Monday 20th June 2022

We are hoping that the recent spell of good weather will last until Wednesday when the school holds its first Sports Day in three years on the school field. Everyone should have received a letter outlining the way in which the day will run and I hope many of you will be able to come along and both support the children and celebrate with the rest of the school community.

There are lots of other things happening in school this week. On Tuesday we welcome Rachel Dodgson from the Parliamentary Education Service who will be talking to all of the children in KS2 about the importance of democracy and how it works in our country. She will then be working with the children from Coverdale on a workshop activity focussing on the skills of debating. Also on Tuesday Mr Groves will be meeting the gardening team in the afternoon to check their vegetable box and make sure that everything is well watered. After school on Tuesday the staff will be attending a training session to develop the way in which we support children in school who have been fostered and adopted.

Sports day will begin at 1.20pm on Wednesday on the school field, please remember to send your children to school with a sun hat. If you are coming along the friends will be selling refreshments throughout the afternoon. The final session of our Bikeability training for children in year six will take place over Thursday and Friday; the groups who have already completed their training have had a wonderful time and I would like to thank all of the volunteer trainers who have been giving up their own time to teach our children a very important life skill.

The summer holidays are a great time to read a book and the Bilton and Woodfield Library will be promoting the Summer Reading Challenge for children on Friday afternoon when Mr Richard Whitely will be visiting school to speak to the children. We regularly have significant numbers of children participating in the programme and I hope everyone will get involved again this summer.

Last week Mrs Crisell and some of our science ambassadors were asked to speak to an online science conference organised by the Ogden Trust about the work which they have been doing to learn about sustainable food growing. Well done to all of the children who did a fantastic job.

At 2pm on Friday the Friends will be having a meeting with tea and biscuits in the school’s wildlife garden. It is a chance for new and existing parents to come along and look at ways in which the Friends will be working to support the work of the school next year; please come along and support our fantastic friends group.

I would like to thank Mrs Crisell and the Hamilton Family who spent some time weeding and tidying in our wildlife garden. If you are interested in doing a bit of gardening please look out for a poster which Mrs Crisell will be sharing with parents.

The photos below show the gardening club busily planting more of their vegetables.

Andrew Symonds