Headmaster's Welcome
Headmaster's News - 17th April 2015
Apr 17, 2015
Dear Parents
Welcome back to the Summer Term! I hope you all had a good Easter break and enjoyed some quality time with the family. The children look refreshed and are excited about the term ahead. They are full of the stories of what they have been up to in the holidays!
I would like to welcome two new Nursery staff to the school, Mrs Hayhurst, who started at the end of last term and Miss Shallcross who started during the holidays.
The school continues to grow with five new children starting this term, Muhammad and Zainab started in Year 1, Fatima in Year 3 and Faheema and Oliver in Year 4. Toby and Sofia came into Nursery and Hugo has joined us in Pre-School. I know you will all join with me in offering a very warm welcome to these children and their families.
New Biannual Newsletter
I hope you all enjoyed our colourful biannual newsletter which was sent home on Wednesday. It is designed to give you a flavour of life at Highfield, including some of the children’s activities and achievements from last term. It was very difficult to select what should be published in the newsletter with so much going on and so much to celebrate. In future, this will be the second newsletter of the year with the first being published just after Christmas with news from the Autumn Term. Thank you to Miss Smith for producing the newsletter.
Holiday Club
Holiday Club was enjoyed by many of our children during the Easter break and there are lots of photographs on twitter and on our facebook pages of all the amazing Easter crafts and fun activities on offer. They also had a very enjoyable trip to the Wild Boar Park.
Rivington Photographs
Photographs from Year 4’s orienteering adventure in the final week of term have been uploaded to our social media pages during the holiday. Keep in touch with our twitter and facebook pages as we do update them weekly and it does give you a chance to see what your children have been up to.
A Letter to the Trenches
Rehearsals are well underway for the performance by Years 3 and 5 of ‘A Letter to the Trenches’. The songs are ringing out from the music room and I am sure many of you are probably also now word perfect due to lots of singing and line learning during the Easter holiday! The acting is being perfected in the Performing Arts Studio and children will be fitted with their costumes next week.
We have also had an incredible response to our request for poppies with some wonderful designs and personal messages of remembrance. Mrs Duke was overwhelmed by the response and sends a very big thank you to you all for your thoughtfulness, hard work and creativity.
All poppies will be on display on the evening as well as a variety of World War 1 memorabilia. The play commemorates the 100th anniversary of the First World War and will take place, almost to the day, on the 100th anniversary of when the play was set. The play will take place at 6pm on the evening of Thursday 30th April so please have the date pencilled in your diary. We will announce when tickets are available from the Office (early next week). It may be advisable to stock up on Kleenex as I watched the closing scene yesterday, and walked away with a sizeable lump in my throat.
HPPTA Film Night
The Lego Movie is showing after school on a big screen in the sports hall next Friday, 24th April, promptly starting at 5.30pm. Tickets for the event, to cover popcorn and a drink for children, can now be bought from the School Office for £5 per child. Please stay with your child or ask a parent friend to supervise as the PTA are unable to supervise all children during the event. Please support this event to raise money for extra equipment for the up and coming Astroturf project. If you can spare some time to help during the evening please let one of the PTA team know asap.
Also, Years 3 and 5 are performing ‘A Letter to the Trenches’ at school on Thursday 30th April. We are really struggling for helpers to organise and serve refreshments and tuck in the dining room on the evening. Most of our usual PTA helpers have children in the show so we are asking parents, especially those who have infant children, to offer help on the night. Going forward, we would like infant parents to help at junior events and junior parents to help at infant events. This way as a school PTA community we are helping all parents enjoy the special events their children work so hard for. Many thanks, Highfield Priory PTA
Merit Awards
RB: Diya RF: Emily 1D: Muhammad and Zainab 2M: Joshua A 2W: Isabelle
3H: Zahara 3M: Charlotte 4D: Olivia D 4M: Holly 5H: William 6H: Alex
Thought for the Week
Pleasure in the task puts perfection in the work. Aristotle
Yours sincerely
J M Duke
Headmaster
