December 2022
Welcome Dear Families It has been a great start to a new academic year with so many successes to share and celebrate. The children have settled wonderfully into their new classrooms with their new teachers, particularly our Nursery and Reception children who have soon become accustomed to our school routines. The children have worked so very hard on their themes in the curriculum this term and have produced exceptional outcomes to be proud of in their Foundation Subject books. We hope you have enjoyed sharing their work at various points over this term including: Bring your Parent/Carer to School Morning, Parent’s Evening and Book Drop Ins. We are very impressed with the knowledge the children can recall and talk about and I am sure you have seen this in their work and at home too! Thank you for your support over the term with all aspects of school life, from ensuring the children are at school on time, to support with their reading and homework, to attendance at school consultation events and workshops such as the Online Safety workshop and our Parent Working Groups. Your contributions really do make a difference to the way we review policies and the partnership between home and school is vital ingredient in supporting our children to thrive. Finally, I would like to recognise the hard work of our staff team who, as always, go above and beyond to provide the children an exceptional educational experience. This includes their time and dedication to the learning experiences in the classroom, to the enrichment they offer through wider curricular activities and clubs. Sadly, next week, we say goodbye and good luck to Miss Smithurst and Mrs Broad. Miss Smithurst is travelling the world after Christmas; we look forward to hearing about her adventures. Mrs Broad will be retiring after 22 years at Gatley Primary School. We will miss her very much and thank her for all her years of commitment to our school. We also say goodbye and thank you to Miss Bainbridge as she embarks on a new career. Next term we are welcoming Mrs Field and Mrs Singh to our staff team and look forward to them starting with us. I hope you all manage to have a lovely rest over the winter break, enjoy festive celebrations and family gatherings. I look forward to seeing you all in 2023!
History Detectives This term, to support the children’s understanding of the concept chronology in History, the children became History detectives.
In the first few weeks, the children received artefacts in a bag. These were delivered to classrooms without any clues as to who they belonged to or what period of History they represented. The children worked hard to use their prior knowledge to identify, ‘who’ did the objects belong to, ‘what’ period of History does it represent, ‘how’ does this period of History compare to today and ‘what’ legacy was left behind. As a result of the children’s great detective work, each year group put together a board to display this knowledge. This now forms the basis of our History chronology line displayed in the hall. As different periods of History are studied, classes refer to this or add to this in different ways, a good example being the reflections done during Remembrance Day. Great detective work children! Miss Marchi
Gemma Norman, Headteacher