Dear Parents / Carers,

 

It has been a very difficult week for our community and I hope this email finds you all in a better place than we were in during the previous weekend.  Our school site has been cleared and we are grateful that we have been able to be open from Wednesday, December 1st.  Thank you for your ongoing support.

 

Positive Covid Cases

During this week we have had a fall in the number of confirmed positive cases at our school.  The number of confirmed positive cases is now at 4% of the school population.  We will still continue with the additional mitigations we have put in place in November, 2021.  Our school remains open and your child should continue to attend as normal if they remain well. NHS Test & Trace will contact individuals who have been identified as a close contact.

 

Parent Evenings

It was lovely for our staff to be able to speak to Parents & Carers on Thursday, December 2nd.  We are looking forward to our next parents evening on Tuesday, December 7th.

P&Q Award Winner

This week’s P&Q award winner is Alex in Yr 7.  Well done!

November Reading Challenge

We are continuing with our November Reading Challenge and EXTENDING it!  Due to some children currently being absent from school we wanted every child to have a chance to have the books they are reading and have read this month to be accurately recorded therefore we are going to extend the reading challenge to December 10th.  Remember the challenge is to read three books – each by a different author.

I am continuing with my reading and this week I read:

The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr

As a child I loved books set in World War Two that wrote about Evacuees.  The choosing scene on a train station platform in Nina Bawden’s “Carrie’s War” is seared into my memory.  Equally I adored “Goodnight Mr Tom” – a book that we teach in Year 6 English.  Therefore books that return to such a well trodden area have much to live upto, however I can strongly recommend Lesley Parr’s “The Valley of Lost Secrets”, a book about World War evacuees who move from London to Llanbryn, Wales.

Jimmy and Ronnie – his younger brother – struggle to adapt to live in Wales but their arrival in this rural community disturb and uncover dark secrets hidden for many years…

I thought this book was superb and would recommend it to all readers.  It is Lesley Parr’s first novel and I am looking forward to her second – “When The War Came Home” – which is released in January, 2022.

Incidentally if anyone is looking for books to give for Christmas presents and the person you are buying for is a football fan I would also recommend “Das Reboot – How German Football Reinvented Itself” by Raphael Honingstein and “Don Revie – The Biography” by Christopher Evans – two books I very recently enjoyed by candle light whilst shivering despite wearing all the clothes I possess…

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher