Weekly Parent Bulletin - Friday 12th June

Dear parents,

Thank you to those parents that took the time to send the free 'Thank a Teacher' e-cards. You'd be surprised what a significant difference a few kind words made make to a teacher’s day. I'm ever conscious of what a challenging education backdrop we face - unfunded pay rises (yet again!), fewer support staff as a result and a rapidly increasing number of children with complex educational needs that deserve additional support - it's the perfect storm. This means your kindness and appreciation can make all the difference to help make staff feel like the impossible remains achievable. #TeamAvonwood

Next week we face the brilliant but tricky challenge of our sport days being on very warm weather days. We will have all our usual precautions in place including water stations, gazebos for shade and extra sun cream. Should it be exceptionally hot, we will also limit the number of races to shorten the event. We would love parents to come along to cheer the children on, but to stay safe you are also welcome to bring chairs and umbrellas for shade. The Cool Coffee team will also be on hand to serve iced drinks.

On Tuesday next week Avonwood is hosting a Maths excellence visit, with United Learning schools from across the region invited to Avonwood to learn from our best practice. It’s become the norm for Avonwood to host frequent external visitors keen to learn from our staff. From attendance to Maths, to the use of technology to aid teaching - it’s great to see Avonwood continuing to be at the forefront of  education.

Next Friday we have our annual transition afternoon when children will discover their teachers and classes for the 2026/27 academic year. I've learnt that in recent years that increasing numbers of staff, pupils and even some parents find this change unsettling. I can assure parents significant work goes into getting our classes right - balancing academic, send, gender and friendships. We are fortunate to have a brilliant staff team at Avonwood, so whatever class your child is joining... I'm certain they'll be in for a brilliant year!

In readiness to share 2026/27 classes next week, I would like to share some exciting news for some of our staff. Mrs Wright and Mrs Hughes have been completing their teacher training this year. Both have done a terrific job and secured positions at excellent local schools. Whilst we will be sad to see them depart, we are so proud of their progression as newly qualified teachers. Mrs Wright is a particular Avonwood success story, having graduated from TA to HLTA and now to Qualified Teacher!

With our three classes of Year 6 on the cusp of graduating to secondary school, in September we will finally return to having two classes in every year group across the school. With one class fewer, this means that Miss Wilkes is sadly leaving us, also for a excellent local teaching role. Miss Wilkes is another former trainee teacher who has absolutely excelled at Avonwood. Should the opportunity arise, I'll being doing my very best to snap her back up for Avonwood in the future!

With hot and sunny weather forecast next week, please make sure all children (including Years 5 & 6) have a plain navy cap in school daily. Our Avonwood branded one can be purchased from Stevensons; plain navy ones are available from most supermarkets. This will be essential for our sports days. Please also apply an all-day suncream, sending in additional suncream if needed. Just make sure suncream sent into school does not contain any nut products (e.g. almond oil).

Lastly, a plea to avoid using the taxi bays in our car park. These bays were installed a few years ago when we had a number of children with funded transport from BCP arriving in taxis daily. Whilst we have far fewer taxis on site now, our three disabled blue badge bays are in high demand. We use the taxi spaces as overspill for blue badges if needed. It's likely that when we have the budget, the taxi bays will be converted into additional disabled bays. Your support in not parking in these taxi spaces, unless you have a blue badge is greatly appreciated.

Enjoy the sunny weekend!

Mr Jackson