a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you next week.

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone