Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• 14th October 2022

  Fri 14 Oct 2022 Jacquie Vanstone

  Dear Parents and Guardians,

   

  It is hard to believe that we only have one week until the half term break.  This week I have had the pleasure of spending more time in classrooms.  It has been great to see the children so engaged in their learning; I have seen Science, RE, Maths and Music and I look forward to more next week.

   

  Thank you for booking and attending the Learning Review meetings.  They are so important and I thank the staff for their work and commitment. We hope you found the meetings helpful and we look forward to continuing to work in partnership with you as we continue through the term.  The correlation between attendance and attainment is significant and we are working hard to ensure that when children are late more than once in the half term or absence is a concern that we support parents quickly.

   

  Today has been busy with football.  The girls attended a tournament at Cantley Park and played well.  Florence-Rose was the first to score and all the girls worked hard individually and as a team.  The boys had a match after school against Shinfield St Marys which ended in a 2-2 draw.  It was great to welcome Jacob to the team and well done to Max for scoring both goals. Thank you Mr O' Reilly for a great day of football.

   

  I am delighted to end my news update with some exciting news.  A few weeks ago we were privileged to have Mr Roberts in school for an assembly about his role within the British army as a musician.  Mrs Metcalfe has also been liaising with Mr Diggle regarding the role he played within the Queen's funeral.  On Monday morning we are expecting a visit from Jessica's dad with an Army Drum horse.  A pre-visit has taken place and the whole school will have the opportunity to learn from such a wonderful, memorable experience. I think the staff are as excited as the children will be!

   

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

  With kind regards

  Jacquie Vanstone

   

   

  

• 7th October 2022

  Fri 07 Oct 2022 Jacquie Vanstone

  Dear Parents and Guardians,

   

  I hope you have had a good week, we certainly have in school.  It has been great to see so many family members joining us for different events this week.

   

  I began the week by introducing our new guinea pig Moo to the children.  He is lovely, has settled in with Bingo and is very much loved by the children already.  I would like to thank the children for such lovely pictures, messages and prayers for Caramel which we shared at church.  Adele Baker has set up a gofundme page to raise some money to use towards caring for our guinea pigs.  Here is the link if you wish to contribute.

  https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-our-new-guinea-pig-moo?utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

   

  On Wednesday we enjoyed our Harvest service which was led by Reverend Leonard.  The children's gifts made a wonderful contribution and Goldfinch did a great job of loading up Mrs Workman's car ready to deliver to Reading foodbank.  She was so grateful for the help.

   

  On Thursday morning I had the pleasure of meeting some new families looking at schools for Reception September 2023.  The Year 6 children were praised for their enthusiasm and for how well they spoke during the tours.  I was delighted to share with those parents that our catchment has been extended to match the ecclesiastical parish map.  I attach a photo of the map for your information.  Please share this with others who may be interested as we prepare for another low birth year.

   

  Mrs Dodds along with School Council organised the McMillan cake sale or as Daniel said, the cake festival which I think is even better!  We have raised a lot of money whilst enjoying tea and cake, what a great combination!  Thank you so much for supporting us.  The children enjoyed leading the event and did so with confidence.

   

  Thursday was Census day and I am aware that lunch ordering caused some frustration.  We apologise for the last minute menu change but communication had not come to us from Caterlink.  We do thank you enormously for your support with the matter.  Mrs Lawrence, the staff and I have grown increasingly concerned about the number of pupils ordering lunches in class rather than orders being made in advance on Parentmail or via the office.  This increases work for class teachers and Mrs Lawrence everyday and creates room for error. From Monday, we will no longer make changes to lunch orders in the classroom.  If a child tells us that they have forgotten a lunch, we will contact parents. If you have a last minute change, you can go to the office to speak to Mrs Lawrence and these changes can be made.  Hopefully this will make the process run smoothly from now on.  Once again thank you for your support.

   

  We finish the week with a football match for the boys. The match ended with a 4-3 loss.  Danny and Noah scored and the boys played so well as a team and nearly got an equalisor in the last second.   They remained positive and worked incredibly hard and they can go into the next match with confidence and determination.  It is great to see so much sport being organised again and thank Mr O'Reilly for that. We hoping to recruit more children for Monday morning Netball club so please email if your child would like to try a session.

   

  I wish you a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you for Learning Review meetings next week.

   

  With kind regards

  Jacquie Vanstone