Dear Parents and Guardians,

 

It is hard to believe that we are suddenly in November.  I hope the children all enjoyed a good half term.

 

We finished the last half term with such a momentous occasion with the Household Cavalry Drum horse visit.  My thanks go to Mr Diggle for going to such lengths to organise it and to Mrs Metcalfe for taking the lead on the visit.

It was incredibly special for pupils and staff.  So much learning took place and hopefully memories for a life time.

 

This week we have been delighted to welcomed Mrs Sambhi to our school as the LSA to work in Chaffinch on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  She worked for one day before joining Chaffinch on their trip to Wellington College which was a lovely way to get to know the children quickly.  Chaffinch enjoyed a wonderful day of Autumn learning.  The children were celebrated for their behaviour and I know they have come back full of excitement and new learning.  The children spoke about the day with such passion and knowledge and I thank all involved in the trip for providing such an enriching day even though it was a little cold and blustery.

 

This week I have enjoyed showing more families around our school for the September intake of Reception children.  It is always a pleasure and we have more visits over the coming months.  Whilst I showed people around each class were taking part in a P4C session (Philosophy for Children).  The same stimulus was used with each class and it was wonderful to see the progression and level of discussion as I walked through the school.  The children have told me they enjoyed it and it certainly something we are committed to building back into our curriculum. As a staff we feel strongly that it raises standards especially in reading comprehension, speaking and listening.

 

This afternoon, some Goldfinch girls  represented our school at a football match.  It was a great match and the girls won 2-0.  Mr O'Reilly has organised lots of matches and tournaments which is wonderful and I would ask parents to check the calendar each week to check if Football club is on and if it is, who it is on for, boys or girls.

 

A huge thank you to FOFSA for organising the Bags2School, donuts, second hand uniform sale and the AGM.  We are so fortunate to have such a committed team, it is a pleasure to work with them and they make a tremendous difference to our school.  Thank you for supporting them.

 

We are fortunate to have so much support for our school and this week the children gave an extra thank you to Mr Cundy, our Chair of Governors.  Mr Cundy, along with others who have helped, has put up a great fight against the leaves and acorns over the past month and we are so grateful.

 

Next week will hopefully see the end to our roofing work.  Through the support of the Diocese we have now had all the flat roofs redone.  The area over Goldfinch has been delayed for months now due to bats being found in the roof.  The staff have been patient and the children have continued through some extra noise so it will be great to see the work reach completion next week and the scaffolding taken down.

 

Following my email earlier in the week, please could you send in plastic bottles for our poppies and also if you are able to help, please let us know.  Finally, if you could complete our survey, we would be very grateful.  https://forms.office.com/r/VDAE08Lk1f

 

I wish you all a lovely weekend and a safe one with fireworks.

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone