Welcome back! What an energetic and positive start to the term. Although it is the summer term, I have seen slightly more woolly hats, gloves and earmuffs coming into school than expected, but this has not dampened the enthusiasm and bright start to the final term of our school year. I am beginning to worry that the chosen theme and learner power for each week are now beginning to affect the weather – as we focused on the need for resilience this week, I hadn’t intended that surviving the cold would be one of the examples used, but it is all character building!
Our focus around resilience centered on the herculean effort of those people running the London Marathon last weekend and the astonishing story of Russ Cook who took part just days after completing his run across Africa, an astonishing 9,940 miles, 352 days or 19.1 million steps! Superhuman! Of course, for most mortals, the challenges that require resilience are maybe a little less physically demanding but that does not by any means make them easier. For some people, certain lessons, friendships, words, numbers or activities present hurdles that require great strength and character to overcome. For others, simply getting out of bed some days can be the hardest thing in the world. Understanding that we ALL have these moments, they are all real to the individual and that they are all worthy of credit when we stick at them, is the key message. Our children demonstrate resilience in so many ways every single day; we are encouraging them to never undervalue their efforts and to know that there will always be people around them to help and support them – never be afraid to ask for help!
We looked ahead to an exciting term with lots going on: residential trips, visits, concerts, shows, fixtures, sports days, STEM Showcase, our art exhibition and end of year celebrations to name just a few. We were also very happy to share with the children the exciting developments awaiting our library in the next few weeks. Thanks to the generous fundraising of our amazing BPSA, our library is getting a full makeover, including already the introduction of our outdoor garden library, which I know will be very popular once the warm weather decides to make an appearance! We will keep you posted with details of the grand opening.
On the staffing front we send our best wishes to Andrea Clarke who begins her maternity leave this term and wish Andrea and Guiseppi the very best for the safe arrival of their first child. We welcome Damien Elsey to our site team who has already made a huge impact as part of this amazing team. Please do say hello when you see him around school.
Finally, we wish everyone attending the BPSA Ball tonight a wonderful evening – thank you to the organising team and to everyone for their support.
Have a great weekend.
