Headteacher Update 25th October 2024

Dear Parents & Carers,

Where on earth has that first half-term gone? It’s hard to  believe that the children have now been in their new classes for 8 weeks! They have done so well, and continue to impress us every day. I have just passed lots of ‘Wow’ postcards to the office team, so look out for one of these coming through the letterbox this weekend as we celebrate and recognise amazing behaviour from our children! I’m also delighted to say that over 100 children had 100% attendance for this half-term!!

 A few updates for you before we head into a well earned break.

Firstly, it was great to see so many of you over the last    fortnight at Open Doors, and then during parents evenings, which were so well attended. I hope you found these opportunities useful at this stage of the year, to give you a sense of how well your child has settled in their new year group. If you missed your appointment and would like to rearrange, please contact the school office who will be happy to help.

In our drive to improve communication, we are starting to use ‘Class Dojo’, which is an interactive communication app used successfully by lots of schools. It will give you far more opportunities to see how your children are getting on in school. After you have downloaded the app and signed up, (details have been shared during parents evening) you will be able to use 2 key features:

• ‘School Story’ – this is where regular updates will be shared around things which are happening in school. This will also be used to share reminders about key events happening in school so you don’t miss out.
• ‘Class Story’ – this will be used by your child’s class teacher to update you at a class level. There is also the chance for you to message class teachers directly with important information you wish to share, which will be especially useful for those parents who are unable to see teachers regularly due to work or other commitments at the beginning and end of the school day.

Clearly, teachers will not be expected to reply to messages 24:7, but they will be expected to respond within working hours, when it is practical to do so. ClassDojo should never be used for urgent    messages to teachers, as they are not in a position to see these, or respond to them, if they are teaching. We will begin to use ‘School Story’ in the first week back after the holidays. Look out for    regular updates about school life. Your child’s teacher will then begin to use ‘Class Story’.

I hope you have a lovely half-term break, and we look forward to welcoming the children back on Monday 4th November.

Kind regards.