Headteacher Message

Hello all,

A very short note from me due to an impending Year 5 trip to Kew Gardens.  I am going to hand over to my extremely able colleague Paul Gilbert to write the bulk of the newsletter.  Before I do that, I would like to apologise to you all as reports will not be going out until Monday. It is only the Headteacher's comments that are missing from some. The week has been so busy I just have not been able to get to them all.  They will be emailed on Monday.  Have a great weekend.   

As Mr Porter mentions in his comment, it has been another really busy week in school! For me, it was an absolute pleasure to be able to attend the Year 6 residential at Thames Young Mariners. The sun shone for some of the trip (just not the bit I was there for!). However, the Year 6 children acquitted themselves brilliantly. They really were fantastic representatives of the school and I know from talking to many of them and you as parents afterwards that they had a fantastic time - do take a look at the school’s Twitter feed for some amazing photos from the trip. Not content with taking the children on a 3 day residential, today Mr Fitzgerald has them rowing on the Thames with one lucky group rowing a vessel named ‘The Jubilant’ - a replica of the Glorian which was used by the Queen during the Golden Jubilee.

To remain with Year 6 briefly if I may, their time at Darell is coming to a close. However, having seen them participate in a number of end of term activities already and with more still to come (production, leavers assembly!) I wanted to congratulate them on how well they have navigated such a challenging final year at Darell. They are a credit to the school and to you as parents. I also wanted to take a moment to thank the staff in Year 6 for really going that extra mile over the last few weeks - my thanks to Mr Fitzgerald, Mrs Tricker and Miss Collins for all that they have done for the children.

Looking ahead, we have one week remaining and it will be a busy week with the children having the chance to meet their new teachers, live poetry performances via Google Meet in school, reports going home and the aforementioned productions and assemblies. We are really looking forward to our last week together and want to ensure that we have a happy and successful end to the term.

With that in mind (alert: COVID part of the newsletter!), we are seeing a significant spike in local cases and you may be aware that a number of local schools have had to close bubbles, classes or in one case shut entirely. From my own experience, my son’s Nursery class had to close on Thursday meaning that he will not be in for the end of term. We have also seen a number of staff members at school having to isolate due to ‘pings’ from the NHS app. I think that what I am trying to say here is we need to continue to play our part to keep each other safe and ensure that the children can have the best end of term they can. 

The weather looks set to be absolutely beautiful this weekend so please do enjoy the sunshine safely with your families!

Take care,

Paul Gilbert