Whole School Letter 10.1.18
Wednesday 10th January 2018
Dear Parents,
It has been fantastic to see everyone back in school this past week and it now very much feels like the spring term is very much ‘up and running’! We hope that everyone enjoyed the festive period and had the valuable opportunity to spend some family time together. All of us at Cropthorne with Charlton First were appreciative of all of the warm wishes and very generous Christmas gifts which were gratefully received at the end of last term, thank you.
Of course the spring term at Cropthorne inevitably brings much excitement and anticipation as the thoughts of the children and staff begin to turn to our whole school production at Number 8 in Pershore. This year we will be immersing ourselves in the magical world of fairy tales with our performance of ‘Oink!’, a story which is (very loosely!) based upon the tale of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. The afternoon performance will take place on Thursday 22nd March, with the evening show taking place on Friday 23rd March. More detailed information on times and ticketing will be issued closer to the half term break.
We have been in awe of the progress made by the Gardens of Reflection team in completely transforming our pond area over the latter part of the last term. The project was predominately funded by a grant from the National Lottery ‘Awards for All’, and supported by donations from the Garfield Weston Foundation, The Rowlands Trust and our very own PTFA. The project is virtually complete with just one or two ‘finishing touches’ to be added soon, however the children will be getting their first experiences of the area this week. We also plan to open the area for our parents to view this Friday at the end of the school day, we’re sure it will be popular so please be patient if there is a small queue!
All the staff at Cropthorne returned on 3rd January to work on the school curriculum, which included exploration and development of methods of using ICT to further enhance learning for the children at our school. We are also continuing to develop the way we deliver our teaching of Mathematics and we will be offering opportunities for you to learn more about our work in this area over the coming months.
Information about some of our upcoming educational visits and visitors into school will also begin to arrive with you via our weekly class newsletters in the coming weeks and as always we will continue to try to give you as much notice as we possibly can. We do of course ask for a voluntary termly contribution of £25 which helps us to supplement these special experiences which enhance our children’s learning and provide them with memorable experiences which we hope they will carry with them well beyond their time at Cropthorne. We really would not be able to run anywhere near as many without your continuing and valued support.
Extra-curricular activity clubs begin on the 22nd January, these are detailed in a separate letter. Dance Club and Singing Club were specifically requested by our pupils at our School Council meetings, and we are happy to be able run them this term. Unfortunately numbers at some clubs are limited, and this will occasionally lead to some disappointment. Therefore we do ask that if you have been allocated a place at a club and decide not to take it up or to no longer attend for any reason, please let Mrs Evans know as soon as possible so we can quickly allocate the place to another child. Please note that clubs will not run during the week commencing 26th February due to our Parent Consultations taking place that week, on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th February. Further information on booking a slot and timings will be issued in the preceding weeks.
Already this term, Alex Thoday, Mia Underwood, Jacob Standing and Jemma Diston from our School Council fully planned and ran their own assembly on the theme of Kindness, Years 3-5 enjoyed their rearranged but nonetheless still thrilling trip to see 101 Dalmatians, whilst Mr Komor, Year Five and our talented pianists treated us to a special music concert this morning, we were all very impressed by the musical skills on show! Well done to all involved!
As ever, we will do our best to keep you informed over the course of the term but if you think some information has not got through, please do check that Mrs Evans has your up to date contact details, especially if Santa Claus delivered a new mobile phone at Christmas!
We are all looking forward to our first Achievement Assembly of the term which will take place this Friday (12th January) which is always so brilliantly well attended, we look forward to seeing you there.
Yours sincerely,
Rob Bothma
Head teacher