Dear Parents and Guardians,

What a week we have had! 

I am absolutely delighted that on Monday our Year 6 children all went to PGL and had the most wonderful week of fun, teambuilding and challenge.  They will have learnt so much both from the experiences and just being away from home.   With Covid, this has been an enormous achievement and a big commitment from the school.  Thank you to the governors in supporting it so wholeheartedly, Mrs Lawrence for handling all the paperwork and the staff.  It is exhausting for the staff and is time away from home and whilst they want to do it for the children, it is a big ask, especially this year.  I cannot thank them enough for their care (especially with hayfever being so bad this year), their time and their dedication to the week.  I hope they now have a good rest this weekend.

Whilst they were away, we had lots going on in school too.  It is not every day that we see a cow in School!  We had a visit from the Newbury Education Team along with Buttercup.  Rosefinch and Bullfinch really enjoyed their session and the learning was fun, engaging and memorable.  The children loved milking Buttercup, the pretend cow!

We ended the week with a fantastic Sports Day for Key Stage One.  Mr O'Reilly led it brilliantly and the children had a wonderful afternoon celebrating sport.  It was so strange not having parents watching but Fofsa gave the children a well earnt treat part way through, which they loved.  I would like to thank Adele Baker for organising this.  I have added a few photos and we will share lots after Key Stage 2 have had theirs.  The Key Stage One scores were added and so far we have the Yellows in 4th place, Blues in third, Greens in second and the winners are the Reds!  This is wonderful for me! I know it could all change next week with Chaffinch and Goldfinch, we can't wait.

Fofsa has been incredibly supportive this year and the books we have as a result are having an impact already.  We do have some books missing from the sets.  Please could you check at home and if you find any ReadWriteInc books, please return them so we can finish the year with a full set ready for September.

Whilst this and much more wonderful learning has been taking place, we have also had much frustration felt by many parents.  We have sent a lot of children home this week and many more have been off with a cough being the main symptom.  Parents have then needed to access a PCR test.  I am relieved that these have so far all come back negative and I understand how frustrating this is but we need to remain cautious and proactive.  So many schools have huge numbers of children isolating due to positive tests and we are desperately hoping to remain open to all bubbles until the end of term.  Thank you to everyone who is supporting us and for your patience.

If you have any concerns over the weekend regarding Covid within your household, please email me and I will be in touch.

I wish you all a lovely weekend, Year 6 and staff - sleep well!

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone