Dear Parents,

What a delight it is to see all our children back again, smiling and confident and so much taller! It was lovely to receive so many happy emails at the end of the first day and to hear how pleased the children are to be back at school.

Welcome

An exciting part of any school year is getting to know our new pupils. We would like to welcome them all most warmly and hope they will all be very happy with us. We welcome in IGCSE 2, Sophie, in IGCSE 1 Frieda, in Tyr, Caleb, Noah and Bethan and in Year 7 classes, Med and Sargasso, Phoebe and Simon.

In the Junior Department we give a warm welcome to Thomas and Esme in Arabian, Michiel and Lisa in Adriatic, Soren, Mahin and Paula in Aegean and Jensen and Wouter in Aral.

Among our little infants, all looking very sweet and neat at the moment, we welcome Emma and Adam in Coral and Rawand, Daniel, Dominic Santiago, Gilbert and Kuan Kuan who join many of our former Baby Unicorns children into Caspian class. In our kindergarten we are happy to see Sophie, Rosie , Viktoria, Malek, Nathan, Mahjit and Felix begin to settle in along with our ‘old’ Baby Unicorns.

As well as greeting all our new pupils, we are delighted to welcome new staff to help us teach them all. In Caribbean Mrs Sonja Badenhorst will be teaching on Thursday and Fridays. Mrs Rachel Mayne is our new Teaching Assistant in this class. Mr Ben Beeston is our new class teacher for Adriatic and Mrs Joan Lambert is teaching French and German in the Upper School on Mrs Hill’s days off. Dr Philip Prager will be teaching Media Studies to IGCSE 1. We hope they will all be as happy at school as we are. You will have the opportunity to meet them at various Parents Evenings outlined in the calendar attached.

We will look forward to meeting all our new parents at our Welcome Evening for New Parents on 23^rd September from 7pm.

Notices

Please may I remind all parents that cars are not allowed up to the main building except under exceptional circumstances. We have received complaints about this before and must ask you to park in the main car park and enjoy the picturesque walk through the park.

Uniform

Please ensure all uniform is clearly named. We were amazed by how much uniform was left at the end of last year, in excellent condition but with no names on at all.

Beginning and end of day

School is open from 8.15 for early morning care for which a small charge applies. After school care is available every day in the form of late stay until 5pm (later by special arrangement) as well as the following clubs:

Monday: Football for Infants and Juniors with Kinnerz Coaching

Thursday: Hoppett’s Poppett’s Art Sessions

Thursday: Multi sports for Year 5 to Year 9 with Kinnerz Coaching

Friday: Chess Club

Friday: Advanced sports team training with Kinnerz Coaching

Yellow Art Bus

All those of you who have been to Cherry Hinton Hall this term cannot fail to have noticed a large yellow bus in our playground. It has been greeted with wild excitement by the children (and a surprising number of adults!) and is being used for all Junior and infant art lessons as well as for Caribbean class to use on occasion as they have a relatively small classroom. We are waiting to hear from the Council as to any future expansion possibilities in the area and until they have made firm decisions we are not keen to install a permanent structure in our playground. The bus is waiting for a new parking space and will not be in the playground for much longer. It is great fun and a creative solution to our need for more space.

Trips

The termly calendar outlines many key events of the term including dates for our end of term performances. There may be additional trips, if we are notified of exciting opportunities by the Universities or other local organisations at relatively short notice. Please ensure, new parents, that we have received your permission slip for children to participate in trips out of school.

Newsletter

Please do notify us of any achievements by your children for inclusion in the next newsletter. We like to share in the news of musical, sporting, dramatic and many other triumphs.

We have had a great start to the term and look forward to seeing parents around regularly. Do please remember you are a vital part of the school and you are warmly welcome to come in and see what we are all doing. If you have any anxieties at all, please do not hesitate to contact us.

With warm regards

Harriet Sturdy