Dear Parents and Carers

Another successful Covid free week comes to an end and although the children have been completing end of term assessments in reading, writing, maths and other aspects of their development, we have been able to inject some of the tinsel and excitement of Christmas time. 

Many of you have already returned your parental feed back slips, which I do read and respond to.  The vast majority are extremely positive and even those with suggestions for improvements are fair, thoughtful and supportive.  Some of the comments particularly around school photographs will enable us to revisit this next time, however, much of what I would like to do has been modified or curtailed as a result of the Covid Pandemic and my main focus has been to keep our children's school open and fully functioning, and this is something that I feel we have certainly achieved together.

This weeks attendance is 95% and when compared to this time last year when we had a whole school attendance figure of 90% says everything we need to know about how responsibly our school community has behaved.  This has not prevented us from providing as rich a curriculum and I shall continue to respond appropriately as further conditions improve. 

Our Year 6 child enjoyed a fantastic Covid Safe Day at Aintree Racecourse this Wednesday where they were able to experience life as world famous jockey, in fact one of our children was sitting in the very seat that A P McCoy has sat in for the past 10 years.  The children enjoyed grooming ponies, as well as being able to ride them around the indoor equestrian centre.  This is another example of established relationships that our school has made with educational opportunities in our local community. 

I do not expect Covid and its associated challenges to disappear anytime soon and I appeal to everyone to continue to park in a sensible,safe and respectful manner, particularly ensuring that footpaths remain clear and that no one parks on the corners that clearly create a dangerous hazard.  I have witnessed some deeply concerning behaviour which I do not want to be associated with, and would be much happier if any child was a few minutes late to any school, rather than an example of dangerous and selfish parking was used as a credible excuse.  I cannot and will not accept any excuse for this and if I had one Christmas message it would be to keep our children's wider environment a safe and secure one.

You may have seen suggestions from the DFE that schools should close on Friday 18th December in order to support Track and Trace.  I can categorically state this will not be happening in St John Bosco Primary School and we shall finish for our Christmas Break at 2.00pm on Friday 18th December and return to school on Monday 4th January 2021 at 8.45am. 

I can confirm that all our arrangements shall remain the same and any changes will be made only when I feel it is safe to do so.

After school clubs will change and we shall as usual try to keep as many activities if not all, either indoors or under cover.  This information will be shared with you next week after I have consulted with Sam to ensure that we are where possible offering each class an after school opportunity.

Christmas Party Day will be next Tuesday 15th December and children can come to school in their own clothes.  A number of festive activities have been organised following strict guidance and the children will continue to remain in their classes and play in their designated play areas. 

I do hope that our communication continues to be clear, appropriate and helpful and I wish you all a peaceful weekend before we return on Monday for our final week. 

Our four presentation videos have been extremely well received and even my daughter who left our school five years ago was quite envious of the wonderful facilities that we continue to develop both inside and outside of our school.  Although not super techy minded, I believe the four videos are able to be view from our school website home page underneath my welcome comments, our Twitter Class Pages and you can of course simply type in St John Bosco Catholic Primary School into the Youtube search bar.  Many of you have commented at the hilarious reactions that your children have made including ' Mr MacAreavy must be famous because he is on the television.  Can I assure you that is not the case, but I do agree that they shine a particularly powerful and positive light on our wonderful school, its children and its staff and governors which of course includes Fr Grant.

Stay safe and well, I look forward to seeing you Monday.

Yours sincerely

Mr D MacAreavy - Headteacher