Mr Spanswick's Words Lent 7

I think back to October when Reception pupils visited my office to show me their single letter construction and I observed tentative steps towards understanding number bonds…….forward wind to this week where many of our 4 and 5 year olds came to show me their independently written four page essays, addition and subtraction of double and sometimes triple digit numbers - my word, how they progress so quickly!

In fact, it has been a week of appreciation of our academic success as a whole. Whether it is Year 1 and their extension Maths work, Year 2’s learning of the Great Fire of London, Year 3 and their speedy times tables, Year 4 and their love (sometimes!) of fractions, Year 5 who have been tackling all sorts of comprehensions today, or Year 6’s preparation of their Mountains presentation in Geography, we have been very busy as a school, and a significant number of our Merit certificates this week were awarded for academic reasons.

I am delighted to inform you that we will be supporting two local charities again this year - The Link Foundation and Rosie’s Rainbow. The boys are busy preparing for their cake sales, and for their sponsored events. Una Loughery who leads the Link Foundation will have a stand at our Under 10 Football Tournament next Friday so feel free to pop into the mezzanine for a chat. Some of our boys are doing individual fundraisers - Joseph Brittain, one of the leading tennis players for his age group in the country is donating a pound for every tennis match he wins between now and September…..if his performances last year are anything to go by, Joseph could end up giving our charities a lot of money!! Thank you Joseph for such a selfless and generous gesture.

The boys have also been perfecting their fine motor control of a pen or pencil for the annual Handwriting competition. Mrs Thomson told the boys in assembly this morning that the standard this year is the highest she has ever seen, we are hoping to have results in a few weeks once the judges have been able to work through the 270 pieces of writing!

Mr Goddard has been piloting a slight unusual approach to his Key Stage 2 Art lessons this term, where the boys are able to choose their media, materials, and genres with very few constraints…….and some of the outcomes have been quite dazzling.

At the PTA AGM last night, I was reminded of the outstanding contributions our parents and the parents society make to this school, and I hope to update you very soon on some of the purchases that we are intending tout forward to enrich the experiences of our boys even further.

I hope that you enjoy a lovely weekend, we may even see a bit of sunshine!