Headteacher Message

Hello all,

I woke up this morning with bright red nail varnish on my right hand.  My wild nights are long gone! My first thought was to ask my children.  It only took a mild interrogation to find out that my 10-year-old daughter, seeing me asleep on the sofa, decided to open a pop-up nail bar and proceeded to colour me red. A mighty fine job she did too! Asleep on the sofa! I am telling you this because this is the time of the school year when everyone begins to feel the pace a bit.  Children are tired , staff are tired and you may well be tired.  It is important that we show understanding of this and work together to ensure the end of term is a celebration of the superb year we have had at Darell.  I always find that the end of the summer term is the busiest time of the school year. There are school productions, transition events, sports days and much more.   In terms of learning we will keep going to the very end.  We want to ensure that your child is ready for their move into their next year group.

On Thursday next week, we are having an external review.  This will involve our school improvement partner and another part-time inspector coming in for the day to look at our provision across the school. I have asked for this. This may seem counterintuitive after mentioning how tired everybody is. However, it is part of our process of school reflection and  improvement. We are due to have an OFSTED inspection shortly and I want to give everybody the opportunity to experience what this process may feel like in a developmental way.  I am really pleased with the direction the school is heading and welcome any feedback that will continue to make the school even better. To support this process, it would be useful if you could add your comments to our OFSTED parent view page.  I must admit, it is a bit of a faff to sign up but your effort will be greatly appreciated.  When OFSTED do decide to visit, they will look at this page to gauge parental views of the school.  It would be good to have as many voices as possible on this page. Please follow this link to register:

https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/login?destination=give-your-views

As you can see, we currently have no feedback, so please take a bit of time out of your day to contribute.

Have a lovely weekend.  The weather looks set fair for the foreseeable so get out there and enjoy all that London and the surroundings has to offer.  Enjoy!

Mr Porter

 Communication Sent home

• Whole School - Club update
• Whole School - Summer Reading Challenge
• Year 6 - PSHE Letter
• Year 6 - Dates for the diary

Cooking Corner

Fruity skewers with yogurt dip

Make these yummy fruit skewers with kids. The recipe guides children through the basics of using a knife to help them build confidence in key kitchen skills

Method

• If your chopping board doesn’t have anti-slip grips, lay a dampened tea towel or sheet of kitchen paper on the work surface, then place the board on top to stop it from slipping.
• Peel the banana – for little fingers, this is easiest to do from the bottom – then, holding the knife securely and with your hand in the claw position, slice the banana. You should get about 12 rounds.
• Remove the stalks from the strawberries. You can do this by cutting them off with the knife or pushing a straw up through the strawberry and into the stalk.
• With your hands in the bridge position, slice the strawberries in half: hold each strawberry between your thumb and fingers, then carefully cut in half from the pointy end to the stalk end.
• Carefully push the banana slices, strawberry halves, grapes and blueberries onto the skewers in any order you like – you can make a pattern or do this randomly.
• For the dip, mix the yoghurt and maple syrup together in a small bowl, then sprinkle over the cinnamon and serve with the fruit skewers.