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2006 / 07 Number 9 . December 19^th 2006

Dear Parents,

Finally we have come to our last newsletter of the Autumn Terms which have been quite eventful with our OFSTED inspection just before half term and all the special activities over the past few weeks leading up to Christmas. It is definitely time for all of us to have a break away from school life for a couple of weeks, enjoy the festivities and re charge our batteries !

Jesus’ Christmas Party : Y1 and Y2 Christmas Celebration in school ….

It was lovely to see so many of you joining us last week to share in the retelling of the nativity story by Years 1 and 2. I hope you enjoyed their humorous re telling of the Christmas story which nevertheless reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas. The phrase ‘round the back’ will certainly be ringing in my ears for a few weeks to come. Once again thank you to all the adults who helped the children with their acting, speaking, singing and dancing. This year all the Year 2 children chose the role they wanted to play and it has been fun to watch them develop their various parts – they somehow seemed to choose very well! It has been really rewarding to see their developing self confidence and sense of enjoyment throughout.

….. and Y2 at ‘the egg’

Yesterday was a very special day and one that I hope all the Year 2s will remember as one of the highlights of their time at Oldfield Park Infants. To perform their nativity in a real theatre in front of a live audience was a unique opportunity and I am sure everyone lucky enough to be there will agree that they did a fantastic performance. Believe it or believe it not we only had one (very disjointed) run through in the morning and many of the children had to cope with coming on and off the stage from different directions to the version we performed in school. The whole thing looked just wonderful under the stage lights and we even had a few special effects added in – the highlight being lots and lots of snow at the end !! Hopefully there will be a picture in the Bath Chronicle sometime this week. A photographer also shadowed us for the day so there should be some good shots to share later.

Our thanks go to Nick White from ‘ the egg’ for choosing us to take part in the project and for all his support over the past few weeks. We will continue our links with the theatre and hope to be involved in other projects in the future.

Christmas Charity Collection

Thank you for your generous donations at the end of our school celebrations. The total raised was £ which will be shared between ‘Children in Need’ and supporting our sponsored child ‘Edouard and his village in Burkina Faso, Africa. We are waiting to hear from ‘PLAN’ what it would be most appropriate to provide the villagers. The school council decided to send Edouard a skipping rope and ………

Nativity Supplement

Look out for pictures of the children in the Bath Chronicle’s Nativity Supplement later this week.

Review Of Secondary Education

Over the past 15 months a review of secondary education provision has been taking place in B&NES. The panel completed its review in October and has since been considering its findings and formulating its recommendations. These will be presented in a final report at a public meeting in the Guildhall on January 8^th 2007. The agenda and papers for the meeting will be available on the Councils website from 29^th December and at various places such as the Guildhall, Riverside in Keynsham and Bath Central Library. The chair of the panel , Cllr Andrew Furse is keen to ensure that all those who have an interest in the outcome of the review are aware of the date of the meeting. As parents of future secondary pupils the outcomes could well effect your children. More details of the review can be found at www.bathnes.gov.uk/scrutiny and then follow the ‘quick link’ to Review of Secondary Education.

Back to School

Please remember that we have an In Service day on Wednesday January 3^rd 2007 so

school re-opens for term 3 on Thursday January 4^th at 8.50am.

A reminder too that we have an In Service Day on Friday January 12^th.

Thank you to the many members of our school community, parents, staff, children and governors, who have helped to make 2006 such a successful and happy year for the school.

Finally , a big thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make Christmas in school so enjoyable and varied ; all the staff for their hard work with the children, producing the wonderful displays, celebrations and parties ; Mandy and Tina in the canteen for a delicious Christmas dinner served to 126 children and numerous adults, quite an amazing feat (they also cooked Christmas dinners for St. Philips on the same day !!!) ; the PTA for a brilliant Christmas Fair; and last but not least to Santa for making our parties extra special.

May I take this opportunity to wish everyone associated with the school a very happy and peaceful Christmas. See you all in 2007.

Yours sincerely

Jo Claridge

Headteacher