Dear Parents,

I wish to begin my news update reflecting on the success of last weekend's Sponsored walks. We had nearly 60 people taking part in the walks which included staff, governors, parents (past and present), family friends, pupils (past and present) and some dogs. Tim and Amanda De Meyer organised and led the walks which were beautiful and enjoyed by all. It was by chance that the 5 mile group and the 15 mile group returned to school together and everyone enjoyed the tea and cakes. I would like to thank FOFSA for organising such a successful event. I have added up the number of miles completed by the school children at school and both walks and we have a total of 761 miles! This is amazing and I feel that the passion I have for Sport is reflected in our school. The sponsorship total is rising each day and the details of how to sponsor are on Facebook and on the FOFSA page on the website. All proceeds will be shared between school and Sue Ryder and I can't wait to find out the total raised next Friday.

You may have noticed that our new chairs have arrived for Chaffinch and Goldfinch; we will wait for the tables before swapping old for new. We also have a beautiful new rug in the front entrance which captures the essence of our school values in our diverse world. Thank you so much to FOFSA and to everyone who supports them.

Chaffinch had their first swimming lesson this week and it was a pleasure to accompany them. The pressure was on for them to change quickly and they were brilliant! Again I was very proud to hear from the Swimming teacher how proficient our children are; he was very impressed.

As your children may have told you Mrs Dodds has not been at school since Monday. On Tuesday she had a knee operation which was a success and she is now recovering at home. I know you will join me in wishing her a speedy recovery and we look forward to welcoming her back to school.

On Tuesday evening the Governors gathered for a Full Governing Body meeting. This month I shared an overview of the progress made towards all the areas on our School Development Plan. We are driving forwards in each area; staff and governors are all working hard with great focus. I also presented our Spring term data to the governors. The Year 6 children in particular should be very proud of the progress they are making and I would like to encourage continuation of their focus and hard work in this final run up to their SATs.

This week is Girls' football week and today we celebrated it with a tournament for each class as well as a Ladies v Girls match at lunchtime. We have so many girls in our school who enjoy football so we had a great afternoon full of activity led by Mr O'Reilly and some of our Sports Leaders.

I wish you a lovely weekend

Jacquie Vanstone