The end of term is finally here and everyone is looking forward to the ‘Big Day’. I myself am a little behind with my preparations as we usually break up a little earlier than the 21^st and I am used to have longer to organise myself. I am really going to have to focus over the next couple of days to make sure I have everything ready on time.

The children have enjoyed their last couple of days at school. They have had parties and they have been taking part in Christmas art activities in class. As I type this they are enjoying a pantomime in the hall which has become a tradition at Little Heath. From the laughter coming from the hall it is obvious they are having a great time. We will be ending the day singing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ which always sends the children out full of festive joy. Hopefully normal calm will resume when they return in January.

Key Stage 2 held their Carol Concert on Monday night and it was well attended as always. The children did the school proud as they always do and they had to cope with the fact that the normal church sound system had broken down and so things were not the same as they had rehearsed - I was very impressed with how they coped. There was a slight technical hitch at the end with some of the words but it all added to the fun of the occasion. I would like to thank all the children and the staff for their hard work in putting the performance together and I would like to give a special thank you to Mr Spring for organising the choir and Mr da Rocha for co-ordinating the whole event.

Over the Christmas period, at all our Christmas events, we have been collecting donations for the ‘Crisis at Christmas’ charity and I am pleased to say that we raised £340.87 which I know the association will be most grateful to receive. Today was also ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ and we have collected £134.50 for the ‘Text Santa’ appeal. I would like to thank everyone for their generosity in giving to these charities.

All that is left for me to do now is wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May I also thank everyone for all the lovely gifts that I received  - they are much appreciated. I hope you manage to get some rest over the holiday and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday, 9^th January.

The end is nigh – and not a minute too soon for the children. Their excitement has now reached fever pitch as the big day gets ever closer – good luck managing it when we hand them over to you next Wednesday afternoon.

However, keeping with the Christmas spirit, it has been a most enjoyable week in school. We have had fantastic performances from our Foundation stage and Key Stage One. The Foundation stage sang some Christmas songs with great gusto and energy and they definitely had the ‘aah’ factor with the audience. The nativity play this year was called ‘Strictly the Nativity’ and it was brilliant. I did tell the children that the final on Saturday can only be a disappointment and I really meant that. I would like to thank all the children for giving us such a good performance and all my staff for all their hard work in putting the performances together.

I had some really good news this week from the PTA. At the Christmas Bazaar we raised an impressive £1288.20 . We have also been informed by the Rotary this week that our contribution from the Fireworks is £5776.97 which is an amazing amount of money. I cannot thank the PTA enough and the people who helped them for all their hard work in raising this amount of money. I know that recently they have been a little short of volunteers so those that do help have had to work extra hard in order to raise this money.    I will be meeting with the PTA early in the New Year with ideas of how the school would like to spend this money.

Next week may only consist of 3 days but we have a lot to pack in. On Monday and Tuesday we are carrying out some winter art activities. As well as those we are having the KS1 and KS2 parties. On the day the children have their Christmas parties they may come into school in their party clothes so they do not have the fuss of changing in the afternoon. On Monday night it is our KS2 Carol Service and this year we are allowing younger siblings to attend. I do request though that if the church does get full that pre-school children sit on their parents’ knees for the service. If we find that the church gets over full or too noisy we will revert to our former arrangements next year.

On Wednesday it is our ‘Christmas Jumper’ day. I know today is the official ‘Christmas Jumper’ day but we have always done it on the last day of term because of our pantomime. The children still have to pay a forfeit of a £1 for not wearing their uniform (they do not pay a forfeit on their party day) and we will donate all the proceeds to the ‘Text Santa’ campaign. The pantomime this year is ‘Aladdin’ and if it is as good as last year’s performance I know the children are going to have a really good time.

I hope you can have a restful weekend because the next one will certainly not be. Please remember that on the Wednesday, 21^st December we finish at 2.00pm.

When I was typing my blog last week preparations were in hand for the Christmas Bazaar. It was a well-received event and I would like to thank all the members of the PTA who worked so hard to make it a success. I do not know yet how much money was raised but when I have the amount I will let you know.

On Monday the girls’ football team won the Primary Girls Football tournament which was held at Dame Alice Owen. It was a hard fought tournament and our success was finally achieved by beating Wroxham in the final. After talking with Mr Mills he informed me that both teams did the school proud. I would like to thank him for training and preparing both teams for the tournament.  On the next day many of the girls who took part in the football were playing in a netball match at Cuffley. The teams were not able to replicate their success from the previous day but again gave a 100% in their performance and that is all we can ask of any team that represents the school.

Next week is super busy and it will be that way until the end of term. On Monday we have the Sharing assembly and if your child is taking part you will already have been informed. The choir are also performing at Mandeville Court. On Tuesday and Wednesday Foundation Stage and Key Stage One are putting on their Christmas performances for the parents. I am very much looking forward to watching these as they never disappoint. On Wednesday we also have our ‘Open Afternoon’ so that parents can come in and see all the learning that the children have completed this term. Ms Davis, the new Year 4 teacher will be in school on that day and so Year 4 parents can meet her informally for the first time. Thursday is our Christmas Lunch Day which is always popular with the children. After lunch the children will then all watch a film in the hall.

I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

We cannot deny that the Festive Season is definitely here.  As I type this preparations are taking place for our Christmas Bazaar and the excitement from the children is very high – goodness knows how they are going to be by the end of term. We do try and keep lessons as normal as possible in between all the events to help keep them on an even keel as we have a very late finish this year and if they get overexcited we can experience lots of disputes.

I hope you do not think of me as a Christmas Grinch because I do love this time of year. An event that has made me especially happy is the arrival of a new trophy in the school. The children involved actually won it a long time ago but the Rotary Club who organised it did not get the trophy to me until well after the event. As you know we always take part in The Rotary Sponsored Swim every year as we help them to raise money for their charities. In recent times they have donated 50% of the money raised by the children to their respective schools and this year we were lucky enough to receive a check for £534. This is particularly good because we only had 3 teams take part from our school. One of our teams called ‘The Little Heath Nemos’ were the recipients of the trophy that we received because they managed to raise the most money of all the teams that took part. Through their efforts they managed to raise a very impressive £838. Let us hope that this great achievement inspires more teams to take part next year.  I will let you know when we are recruiting.

Next week the rehearsals for Foundation and Key Stage One will step up to make sure the children are ready for the following week when they perform for their families and friends. We also have the Scholastic Book Fayre arriving so this will be a good opportunity to buy some Christmas presents at a convenient place and will save you having to trail around a shopping centre. More details of when the Book Fair will be open will follow shortly. Some of the children in Year 1, 2 and 3 also have their flu immunisations on Thursday afternoon but luckily this is just a squirt up the nose for them so it is not too traumatic an experience and will help them remain healthier throughout the winter.

Have a good weekend and I will see you all again next week.