Headteacher News
Dear Parents and Carers
We have had such a fun week even though all the children have continued to work hard: finishing story writing, completing Maths quizzes, writing up history timelines and more. I have been amazed by the children’s commitment in the last few days, especially with Christmas Parties, Christmas Lunch, Christmas Jumpers and our special visit from Santa! The children have been very happy and excited in the lead up to the Christmas break. Please see our links to our latest news items that have been posted on our website home page this week below in this newsletter.
I would like to thank Millie and the Pabulum team for cooking a wonderful Christmas Lunch for all the children and Mia Jenkins, Chair of the Friends of Tetherdown, for organising crackers for the children to enjoy. We all had such fun this morning.
Earlier this week we appointed a temporary replacement to support our children’s learning in Chinese Mandarin. We have been waiting since September for our new Mandarin teacher to arrive from China, but because of COVID, we have experienced restrictions on VISA applications making travel to the UK very challenging. Teachers at Tetherdown have been following the Chinese Mandarin lessons supplied through the Confucius Institute for children in Years 3-6 (statutory age for Foreign Language provision) and we hope to enhance children’s learning with the intervention of Chinese Mandarin language expert. We look forward to our Mandarin teacher joining us in January when we hope to roll out our provision to younger children, too.
I would like to say a big thank you to all those families who have very kindly donated books. We have received so many that all the bookshelves in all the classrooms have been replenished – and we still have hundreds left over! Staff at school are now identifying ways to support charities supporting children who would love to receive a book. However, for the time being, please kindly donate your well-loved books to other sources and charities whilst we manage this process. Your generosity is very much appreciated.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a lovely Christmas and a restful New Year. Please stay safe and take care of loved ones. If anyone in your family becomes ill with Covid, please check here for the latest government guidelines in managing close contacts and communication. Covid cases over the holiday period are being managed by NHS Test and Trace. Tetherdown will continue to monitor any reports to our school tracking system on the school website but will not make communications over the holiday period. Should your child have a positive Covid test result at the start of the new term, please inform us in the usual way using the school website, when communications will be reinstated on our return.
We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, 5th January 2022 at 8.50am for the start of term.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Kind regards
Tony Woodward
Headteacher