Spring - a time for new beginnings

Dear Parent/Carer,

As we look forward to the start of a new term, we recognise the excitment this can bring. We also look back as we are two thirds through the school year. It has been exeptionally busy and the school newsletter gives you some insight into the activities that have been taking place this half term. The full newsletter, with some fantastic stories and lovely images, can be accessed from the Parents tab at the top of this page. Go down the menu and click on newletters. I'd encourage everyone to read it.

Thank you to everyone who came along earlier this term to our parent's evening. We were so pleased to have so many people attend to hear about their child's progress and support us in helping them to improve even further. We appreciate the many kind comments and positive statements made for our school website and comments made for the children's work books.

We've also been lucky to be able to offer an 'Incredible Years' course for parents which ended earlier this week. We will be providing a further opportunity to take part in this training - we will send more information out soon. In addition, we held our SEND coffee afternoon for parents. Hosted by Mrs Myatt, our SENCO, this time the focus was on neurological processing including Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

We are extremely proud of the curriculum we have at Garswood and how this provides a diverse range of experiences and prepares children for life in modern Britain. Though we have a comprehensive English and PSHE curriculum we are always looking to improve and build on this. We are acquiring some additional picture books as we build a 'No Outsiders' books spine to accompany our curriculum. These are further stories we will share with our children to ensure they have a deep understanding of how we are all different but all welcome. These will help the children to learn more about prejudice and discrimination and how to challenge this and show acceptance. We hope to engage your help with this - again, in the spirit of reducing waste, I will create a book list and if you have any books on the list that you no longer need, we will greatly appreciate the donations. This will reduce the amount we will need to purchase. Watch this space and I'll get this out as soon as possible. If anyone reading this would like to be involved in providing books or talking to us about this aspect of our curriculum then please do get in touch [email protected] 

Thank you to our families for working with us to help us to reach our attendance target. The current whole school attendance 96.1% This is excellent. We have the challenging target of 97% and continue to ask for your support to help us achieve this. We will be alerting parents to their own child's attendance via a text in the coming days. We find sharing this information is helpful to parents and thank you in advance for your continued support. Together, we can ensure the children get the best possible start by accessing as much of the educational offer as possible.

We are proud to have awarded some special ambassador roles in our final assembly of term. Congratulations to our new ambassadors who are excellent role models of our core values. As the children strive to be kind, be ambitious and be respectful - our ambassadors will champion their efforts and act as role models to others. 

Don't forget to look through this term's newsletter and, though we could never hope to capture everything that goes on in school, hopefully it gives you a taste of life here at Garswood. We also share a great deal on our Twitter feed @garswoodprimary and @garswoodnursery Take a look to gain more of an insight into our school.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school, healthy and happy, on 17th April 2023.

Kind regards,

Pamela Potter

Head Teacher