As ever, January brings a new school term and opportunities for new beginnings. However, we must still take time to reflect, for the purposes of this report, on the opportunities and Joy that the Christmas season bought to our children.
With events in school last Christmas being so curtailed by the restrictions of COVID, this festive period gave us an opportunity to once again embrace (all be it cautiously) celebration. Throughout the advent period we focused on the value of ‘Joy’ in our schools and the origins and importance of the Birth of Christ to this in Christians. In particular during Worship, Rev Rosie enlightened the children with pictorial representations of ‘The Angels’ spreading the good news.
As part of our school improvement work, our teachers at St Rumon’s are now well on the road to embedding a more ‘Discovery’ hands on curriculum in wonderful, enhanced learning environments for our Y1 and Y2 pupils. Christmas allowed them to thoroughly embrace creativity with Christmas craft activities. At St Peter’s a whole school Christmas Craft day of sticking, printing, cutting, painting and so much more resulted in children going home with a goodie bag of their marvellous creations.
A real strength at St Rumon’s and St Peter’s is our school choir led by Mrs Hodgkiss. The children have a real passion for singing and this year were able to perform their Christmas pieces at the Salvation Army Christmas Concert. We were extremely pleased to be able to go ahead with St Rumon’s Nativity and St Peter’s Carol Concert in St Eustachius church. The hours of rehearsing and preparation led to wonderful performances that really got everyone in the Christmas spirit.
But now back to the new year. Once again, children and staff have come back to school refreshed, ready and energised for the term ahead. Despite the winter weather we have already begun a program of sport and outdoor activity with Y5 and 6 honing their cycling skills through ‘Bikeability’. We have dates ahead for ‘Balance Bikeability’ for our youngest children at St Rumon’s and many sporting fixtures including the annual Tavy 13 for St Peter’s pupils. Teachers at St Peter’s are planning Dartmoor visits linked to topic work and residential experiences for Y4 and Y5 are also planned for the Spring Term.
Our work to ensure that learning is the best it can be for all our pupils continues across St Rumon’s and St Peter’s. This term we will be welcoming our trust partners, English expert and Phonics expert into school to share best practice. We are also looking forward to an input from a Mental Health expert on our inset day in February. She will be giving us hints and tips for maintaining good levels of mental health for all in our school community.
As for a personal January reflection. I have now been the head at St Rumon’s and St Peter’s for one year and that time has flown by. As I stood at the front of Collective Worship on the first day back, I felt so proud and honoured to be the head of two schools with such wonderful children and staff.