Sports Week
What a week of sport! Around all the other learning taking place this week, we were all treated to watching children from Nursery to Year 6 take part in their Sports Days. I think a message passed on from one of our parents sums it up nicely:
“Thank you SO much for such an amazing first sports day! I can’t wait to see our child later to hear his version of events. We could tell how much fun he was having! I can’t believe how well behaved and organised they all were – what a gorgeous bunch of souls. Massive well done to all of the organisers.”
Congratulations to our overall winners, Cormorants, stacking up an impressive 1050 points.
2nd Swans - 1000 points
3rd Choughs - 850 points
4th Puffins - 700 points
Well done to all the children!
Year 6 Residential & Enrichment Days
We were expecting to see some tired Y6 children towards the end of the week. Despite being on residential or having a fantastic time taking part in enrichment activities, our Year 6 children certainly ended the week on a high during Friday’s Sports Day. Their Bristol adventure included a trip to a zoo, tree top climbing, bowling and an historical experience finding out about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. For the Year 6 children who remained in Cornwall, they also had fun-filled days making some beautiful bird art, a day with DT sports including zorbing and to finish the experience, a trip to Pentire beach. A huge thank you to the team of staff involved in organising a wonderful couple of days. Many lasting memories made for sure.
Transition
We have now finalised staffing for September. Next week, we will be sharing the staffing overview for September and further details about transition. We will be letting you know your child's class/teacher for September in their report coming home on Thursday 12th July.
Important dates coming up:
Wednesday 26th June 09:30 & 17:30 Welcome Meeting for New Reception Parents (Hall)
Friday 28th June KS1 History Day – Time Travelling Visitor
Monday 1st – Friday 5th July Year 6 Transition Week
Monday 1st – Wednesday 3rd July Year 4 Residential to Porthpean
Monday 1st July The Place – Playground Theatre Tour performance to school
Tuesday 2nd July 15:15-16:15 KS1 Open Invitation Cross Country (Wadebridge School)
Wednesday 3rd July 09:30-10:30 Drop in & play session for children new to WPA joining Reception in September
Wednesday 3rd June 13:00-14:00 Drop in & play session for children currently at WPA Nursery joining Reception in September
Thursday 4th July 09:30-12:30 Taster morning & lunch for all new Reception children starting in September
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern
St Breock Care Home Choir Visit
Our KS2 choir visited St Breock care home on Monday afternoon, where they sang to the residents. The sea shanties they had learned for Songfest 2024 went down a storm. We look forward to forging more links with the local community.
Car Park – Drop off and Collection arrangements
Thank you so much for your co-operation this week. Feedback has been very positive and is helping, in the mornings particularly, for a much calmer and safer start to the day.
A couple of key reminders from what we’ve noticed this week:
• In the mornings, please do not park in the ‘Stop and Drop’ channel.
• To help the flow, please drive on as far as you can in the channel before dropping off. It would be helpful if your child has all their belongings ready to exit the car.
• Please do not drop off your child in any other area of the car park, as this is unsafe and causes congestion for others.
• When walking on the footpath next to the ‘Stop and Drop’ channel, please keep to the school fenced side for your own safety.
• If parking, please supervise your child across the car park.
• Please do not park on the double yellow lines or next to any coned areas.
• Please drive slowly.
Additional Parking - Wadebridge Town FC have kindly offered their car park for parents to use in the mornings and afternoons on a first-come-first-served basis. Please do make use of this facility if you can, especially at the end of the day where you can park, walk down to school and collect your child without worrying about finding a space on the school site.
FOWPA
Non-Uniform Day Donations
A massive thank you to all the parents, carers and children of WPA for the generous amount and quality donations that were collected on Thursday. We cannot thank you enough for your ongoing support and we look forward to making some excellent hampers to raffle off soon.
As always, all proceeds go back into the school and benefit the children. If anyone was unable to donate yesterday and still wishes to, there is a box outside the office. Thank you!
FOWPA Easyfundraising
Have you seen our new easyfundraising gate banner? It's all about how you can support our school and your child for free when you shop online with over 8,000 retailers. Everything counts - food shops, holidays, clothes, insurance, electricals and more! All the big names are ready to donate at no extra cost to you. Find out more and sign up to support us today: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fowpa
The FOWPA Team
Sports Days
Please check the email sent on Wednesday 12th June about the various Sports Days taking place next week. Without mentioning the car park too much more, please refer to the email for parking arrangements. We are all looking forward to seeing everyone take part throughout the week. Fingers crossed for some drier weather!
Year 6 Residential
Next Monday, many of our Year 6 children will be travelling to Bristol for their residential experience. Please ensure you’ve checked the letter sent out earlier this week with final details. The team will be updating the WPA Facebook page each day; so do take a look. For our Year 6 children not attending, we look forward to three enrichment days of art, sport and a trip.
Transition
As part of transition to secondary, Year 6 were visited by staff and Y7 students from Wadebridge School. This week they also took part in some science lessons taught by secondary staff. We received the following feedback after their visit:
“Thank you for hosting us for our science visit today. I hope your students got an insight into science at secondary and we were able to build some positive relationships. Walking through your school was an absolute joy and the class we visited were bright, keen, kind and attentive.
Thank you for having us.”
As mentioned during the coffee mornings, we are wanting to build closer links with Wadebridge School for the benefit of our whole community. I’m looking forward to meeting the new headteacher when he starts in September to plan for closer co-operation between both schools.
Next week, I will share with you our plans for transition for all other classes taking place this half term.
Coffee Mornings
From September, we will be offering regular coffee mornings throughout the year. Some will be themed based on what parents might want to hear about/what the school would like to share; some will just be an opportunity to socialise with other parents and meet staff.
Today, Mr Jonathan Smith, hosted a SEND coffee morning with Ms Wright from Wadebridge School meeting with parents to talk about transition from a SEND perspective.
Sleep Wise Parent/Carer Workshop
Important dates coming up:
Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th June Year 6 Residential to Bristol (Departs 09:15-09:30)
- Year 6 children who are going to arrive between 08:45-09:00 if parents staying to wave off
- If not waving off and/or have younger siblings, please arrive as normal
- Year 6 children not going on residential arrive as normal
- Arrive back on Wednesday 19th June around 18:30
Tuesday 18th June 09:15-10:15 Nursery Sports Day
Tuesday 18th June 14:00-16:15 Year 3/4 Quad Games at Wadebridge School
Wednesday 19th June 09:15-11:15 Year 3/4 Sports Day
Wednesday 19th June Year 6 children not on residential out on trip
Thursday 20th June 09:15-11:15 Year Reception/KS1 Sports Day
Friday 21st June 09:15-11:15 Year 5/6 Sports Day
Car Park – Drop off and Collection arrangements
Please check your email today for a letter about important changes to the car park arrangements starting next Monday 10th June.
FOWPA Non-Uniform Day – Thursday 13th June
A reminder that next Thursday 13th June, FOWPA are hosting a Non-School Uniform Day.
Children may come to school dressed in normal, casual clothes of their choice! In return, we would like to ask you for voluntary donations of luxury hamper items to be used as raffle prizes for the FOWPA Quiz Night on 18th October.
Suitable items for donation would be a bottle (alcohol or other), chocolates or biscuits, for example, so that we can put hampers together.
FOWPA volunteers will be stood outside the school office at drop off on Thursday 13th June with trolleys to accept your wonderful donations. Please note that alcohol donations MUST be donated by an adult to either an FOWPA volunteer or brought directly into the secretary’s office (where other donations can also be made at any time). All proceeds raised from the raffle go back into supporting the children at WPA.
Congratulations to everyone for raising £123 at the second hand uniform sale and £306.79 at the recent school disco.
Thank you as always for your support.
The FOWPA Team
Year 6 Dance-a-thon
On Thursday, Year 6 took part in a sponsored Dance-a-thon. The children were dancing from 9am to 3pm; that’s 6 hours of non-stop dancing! Each child had plenty of opportunities for breaks and re-fuelling but there was a minimum of 10 Year 6 children dancing at all times. It was an exhausting but incredible day. So far, they have raised an incredible £916 towards covering the cost of entertainment, food and decorations for their Year 6 prom. The Year 6 team want to make sure the prom will be an inclusive, memorable, well-deserved celebration and the funds raised will help us to achieve this. A huge thank you to everyone that has sponsored Year 6 already.
If you would like to donate, their page is still open: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-make-our-year-6-prom-a-night-to-remember
Year 5/6 Quad Kids
Well done to nearly 100 of our Year 5 and 6s for taking part in the first Wadebridge area 'Quad Kids' event on Tuesday. The children were split into countries with other schools and competed in 4 events: 75m sprint, 400m, Long Jump and Javelin. They all had a great time! Thank you to Wadebridge Secondary School and their terrific sport leaders for such a well-organised event.
Year 3/4 are taking part in the same event on Tuesday 18th June. Please can we remind Year 3/4 parents to check your emails where you have been sent a link to a form indicating whether or not your child is attending the event.
We were really pleased to have been awarded lots of prizes for our entries into the Royal Cornwall Show, including a first prize in each class! In the junk modelling category (Class 13) we won 3rd prize for the rocket ship and 1st prize for the fisherman made from recycled materials. Both structures are 6 feet tall and have been made entirely from recycled material. This certainly proved a challenge, but the children brought in a variety of recycled materials and even went on beach cleans to gather rope and washed-up nets. We also entered into the plants category (Class 16) and achieved 3rd place and 1st place for our flowers arranged in a RNLI Helmet. Commendations were also give to our flower arrangement in yellow wellies. We may have more successes to celebrate when further results are in for Year 4! Well done to all the children involved. Do look out for entries if attending the show.
Monday 10th – Friday 14th June Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Week
Monday 10th June (pm) Choir singing at St Breock Care Home
Tuesday 11th June Year 4 Multiplication Check
Thursday 13th June FOWPA Non-Uniform Day
Friday 14th June 09:00 SEND Coffee Morning
Friday 14th June (pm) Year 6 Transition – KS3 Team and Year 7 Buddies visit
Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th June Year 6 Residential to Bristol
Tuesday 18th June 09:15-10:30 Nursery Sports Day
Tuesday 18th June 14:00-16:15 Year 3/4 Quad Games at Wadebridge Secondary School
Wednesday 19th June 09:15-11:30 Year 3/4 Sports Day
Thursday 20th June 09:15-11:30 Year Reception/KS1 Sports Day
Friday 21st June 09:15-11:30 Year 5/6 Sports Day
If you’re attending or exhibiting at the Royal Cornwall Show, we hope you have a fantastic time.
Enjoy the weekend, and we look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern
Cornwall Air Ambulance Fundraiser
Congratulations to our Nursery and Reception children who had a great time on their sponsored walk. All the children made masks, flags and banners and took on the challenge of walking or running 4 laps around our school field. We had a special visit from Andy, the pilot from Cornwall Air Ambulance, to say thank you for raising money for them.
FOWPA
Many thanks to FOWPA, our staff, children, parents and Regal Cinema for supporting the recent fundraising events at school. We will be able to share after half term how much was raised from these the Uniform Sale and Disco ahead of the next event, the FOWPA Quiz.
FOWPA are hosting a Non-School Uniform Day on Thursday 13th June. Children may come to school dressed in normal, casual clothes of their choice! In return, we would like to ask you for voluntary donations of luxury hamper items to be used as raffle prizes for the FOWPA Quiz Night on Friday 28th June. Suitable items for donation would be a bottle (alcohol or other), chocolates or biscuits, for example, so that we can put hampers together.
FOWPA volunteers will be stood outside the school office at drop off on Thursday 13th June with trolleys to accept your wonderful donations. Please note that alcohol donations MUST be donated by an adult to either an FOWPA volunteer or brought directly into the secretary’s office (where other donations can also be made at any time). All proceeds raised from the raffle go back into supporting the children at WPA.
Thank you as always for your support.
The FOWPA Team
Online Safety
Please check the link sent by email today for some useful information and tips about keeping children safe online.
Car Park
When we return after half term, we will let you know about some changes to the car park for drop off and collection. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution – I’ve heard it has been tweaked many times already! We will need everyone’s support in helping make drop off and collection as smooth and safe as possible. Look out for an email from me in the first week back to update you on the new arrangements.
Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
A reminder that the school survey closes today, thank you. Please check your parent email for the link.
PE Days
Please note your child's PE day below as some year groups have changed days. This is due to external providers such as Pro20 and DT Coaching having set days to come and deliver quality PE provision to our pupils. The children only have one day of PE (or split days in Year 3) but have 2 lessons during the school day to ensure they receive the required time.
Reception: Monday with Pro20 (please send children to school dressed in their PE kit)
Year 1: Thursday
Year 2: Monday (Pro20 Sports Academy)
Year 3: Monday and Wednesday (DT Coaching). 2 days due to split lessons.
Year 4: Tuesday
Year 5: Friday
Year 6: Thursday
Class Photos
On Wednesday 5th June, the school photographer will be in during the morning to take class photos. Please ensure your child is wearing full school uniform on that day. If they have PE, they will need to bring in their PE kit to change into on that day. Thank you for your co-operation.
Important dates coming up:
Monday 3rd June: Back to school
Tuesday 4th June: 14:00-16:15 Year 5 and Year 6 Quad Games at Wadebridge Secondary School – please complete form recently sent by email
Wednesday 5th June: Class Photos – Children need to wear their full school uniform to school
Thursday 6th June: Year 6 Sponsored Dance-a-thon
Friday 7th June: Community Day for Royal Cornwall Show – School closed for children
Monday 10th – Friday 14th June: Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Week
Monday 10th June: (pm) Choir singing at St Breock Care Home
Tuesday 11th June: Year 4 Multiplication Check
Thursday 13th June: FOWPA Non-Uniform Day
Friday 14th June: 09:00 SEND Coffee Morning
Friday 14th June: (pm) Year 6 Transition – KS3 Team and Year 7 Buddies visit.
Thank you for all your support this half term.
We look forward to an exciting final half term of the year, seeing everyone back on Monday 3rd June.
With very best wishes,
Chris Wathern
To commemorate 40 years since the passing of Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman CBE, Concern Wadebridge hosted a poetry competition for all Wadebridge area primary school aged children. The theme of the poetry competition was ‘Wadebridge.’ The competition was sponsored by Bricknells who provided the first-place prizes for the best written entries for Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 children.
There were also special prizes for the most creative entries.
Manager Emma Burt said: “We were delighted to receive over 100 entries. I would not only like to say thank you to St Breock Primary School & Nursery and Wadebridge Primary Academy for promoting the competition but also to Bricknells for sponsoring the event. A special mention to Cathy and Kevin Daisy, our John Betjeman memorabilia volunteers who came up with the idea of the competition and helped me with the hard task for judging all the brilliant entries. All the winning entries will now be on display at The John Betjeman Centre for the half term holidays and until the end of June. Please come and see the talent for yourselves.”
Congratulations to our children:
Best Written Poem Key Stage 1: Lennon
Best Written Poem Key Stage 2: Daisy
Highly Commended: Tom
KS2 SATs
Well done to our wonderful Year 6 children. They approached the assessments this week with a determined and calm attitude. Today they have certainly let their hair down (and given it a rinse too) as they finished the week with some water fun. The warmer weather certainly added to their afternoon!
Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
Your feedback is really important to us as we work in partnership to achieve the best possible education for the children. Please check your email to complete a Trust-wide questionnaire that each school is sending out. For Q20, I would really appreciate your views on the key strengths to celebrate, as well as areas we could develop even further for all our children. Your time in completing this questionnaire is valued and will help us continually improve. Please complete by Friday 24th May, thank you.
FOWPA Disco – Wednesday 22nd May
A reminder of arrangements:
14:15 – 15:00 Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 (in school time)
15:15 – 16:00 Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6
Children are invited to wear party clothes into school. Please note that Year 6 will need to wear their PE kit to school and bring a change of clothes if they are going to the Disco.
We will have a couple of quieter areas should children want to have some time out from all that dancing!
Don’t forget to complete a permission slip if your child is in Year 4 - Year 6, as the Disco takes place at the end of the school day. Spare letters are available from your class teacher/office.
For this fundraising event, we would welcome a suggested donation of £1.50. Please ensure your child brings into school a water bottle that can be topped up. A small snack will also be provided.
Lost Property
Thank you to FOWPA for organising the nearly new uniform sales this week.
Next Monday-Wednesday after school, we will be putting out all the lost property by the main entrance. Please do take a look to see if anything belongs to your child. Anything that isn’t collected will be donated to a local charity/clothes bank.
House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Choughs!
Swans – 365
Choughs – 369
Cormorants – 281
Puffins – 331
Important dates coming up:
Monday 20th May: Year 1 and Year 3 Trips
Monday 20th May: Year 2 PE instead of Wednesday (please wear PE kit)
Wednesday 22nd May: 14:15-15:00 Reception-Year 3 Disco; 15:15-16:00 Year 4-Year 6 Disco
Friday 24th May: INSET Day – School closed
Monday 27th – Friday 31st: May Half term
Monday 3rd June: Back to school
Tuesday 4th June: 14:00-16:15 Year 5 and Year 6 Quad Games
Wednesday 5th June: Class Photos
Thursday 6th June: Year 6 Dance-a-thon
Friday 7th June: Community Day for Royal Cornwall Show – School closed for children
A reminder that school is closed next Friday 24th May for INSET. It’s a four-day week for the children before the May half term break.
Have a relaxing weekend.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern
Whilst it’s been a shorter week, it has certainly been a full one (and the sun came out too which was a bonus). I had the pleasure of showing another headteacher working in Cornwall around our school. We were both impressed with the calm and purposeful atmosphere in and around the classes. From seeing how well our Big Nursery and Reception children are settling into their new rooms to the quality of teaching and learning as we toured the school. We also saw politeness in abundance; such an important quality. From greetings to opening doors, the children should be rightly proud of themselves.
Coffee Sessions
I really appreciated being able to meet you during this week’s coffee sessions. Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit about my experiences as well as how we will continually develop our fantastic school. I was also grateful for your feedback, questions and ideas about what’s working well and what we can do together for the future. From each of the sessions, one message came out clearly, and that’s the chance to have regular opportunities to come into school. Watch this space!
Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
Your feedback is really important to us as we work in partnership to achieve the best possible education for the children. Please check your email with the link to complete a Trust-wide questionnaire that each school is sending out. For Q20, as mentioned at this week’s welcome coffee sessions, I would really appreciate your views on the key strengths to celebrate, as well as areas we could develop even further for all our children. Your time in completing this questionnaire is valued and will help us continually improve.
Thank you.
House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Swans, earning 282 points.
Swans – 282
Choughs – 276
Cormorants – 238
Puffins – 237
Our overall leaders this year so far are Choughs, with an impressive 10,577 points!
Good luck Year 6!
Good luck to our Year 6 children next week as they complete their end of KS2 SATs. We are really proud of what they have already achieved throughout their primary years, both in the subjects that are assessed, and those areas that aren’t. Go Year 6!
Events next week
Monday 13th – Thursday 16th May: Year 6 SATs
Thursday 16th May: Census Day - Change of school lunch menu
Thursday 16th May: Deadline for sign-up for May half term Bridge Kids Holiday Club
Thursday 16th May (after school): FOWPA Uniform Sale
Friday 17th May (after school): FOWPA Uniform Sale
Have a relaxing weekend.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern
Courage
At the start of our Shining Stars Assembly today, we were treated to hearing music performed by Oscar, Phoebe, Imogen, Hana and Merryn.
The theme this week has been ‘Courage’ and it was fantastic to see the children show this in abundance taking to the stage to play in front of everyone. We look forward to offering this regular slot in our Shining Stars Assembly for children to showcase their skills. I know many of the children are very keen to sign up.
Teachers also recognised other acts of courage this week across the school. It is something we will continue to remind children of and support them with; especially to speak up (politely) for what they believe in or where they see unfairness.
The range and quality of learning around the classes this week has been impressive. I’ve seen amazing letter writing ‘from the trenches’ in Year 6 to Year 3 writing their own version of the Sand Horse story. Equally impressive has been the amazing Modroc artwork in Year 5.
A special well done to our youngest learners in the school (and a huge thank you to the staff) as they began the process of moving classrooms, as we re-purpose our EYFS environment. They have taken these changes in their stride.
Next week, one of the areas I want to explore further is the experience our children have at playtime and lunchtime. It’s such a crucial part of our children’s experience at school that I’m keen to see what is working well and what can be improved. I’ll be following this up with a discussion with the School Council to get their invaluable feedback.
House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Puffins, earning 439 points. Our overall leaders this year so far are Choughs with an impressive 10,301 points!
Donation
We are really grateful to the Padstow Harbour Commissioners for their generous donation of £1000! We will be considering how best to use this for the benefit of our children.
Events next week
Monday 6th May Bank Holiday (School closed)
Tuesday 7th May 14:30-15:15 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)
Tuesday 7th May 15:25 Year 4 Porthpean Residential Meeting for parents (4B classroom)
Thursday 9th May 08:45-09:30 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern (Hall)
Thursday 9th May 14:15-15:00 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)
Friday 10th May Year 3 Alternative Sports Day
Friday 10th May 08:45-09:30 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern
Have a relaxing long weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone back next Tuesday.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern
It's been a very busy week here at WPA. Here are some of the highlights.
Eco Council
Our fantastic Eco Council led Monday's assembly marking Earth Day. They challenged everyone to play their part in making the school and Wadebridge litter free.
Fowey Festival
Congratulations to all children who entered the Fowey Festival competition recently. In our assembly we proudly presented certificates to children who were recognised by the judges.
FOWPA (Friends of Wadebridge Primary Academy)
I really enjoyed meeting with some of the committee members and hear about the fundraising and social events planned for the rest of the year. We’re really lucky to have such a dedicated team supporting our school community, whether through organising events or obtaining grants to help all our children at school.
Upcoming events:
Thursday 16th and Friday 17th May (after school) - Uniform Sale
Wednesday 22nd May - School Disco
14:15-15:00 Reception - Year 3
15:15-16:00 Year 4 - Year 6
Friday 28th June - Quiz Night at Wadebridge Town Hall (TBC)
Further details about these events will be sent out shortly.
RNLI
We were really grateful to the RNLI for their visit to speak with KS2 on Wednesday. The children were given a detailed explanation of the different flags they will come across at the beach. It was wonderful to see how well-informed they already were, but a little reminder never hurts. Two eager volunteers were selected to dress up as lifeguards; they really looked the part. Everyone was really attentive and showed great respect for the important messages shared.
Football Success
We are so proud of our Year 5 and 6 football team who competed on Tuesday. Despite not playing that many matches as a team, they showed great teamwork throughout the five rounds, winning the first four games without conceding a goal. What a fantastic achievement! Although we came runners up in the end, every player gave their all on the field. Thank you to the team for representing our school with such dedication and upholding our values.
Welcome Coffee Morning/Afternoon
You are warmly invited to come along to one of my welcome coffee mornings/afternoons in the school hall. I’ll share a bit about myself and the focus for the term. If you’re not able to come, I'm often around on the gate in the mornings should you want a chat. I will also be sharing the slides by email following the sessions.
There's no need to sign up, but if you can possibly attend the session according to your child's year group, that would help with numbers. If that isn't possible, please do still come along. If you have children across the school, you only need to come along once as the content will be the same in each session.
EYFS & KS1
Thursday 9th May 08:45-09:30
Thursday 9th May 14:15-15:00
KS2
Tuesday 7th May 14:30-15:15
Friday 10th May 08:45-09:30
I’m hoping we can run regular coffee mornings throughout the school year. Not only might these be an opportunity to meet up with other parents and members of staff, we could also offer various workshops based on your feedback.
Dates
Please look out for the email today with dates for the rest of the term. If there are any updates, we will let you know as soon as possible. Key dates can also be found on our website under ‘Events Diary’.
Have a great weekend.
Chris Wathern
It has been a joy to welcome your children back to school this week. I’ve been so pleased to see their enthusiasm as soon as they get into school completing their early morning maths. Making every moment of school life count is vitally important, and so it’s pleasing to see this week’s attendance at 96%. Our overall attendance target for the year is 97%, so we aren’t far off. Thank you for your continued support.
Thank you to everyone for making me feel so welcome. I’m looking forward to continuing to get to know the school better, and build those all-important relationships with children, staff, parents and the wider community.
I’ve spent a lot of this week starting to get to know the children and staff. Going around the classes, it has been wonderful to see the wide range of learning taking place, such as the children in Big Nursery waiting patiently for butterflies to emerge from their chrysalises. It was impressive to hear them explain the lifecycle of a butterfly using all the rich scientific language.
This week’s Shining Stars theme was ‘Being Respectful’ – one of our golden rules. It was a pleasure seeing children receiving their certificates in assembly today and all the different ways they have demonstrated respect. I know the staff had a difficult time choosing who to give them to, especially in Year 6 (pictured). A special mention to our Shining Stars from Reception, who came into their first proper whole school assembly for the first time. Both classes were role models to all children – well done!
Next week, we will be sharing some of the confirmed dates for various events this term. This will also include some informal opportunities to meet with me, for instance at a coffee morning/afternoon. I’m really keen to hear from parents as to what you value about this wonderful school as well as your thoughts on what we can do to make it even better.
Wishing you all a restful (and hopefully sunny) weekend.
Mr Chris Wathern
Creative
We are bold and innovative in our approach to find new solutions to the challenges we face.
Curious
We are inspired by the awe and wonder of the world.
Responsible
We take responsibility for our actions in an environment of mutual respect.
Enthusiastic
We are passionate about learning.
Excellent
We are the best we can be.
Determined
We overcome all barriers to reach our potential, developing a capacity to improve further.
© 2025 Bridge Schools trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. Registration number 7736425. It is an exempt charity.