Dear Parents and Carers,

What a great week we have had. Our new children in Reception and Nursery have settled in really well. I am so impressed with how well they are doing and I really enjoy seeing their happy faces when I go to visit. They are also doing really well eating their lunches and being out in the playground. I am sure they will be tired today after their first full day. We are so pleased they are all here and we are really enjoying getting to know them.

I have put all the dates for the Meet the Teacher meetings on the calendar on our website. Please view the calendar in grid format as the list format is not very clear to see. We are going to get this changed. Please take a look and put these dates in your diary. It is an opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and find out what they will be learning this year. If you have a KS2 child it will also give you an opportunity to see the newly decorated classrooms. The Year 6 meeting will also include information about applying for secondary school. The admissions process is for children in Year 6 who will start secondary school in September 2024. You need to apply by 31 October 2023.

Next Friday (22^nd September) at 3:30pm we will be hosting our Welcome International Food Event in the playground. I would really appreciate some help with this and some donations of dishes. This is a great opportunity for everyone to meet up after the summer holidays and for new families to meet other members of our school community. Please let me know if you can help or donate food as it would be a great shame to have to cancel our first event. I am really looking forward to it.

The children are loving the new school lunches. It is a pleasure to sit and eat with them. I am seeing a lot of empty plates and hearing some lovely compliments about the food. Today the children had a special lunch for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year and it was delicious.

I hope you got the flyer for our working week in October. We are really looking forward to this.

Thank you for returning the letters of interest in learning a new instrument. The available instrument lessons we have remaining are trumpet, violin, flute, clarinet and saxophone. 

Please email Briony at Brionyblow@bettylayward.org  if you would like to book your child into lessons for the year or would like more information. 

School starts at 8:50am for Key Stage 2 and 8:55 for Reception, Nursery and Key Stage 1. Your child will be marked as late if they arrive after these times. If your child arrives 10 minutes late every day, that adds up to almost an hour of school lost every single week. Please ensure your child is on time.

Have a lovely weekend and I wish all of you celebrating Rosh Hashana a very Happy New Year this weekend,

Jessica

Headteacher