Swavesey Primary School Parent Portal - Newsletter 77 (20.10.2023)

Updates from Mrs Norden

Half term is upon us and has finished with Storm Babet buffeting us today, causing all playtimes to be indoors - so your children are likely to have come home with lots of stored energy.

My update today shares some sad news, thank-yous and updates.

After almost 20 years teaching at Swavesey Primary School, and more than 30 years teaching, we are sadly saying goodbye to Mrs Spevack, who is retiring from teaching due to ill health. Having taught in Reception and KS1 (Year 1/ 2) throughout her time with the school, Mrs Spevack has passionately supported so many children in the formative years of their educational journey.

Mrs Spevack’s love of literature, and her knowledge of how children learn to read, has inspired children as readers and writers, bringing them great enjoyment through the books she read to, and with, them. In addition, Mrs Spevack developed various curriculum projects including improving the opportunities and equipment for cooking within our DT provision.

As a school staff we will miss Mrs Spevack’s wonderful ideas and working with her very much, and I know that so many of our children, and their families, are grateful for the positive impact she has had on their learning journey. I am sure you will join me in sending Mrs Spevack our best wishes for a return to better health.

We are also saying goodbye to Mrs Oakes, who has been a midday supervisor with the school for 24 years. We suspect she has walked miles across the playground and field in that time! We thank Mrs Oakes for all she has done in supporting our children's play and wish her well for the future.

Over the last few weeks, we have had deliveries of items from our Amazon wish list and a few parcels of items such as packs of glue sticks not on the list (but gratefully received) from mystery donors. We are very grateful to you all for your support and if you are a mystery donor we would love to know who you are.

Our netballers had great success this week with three teams coming first in the three groups at the SCSSP local tournament. You can read all about their sporting adventures in the article below. Well done to you all.

Our governing body now has a parent governor vacancy. Please click here for the information letter, which gives details about the role and the nomination and voting processes. Governors are really important to the school and support us in ensuring we provide the best possible education for our children. It is really important that our parent body are represented within the governing body, so please do read and consider if you can support us in this way.

As you will be aware, the government has made changes to attendance expectations and guidance for schools. This has led to changes in the way the Local Authority and schools will work. Our new Attendance policy can be found here and there will be a permeant link to this in every newsletter towards the bottom. It is vitally important that you read this to understand the changes, especially the legal implications and the processes we will now follow.

The week after half term will see both Halloween and Guy Fawkes night celebrated. We often find that children are very tired for a few days after Halloween 'trick or treating' and so hope you will support them, and us, in not making their evening too late or too sugar-filled as it willonly be Tuesday.

Our PTA Fireworks event will begin at 5.30pm on Friday 3rd - you can find more details in the poster below. We will also be opening classrooms for parents and carers to share in their children's work with them before the fireworks. The front gate will be opened at 4.15pm, and we ask you to enter (and leave) school through the front door to access the classrooms. We will be closing the classrooms at 5.15pm to allow staff to get ready to help with the PTA event. Families will then be able to go round to the rear playground from 5.30pm to join in the fun.

Hopefully, Storm Babet will dissipate very soon and your half term adventures can happen in drier conditions. We hope you manage a good rest during the week and look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 30th October.

_{Anna-Claire Norden}

_Headteacher