Dear Parents & Carers,

Another incredibly busy and successful half-term has come and gone, and we all look forward to a well-earned rest next week.  I look back on the last 7 weeks and so much has happened: lots of trips & visitors, interviews for new staff, busy work around arrangements for 2024-25, Plant & Craft Fair, Year 6 SATs, incredible perseverance from the children and much, much more.  I am incredibly proud of what the children and the whole school team have achieved this term so far.

After half-term, there are 7 more weeks until the end of the whole year and there is much more to come!  There are community events, including the Garden Bar and Quiz Night, music concerts, Year 6’s leaver’s assembly, sports days, Olympic Week, school disco… there will also be announcements about class mixes and your children’s teachers for 2024-25 after the half-term break – so much to look forward to!

Have a super Bank Holdiay weekend and half-term break, and we look forward to seeing you all back on the 3rd June.

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

What an incredible week it has been.  It has been a great relief to be able to share our Ofsted report with the wider community – thank you to everyone who has taken their  time to congratulate staff for their hard work: it is very much appreciated.  It’s always good to have an excuse to celebrate the community we live and work in and what has struck me is how proud the children are of themselves and their school – you can really feel the pride when the children talk about Coleham!

This week has been a busy hive of activity around all things science.  Huge thank you to Miss Harris for organising lots and lots of visitors to school to share new experiences with the children, including an exciting assembly for all the children, including fire, bangs and pops!

A special well done needs to go to Lauren in Year 6 for selling her very first piece of art in Mrs Jones’ Gallery!  I hope Lauren will remember us and come back to visit when she is a famous artist!

And finally, don’t forget that tomorrow (27th April) is World Tapir Day – sadly not a school day, but worth checking out if you don’t know anything about tapirs.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

Summer Term feels like it has properly started now and the weather has tried its very best to pretend to be summery!  Lots has been going on in school this week: you’ll be able to read about Techathon winners, an author visit, excellent work from the Eco Council and much more!

Next week is Science week and we’re looking forward to lots of fun science activities happening around school.  Good luck to everyone running the final leg of the Schools’ Half-Marathon tomorrow – I’m sure you’ll all do a brilliant job!  A huge thank you needs to go to Miss Lewis for organising and giving up her Saturday to volunteer at the event as well.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the Summer Term!  I do hope you’ve all had a great Easter, whether you have been away anywhere exciting; stayed at home; gone on small trips, or anything else in between.  The school feels rested and raring to go this week, which is a lovely environment to be in.  I was able to recharge my batteries with a blustery walk up Yr Wyddfa with my brothers just before we came back.

We’ve already hit the ground running with several trips and sporting events which you can read below!

This term, we will be mainly focusing on AMBITION in our assemblies.  Summer Term is always a great chance for all our children to work hard to make their ambitions more achievable.  Changes are coming for all children at the end of this term, whether they are moving to new schools or just a new year group, and I want everyone to make the most of the time left in their current classes and drive forwards to the next chapter in the most positive and ambitious way they can.  On that note, there will be a letter today for families in EYFS, Year 2 and Year 4 about class mixing for next year, so please do look out for that.

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s hard to believe that we are at the end of the Spring Term already!  I say that it’s been a busy week every week – but my goodness: this week has been BUSY.

Despite a small interruption mid-week, we have had great success in cross-country running, including several top-10 finishes and 1st places champions; some fantastic art supported by parents in Year 4; and two nights of the most fantastic performances of Alice in Wonderland!

The children have truly been on top form, showing what being a Colehamite is all about.  I am in awe of the children here at Coleham and the way they demonstrate the school values so brilliantly in everything they do, from sporting endeavours to performing on stage.  What a credit they are to you all!

Regarding our visitors this week: the outcomes of this visitation will not be known for a little while.  Over the coming weeks, the report will need to be written, checked and will have to go through a process before being released.  We will, of course, write to you when we are able to.

Thank you to all of you for your support this week.  I have had several parents and carers pass on good luck wishes, and lots of people checking in to make sure everyone is OK, and over 180 of you filled in the parent survey this week.  It really means a lot to us all to have your support – you are amazing!

Have a lovely Easter break everyone, and we will see you back in April!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

It’s been a bumper week of events this week with lots happening!

We’ve just welcomed back all of Year 4 who have had the most amazing time at PGL over the last couple of days.  Miss Lewis and Miss Armstrong tell me they have been incredible and a credit to the school and all of you – a huge WELL DONE and THANK YOU goes out to Miss Lewis, Miss Armstrong and their team of Mrs Jeff, Mrs Lord, Ms Wisdom and Mr Halford for giving up their time to make sure these incredibly important residentials happen.

We’ve also had a champion netball team, Year 5 class assemblies and the absolutely fantastic Eco Fashion Show.  Next week, we are looking forward to seeing Alice in Wonderland – make sure you’ve got your tickets!

Have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

It’s been wonderful to see so much excitement and engagement around reading this week for World Book Week, culminating in a fantastic day yesterday!  So many home-made costumes and obscure characters, too – it really shows the depth of the love for reading at Coleham School.

Reading is so very, very important to children’s future prospects.  The World Book Day organisation reported this week that children across the country are put off reading for many reasons, with 25% saying that they are made to read books they don’t want to read.  At Coleham, we aim to foster a real love for reading and would encourage all children (and grown-ups!) to read what they want to read, so long as it is appropriate for them.  I think what we have seen this week shows that our community is doing something right to foster that love of reading!

Lots is also happening next week: Year 5 fashion show, Year 4 residential, trips…

Have a lovely weekend!

Max

King Of The Wild Things

Dear Parents and Carers,

Hopefully the daffodils are smiling in your gardens as we head into March – where has the year gone!?

This week I had the pleasure of buying a ticket to watch some EYFS drama of Jack & The Beanstalk which was great fun!  Well done to all the children who had a go on the stage!  I also enjoyed seeing Miss Heap in Year 5 today prepping the children for the Eco Fashion Show which promises to be a real treat.

Thank you to all the parents and carers who made appointments to speak to your children’s teachers – if you haven’t managed to do so, please do get in touch and we can see what can be arranged.

Next week, we are looking forward to World Book Week!  I wonder what your favourite books are?

Have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher.

Thank you to everyone who completed the 3-18 Trust survey earlier this year, and thank you to everyone who gave us feedback on what could be improved and what we do well.

Please follow the link below for the published survey data, and a letter responding to the main themes from both the survey and the feedback.  It is always incredibly useful and rewarding to read all your comments, and they really do help us to make Coleham School an even better place.

Survey Results Link: Parent / Carer 2023-24 Survey Results

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are now at the official half-way marker of the school year!  It may have been the final week of the half-term, but it’s been an incredibly busy one!

We’ve had a number of trips and visits this week, and I had the pleasure of watching both Year 3 classes perform to their grownups this week.  It’s so much fun to see the work the children have produced over a term and see them present to an audience – thank you to everyone involved!

A huge thankyou to every one of the 173 respondents to our survey earlier in the year – the results are on the website (see the link in this newsletter).  We were also grateful for the wonderful positive comments from everyone.  We have printed them all out and put them on display for our whole staff team to see – it has really made an impact on everyone, so thank you kindly.

I hope you all have a wonderful half-term break and manage to have some rest and some fun.  Next half term, we will be having a drive on Kindness, one of our school values, and will be looking for kindness ambassadors across the school.  I don’t think that will be too hard to do!

Have a lovely week

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Parents/Carer Evenings take place the week after half term.

Wednesday 21st February 4:00-7:20pm

Thursday 22nd February 4:00-7:20pm

The booking system on our school website will become live some time next week.  We will notify you by email.

Dear Parents & Carers,

We’ve had a wonderful week celebrating Chinese New Year, with traditional instruments and costumes.  Well done goes to #DadBotz for winning the illustrious Quiz Night and we hope to see many of you back for the next quiz which will hopefully be in the Summer Term.

A quick reminder to everyone that next week is the final of the half-term, and we will be breaking up on Friday 9th February and returning on Monday 19th February, which marks the half-way point of the whole academic year.

I will finish with a plea from our neighbours at Sabrina House (on the other side of the wall from the Coach House).  They have been experiencing issues with rather sizeable stones being thrown over the wall at around 3:00pm which have been landing in their car park.  Please can all adults collecting children be mindful of their behaviour on the playground and are not throwing rocks or anything else.  We have reminded the children in KS2 about this for playtimes and are keeping an eye out during the school day.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher