Dear Parents,
I hope your children are now settled back into the routines of school life and are happy.
Below you will find a welcome message from both Heads, Mrs Salmon, Primary, and Mr Escobar, Secondary. Together we aim to make this academic year another great success. Please remember to contact the appropriate person with any queries you may have.
As I mentioned in my introductory letter, this academic year we are going to work very hard to improve our pupil attendance and punctuality. Basically we ask 2 important things: you send your child every day to school unless they are very sick, in which case we understand you will send them back to school as soon as possible. We expect a minimum attendance of 95% from every pupil in the school. We have introduced strict internal procedures for all staff to follow if we see irregular or poor attendance, the final agreement being your child may not be able to proceed to the next year group at the end of the academic year.
Secondly, we ask you bring your child to school on time. The school day starts at 9 am and at 9.01 am your child is late. The main gates on the ramp will close for cars at 9.05. (When entering the ramp please remember to drive right up to the yellow line). After that time you will have to park over the road and walk your child into school and sign in the late book in Reception. Please, please support your child on this matter.
Please remember that the bottom car park is for Foundation Stage parents only, who are issued with a special pass. Other parents should not park there. Due to the increase in the number of Foundation Stage pupils this year, I would ask parents to please leave the car park as soon as your child is in school, to ensure a smooth flow of traffic.
We hope all new parents have been made welcome, please may I remind you to collect your parents portal codes from Susan if you haven’t already done so.
We hope to be able to get to know you even better at our White Beach party which takes place next Friday.
Thank you for all the excellent feedback we have received regarding our new food company.
CEP activities: Since the Schoolsbuddy system update yesterday, the Diary is now accurate and available for you to access to check which clubs your child is signed up for, days, times and location. You can also submit additional requests using the Activities tab (if you wish to cancel a club, please contact the school).
You can also now also access to the CEP platform through the Parents’ section on our website.
While signing up for clubs please try to find a suitable one for your child on each day – the Homework club is specifically for homework and should not be used casually. If you do choose this club all children MUST be registered or they cannot attend. You will understand this is for the security of your children and I thank you for your support.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal
PRIMARY SCHOOL
It has been a very enthusiastic start to the new school year and it was a pleasure to see so many parents attending the year group meetings last week. I am also delighted to welcome so many new families to our community.
All groups have started the year looking at how we learn and different ways to learn. We have also been focusing on Growth Mind Sets instead of Fixed Mind Sets and, as one child in Year 3 just told me: “I have a growth mindset because it is difficult now but if I keep practising it will get easier”.
As a Staff we are also mindful that in an ever-changing world where technology is rapidly progressing children’s childhood is often being eroded. Your children’s learning this year, therefore, will also include the development of key skills to equip them for the future e.g. creativity, communication, problem-solving and of course online safety.
I hope to see many of you joining us in the upcoming Parent Online Safety Workshop at Aloha on Thursday 27 September at 19:00 h.
Next week’s target is: CARE
Talk Homework: Who do you care about and why is it important?
Yours sincerely,
Kathryn Salmon
Headteacher, Primary
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Are reason and emotion equally necessary when making difficult decisions? This is the theme I chose for the first assembly in the Secondary section of the College last Friday.
There is a constant ‘fight’ between the head and the heart when we are in a tricky situation, and a decision has to be made. We generally have doubts about the heart alone being able to take us to a place where we will not suffer, and so our heads act to prevent it. Which should we listen to?
It has not been easy to advise your children on this dilemma, mainly because research suggests that both reason and emotion are equally as important. I have ignored all this and told our students to listen to their hearts first!
Emotion marks the path, and reason chooses where we should be placed on that path.
As Eduardo Galeano said: “The best people are those who are capable of thinking with their hearts”.
Yours sincerely,
Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary
