Principal's Update 13th January 2023

Dear parents,

We are delighted that our return to school has been so smooth, and classrooms are buzzing with exciting activities. We have our first primary class assemblies this morning, the secondary school is preparing for the school production in February and CCAs and the sports programme will return after the Chinese New Year break.

Nucleic Acid/ Antigen Testing

We are no longer required to conduct any testing in school nor to request antigen test results to be uploaded. We do, however, urge you to have a supply of antigen tests at home and recommend that you carry out two tests a week if your child has not already had the virus. At the first signs of any symptoms, carry out a test and, most importantly, do not send your child to school. Alert us if your child is ill with these symptoms - we are still obliged to monitor closely for any potential risk of outbreaks. We may need to collect the results of antigen tests after the New Year break because of the likelihood of travel, and at any point if we are worried about trends in illness or absence.

Visitors

We are looking forward to welcoming visitors and parents back onto the campus without the need for a negative test result. This will be by appointment and, as in all schools, visitors or parents should be registered on site and should be accompanied by a staff member.

Parking/ drop-off safety

As we get busy again, please be mindful of safety if you are dropping off children in the car park. The yellow boxes painted on the floor directly at the gate indicate a space in which you should not stop, park or drop-off. Please escort your children to a safe spot and drive slowly and carefully in this area. With thank you for helping us to keep everyone safe and to prevent any accident or injury.

Parent Satisfaction Survey

Our parent satisfaction survey will be released shortly, and we hope every family will respond. Last year there was a very positive response around our admissions process, the quality of the educational provision, student development, progress and outcomes as well as the care shown by our teachers. You saw our school as a happy, warm and safe environment. You asked us to be even better in providing a quality VSE experience, more CCAs and trips. You also asked for more communication from the school and asked us to focus on challenge and stretch for your children. In response, we create a school improvement plan with clear aims for addressing all areas mentioned. This academic year has been declared the 'Year of Challenge' and we have been aiming to make it clearer to the students and to you as parents how we motivate and challenge students every day. The restrictions we have been working under have once again affected CCA and trips, but you will be delighted to know that we are already planning for trips in May and June which will be residential for our older students. We will constantly remind you to fill out the survey until you have done so! Your feedback is very important to us and everyone's opinions matter. Let us know how we are doing and how we can serve you better.

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to many events and celebrations next week as we move towards the Chinese New Year.

Wishing you all a very happy Spring Festival!

Kind regards,

Jayne Needham
Principal