Dear Parents,
What a jam-packed week it has been! The holiday seems a very long time ago already and following the fantastic Science Fair this afternoon, at which our Yr6 students rounded off the week, presenting their work to parents and staff with confidence, humour and bags of enthusiasm, I am to be completely frank, quite exhausted! However, I will leave the school tonight with an enormous sense of wellbeing at the future for these children. I saw none of the present concern shown by many at the apparent lack of interest shown by girls in areas such as science and engineering. What I saw were independent-minded girls and boys demonstrating levels of resourceful and reflective learning that could shame many children many years older. I am sure that we all saw a glimpse of that concrete base they have been constructing, with the help of Mrs Hart and all the teachers they have had at the school, from which they will continue to build in future years. It was a truly marvellous showcase and one they all learned a great deal from. Congratulations to all involved!
Following an incident after school on Thursday we have and will continue to review certain procedures around how children are monitored between leaving the classroom and arriving at clubs/prep. We have a complex site and a plethora of clubs to get children to in a timely fashion and whilst we do not wish to restrict the number of activities, we do want to investigate how to keep a sharp eye on children in our care at all times. Internal procedures have been implemented in the Junior School and we will look at a whole school approach at our Staff meeting on Monday. I will keep you abreast of developments and as we are looking at solutions that are both manageable and effective, it might be hoped that the noticeable impact on the end of the school day, is negligible.
From time to time all establishments will experience something that feels like a near-miss and in my mind how that is reacted to is crucial. We are determined to learn from every such situation and work to consistently improve our practice. Fortunately we have a school motto that demands this from us.
PTA
Huge thanks to Jim Pearson and Peter Quentin for organising the PTA Beer tasting and Curry Night. All who attended Mawson’s Micro Pub on Thursday night, had a thoroughly good time indeed! The informative presentations by the frighteningly young Master Brewer of the St George’s Brewery, held between each liquid offering were entertaining and the beers were splendidly varied in palette. A sumptuous curry and short raffle rounded off the formal part of the evening and allowed those who wished to, to try another flavour at the bar and catch up with friends. If you did not manage to make this evening, the next opportunity will be the Quiz Night on Saturday 4 March. The quiz will be held at Thorpe Bay Main Hall starting at 7pm. £10pp, including a fish and chip supper, bring your own drinks, nibbles and lots of knowledge! If you are interested, please register your team at the office (max 8 per team). Any donations for the raffle would be gratefully received.
Library
Mrs Crabb has sent out a letter explaining a new initiative within the school library. In order to stimulate children to read adventurously in the Senior School, it is felt that it will be appropriate for some children to read books that may be rated as being 13+ . Now some of these contain plotlines and dialogue that is much more challenging and we appreciate that some parents may feel is not appropriate for their child quite yet. So as to avoid leaving the decision entirely in the hands of children, we are proposing a PG section. Further details can be found on the posters, and I am absolutely delighted to see this vital facility being developed so enthusiastically.
Social Media
Staff have been working hard using Twitter to build up skills we can use to keep parents better informed of the daily experience of children at the school. A good example of this could be seen in the Yr1 visit to the Museum of Childhood, on Monday. Several parents have commented on how wonderful it was to be able to see something of their child’s day so they were then able to discuss it with them more productively on their return. Whilst we are developing our skills there may be occasions when what is produced may not look quite as professional as some of the more famous vloggers out there, but we are a learning environment and getting things wrong, is very much a part of that experience. Please be patient and feed your comments and thoughts back to staff, as we are doing this for your benefit and need your help to improve.
Secondary Admissions
On Thursday afternoon, parents of children in Yr4/5 had a splendid presentation on all aspects of Grammar School education (what they do well and how to apply) from Kerrie Mumford, who is Deputy Headteacher at Westcliff High School for Boys. This presentation may be found on our website and holds a great deal of useful information. If you have any questions at this stage, please do contact the school and I will seek to answer them (or find the answer).
Finally, I have two polite requests. The first concerns pencil-cases, which seem to have grown in size (and contents) to a position whereby they sometimes threaten to dwarf the available working area on the desks and render their owners less able to settle appropriately to a task. Some contain so many ‘toys’ that it can actually become tricky to find a necessary tool (pencil/ruler/protractor etc), effectively. A pencil-case is contained in the school back-packs and is of a good size to fit the essentials…and can be a useful guide if choosing to buy a different style. The other thing is to remind parents that ribbons and hair accessories should please be in the school colours (obviously, that refers to your daughters hair, I wouldn’t presume…!).
I wish you all a wonderful weekend,
R.W.J. Snow
Headmaster
Dates for your Diary in February/March
