SJP6941

From the Headmaster….

Posted: 12th January 2019

Dear Parents

Happy New Year and welcome back to school.  The children appear to be in good spirits; well-rested from their festive break.  I hope you all had a great time with your families. 

We were delighted to welcome back Mrs Deacon from her maternity leave.  She resumes her role as PRE (Philosophy, Religion and Ethics) coordinator.  In addition, we welcomed our four new Shadows; Issie, Camryn, Kalani and Zac – all of whom join us from Australia and we look forward to everyone getting to know them. 

There are many things to look forward to this term, not least the Years 4 & 5 production in March and the Years 6 & 7 production a couple of weeks later ; more details to follow.

Next week, the Prep children will have individual mentoring meetings with their tutors as part of their pastoral and academic support programme.  Pupils will be encouraged to talk about their most recent Effort and Achievement grades, or end of term reports, and to reflect on their attitudes to learning and other aspects of school.  We are keen, through this process, to support children’s ownership of the learning process to help them engage with the next steps.  In addition, it will be an opportunity for the children to discuss their other interests and everyone is required to ensure their Laetatums are in school by the beginning of next week. We hope that children, and their parents in some cases, are adding to these important documents as the year proceeds.  We will follow up these mentoring sessions with Tutor Reports by half term and feed back to you on the success of the process. 

From this term, and to ensure consistency of provision across the week, Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Leigh-Simpson (congratulations on her wedding over the holiday break!) will cover the surgery role as follows: Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday morning – Mrs Reynolds and Wednesday afternoons, Thursdays and Fridays, Mrs Leigh-Simpson. Their hours cover the period from 8.00am through to 5pm each day. Out of hours first aid is covered by other members of staff with appropriate first aid qualifications including the Shadows, boarding staff, office staff and senior staff.   

The main hours of the front office are between 8.00am and 5pm.  Whilst the office will be manned post 5pm (often by the Shadows) please be aware that full service is only available between the normal office hours. 

With best wishes

Alexander Mitchell
Headmaster

Categories: Headmaster's Blog


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