It was so lovely to welcome you all back on Wednesday! On Monday and Tuesday the staff received Safeguarding and Fire Prevention Training as well as attending subject and section meeting which were very productive. It was exciting to hear the teachers discussing their ideas and proposals for new initiatives and schemes to be implemented this year. What a pleasure it is to be working with such dynamic and dedicated teachers.
The staff have spent a great deal of time preparing for the return of the children and after much sticking, backing and labelling it is great to finally get the term underway. On Wednesday, after an hour of settling in, the whole school joined together for our first assembly, where we welcomed many new girls and a number of new staff. It transpires that our new staff have led exciting lives! The girls had great fun trying to work out which new member of staff had a brush with death when finding a bear outside her tent when camping (Mrs McCabe-Arnold our new Deputy Head), who has been chased by an elephant (Mrs Duggan our new Head of English), who had featured in a Hollywood film (Mrs Allen who teaches Science), who played Hockey for England (Miss Wilson, one of our gap students), who can count to 100 in Russian (Miss Reeve our other gap student) and who plays the saxophone (Mrs Staffurth our new finance administrator). Mrs Jenni Barrowman our new Art & D.T. assistant had made hats for celebrities that have featured in some iconic pop music videos! As I have visited the classrooms, it has been wonderful to see the children adapting to the new routines and responsibilities of the new school year. I hope your children have come home with tales of exciting lessons and topics. Certainly the children I have seen who have had their Forest School and Outdoor Woodland Learning Sessions (OWLS) have been bursting to demonstrate what they have made and learnt.
