Head Teacher's Blog 20th November
19th November 2023
Let’s get started this week with 5 pieces of great news!
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I want to say a huge well done to Beech class who achieved 100% whole class attendance between Monday 13th November and Friday 17th November. This is the first class 100% this academic year and so I popped in to say well done to all of the Beech Nuts on Friday afternoon. Mr Johnson and I are thinking of a little treat as a reward for this achievement! Our whole school attendance was 93.1% last week - let’s see if we can get it up to 95% in the coming week!
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I’m delighted to let you know that our Christmas fair on Friday evening raised a whopping £1676.82! This is £390 more than last year. I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped to make the fair such a success - our wonderful FOSP committee and helpers, staff who came along to lend a hand, Susie, whose stall selling homemade items made £70, choir who got everyone into the Christmas spirit and our guest performers, David and Anna from A Musical Christmas at the Playhouse. Thanks also to everyone from our school and local community who came along and gave so generously. The money raised will go directly to the children to support educational enhancements. Such a grand total will, for example, fund 4 buses for days out to support the curriculum in the new year.
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Everyone enjoyed ‘coming to school as they pleased’ on Friday with some magnificent spotty attires and we raised £319.76 for Children In Need.
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The TTRS competition was a huge success last week for our KS2 children. Over 160 of our children eagerly participated, showing great resilience, determination and what a competitive bunch we are at Swansfield. Congratulations to Larch Class for being our highest scoring class with over 34,000 points! A special mention must go to Nathan Doherty, Chris Bridgens and Dan Bridgens for being our Top Three competitors.Well done everybody!
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Barvember has been a ‘hit’ again this week. We have been handing out even more certificates. Congratulations to the following children for their super problem solving skills, keep it up: Sophia Eddy, Ella Armstrong, Chris Bridgens, Sofia Bonnett, Abigail Oliver and Alex Drinnan.
And now, after all of that celebrating, let’s look to the week ahead:
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We’ll be sending out a parent/carer questionnaire this week. We are keen to know what you think is working well at Swansfield and what we can do to improve our school further. There will be a voucher prize, picked at random, for one lucky responder.
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Our KS1 children will be visiting the Playhouse on Monday afternoon to watch There’s a Monster in my Show
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Children in KS1 and LKS2 will have road safety workshops with personnel from RAF Boulmer on Tuesday afternoon
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Author Alistair Chisholm will be in school on Tuesday to work with all of our UKS2 children. You can find out about the books that Alistair has written here:
https://alastairc.com/
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Willow class family lunch is on Wednesday at 11.45am. Don’t forget to book your place if you haven’t already done so.
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Rowan class assembly is on Thursday at 2.30. We look forward to all that the children will share with their family and friends.
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Teacher led clubs will re-commence on Monday and Thursday afternoons this week.
As we look forward to the Christmas season, our FOSP are keen to organise a winter warmers and Christmas clothes event. If you have any Christmas jumpers, warm winter coats, party outfits or Nativity costumes that your children have grown out of, please bring them along to school from Monday 20th November. The Friends will hold a stall on Friday 1st December where anyone can come along and pick up something for their children. This will not be a fundraiser - simply a free event in the spirit of reusing and recycling. With quite a few soft toys left after the Christmas Fair, there will also be a free lucky-dip.
Our Marks and Spencer Monday stall will be out again on Monday afternoon at 3pm. Pop along and pick something up!
We started with good news so let’s end with some more - here are our stars of the week who have impressed with their great work and positive attitudes to learning and life! Helena Schmidberger, Penny Brabben, Teddy McEwan, Skye Lothian, Joshua Stalker, Teddy Shepherd, Lola Anderson, Cooper Catlow, Olivia Lee, Sophie Tincombe and Emmie Keenan. We are proud of you all!
With the children across school learning about festivals of light and our Christmas lights going on in town, here are some beautiful lights to cheer us through the week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILRs2r6lcHY
See you in the week,
Mrs G