Last week, as part of our Geography curriculum, all classes explored different parts of the world during our Passport to the World week.

• Venus learnt all about the Arctic.
• Neptune explored India.
• Mars discovered all about Spain.
• Jupiter blew us away with their South Africa knowledge!

Good afternoon, 

I realise that a number of parents are concerned about the news about teacher strikes which I fully understand.  The dates for teacher strikes in our area are: 1^st Feb, 1^st March, 15^th March and 16^th March.  Staff do not have to let me know in advance about their intention to strike.  The strikes are for the National Education Union which some of our teachers are members of but not all.  We are not expecting to have to close the school on any of those dates and will be doing our best not to close any individual classes either as we will attempt to cover all absences in the way that we normally do.  If there is any further updates, I will let you know.  In short, it is very, very unlikely that we will not be able to provide some learning for your child on those dates.

Kind Regards

Elaine Bedford

Our ’Staff Books of the Week’ come highly recommended by Mr Woolerton this week.

Have a read to see why he loves them so much:

“My recommended reads are the Sir Scallywag series by Giles Andrea and Korky Paul. They tell the tales of a brave six year old knight who is sent on unusual quests by his king. On one such quest Sir Scallywag must locate the golden sausage that once eaten will allow you to live forever.

For the older children I recommend ‘Confessions of an Imaginary Friend’ by Jaques Papier. This is a truly magical story about a boy who one day realises that he is not actually real but is in fact an imaginary friend.”

The books are available to borrow from the table near the front office.

As part our Reading for Pleasure initiative this year, we have introduced ‘Staff Book of the Week’.

Each week, a member of staff will select a children’s book to share with the school in Collective Worship. This book will be available to borrow and leave a review.

First up is Miss Critchley’s recommendations:

• Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age by Raymond Briggs. This book is perfect for KS1 and Lower KS2 children, especially if they enjoy comic books or the Stone Age.
• Resist by Tom Palmer. This book is perfect for upper KS2 readers and is set in the Netherlands during WW2. Jupiter are studying WW2 currently so hopefully this is a good pick for all those enjoying the topic.

Our Author of the Term for Spring 1 is Julia Donaldson.

Our Author of the Term of Spring 2 is Anthony Browne.

Your child may choose to bring home a book by our Author of Term to share with you at home. If they do bring one home, please enjoy the book together and return it to school so it can be enjoyed by another family.

If you have any books by either of these authors at home that you no longer need or want, we will happily welcome them in school so we can share them with other families in our school community. Please drop them into the school office or send them into school with your child.

At the 'Carols by Candlelight' event, our Head Boy proudly presented Rev. Hadley with half of the money we raised from our sponsored walk.

We raised an INCREDIBLE £800, half of which we donated to our local church spire fund and the other will be donated to Children in Need.

Thank you to everyone that sponsored the children and Mr Woolerton and team that organised the walk.

Wow wow wow!! What an amazing time we all had at Carols by Candlelight. Every single child sang and performed brilliantly and made the Marston family incredibly proud. A huge thank you to everyone that attended and donated money to support our school and the church. An extra special thanks to the staff and local community that pulled together to make this event so wonderful.

Merry Christmas!

In light of the recent tragedies in the news please follow the link and share with your children the RLSS advice on water safety in winter. 

https://www.rlss.org.uk/winter-water-safety

Thank you to everyone that came to the Christmas School Fete and to everyone that helped to make the event a success.

We raised over £500.

Thank you for your continued support.

Please find attached an information leaflet for parents and carers with regards to Strep A. Please be assured that this leaflet is for information only and that we have not had any confirmed cases in school.

Further information on scarlet fever is available on the NHS website.
More information on strep A infections, including both scarlet fever and iGas, is available on the UKHSA website.