Happy new year and welcome back to the new term. Hopefully you have all enjoyed a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas holiday; we certainly needed it after the busy Autumn term.

There’ s so much to look forward to this term: Reception Class are starting with their topic The World Inside a Book which sounds fabulous – I will definitely be popping in to see what they’re up to. Years 1 and 2 are becoming historians this term – Year 1 will be learning about School Days and comparing our school to schools in Victorian times and in Movers and Shakers Year 2 will be learning about significant people in history who have made a big impact on the world. Year 3 kick off their Predator topic with a visit from Bugfest. Hope they’re feeling brave. Look out for some awesome pictures tomorrow night. Years 4 and 6 are becoming geographers in their projects Misty Mountain, Winding River and Frozen Kingdoms as they learn about rivers, mountains and polar landscapes whilst Year 5 will be learning about mechanisms and forces in their Science project Scream Machine. Our teachers work so hard to ensure children have amazing learning experiences and they are brilliant at keeping the website up to date so please keep an eye on their blog posts and keep in touch – we love to read your comments.

We will be taking care of our mental health and wellbeing this term in our Stormbreak sessions. Each week we will focus on a different concept – learning what it is, why it is important and how we can practise it. We’re starting with resilience – a concept that we are all familiar with but it is always good to learn ways to improve, especially at this time of year. At the end of the week each class will choose a Stormbreaker of the Week – someone who has really tried their best and has noticed a difference. They’ll receive a special certificate in Friday assemblies (which will still be online for the time being.) If you’d like to watch the short introductory video about resilience you can find it here. It’s helpful because you will be able to see the type of language we use in school and you could use it at home too.

There are lots of new books in the library. Unfortunately we’re still not able to open it at lunchtimes but each class should visit once a week. Look out for the new artwork sent to us by the one and only Nick Sharratt! I wrote to him to tell him about our new library and he sent us some signed posters which I will frame and put up on the wall. We also have artwork from Neal Layton, Julia Donaldson and Simon Philip. It is very exciting to get a letter from a famous author. Let me know if you’d like to write to an author and I will help. Perhaps they’ll write back …

Soon we’ll be getting ready for Book Week which starts on Monday 28th February. Let me know if you have any good ideas for a competition this year. It’s a shame Reading Champions aren’t able to meet again at the moment as we can’t mix year groups but as soon as we can we will get back together. I know Miss Savage is also keen to get started with Eco Club and Miss Maitland with School Council. Last term lots of you told me about clubs you have enjoyed and the sorts of clubs you’d like to see at Southill. Hopefully we’ll be able to get these up and running soon.

I look forward to seeing you all back at school tomorrow and hope you all have a brilliant time in the Spring term learning lots of new and amazing things.

Mrs Wood