Dear Parents and Carers,

What a bright start to our week! World Kindness Day created a beautiful ‘yellow’ across our school. The theme for World Kindness Day 2023 is ‘Acts of kindness start a ripple of change that can transform the lives of children, families and entire communities‘. In our Worship we reflected on this theme and that of the Dalai Lama who wrote ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible’. We explored the story of how Jesus publicly displayed kindness to a man called Zacchaeus, by calling him down from the tree to meet with him. Zacchaeus was a tax-collector, a role that was despised in the time of Jesus. He was extremely short, so had climbed the tree in order to see Jesus over the crowds that had gathered. We considered our THINK values, the last of these being kindness. We named ‘kindness’ as our ‘super-power’. In order to create a ‘ripple of change’ we have made a ‘chain of kindness’ which we will display in school.

Moving on from World Kindness Day, we reflected on ‘Anti Bullying Week’ and talked about when kindness doesn’t happen and how this might make us feel. We talked about the difference between falling out with a friend and ‘bullying’. In school. we refer to STOP – Several Times On Purpose – as bullying behaviour and that children must Start Telling Other People. Each child has two GO-2-GROWN UPS that they have identified as their two people at school that they can go to if they have any worries. In our youngest classes this tends to be the classroom adults. As the children move through the school and become familiar with more of our school grown ups then they may choose any two of those adults including Mrs Barwick, Mrs May, Mrs Browning, Mrs Emery-Winter, Mr Floyd, Mr Hughes or myself.

CLASS LIBRARIANS

Thank you to Lorena D, Ethan S, Bonnie F, Tommy S, Isla Mc C, Alex M, Andrea V, Oliver S, Isla W-B, Harry W and Logan A for both their exemplary behaviour and their careful considered selection of books for their class. They visited the Library Van which came to school this week. The new books were excitedly received by their friends.

BOOK SHARE

Our ‘book share’ for this half term will take place next week. This will be on Friday 24th November at the end of the school day in our school hall. Please have a look this weekend to see if you have any books that you would would be able to bring to school to share. Thank you.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY CAMP HERE AT SCHOOL

Following the successful launch of our Fencing Club on a Thursday afternoon with JC Sports, we are excited to announce that they will be running our ‘Holiday Camp’ in the Christmas Holidays. I have attached the information for the booking instructions. There are free spaces for families who are in receipt of free school meals.

YOUNG VOICES SHOWCASE

We are excited to announce that our Young Voices Choir will be performing a ‘Showcase’ of selected songs that they are due to perform at the O2 Arena in January. We warmly invite our school families to attend. This will be on Thursday 7th December at 6pm. Please see the attached flyer for further details.

CHRISTMAS HAMPERS

It has become a tradition to hold a Christmas Hampers Raffle at the end of term. This is a lovely way to raise a little more money for the school. This year we would like to use the funds raised to buy some new books for our class book corners. If you would like to be involved in the organisation of the hampers, you are invited to a meeting on Monday 20th November starting at 9am, after the school drop off. Please come around the school office.

MUSICAL OPPORTUNITIES

We have been contacted by the West Sussex Music Service who have many amazing musical opportunities over the Christmas holiday. West Sussex Music Hub are running a series of music activity sessions for 8 to 16 year-olds in the winter holidays in Bognor Regis, Crawley, Littlehampton, and Worthing, with many places available free or at low prices. The hub have co-designed these courses with young people to give music-making opportunities during the school holidays. Lunch is provided as part of the experience! There are sessions in DJ-ing, Sound Production, Rap and Lyric Writing available from 18 to 22 December. Whether your child has advanced skills or just wants to give something new a try, there is a workshop for everyone. Please follow this link for further details.

https://www.westsussexmusic.co.uk/holidayactivities/

Have a fabulous weekend.

Take care

Kim Huggett