Dear Howley families,

Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a super summer!

This week has been one of the very best starts to a new school year we have ever had. It was lovely to see everyone on Tuesday. There were lots of lovely smiles (families as well as children and staff!) as we opened the doors. I am glad to say those smiles have continued all week. The children have settled into their new classes and are already impressing their teachers with their hard work, positive attitudes and indeed their very smart uniforms – thank you all for your support with these, we really do appreciate it.

I must give a special mention to our new Reception children who joined us this week. It has been so lovely to welcome them and their families to our school. I have been popping in to say hello and they have all been simply amazing, happily playing and getting to know new friends and their teachers. Starting school is a huge event and we are so very proud of them all.

I know that this September has brought in changes and thank you all for your support with the Arbor app and different dinner ordering system. The new catering team have worked hard to get everything up and running in the kitchen and the children are getting used to the in-school system too. I will admit to finding the apple crumble and custard a little too tempting yesterday-it was delicious! Our office team are working so hard to adapt to Arbor, our new information management system. We are sure it will be a more effective system for us all, but it is understandably taking time for us to get used to it and learn all it can do. Thank you for your patience during these initial stages.

I will be back in touch soon with updates on some of the school developments that took place over the summer break, upcoming dates for this term and our plans to continue our improvement journey throughout this academic year. In the meantime, I would like to wish you all a lovely, restful weekend and look forward to seeing you all next week.

Best wishes,

Miss Lewis