Dear parents and carers,
We hope you all had a restful half-term break.
It was such a shame that the weather was a bit wet and windy, but maybe some of you took the opportunity to go outside in your macs and wellies to splash in the puddles! Doing little activities like that are fun and does wonders for your wellbeing.
The weather this week has been much more pleasant, with blue skies, sunshine, and colourful autumn leaves. This week brought new lockdown rules, and we have had updates from the Department for Education around this.
Our risk assessments remain in place—please see the Covid-19 page on our website. Sports clubs were due to start this half term, but unfortunately these will have to be postponed until restrictions are lifted. However, peripatetic music lessons can go ahead, so if you have previously had lessons, we will be in touch about these.
Next Wednesday is Remembrance Day. As a school we usually go over to the church to commemorate with the Royal British Legion, but, due to restrictions, this unfortunately can’t take place. Instead, we are holding our own bubble commemorations in school. Each class is making a poppy display, and they will learn about the origins of Remembrance Day. We usually sell wristbands, bag tags etc… but, in our drive to reduce single-use plastic, we are asking everyone to wear red, black and green and bring in a donation for the Royal British Legion.
This is also an opportune time to remember our loved ones who we may not have been able to see due to Covid restrictions. How can you keep in touch? An email, phone call, video call (or even a letter—we all like receiving letters in the post that aren’t bills…!) makes all the difference.
Children in Need takes place on Friday 13th November, and again, our usual fund-raising activities (such as holding a cake sale) are unable to go ahead; instead, children and staff are asked to wear a silly hat or wig, or style their hair in a silly way, and bring in a donation for this very worthy cause. Our Personal, Social, Health and Relationships Education this half term is ‘Celebrating Differences’, and Odd Sock Day takes place nationally on Monday 16th November as a way of celebrating what makes us all unique. All you need to do is wear odd socks (along with your usual school uniform)!
It’s great to see lots of children using Doodle Maths. Last week Lambert Class had a fantastic week of Doodling and gained the most points, and this week Macarthur class are the top Doodling class! Who will it be next week?
As mentioned in the Buzz before the half-term break, we say goodbye to John Stansbie, our caretaker, who is retiring. We wish him all the very best—we will miss him! We say a huge Brighstone hello to Keith Williams, our new caretaker, who has already been working hard! You may have noticed the busy building work taking place in our school grounds—both John and Keith have been hard at work creating a new PE shed and a new fenced-off outside play area for Reception class. It’s exciting to see the progress of these projects! Thank you to you both.
I wish everyone an enjoyable weekend, and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.
Mrs Lennon and the Brighstone Team.