A fresh new start!

Well, September began with what we thought would be a fresh new start but swiftly descended into more COVID disruption as we returned to greater restrictions once again due to an outbreak at school. Thankfully I think we are over the worst, certainly for now - and we haven't had any positive cases for over ten days which we are delighted about. We are still encouraging everyone to be cautious and keep testing regularly to keep COVID out of our school but we are grateful to see life returning again to some normality. There is nothing like a celebration face to face Friday assembly, even if at the moment we are still in key stages. It is the upbeat positivity, and coming together to celebrate, that we have all missed so much.

So far this year – despite the increased restrictions we have also managed to achieve an awful lot. For instance, we’ve had music clubs starting up with more than ever being offered across our KS2 classes. Children are playing guitar, keyboard and brass at clubs and we have all of Y3 learning to play the recorder and all of Y4 learning to play the guitar.

We’ve had Skip2Bfit workshops. It was great fun to see everyone competing against their own time to improve, as they progressed in their skipping skills. We also planted the blueberry bush that was donated to the school whilst all enjoying the chance to tuck into some of the tasty fruit. Well done to Mrs Hattersely for being the teacher who could skip the most in a minute!

Y6 have also enjoyed 3 days at Shropshire PGL. They abseiled; kayaked; screamed on a giant swing; flew on a zipwire; hit the target in archery and strengthened their team work skills in different challenges. These are a few of the amazing activities they experienced but what a fabulous time they had. Sleeping away from home and spending time with friends was also something they've missed out on over recent years. It was lovely to be able to get back to these experiences.

We all really enjoyed ourselves at the circus skills workshops. We had the circus welcome us back to school on day one and then even our youngest children have taken part, enjoying a performance and joining in with some of the activities and having great fun! It was wonderful to hear so much laughter - especially when the teachers were part of the hoop-la! There was also lots of laughter in our fun and exciting practical science assembly by a visiting scientist. We were astounded with the science but also couldn't believe how much fun we could have with science.

An Internet Legends Assembly from Google helped us in an interesting way to learn more about staying safe online. We enjoyed the interaction with the hosts through the internet. We’ve also encouraged scooting and biking to school as part of national bike to school week - so we are encouraging people to stay safe on the roads, as well as online.

We are thinking of others and are currently welcoming food bank donations as our Harvest collection. In addition we work to help each other. We have restarted our PATHs buddies with Y6 children working with children from Reception, Y1 and Y2 to help them with their personal, social and emotional development. In addition we've worked with a number of agencies to support our children.  We've hosted our PATHs Barnardo's coach to help us with our programme in supporting children with their emotions and mental wellbeing. Further to this we are also working with the ADHD Foundation, Phillip I counselling, Speech and Language (SALT), Language and Social Communication (LASC) and our school nurse. We are commited to ensuring we work together for the best outcomes for all children.

All of this additionality supports our ambitious curriculum offer, which is one we are proud to have developed here at Garswood. We've thought carefully about the sequence of learning and how we are ensuring all children remember their learning. We have also looked for ways to ensure children catch up with their missed learning following the two years of disruption. We know that despite the remote teaching offer we had in place - nothing beats being back in school. We want to make the most of it.

We've started well - I can't believe how much we've done and we're only just out of September. Despite the ongoing challenges we face, we have lots of plans to make this an amazing year. I hope you join with us in embracing the opportunities and looking forward to the future.

Pamela Potter