It’s been a testing start to the new school year, what with unexpected fire alarms last week (caused by a fault in the swimming pool building) and plumbing problems leading to running out of water (possibly caused by works off the school premises). Nevertheless, there’s been lots of happy and healthy learning activity from Reception to Year 6…

Check out our Class News pages to find out more about what your child’s been up to.

Gold!

We’re proud to be awarded the School Games Mark recognising our commitment, engagement and delivery of competitive school sport. Just before the summer holidays, we were delighted to be awarded Gold again!

National assessments

There are various national assessments that children in England do – it can be confusing keeping up with them all…

• Reception Baseline Assessment: within the first 6 weeks of entering Reception
• Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment: between April and June of the academic year in which they turn 5 (usually the Reception year)
• Phonics Screening Check: in June of Year 1
• Key Stage 1 tests: at the end of Year 2
• Multiplication Tables Check: in June of Year 4
• Key Stage 2 tests (sometimes referred to as SATs): in May of Year 6

Read more about the assessments. You can always ask your child’s tacher about these, too, of course.

Staying safe: Does your child have a mobile phone with one of these apps?

The NSPCC has published figures (April 2025 to March 2026) showing which platforms children name when they talk to Childline about online sexual abuse:

• Snapchat: 324 mentions in one year (that’s 19% more that the year before)
• TikTok: 234 mentions
• Instagram: 197 mentions
• Discord: 92 mentions
• WhatsApp: 39 mentions

Between them, these five platforms came up in nearly 900 counselling sessions.

Attendance matters

At the start of the year, it’s quite possible your child might pick up a bug or feel a bit more tired than usual. This is perfectly normal and helps to build up some resilience. Check out this short YouTube clip from the Department for Education about illness and attending school. There’s also advice on our new Attending School website page.

If your child really does need to miss a day at school, please tell us as soon as you can.

Did you know that schools have the right to decide if they will authorise the absence or not. In most circumstances, we authorise the absence, but sometimes, we don’t – we make the decision based on one or more of the following factors:

• doubt: if there is a specific reason to doubt the illness
• frequency: if a child misses school very often
• no communication: if a parent/carer fails to give a reason or fails to contact the school, the absence automatically goes down as unauthorised
• no requested proof: if we ask for reasonable medical proof for frequent absences and the parent fails to provide it

Finally, do you know anyone with a child starting school in September 2027? It seems a long way off, but we’ve already had enquiries about starting school then. We’ve three dates planned in for open sessions to visit our school – 

• Wednesday 14 October – 6.00pm
• Tuesday 10 November – 2.00pm
• Friday 20 November – 9.30am

There’s no need to book a place.