4th February 2022

I doff my hat to our incredible staff who continue to go over and above in support of your children and their colleagues, covering for each other and ensuring the children who are away have work to be doing as appropriate. Whilst the older children are in the main emerging on the other side of their isolation periods, it appears that it is now the turn of the younger children to feel the effects of the pandemic. We currently have one child absent in each of Years 4 and Reception, four absent in Year 1 and seven absent in Year 2. We have sadly therefore decided to postpone the Year 1 and Year 2 trips which were planned to go out next week as part of STEAM Week, but we are most definitely planning for them to take place at a later date. Please can I remind you that if your child is showing symptoms, they should not come into school until a negative PCR test has been received and that if they are in a year group where there are currently a number of cases (Years 1&2 at present) the children regularly LFD test and on Monday before coming into school please ideally. 

 

Courage

It feels very appropriate that we talk about having courage in the current climate, and I continued this theme in our Assembly on Monday. I spoke about the extraordinary feat of 19 year old Zara Rutherford, who became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world when she landed on 20^th January back in Belgium. She was very honest about the fears she had to face, including homesickness, self-doubt and loneliness and it was so appropriate for the children to hear about these very real worries and concerns that even adults have. Watching the story of The Lion Inside, where a mouse builds up the courage to talk to a lion about how he can learn to be as brave, will, I hope, have further reinforced the message that it takes real courage to face our fears and challenges if we are to overcome them.

 

This Week

We have learned about and celebrated Chinese New Year this week, the Early Years had a wonderful Pyjama-themed day, Nursery have had Arctic adventures and Year 1 had fun making playdough, in addition to keenly-contested fixtures against Chandlings and St Pirans, singing assemblies and all manner of other events. Just this morning we had fascinating discussions in our School Council meeting, in which the children proposed further design elements for the fabulous hallway mural, which continues to take shape as a result of their input. 

 

Pupil Numbers

We continue to have lots of prospective parents visit the school, often as a result of having met current parents and pupils. Next year, pupil numbers will be around 200 (we currently have 188 pupils), with growth into Year 3 meaning that we will be splitting the class and employing an additional Year 3 teacher, and we are currently reviewing our staffing levels across the school to ensure that we can further enhance our delivery of the curriculum for all the children. If you have not yet registered younger siblings who you wish to join the school, please can I encourage you to either do so via the website or contact Mrs Halfhead at the earliest opportunity, as places in the younger year groups are limited and some year groups are already full.

 

STEAM Week

We are looking forward to STEAM week, which kicks off on Monday. The theme for this year is 'Growth' and the children will be learning about the environment and how they can be more eco-friendly. They will be joining in with various workshops, focusing on redesigning various outdoor spaces around the school, creating their own mural, hearing from a motivational speaker about the importance of having a growth mindset and setting personal challenges and all manner of other events. Please can we ask all children to have a named pair of wellies and a coat with them in school all week.

 

I hope you have a restful weekend and we look forward to all the excitement that next week will bring.

With best wishes,

Nick Armitage, Head