Dear Parents,
I hope you have all had a wonderful summer holiday, despite the rain that we have had in England. No doubt it didn’t bother the boys one little bit whether it was raining or not. They always seem to be full of energy and curiosity whatever the weather. I do hope that they managed to have some rest over the holidays, as we have a full programme of exciting events ahead of us this autumn and naturally a little work too!
We welcome back our boys, who are moving up a year and hope that they will flourish given the new challenges ahead. We also welcome new boys who join us in Form Three, Form One and in the Kindergarten and some new members of staff too. We wish them all a very happy and fulfilling time with us.
Below is a list of important events for this term but a more comprehensive dates list will accompany this letter. Do please keep the dates list safe and refer to it for all major events – a copy of it is also to be found on the school website, along with the lunch menus for the term.
Information Evening
There will be Information Evenings for parents on Tuesday, 15th September, from 5.30 – 6.15 pm. These will be held in your son’s form room and form teachers will give an overview of the year to come and be available to answer any questions.
There will be a 7+ Information Evening, on the same date, from 6.15 – 7.00 pm for parents with boys in Form Two, in the Theatre.
Open Day
This year our Open Day will be on Saturday, 14th November, from 9.30 am to 12 noon. All boys will be expected to attend and the programme of interesting and exciting activities planned will make it an enjoyable experience for everyone.
Break
Please continue to ensure that any food brought into school (for morning break, parties, birthday cakes etc.) is free from nuts. Your consideration in this matter is greatly appreciated.
Early morning care
May I remind you about the arrangements for early morning care. Mrs Narjot Gill and Mrs Emma Tillson, who are fully qualified nursery assistants from our very own Nursery, will supervise the boys in the playroom between 8.00 and 8.30 am. Each session costs £1 and is charged to parents retrospectively, each half term.
The school day starts at 8.30 am and boys should not enter their classrooms until this time, unless they have a coaching lesson. Please make an appointment to see form teachers, if you wish to speak to them before 8.30 am, as this is vital time for staff meetings and lesson preparation.
Clubs
Clubs will start on Monday, 21st September. Please note that there will be no clubs on Thursday, 26th November due to Parents’ Evening.
Long Weekend
You will see from the dates list that we have introduced a long weekend in November, from Friday 20th to Monday 23rd inclusive. In the Parental Questionnaires, last term, we put forward the idea of a two week half term to allow the boys time to recharge their batteries before what is always a long and tiring second half. The response to this was fairly evenly balanced so we have opted for a slightly shorter option but one which has far less impact on the number of school days missed. I have no doubt that the boys will benefit from this and we will see a livelier group going through to the end of term. This also means that we will lengthen the final day of term to end at 3.30 pm.
Golden Time
In the Pre-Prep we have decided to reward good behaviour with Golden Time. We believe that this is a chance to recognise those children who are always well behaved and to reward them with activities they consider to be ‘Golden.’ At the beginning of each week, every child is given 30 minutes of Golden Time and the aim is to hold onto as many minutes as possible by behaving beautifully. All classes have Golden Time on a Friday afternoon and boys can choose from a range of different activities such as board games and toys.
If you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs P T M Cawthorne
