After a very busy morning at our Harvest Festival it is actually quite a treat to sit down and type up my blog. As usual our Harvest Festival was well attended and the children performed their songs very well. I really enjoyed listening to the new songs and I hope all our parents did as well. I would like to thank Mrs Gwinnett, Mrs Robinson and Mr Spring for all the work they did in preparing the children for this morning. I would also like to thank the PTA for serving all the refreshments – without their support many of the events we run in school would not be possible. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank all our lovely parents for helping to make the event such a success. Your generosity through your donations of cakes and in the money you gave this morning is much appreciated. As you know the charity we are supporting this year is the NSPCC and I will inform you of the total when I know how much we have raised.

The ‘Book Fair’ arrived in school this week which is always greeted by great excitement from the children. Although they have sent us slightly fewer books this year there is still quite a good selection for the children to choose from.  You will be able to purchase books from the fair after school until Tuesday. Remember that the more money we raise the more books we can purchase for the school.

Next week the builders, although much delayed, will be coming into school to start the work on our heating and water system. Although to begin with it will not be too intrusive it will have an impact on our daily timetable but it will only be temporary and the school will be much improved. Once they arrive I will have a better idea of how the work is going to proceed (they have changed their original plans) I will be able to give you more information.

Next week is the annual ‘Primary Headteachers’ Conference’ and so I will not be around for the second half of the week. If there is an issue you would like to discuss with me you can make an appointment to see me the following week or you could speak to Mrs Zegallo in my absence. It also means that there will not be a head teacher’s blog next week.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend. Do not forget on Monday morning that the school photographer is coming in to take individual photographs of the children so you may want them to take extra care with their appearance.

We were very lucky this week to have a visit from ‘Google’ in school who were doing some work with our Year 5 and 6 girls. One of the reasons they were doing this was to encourage girls to choose a career in computing when they are older. I do not think that will be an issue for our girls because they were all really eager to take part and although that meant we had slightly more girls than Google had requested, they accommodated the extra bodies so that no-one was disappointed. I would like to thank Mr Hall for organising this event for the school. The girls were especially pleased with their gifts of stickers and an alarm clock each.

Next week we have three big events in school.  The first is the arrival of the ‘Book Fair’ in school. It will be open in school every night from 28^th September - 3^rd October from 3.20pm – 4.00pm.  In the past Little Heath parents have always been very generous in purchasing books from here and the more books that parents buy the more books we will be given for our school library. Your children benefit twice from this system because they have a new book to read at home and they have a bigger selection of books to choose from to read in school. I also do not have to remind you of the benefits to all areas of children’s learning that comes from reading.

On Wednesday it is National Fitness Day and even though we already do a lot of physical activity in school Mr Mills has set up a mini fitness circuit and all the school, including teachers, will take part. Please make sure your children have their PE kit in school for that day.

We are also holding our annual Harvest Festival Coffee Morning next Friday. You will all have a received a letter about this during the week. Remember that all donations of cakes need to come into school on Wednesday and Thursday so that we can set up early on Friday in preparation for everyone coming, although you can still bring donations in on Friday morning if that is the only time you can bring them into school. I have listed the different time slots for the classes below but as I stated in the letter if you cannot make the slot you have been allocated or you have more than one child and can only make one time you can have all your children join you for the time you can attend.   The children look forward to this event because they love spending time with their parents in school (I suspect they also look forward to the cake that they can have as well) and they have been learning new songs to sing to you this year. I look forward to seeing many of you there next weekend.

9.30 – 10.00am – Years 3 & 4

10.00 -10.30am – Nursery & Reception

10.30 -11.00am – Years 5 & 6

11.00 – 11.30am – Years 1 & 2

 

I hope you all have a good weekend. I am being dragged to a football match by my husband this weekend. He keeps telling me how lucky I am because I am going to be in a chairman’s box whilst watching Newcastle United play! We certainly have different ideas about what constitutes a good time!

It is the end of the first week and it feels like we have been back forever. I always get amazed at how quickly systems all fall back into place and it is like we have never been away. The children appear very happy to be back at school (I do not know how they are at home) and when I had a visitor from county walking around the school on Tuesday she was very impressed by the very calm atmosphere that was across the school. She did ask if it was like that all the time and I had to tell her that it was – I do feel lucky to work in a school where there is very little disruption during the day from the children.

All the extra-curricular clubs start next week. The forms for the activities should have been returned to school by now but if you are a little late still return the form to the office and we will see if there is a place available for your child. May I remind everyone that if your child cannot attend a club that the teacher of that club needs to be informed – your child cannot just not turn up because they do not feel like it.

I have also noticed that some children have not had all the items of their PE kit in this week. Children should bring in their full PE and games kit in on a Monday and it should not be taken home before the following Friday. It is not essential that children have their kits washed after every session and it is definitely better to have a dirty PE than no PE at all.

That is all for now. I am a little disappointed that we have not had the ‘Indian summer’ we normally get at this time of year but there is still time for it to come. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.