September Newsletter IMPORTANT DATES: October Half Term Holiday School closes on Friday, 25th October and reopens on Tuesday, 5th November
Dear Parents, Carers, Friends and Governors Welcome to our first newsletter of the new school year. I hope that you all had a good summer and enjoyed the unusually warm weather; it’s not very often that we can say that! As you know, in the best interests of the children and young people, the governing bodies of Highfurlong and Woodlands schools will be working more closely together in the future. This is to ensure that the highest standards of care and education are maintained and developed and the best opportunities are available for all of our children and young people. The governors will be exploring the appointment of a common Head Teacher and establishing a common governing body. In the meantime I will be Acting Headteacher at Woodlands, Bev Salthouse will be Acting Deputy Headteacher and Toni Fairholm will continue to be the School Business Manager. It’s been a busy summer at school with work carried out on refurbishing the bathrooms in the primary and senior departments which has been a great improvement. Thanks must go to Toni and Richard for ensuring everything was ready for the start of term. Toni has also been working very hard to get our new web-site up and running. This term we welcome Carly Fitzpatrick back to school following her secondment to the Local Authority. We also welcome two new teachers to school; Catherine O’Brien who is the teacher for Purple class and Paul Davison who is the teacher for Gold class. We say hello to our new pupils Thomas, Zion, Bradley, Jessica, Courtney and Kayden. We hope that they all enjoy school and learning and we look forward to celebrating their achievements. We also say hello again to Rebecca who has just returned to Woodlands. We would like to congratulate members of the Blackpool Polar Bears who took part in the Special Olympics GB National Games held in Bath during August. The team of eight returned to Blackpool with 5 Gold medals, 6 Silver medals and 9 Bronze medals, with one of our former pupils Ellie winning 2 Gold and a Bronze medal. Well done to all, “their Dream came true”, and a huge congratulations to Lynda Inglis and her family who devote a great deal of time to the Polar Bears. This term we also see the launch of the Muli Mutya Project in collaboration with Tramshed. Children from Woodlands will be working with childre n from St Bernadettes. We look forward to the performance. We have planned several events in school and I hope that you will come in to join us for the Harvest Festival and the Meet the Teacher Coffee Morning. Glynis Alexander Acting Head Teacher