This week, right across school, there has definitely been a sense of Christmas building!

We have all thoroughly enjoyed sharing in the magical performances of both Key Stage 1 and our Early Years Reception and Nursery classes. It has been such a privilege to be part of both 'Everyone loves a baby' and 'The wriggly nativity'. All of our families who were able to come and see the performances were so proud and impressed with the quality of the performances from our younger children. The older children who enjoyed the performances as our assemblies this week,  were so impressed with the singing, dancing and narrating, which they were able to enjoy and the story of Christmas was celebrated with gusto!

Thank you to all of the staff who have put so much hard work into preparing for these special events and to our amazing children for their wonderful performances.

We would like to remind you that on Tuesday at 6pm we are holding our Key Stage 2 carol concert up at St. Mary's, and we look forward to seeing you all there, children arriving from 5.45pm please.

Our building project is continuing to take shape and this week the team have been busy plastering the walls, meaning that it is now getting closer to the finish line. We believe that the build will be continuing throughout January but should then hopefully be closer to being completed. We will share with you details of an opening for this space and our plans for further development of our play areas after the initial build is finished.

In our school, we are also pleased to welcome student teachers to complete a practice with us and Year 4 are sad today to be saying 'goodbye for now' to Mrs Egan-Savage, who has been with them for her SE1 placement. The good news for Year 4 is that we are hoping to welcome her back in the summer term! After Christmas, we are welcoming at least 3 new student teachers across our school, which will be very exciting and rewarding for us all.

In the midst of all of our celebrations and practices, we have still made sure to celebrate individual achievements this week with our Headteacher's stickers. This week we have heard about children who have been kind to others, who have achieved so much through being part of one of our performances, for showing great progress with their reading and writing and for reflecting our school rules of 'ready, respectful, safe'. A huge 'congratulations' to you all and well done on your achievements this week.

Just a couple of reminders before we finish our blog for this week:

* After school today it is the Christmas Bingo as organised by our amazing 'Friends' group. Doors open at 5.45pm and 'eyes down' at 6pm. There are some fantastic prizes to be won, and we would love to see as many as possible there.

* For easy access to the school calendar and weekly blog on our website, please do scan the qr codes displayed around school in the entrance areas. We have been in touch with our website providers and the school calendar should be able to be synchronised with your own if you wish through the 'subscribe' button at the top of the calendar.

* Next week is a busy one across school, including a carol concert, party day and Christmas lunch day, so here are some key pieces of information.

Tuesday 16th December - KS2 carol concert at St. Mary's. The concert starts at 6pm and KS2 children should start to arrive from 5.45pm, no earlier please. All in school uniform apart from Y3, who have their own arrangements.

All of the money raised for all of our performances, including the carol concert, will be put together so that we can sponsor some new guide dog puppies! These have been so popular with the children and as our puppies Jack and Custard, grow and continue along their training journey, we thought it would be great to sponsor and follow some new puppies. Thank you to everyone who has been able to support this amazing charity.

Wednesday 17th December is our Christmas lunch day when everyone can wear a winter/Christmas jumper with their uniform. Year 6 are running their Christmas stalls which are 10p a go and so do please bring some change to spend if you are able to. This year they are raising money for 'Save the children'.

Thursday 18th December is our class party day when everyone can come dressed for a party and be ready to join in with games and activities with their class during the day!

Friday 19th December is our last day of the term where we will celebrate achievements for this half-term with our certificates.

Lastly, we would like to wish everyone a great weekend, and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday for what promises to be an amazing week together.