Headteacher’s Newsletter – 10th January 2025

Dear Parents and Carers

The children have settled back into school life extremely well after the Christmas break.

Board game fun

Thank you to the two families who sent pictures of board game fun over the holidays. I myself, played several games of Uno and lost very badly when playing Monopoly! If you have any more photos please do send them to Mrs Strick.

Virtual Reality Experiences in Key Stage 2

In Year 6, the children learn about Everest and Sir Edmund Hillary. Unfortunately, for the children at St. Mary’s, a trip to the Himalayas is a little bit tricky. However, using VR the children were able to get as close as possible and experience life as a climber. The children thought the afternoon was lots of fun and felt the opportunity was a very exciting launch to their topic this term.
Year 5, who are studying The Amazon were also able to experience animals in the Rainforest. Year 5 will be lucky enough to compliment this experience with a visit to the Living Rainforest in Berkshire soon.

Home Reading

There are many children who Strive for 5 every week and are lucky enough to get their name popped into the basket for the weekly draw. We have lots of more new books this term, so it is definitely worth giving it a go. This term, you will receive a merit every time you read and if you achieve your Strive for 5, you will receive 10 MERITS! You’ve got to be in it to win it! Remember that Isla is also waiting for her weekly walk around the track. When Shane in Year 5 read to her last time, she fell asleep and started snoring!

School uniform

Please ensure your child is dressed correctly for school. We are still seeing summer dresses, leggings and stretchy short skirts and this is not part of our uniform policy. Could elaborate hair decorations please be kept for the weekend only. Thank you.

Contacting school if your child is absent

Contacting the school when your child is absent is extremely important. Attendance is now reported daily to the Government. If you do not contact the school when your child is absent and they are of walking age, we do not know if they are ill or something has happened to them and then this becomes a Safeguarding concern. Thank you to all the parents and carers that send an email via Parentmail or phone and leave a message.

If your child will be absent from school, you MUST contact the school before the register closes at 9.00am, otherwise your child’s absence will be recorded as unauthorised. We will make every effort to contact you, whether this is by email, phone call or text but we would appreciate it if you made that contact first.

Attendance

Class with overall best attendance	100 % in Year 3 – Mrs Eaglestone and Miss Thorsby
Overall School attendance	93.62%
Lates	16 Lates / 12 children
Unauthorised absence	3.87%

Kind regards,
Mrs McQueen