St George's CE School Parent Portal

Well we're nearly there... one week to go until half term... and so far it's been a full half term with no bubble closures! How great is that?! A good, solid half term in school was just what the kids needed, what the staff needed and I'm sure what we all needed to get back into the swing of school life and learning again. It has been absolutely brilliant and it couldn't have been done without everyone's diligence, sacrifice and willingness to play by the rules. A mega effort from everyone and I, for one, couldn't be any prouder of our school community. Saying all this I've probably jinxed it and we'll be popping bubbles by 8am tomorrow morning...

We were chatting as a staff last week about our journey as a school since March 2020... and although it was turbulent and at times very draining indeed... a lot has happened in school during this past year and a bit... here is a little lowdown of what's been happening since Boris first closed our doors until now...

Dragon fm was installed and is being enjoyed daily.
The greenhouse... well, need I say any more! Just have a look next time you are picking up at the completely transformed 'quiet area' that is now in full bloom...
Our reading river was created to run over our new home readers - every child in school came back to after the second lockdown to a fantastic selection of brand new books to choose from.
Our phonics scheme was overhauled with a new system (making life a little easier for teachers assigning phonics books) and again many new books for the children to enjoy.
Trouts and chickens! We were always going to be hatching chicks but this year class 5 watched around 15 trout hatch from eggs and be released into our local river... an amazing experience... I'd certainly never seen a fish hatch before!
Zool... we were all chucked head first into remote learning which I can assure you was as unnerving for us as teachers as it was for you at home... but with this came an influx in technology to school... each class has since received a batch of brand new ipads so we can continue to build on our technology skills in school....
As an addition to this we are currently in the process of setting up a 'zoom zone' in school... not only can this be used for any teachers who have to self-isolate and teach from home but can be used moving forward in allowing the children to visit places and speak to people out of reach of a school trip...
Prags has joined us to deliver a fantastic cooking club on a Friday after school which has been so popular it is continuing after half term...more on that later...
Cake and Hot Chocolate Days during lockdown - they were great weren't they...
We did the community marathon and walk from lands end to John o Groats... both real feel good events
The infant playground got a bit of a facelift with the installation of a climbing wall, basketball nets, talking tubes, musical corridor and of course those slides...
We held World Book Day and each teacher read a bedtime story to the kids on facebook...

All in all, I'd say that's not too bad for one little primary school during a global pandemic...

And to our final piece of news on what has turned out to be a mammoth newsletter...

We are planning a whole school visit to Martin Mere on Monday 13th September!

Why? For many, many reasons...

All being well, this is the first day the whole school will be together for the first time (until this date the new reception children will be part time) and what a way to start a new year...
Who knows where we will be in terms of restrictions by then...we might heading into the start of a third wave so we want to get a visit in before we go back to a time of winter restrictions... it could be a celebration of the end of all restrictions and we can breathe a sigh of relief that it's all over with... and of course there is the possibility that we will be under some form of restrictions by then and we won't be able to go ahead... however, if we planned for the worst case scenario we would never get anything done and as you can see from the first part of the newsletter, that's just not how we do things...
We will have the whole place to ourselves and having done the same trip to Martin Mere a few years back, we know that it will be a great day for the kids that they will enjoy and learn so much from...
We will lead our first whole school worship of the year in amongst nature and the wonderful world God has created... does it get any better than that?!
School saved a fortune over the lockdowns on things like heating and photocopying bills so we can take all the kids on a visit at absolutely no cost to you at home... brilliant!
We will use this as part of the children's transition into the next year. We ordinarily have a 'meet the teacher' afternoon that, for obvious reasons, this year won't be going ahead. The trip will take place after the children have been in school for 7 school days. These 7 days will form a prolonged transition period in which the children will have chance to settle in to their new classroom, get to know their new teacher and new classmates and have something really exciting to look forward to...and don't they just deserve that after the year they've had!?

So, for now, that's all from us. I'm going to end the newsletter the way I started, with another great big thank you to you all, for your relentless support and unwavering dedication to the school, it wouldn't be the school it is without you and for that, I can't thank you enough.

Take it easy, have a wonderful half term and we will see you all on Wednesday 9th June for the final half term of the year.