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Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
We will be holding our Harvest service next Friday (7th October) at 9am at Blessed Mary Church. Please can you drop off at the church at the normal time – staff will be there to receive your children. If you would like to you are welcome to stay and watch. After the service we will walk the children back to school. Buddies will lead Year Rs by the hand and everyone walks slowly in a long line, stopping whenever any cars pass. We invite children to bring a food gift, if they would like, to ‘offer’ in church. In the past we have given the collected resources to Winchester Churches Nightshelter but their collection patterns have changed this year so our food gifts will stay at the church to go into local food banks. Please no fresh produce as this will not keep over the weekend. If you would like to continue to support the amazing work Winchester Nightshelter do to help homeless people locally, follow this link to their just giving page where any donations will be welcome: https://wcns.org.uk/ways-you-can-give/donate-money-3/
It’s been a reflective week, following the events from Monday. On Tuesday when children returned, they were given time to put some thoughts into words. Many children wrote prayers whilst others wrote letters or poems to express in words their thoughts. Younger children used drawings to try to record their feelings. These are all being compiled into a special log book that will be added to our ‘archives’ for future children to look back on – perhaps the children of those here today!
Welcome to our new families; those who have recently joined our school but also those Year R parents whose children properly started this week. It has been lovely seeing their happy, enthusiastic faces as they come in. Their buddies have done a fabulous job – parents should feel very proud in how seriously they have undertaken this responsibility. For the benefit of our new families, and a good reminder to everyone else, this Friday Newsletter is the key means we communicate with parents. Put simply, if you read the newsletter, you cannot miss anything – there is no such thing as ‘I didn’t know that was happening’ at Upham! Diary dates are updated on the side and more critical or urgent information is flagged up in burgundy boxes below. In the bottom left is a list of communications sent this week so that you can work out if you’ve missed something. I also send a Newsletter every Friday so if you haven’t received one, you will miss something – just ask the office if you need a copy.
It’s been a week of sunshine one minute and torrential rain the next. Lots of playtimes have been cut short or been ‘wet plays’ but as you can see from the picture on this week's newsletter, also time to be active with friends outside. Everyone seems to have adjusted back to school well and Mrs Mason has been helping Year 1s settle into their new class by helping out the Class 2 team first thing in the morning.
Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had an enjoyable break and enjoyed the warm sunshine. Children have been busy sharing their news with each other and with us today and have really enjoyed seeing each other again. There is only one real change to mention, which concerns the challenge trail. Since Autumn 2021, we have been exploring how to best repair it as it was showing signs of age with many of the vertical supports starting to rot at ground level. We have had local authority surveyors inspect and contractors advise on the best way forward. Despite everyone’s efforts, it was decided in very late July that the plan to replace uprights in stages simply isn’t possible and therefore the structure needs to stop being used and removed. I explained this to the children today, that they cannot use the tower structure, the abseil rope or the ‘cave’ area and these have been boarded up to stop access. All the other areas remain safe to use. The plan will be to remove the structure at some point and we will plan for replacements. I emphasise that this is not due to funding – we had money available but it was simply not physically possible. Sad to lose this much loved resource but nothing lasts for ever and it is well over 15 years old. I will share news about replacement plans as the year progresses.