Our Theme Day yesterday was lovely and the children looked great in their festive jumpers! The day was definitely a little different this year and we missed not having you all in to help (and eat lunch!) but the children really enjoyed it and there was a lovely festive atmosphere around the school.

Thank you for your generous donations to FOYS. Due to quarantining the money, we are unable to give an exact total but will let you know as soon as we have one. The FOYS teams have been amazing this year, as always, raising an amazing amount for the school in very restrictive circumstances. Thank you to them for their incredible organisation and creativity and to you for your support.

You may have seen in the press over the last few days that the Department for Education have given schools the option to close a day earlier for Christmas. Contrary to reports in the media, this is not an additional day and we would need to lose a future training day. As such, I can confirm that we will not be doing this. I feel that this is incredibly short notice for many families, especially those who work, and we really value our training days as opportunities for professional development. I do not want to loose one of these days in the future. We will be open on Friday December 18^th . The return date for children will be Tuesday January 5^th. (We will have a staff training day as planned on Monday January 4^th.)

I get fewer opportunities to chat to you all in person nowadays with staggered drops offs and no social events in school. Hopefully I will see many of you over the next few days but if I don’t get the chance, I hope you all have a very happy and healthy Christmas break.

I am writing today with a few updates about our plans for Christmas which makes a very pleasant change from updates about Coronavirus!

Despite the current limitations, we want our festive activities to be as exciting and as enjoyable as possible for the children. Obviously, our traditional Theme Day cannot take place as usual this year; we cannot invite lots of parents in and we cannot allow the children to move freely around the school outside their bubbles. We are, however, still going to have a Theme Day of sorts on Wednesday December 9^th with each class completing Christmas themed activities and crafts, within their own bubble.

As FOYs have also had to curtail some of their usual fund raising activities (film night etc.), we thought it would be a good idea to also ask children to wear Christmas themed Mufti that day, in return for a small donation to FOYS. It could be a Christmas jumper or any items of festive clothing…just bear in mind we will be doing craft activities so ‘best’ clothes may not be a good idea!

As part of the Christmas activities on that day, we will be asking the children to make Christmas cards to send to the older members of the village, particularly if they are needing to isolate. This does not need to be restricted to Yardley Hastings. If you know of any elderly people or care home residents who would appreciate a handmade card from the school, please let us know.

On the subject of Christmas cards, we have had a few inquiries as to whether it will be possible for the children to send them to each other this year. Writing cards is something the children really enjoy doing so we want it to continue but will need to quarantine the cards for 48 hours before distributing them! Children will still be able to post cards into the Post Boxes around the school on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. (Last posting will be Wednesday 16^th December!)  With the help of Class 4, we will then ensure that the cards are distributed 2 days later.

The last day of term will be Friday 18^th December and we will ensure that is a fun, festive day for the children despite not being be to have our usual Christmas performance around the tree. Class One and Class Two will, however, be performing nativities which we will film and send to the relevant parents. More details of this will follow.

School Christmas lunch will still take place in the same way on Thursday December 17th, just in 2 sittings. There will even be a special, socially distanced visitor on the last day…shhh!

On the last day, we will operate with the usual timings but are asking that After School Club finishes at 4.30pm. If you have already booked for that time, please can you amend you booking. Subject to staff availability, all other sessions up to the end of term remain unchanged.

During Parents Evening this term, we would usually hand out your data sheets (phone numbers etc.). As the meetings were on Zoom this time, that was not as easy. If you are aware of any changes or would like to see the details we hold on the form, please let us know.

We will send out reminders of the Christmas dates nearer the time. In the meantime, come back to me if you have any comments or questions about any of the above or, indeed, if you have any further festive suggestions!

Take care,

Louise