Welcome back to everyone and a special welcome to our new families who are joining us this year.  I’d like to welcome some new members of staff this term too:

Miss Lampitt – Year 6 teacher

Mrs Stinson – Year 5 teacher

Miss Perks – Year 5 teacher

Mr Spragg – Year 4 teacher

Mrs Garraway – Reception teacher.

We are delighted to have them join the Apley team.

We have also appointed Mrs Caroline Pollock as our new senior administrator.  Some of you may already know Caroline as a parent and school Governor and we are delighted to have her join the Apley staff team.  She will be starting with us on 18^th September.

We also have two new members of our Leadership team this year.  Mrs Garraway, is the phase leader for Early Years and Key Stage 1.  Miss Whitehouse (Y6 teacher) is taking on a secondment to be our KS2 phase leader this year.  I am delighted to have them as part of our senior leadership team alongside myself, Mrs Thorpe (Deputy Headteacher) and Mrs Williams (Assistant Headteacher).  Please do contact any of us if you have any concerns.

We do have an open door policy and our class teachers will be available to talk to at the end of every day, except a Wednesday, which is our staff meeting day.  In the mornings, they wont be able to have meetings when they collect the children/open the door at the start of the day, but they can take quick messages.  Members of the leadership team and Mrs Robinson will also be available on the main playground at the start/end of the day.  If you wish to make an appointment with Mrs Thorpe as SENCO, please contact the office through the A2190 email address.

Our website has a wealth of information on it and if you want to find out more about what your children are learning this year then please see the curriculum page.

From the home page, click the green Discover our school tab and then learning.  You can look at different subject areas and see the curriculum topics for each year group by clicking on curriculum overviews.

You will also find out information specific to your child’s year group on the class pages.  From the home page, click the blue classrooms tab.

In other exciting news, I am sure you will join us in saying congratulations to Mrs Rowe and her husband on the safe arrival of a baby boy over the summer.  Both are doing very well.

Wishing you all a good weekend.

Mrs E Smith

As we reach the end of another busy year, I’d like to thank everyone for their continued support and joint working to ensure our children are thriving and successful.  Thank you to the whole staff team, who always work incredibly hard and often go above and beyond to ensure children get a wide range of opportunities, beyond the national curriculum. Thank you to our families and community who have contributed and supported school life so well this year.  We love to welcome you into school and look forward to continuing these opportunities next year. It has been so lovely to read all the positive feedback from the children’s reports.

Some of my highlights this year include, all the fantastic productions: KS1 Christmas show, KS2 outstandingly Apley show and the Year 6 leavers show, Young Voices and Charltonbury that showcase some of the many talents our children have, the F1 in schools DT challenge – what an impressive achievement for our Year 5 children and  Bikeability and Pedestrian Training  where our children are learning important life skills.  These all demonstrate the wider curriculum opportunities available over the course of the year. We’ve also participated in a huge range of sporting competitions and events this year, more children than ever before have engaged in these activities which is absolutely brilliant.  This year, we have had opportunity to develop our pupil voice activities further and alongside the work of the school council and safeguarding squad,  our new rules and new House Mascots are as a result of our children’s ideas and they have had a very big impact in school.

Another highlight has been our Forest School. It’s great to have this facility on site now, which means more children can access this opportunity and I’m looking forward to seeing this develop further next year. I also have to mention Bonnie, our school mentor dog.  Again, the impact she has had in school has been huge. Our school community love her and seeing her react so positively when she sees the children is fantastic.  We really do have a lot to celebrate as we reach the summer holidays.

This week, we had our final visit from the Art of Brilliance team.  They spent some time in school, looking at our curriculum, talking to staff and children, and observing a range of activities.  They were very impressed how we had embedded the learning from the Outstandingly Happy workshops that Year 3,4 and 5 completed in September.  I look forward to getting their final report and I will share this with you in September.

I wish our Year 6 children goodbye and good luck as they leave us to begin a new exciting chapter in Year 7, I am sure they will take all the opportunities their new schools can provide for them.  They are all ready for this, they have been fantastic role models this year and we will miss them.  We also say goodbye today to Mrs T Smith, Miss Preston, Miss Gilbert, Mrs Campbell Curtis and also Mrs Robinson and Mrs Ducommun from the lunchtime team. Wishing them all the very best in their new roles.

Well done to everyone who has ended the term with a headteacher’s award:

Amelia B, Riley W, Carla N, Jeevan T, Amelie F, William C-B, Riley W, Amelia S, Phoebe P, Louie P

Wishing you all a lovely summer break.

Mrs E Smith