Welcome Back
Dear parents and carers,
It has been a wonderful day having everyone back in school together, long may it last! I hope that you have had a good day knowing that your children are all back in school! It has been amazing to see and hear a school full of happy children. We have plans in place to provide ‘catch up’ for our children, but I am absolutely confident that our children will not be a ‘lost generation’, as has been reported in the press a number of times recently. We know our children well and we will quickly make sure they get on with their learning in school.
However, even more important is how we support your children with their well-being and happiness. Staff are very mindful that for some children it has been a number of weeks since they were last on site. We will ensure they get quality time together to socialise, to be together and to simply enjoy the pleasure of being with one another in school.
Exciting news
As the well-being and happiness of our children is more important to us than anything else, I have been working during this latest lockdown planning a big surprise to welcome your children back. During lockdown many of our children will have had limited time outdoors, a lack of physical activity and little or no time interacting with friends. Our plan is to prioritise all of those things.
At the same time we want to celebrate the memory of Frank from Reception class. Frank loved outdoor play and, after discussion with Frank’s family, we are going to invest in some very special outdoor development. There will be space to be active, places to be still and quiet and all the outdoor development will be in memory of Frank, who sadly died in December. It will be something hugely positive for our children to look forward to and something special and significant to always remember Frank by.
I told all of our children about the plans today, to give our children something exciting and positive to look forward to. I am deliberately not going to share detailed plans with the children, as I think it will be exciting for them to watch the work take place and the plans unfold. The Friday before a digger arrives will be the first they will know! After the last 12 months, this will be something special for them all. All children will have planned access to the special outdoor space in memory of Frank. But the year group which will get to explore it first, will of course be his Reception class friends.
Sadly our trim trail, at the bottom of our school field, is no longer safe to use and needs to be removed. Our children love using it, but once our new outdoor development is complete, I am confident that it will not be missed.
After Easter we are also hoping to be able to introduce a small number of active after school clubs, for one year group at a time. We will of course update you if this is able to go ahead.
Hopefully the rest of this school year will be full of fun and happiness for us all.
Miss Byrne
Headteacher
