As I informed you last week I have been out of school quite a bit this week so I am looking forward to next week when I will be more school based. One of my meetings took me to a school in Tower Hamlet and although it was a lovely school as I sat in the head’s office looking out at cars and flats it made me appreciate the lovely grounds that our school is set in. I will now really appreciate the fact that my window looks out over greenery.


I just realised this week that I had not informed the parents which charity we had donated the money raised at the Harvest Festival to. The school council meeting to decide this was cancelled as the KS2 children were on a theatre trip but when the School Council did meet they decided to donate the £400 raised to Cancer Research as a lot of families have been affected by someone suffering from the disease.

Next week we have a real treat for all the children in KS1 and KS2. On Friday there will a ‘Junk Music Project’ attending the school and they will be holding workshops throughout the day for many of the classes. Unfortunately the organisers do not think that they are suitable for children in the foundation stage so they will not be able to take part. You may find that the rest of the school becomes so inspired by the workshops that they will be raiding your cupboards and bins next weekend to make musical instruments. I just hope that your neighbours will not mind the noise!

As I sit here typing I realise that I have not been out at the gate in the morning to greet people very much this week as I have had a lot of meetings and unfortunately, I will not be around much next week as I have a lot of meetings again. I know that Mr Berridge can manage the gates very well without me but I will be in school every day so if you need to see me do contact the office and they will arrange a meeting for a convenient time.


I know everyone who saw it thought that the Year3 assembly was really good. It was all about myths and legends and I was particularly impressed by how well the children presented it – their voices could be heard really clearly by those at the back. I always enjoy watching the children perform and present their learning in different ways. Enjoyable learning makes for memorable learning.

I hope all of you received the home learning document that we sent home this week. Attached to it is a sheet where you can express your views about the home learning. We would really appreciate it if everyone could send the sheet back with their views so that the survey reflects the opinions of all our parents. This will help us to make an informed decision if we choose to make any changes to our present system. The responses have to be back to us by Tuesday, 31st January.

It has felt like a more normal week back in school this week with the majority of the clubs starting up again. We had a new French club start this week run by a Ms. Pavlou. All the children enjoyed it and she was very impressed at how well the children participated in the session and with their behaviour. It is always good when somebody from outside of the school community comes in and praises our pupils.


As we informed you in our action plan we have started a new handwriting scheme this term. We have had a lot of positive feedback from the children about the programme and, more importantly, it is helping to improve the presentation of the children’s work. Next week, Brigid de Rivaz, an OFSTED inspector and literacy consultant will be joining us for a day in school. She is coming in to help us update our practise on the teaching of writing in light of the new framework and the introduction of a new style of SATs writing test. We are all very much looking forward to her visit.

Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a super holiday. All the children have come back in a very positive frame of mind so let’s hope it lasts and lots of good learning goes on this term. We have many exciting activities planned for them so it should be an enjoyable one. I‘ve not much to discuss at this point in the term but I have been asked to remind all parents that the start of the school day is 8.50am. We open the school gates at 8.40am to ensure that the children have plenty of time to get ready for the start of the school day so please make sure you arrive at school on time. Pupils that are persistently late can be dealt with by county in the same way as pupils that miss a lot of school.