Dear Parents and Carers,

Today has been a fun Red Nose Day, with all of us wearing our pyjamas and dressing gowns to raise funds to donate to Comic Relief. Thank you for your generosity; we’ve raised over £700 so far and you can still donate on ParentPay. It’s been a good way to highlight how we can look after others less fortunate than ourselves, and it’s followed on from this week’s theme of caring for those in need beautifully.

In assembly, we’ve explored the story from the Bible of the woman pouring expensive perfume over Jesus’ head, and weeping her tears over His dusty feet. It helped us to think about ways to look after each other – realising that even God’s son appreciated gentle, kind actions that make everything feel better. With a superb performance from the juniors recorder groups and some calming piano music too, we relaxed and enjoyed being still! We talked about our individual ways that we like to be cared for and pampered, as well as realising that both giving and receiving love is a blessing. Many of the children said that they loved kind words, hugs and quality time with their families. I’m so pleased that they noticed how inexpensive these things are! And that so many of them are surrounded by such affirming, supportive families.

In school, we love noticing each unique child and feel so fortunate to share in your family life. After some training this week highlighting the numbers of people who live with domestic abuse, I do want to remind you that we are always here to help if you need us. Please do speak to our home-school link workers, Lucy and Bridgit, or to me or any of our staff if you ever need any support, and especially if home doesn’t feel safe.

Together with Alex Tear, the Guildford Diocesan Director of Education, I showed Angela Richardson, Guildford’s MP, around the new temporary classrooms today and emphasised how much we need her support to speed up the funding approval. She seems almost as determined as we both are to get things moving and fix the Pewley ceilings as quickly as we can and she was astonished at how brilliantly the children have settled in to life in the cabins.

Another visitor to school this week was our school improvement partner, Matthew Rixson from Surrey local authority. He spent two days looking at our curriculum, talking to children and staff and enjoyed finding out about life at HTPD. He was delighted to commend us on our teaching of reading, as well as our well-stocked library and how much the children enjoy books. He was also pleased to see that our curriculum is ambitious and sets high expectations for the children’s learning. As well as highlighting our strengths, he supported us as a staff team to plan our next steps. Making sure that children remember all that they’ve learned is something that we’ll keep working on – perhaps you’d like to help us with this? Just by asking your children questions about what they’ve done in school will help to secure things in their long-term memory; even if it’s really hard, it’s worth struggling to bring things to mind. Feel free to use the JTLYK pages to prompt these conversations each week.

Finally, I’m excited to announce the return of the HTPD Fun Run! Join us on Saturday, June 8th at Shalford Park for a fantastic day of exercise and fundraising. See below for more information and make sure it’s in your diaries now.

With much love,

Clare

Promise of the week: “He lets you rest and renews your soul!” Psalm 23, v 2. The woman with the alabaster jar of perfume face to face with Jesus. Will you let yourself be pampered?

Whole School

Thursday 28 March – End of Term early finish 1:30 PD; 1:45 HT

HTPD Fun Run - Saturday 8 June 

Ready to Run for Fun? See the flyer below and look out for a ParentMail with all the details!

If your child attends after-school clubs, do check the notices below by clicking on the junior or infant section.