Dear Parents/Carers,
As we come to the end of another year, it’s important to take a little time to reflect on what has been a hugely positive year in so many ways for St Mary’s. Notably, we have emerged from the many difficulties that Covid has presented over the past two years, into a position where we have been able to (largely) have an uninterrupted school year – long may this last! This said, there is therefore much to celebrate, whether it is the strong outcomes in tests that the children have achieved across the school, the fact that we have managed to successfully recruit to new staff positions or simply that we have managed to run a relatively normal school year with most of the key events once again taking place.
Parent and School Association (PSA) Events
- A super Summer Fair! Well done to the whole of the PSA for organizing such a successful summer fair event on Saturday 2nd July. It was an event which brought our proudly diverse school community together once again in the most wonderful of ways. Children and adults had much fun enjoying the many activities; the food and drink was lovely and there were the most amazing raffle prizes. A big thank you to all of you who supported the event by attending and/or donating items to help raise funds for the PSA. Wonderfully, you helped manage to raise a whopping £4,500!
- End of Year BBQ. This will be tonight at Rectory Gardens from 5.30pm – 7.30pm. Do come along and have a relaxing couple of hours with our school community with a burger and Pimms or orange juice. I hope to see you there.
Music Concert Extravaganza
Earlier this week on Monday, children from Years 2 – Year 6 took part in a musical performance of the most exceptional quality at Rectory Gardens. The choir joyously sang, the brass brigade beautifully blew, the stringers stupendously strummed and the percussionists performed to perfection. Our thanks to the WCIT Music Team from Haringey for doing all they did to bring this together, but especially to Mrs Peacock, our fabulous music teacher for coordinating the concert and leading music so brilliantly at our school and putting us firmly on the map musically! (post below)
Sports Day
Our thanks as ever to Mr Oakley, ably supported by Mr Beardwell and Mr Allison (Sports Coach) for organising a wonderful Sports Day at Priory Park yesterday. Once again, thank you to all of you for supporting this most special of annual school events. (post below)
Nursery & Year 2 Transition
Recently, our nursery and Year 2 children took part brilliantly in a very special assembly for parents to mark the end of their time in the nursery and Year 2 and to mark their transition to Reception and Year 3 respectively. Our children did themselves proud and performed incredibly well. This week, Year 2 also had much fun at Rectory Gardens during a ‘Treasure Hunt’ transition event.
Classes 2022-23
This week, your children got to meet their new teachers for next year and spent some time with them in their new classrooms. It was a wonderfully exciting day for them and no doubt for the teachers, particularly the new teachers to our school. I am sure that your child has told you all about it. Wonderfully, we have now also managed to appoint a new French Teacher to replace Madame Baker – her name is Madame Williamson and we are greatly looking forward to getting to know her better and working alongside her next year.
End of Year Reports
This week, you will also have received your child’s end of year reports. I do hope you feel that the narrative of the report accurately reflects your child’s progress and development. For some children at Rectory Gardens, you will not yet have received the children’s own view of their progress, including what they have particularly enjoyed this year. This will be coming out separately today; our apologies for this. If you do need to discuss any aspect of the report with your child’s class teacher, please make a mutually convenient appointment with them (via the school office). Children in Year 6 will also have received their children’s end of year SATs results. Given the period of school closures over the past couple of years, the results achieved not just in Year 6, but also in Year 2, the Year 4 multiplication check, the Year 1 phonics results and Reception good level of development outcomes are pleasing and demonstrate that our school has performed at least in line with (and often above) emerging national figures. My thanks to all of our teachers for working so very hard to secure such positive outcomes.
Year 6 Celebrations
Our Year 6 children’s performance of Treasure Island was simply superb! The children did themselves proud, confidently performing and entertaining the audience brilliantly! Well done children and to the whole of the Year 6 Team and myriad of staff helpers and parent volunteers who helped to put this together. (post below)
Goodbye Year 6 – We wish you well in all that you go on to do at secondary school and beyond. Thank you for being such a fabulous and lively year group! We will miss and remember you with much fondness. Also, goodbye to so many of our Year 6 parents whose last child ends their time at St Mary’s. We also wish you well and wholeheartedly thank you for choosing St Mary’s as the school for your child.
Next week Wednesday 20th July at 9.30am, we will be able to formally say goodbye to our Year 6 children during their end of Year 6 Service at Rectory Gardens.
I will write another brief letter next week to wish you a happy summer but in the meantime, do remember that children return to school in the autumn on Monday 5th September.
Have a restful, relaxing and safe in the sun weekend,
Calvin Henry
Headteacher
