Dear Parents,

A warm welcome back to all our children. It is so lovely to see so many of them rushing eagerly into school and even the older students who never want to look too enthusiastic about school seem happy to be back among their friends. A particular welcome to the new students in each department. We hope you have a wonderful time at CIS.

A warm welcome, too, to Mrs Anne Hefferman who has joined our Upper School team to teach French and German until Mrs Hill returns from Australia in January. We are very grateful indeed to Madame Garguet-Duport who had very kindly stepped in and taught French for us for the previous two terms.

The Summer Term is always a great term, particularly once the vital public and internal exams are over for our older students. IGCSE’s started this week and will continue for the two months! We all breathe a sigh of relief when they are finished, although it means saying goodbye to some very special students, many of whom have been with us since we first opened. We shall be proud to watch them take their next steps on to sixth form, but will certainly miss them all a great deal. They have a special evening celebration planned for them in June which, I am sure, will be memorable. Other exciting events will include performances of Oliver the Musical which we hope will bring great enjoyment to all participants and audience. Sports Day is always something to look to forward to as well. Do remember to prepare for the Mothers’ and Fathers’ Race! You have been given three months notice!

Important reminder

Please can I remind all parents that we do not have permission from the Council to allow ANY parents to drive up to the main building to drop their children off at school. A small number of staff cars are allowed up if staff are either working late or have heavy bags. It is a very pleasant and short walk and I would be most grateful if all parents would do this.

When you are parking in the main car park, please ensure that you do not use the disabled bays. There are a number of users of the park who are being inconvenienced by this which is not acceptable. Thankyou for your cooperation with these matters.

Parents Association

We have been blessed with a very active, enthusiastic and committed Parents Association. Numerous events have been organised, all of which have been a great success, not only in providing the school with welcome extra resources but, and more importantly still, arranging opportunities for parents and children to meet socially, at, for example, a barn dance, school disco, blues evening and all the school fairs we have had. We are in danger of losing this wonderful group, unless we can get some more volunteers. We are looking to appoint several Officers, including a Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary and very much hope there are parent s among you who feel able to put themselves forward for this. CIPA will fold if we cannot appoint these Officers. Please do come to the meeting this Tuesday at 7pm at Cherry Hinton Hall to find out more.

Recent Major School Trips

We were delighted with how successful both overseas trips went this Easter. Most of Year 7 and 8 enjoyed a really fun visit to Eindhoven and Amsterdam to see a former pupil. The children were very good company indeed. I have heard great reports of the New York Media trip, which pupils from Sancton Wood and CIS Years 10 and 11 took part in over the Easter break. The children had an amazing time and, as with our Years 7 and 8, behaved in such a way as to make us all proud. Thankyou to Marga van Beurden and Allison Dolphin who both took on huge responsibility and commitment in working on these trips. We were very sorry that Mrs Young was unable to attend the New York trip, particularly as she had done so much of the organisation of it, but she is most definitely top of the list for staff taking the next overseas trip!

Mad Science Workshops

Adriatic and Arabian classes will take part in a series of Mad Science Workshops this term which promise to be very exciting. http://www.madscience.org. This work will supplement the science work studied in the IPC topics this year and will be very hands on and quite possibly very messy! I am sure the children will have a great time doing this.

Termly calendar

Please do go over dates in the Termly Calendar which has been re-issued due to a forced change of venue prompted by copyright licence constraints for our school performance of Oliver the Musical. Please use this Calendar as the final version for all dates as others have been added.

School Photograph

On May 10^th we will be having a whole school photograph as well as individual and family photographs. Please ensure your child is in full, smart school uniform for this.

PGL

As many of our pupils know, we have an annual trip to a PGL centre in May. This is open to students in Year 5 upwards. The time is fast approaching for us to go. Please can you send in the next instalment for the trip. We will be circulating a kit list shortly. Old timers will know the ropes, but we will remind everyone!

Vouchers for school

It’s that time of year again! We are collecting those little green and orange vouchers handed out at the tills in Sainsburys and Tescos. We managed to collect a huge amount last year which we exchanged for some great sports equipment. Please tell friends, dog walking colleagues, and grannies to save them for us - collecting boxes in front hall. Thank you very much.

It was lovely last term to see many parents coming in to look around at our Open Mornings. Do please arrange an appointment to come and visit the school to see the children at work if you missed your sessions. You are very welcome indeed.
With kind regards and best wishes for a happy term ahead.
Harriet Sturdy