Dear Parents/Carers,
Easter Events
We have had much fun this week thinking about and celebrating all things Easter-related. This includes the annual Donkey Procession along Hornsey High Street with children waving their palm crosses high, the fun Easter Hat parade yesterday and today’s beautiful Easter service at Hornsey Parish Church. Tomorrow (Saturday), is the annual Easter Egg Hunt held in the Church Lane playground. Do bring your children along to this event and have fun with them as they hunt for Easter eggs from 11am to 1pm.
Year 5 & Year 6 Eucharist
On Tuesday this week, Year 5 & 6 children took part in a lovely Eucharist Service at Hornsey Parish Church, led by Mother Mitzi and the church team, and where some children also took communion. As ever, our school is welcoming of all faiths and none. We are so very pleased that our non-Christian children happily go along to this service and respectfully take part in and learn more about this very special Christian Service.
Key Events Next Term
Don’t forget that we are going to be having an exciting event on Tuesday 16th May. This will be St Mary’s International Evening and where we will be celebrating the ethnic and religious cultural diversity of our school, be this through song, dance, poetry or food! See the poster below for more information and please put your names forward.
Parent and Schools Association (PSA) – More members and support needed
Our wonderful PSA exists to help fund raise and provide so many wonderful opportunities for your children, including for example the pantomime trips, paying for visiting artists, purchasing additional playground/classroom games and activities and much more besides.
Key events that are organised to help pay for the above include the Bonfire Night event, School Discos, Cake Sales and the legendary Christmas and Summer Fairs. Whilst these events are so very well attended by the school and wider community with much money raised, the PSA urgently needs more volunteer parents to help organise these events. Our forthcoming Summer Fair is therefore in need of additional help from parents. If you are able to support the PSA in any capacity, please can you let the school office know and your details will be passed onto the PSA Chair who will then be in touch with you. So that we can continue to provide your children with the many extras that we are able to provide, please do what you can to help support our PSA – even an hour or two here and there goes a long way.
Welcome Back Bea!
Welcome back Bea Fenton, our School Home Support Practitioner who, owing to illness, has been absent for the past year. We are so pleased to have you back with us Bea as I’m sure our parents are too.
Goodbye and See You Soon
Today, we say goodbye to one of our long-standing teachers for the past 17 years, Donna Campbell. Donna has been part of the St Mary’s community throughout this time as class teacher, interventions teacher and the school’s phonics lead. We will miss Donna hugely and wish her well as she embarks on her new post in a school closer to where she lives.
Also, we say a temporary goodbye to Gemma Simmons, our interventions teacher as she leaves to prepare to give birth to her third child. We wish you all the very best Gemma and look forward to welcoming you back in due course as well as meeting the newest member of your family.
Interventions will continue in school during the Summer Term.
Letter from Haringey Headteachers
Further to the letter sent to you yesterday relating to St Mary’s being in the news as a result of our Ofsted experiences over the past year, please click HERE to read a letter from all headteachers across Haringey and our joint response to our concerns about the current Ofsted School Inspection framework.
School Start Times
Next term, please can all parents do their very best to ensure that children are in school and on time. This is because an unusually a high number of children are arriving late for school. This not only affects attendance and punctuality figures, it more crucially affects how well children settle into the school day to enable them to access their learning as successfully as they need to.
Times children need to be in school:
Year 5 & 6 – 8.30am
Years 3 & 4 – 8.45am
Years Reception, 1 & 2 – 8.50am
Nursery – 9.00am
Happy Easter
Wishing you a lovely Easter break and we look forward to welcoming you back at school on Tuesday 18th April. Monday 17th April is a staff INSET (training day).
Calvin Henry
Headteacher
