Dear ALS Community,
I am delighted to open this weekly email with news that Mr and Mrs Gear have welcomed Nate Amos Gear to the world earlier this week. I know you’ll join me in wishing Mr Gear the very best for his second son.
When I wrote the weekly email last week, I didn’t expect to spend Sunday the way that I did! Still, it was a useful exercise and, as has happened so often since March, I was taken aback both by the positivity and support of the parent community and the outstanding efforts of the staff team. Having seen how hard the operations team worked to secure a chef for Tuesday and to resume hot lunches, it was funny to hear on the gate at the end of the day just how much the pupils had enjoyed their ‘packed lunch’ from school on Monday. Without a chef we wouldn’t have had ‘Friday chip day’ so I think the pupils will agree it was worth it after all.
This week, we have a Dedicas mantra: only expect from others what you are willing to put in. This mantra, really, speaks for itself. This week really showed just how much the values of the school are lived within our school each day. From the offers of support to make sure that lunches happened smoothly through to the team that logged on with me on Sunday night to plan the logistics for keeping the kitchen running, the whole of the staff were ready to put in a little extra hard work to make sure that pupils and colleagues were looked after. I really couldn’t ask for more.
This is a relatively short weekly email; with lockdown rolling on, there’s less of the ‘extra’ exciting things for me to prattle on about. Really, I can just say this: from Reception to Year 13, children are in school, they are learning and they are happy. Pupils are following their ‘normal’ curriculum and getting to spend time with their friends. Staff are giving their all to make sure the children get the best education they can (in keeping with the weekly mantra!) and the children really are working hard and showing wonderful resilience given the circumstances. It might not make for a jazzy weekly email, but it is enough for me.
I’ve been asked to appeal to everyone to return the data review sheets to the school Reception. This helps us to ensure that the data we hold for you is correct and this is important both for our continued communication to you at home and for keeping your child safe. It’s important that we have accurate information held on file so we can contact you quickly should we ever need to. Please do pop these back to Zoe in Reception.
I appreciate some in the ALS Community may not want me to use the ‘Christmas’ word this early but unfortunately planning for Christmas has to happen far sooner than you’d expect. As we finish a few weeks before the ‘big day’, making sure that a Christmas tree arrives in Reception for the children to enjoy and that decorations go up is not a small task at all. To give plenty of time for some online shopping for a new jumper, please make a note of Friday 11th December in your calendars - this is Christmas Jumper day at ALS. We’ve still a little while to go until Christmas Jumper day and the school Christmas Lunch so don’t fret - I’m just sowing the seeds for yuletide joy now!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes,
David Preston | Headteacher
