Autumn is upon us and as the seasons change it has inspired me to think more about our school and the ideas I have for what I would like to change, but, equally as importantly, what I want to keep the same! Over the coming weeks I have invited parents in to meet me and to hear about my plans for the future of the school, I know that the feedback from parents about our school is overwhelmingly positive so I hope they will be reassured by what is staying the same, as well as excited about my plans for the future.

The staff team at EBPS truly are its beating heart and the life of the school. We are privileged to have such a dedicated team of teachers and support staff who frequently go above and beyond to help nurture and develop the children. This is the first school I have ever worked in to have a dedicated Emotional Literacy Support Assistant: the wonderful Mrs Jo Craddock! Jo has given over 20 years’ loyal service to our school community and has decided to retire to spend more time with her growing family and her grandchildren. We shall miss Jo greatly and wish her every success and fulfilment in her retirement and, on behalf of hundreds of families, I would like to thank Jo for her work in our school.

 Unlike the changing autumn trees with their bare branches, I realise we cannot be left bereft of an ELSA if we truly believe in supporting and developing the whole child, therefore we are delighted to have a new ELSA joining us immediately after half term.

Our dedication to a broad and balanced curriculum remains as steadfast as ever. Children are enjoying the normality of swimming lessons (Years 4 and 5 currently), brass lessons (Y4 Thistle class) as well as weekly visits to our school library and school trips commencing again soon. We were delighted to have been awarded the school “Music Mark” badge in recognition to our support for high quality music teaching in primary schools and I would like to thank Mrs Levell for her leadership of our wider music curriculum.

As the autumn days draw closer and the sights of harvest are apparent in the fields around us, it is important we remind the children of those less fortunate and our role in doing all we can to help others and demonstrate our school value of “Kindness.” We are very much looking forward to our Harvest celebrations at All Saints church with Reverend Jenny and to providing the food donated from our generous families to those in need at the Daylight Centre in Wellingborough.

Last week was the national school census day where we had to provide our annual return to the Department for Education on our school community. It is fantastic to see how the school is growing in size and diversity over time. We now have almost 20 children who speak another language at home and we have very talented children who speak a total of more than eight different languages at home! As someone who has lived and worked in Spain, I am full of admiration for young children who are bilingual and succeed in an English-speaking school. We teach French throughout Key Stage Two and one change I would like to bring to the school is to offer more language clubs.

I truly believe this diversity is to be celebrated and I would love the children in our school to embrace the value and see the opportunities afforded to them if they can learn another language. I commemorated “European Language Day” in our assemblies last week and it has been lovely to be greeted in the corridors by smiling children saying “Buenos días”, “Bonjour”, “Ciao”, “Guten morgen” and “dzień dobry”. Their enthusiasm, friendliness and smiles add colour and sunshine to even the rainiest autumn day!

Miss Marie Lally 

Headteacher