Headteacher Newsletter December 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

Just a quick note to finish off the term and a few reminders of dates for our return in January 2024.

Term dates

Our end of term for Christmas will be Wednesday the 20th December. As usual we will make this a special day. The children will be finishing a little earlier at 12.35pm, as is our tradition, and the morning will be filled with Christmas activities and a Christmas brunch for all the children. It is also our designated Christmas Jumper day! I look forward to seeing as many fancy jumpers as last year.

If your young person comes to school by taxi, please can you ensure that the Taxi company are aware of the end of term dates and the change of time for the last day of school pick up.

The term dates for the Spring term are as follows –

Children return to school on Monday 8th January 2024

Spring Half term is Monday 12th February – Friday 16th February

End of Spring Term is Thursday March 28th

Please see the full year term dates on our website more details.

Curriculum Developments

As part of our ongoing curriculum development for the school we have been piloting a change to our curriculum approach with the introduction of our new Personal Development Programme, to enhance our curriculum offer. This involves all children having the opportunity, across the week, to take part in activities which are based offsite and add value to their learning. These activities have included sports training, indoor rock climbing, outdoor education activities, STEM activities at National Motor Museum, Horse Riding, Pottery Classes, work experience opportunities for some of our older children, walks in the local environment and Archery classes.

As the academic year progresses, we will introduce more activities and more weather dependent activities as the weather improves in the Spring Term.

End of term reports

Please look out for the End of Term reports, which will be making their way to you at the end of term. These contain important information about your young person’s progress throughout this first term of the academic year. If you have any questions regarding your young persons report, please contact either our Head of Upper School for Years 8, 9, 10 and 11, Ellie Desmond, or our Head of Lower School, for Years 4, 5, 6 and 7, Harry Robinson.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and we look forward to seeing everyone in the New Year, on Monday the 8th of January.

Jim Davis

Headteacher