Welcome letter for parents/carers
Dear Parent/ Carer,
On behalf of all the staff and Governors, it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you back to Grasmere. I hope you have had a lovely summer and that your children are rested and ready for another exciting school year. To those of you with children starting in Early Years, it’s great to have you as part of the Grasmere community and I know your children will settle quickly into the friendly, nurturing ethos of the school.
Some changes…
As with every new school year there have been some changes that I would like to bring to your attention. Firstly, the school is looking refreshed after some building work over the summer. Roofs have been repaired, cupboards built and, perhaps most noticeably, the communal areas in the school have been painted. Thank you to Billy for coordinating this work over the summer.
Furthermore, and very excitingly, the refurbished Library is almost ready! It is looking fantastic thanks to the huge efforts of so many of you to ensure this space is so exciting and purposeful for the children. The school is enormously grateful and we can’t wait to make use of it!
You may also notice that this year classes have been given names and we decided to link to them to the garden by naming them after trees. The class names are as follows:
| Class – Teacher | Class name |
| Nursery – Sharon | Acorns |
| Reception – Siobhan | Holly |
| Year 1 – Sheena | Rowan |
| Year 2 – Debbie/Julia | Cherry |
| Year 3 – Lena | Willow |
| Year 4 – Tom | Aspen |
| Year 5 – Emmy | Oak |
| Year 6 – Nadine | Silver Birch |
A final change I would like to notify you of is the decision not to have clubs on a Wednesday and Friday. This has been a difficult decision as it was a great opportunity for older and younger children to work together. However, to deploy staff to run them to a high standard in their current form was a challenge. We are exploring other ways that older and younger children can work together [for example paired reading, which will continue]. The school is also pulling together an offer for lunch time and after school clubs for later in the academic year.
Values:
At the end of last term children, staff and parents were asked what values children at Grasmere should demonstrate so that alongside high expectations of academic achievement the school promotes these values so that children grow socially and emotionally. These have now been chosen and are as follows:
Creativity:
– thinking about new ideas and following your imagination
– trying new things and believing in yourself
Respect:
– treating others as you like being treated and listening to each other
-Using manners and considering other’s feelings
– Valuing other people’s differences such as race and religion
Kindness:
– being a good friend
– sharing and taking turns
– working with others productively
Bravery:
– Trying our best
– Never giving up
– Supporting each other to achieve
School Development Priorities:
In our journey to become even better as a school, further changes will inevitably take place. With that in mind, I would like to share the school’s main priority areas for development this academic year that we are working towards. They are:
- To have a clear, well communicated assessment framework used consistently by all staff throughout KS1 and 2 for reading, writing and maths. This will ensure children’s attainment and progress can be tracked and coherently relayed to parents/ carers.
- To improve the consistency of reading across KS2, ensuring challenge for all children which will add a deeper level of comprehension and wider range of strategies and learning behaviours.
- To make learning more cross curricular using the Chris Quigley Skills based curriculum. This will ensure meaningful links are made within a topic across subject areas to enable children to be more engaged and immersed in their learning.
Your input around these is enormously valued. The school plans to have regular coffee mornings on these priorities and other key areas such as behaviour and SEND. It would be lovely to see you there.
Term dates:
Here are the term dates for this academic year. Please note the expectation that all children should be in school every day and in line with Borough policy the school will only authorise absences in exceptional circumstances.
Autumn Term 2017
Start – Monday 4 September 2017/ Tuesday 5 September 2017 INSET Days
Children return: Wednesday 6 September 2017
Half Term – Monday 23 October – Friday 27 October 2017
End – Thursday 21 December 2017
Spring Term 2018
Start – Wednesday 3 January 2018 INSET DAY
Children return: Thursday 4 January 2018
Half Term – Monday 12 February – Friday 16 February 2018
End – Thursday 29 March 2018
Summer Term 2018
Start – Monday 16 April 2018 INSET
Children return: Tuesday 17 April 2018
Half Term – Monday 28 May – Friday 1 June 2018
Children finish: Thursday 19 July 2018
End – Friday 20 July 2018 INSET
Finally…
Please note, in line with other schools, dinner money has gone up to £2.30 a day. Please do look out for letters and texts from the school as well as the newsletters that are printed every two weeks. We also have a twitter account so please feel free to follow us!
On a personal note, I am excited to start this year in my capacity as permanent Head teacher and relish the opportunity to continue to lead the school. You are always welcome to make an appointment with Patsy if you wish to discuss anything or you can catch me in the playground at the beginning or end of the day.
Yours sincerely,
Nick Mallender
Headteacher