Welcome back to school and the start of the autumn term. I would like to extend a warm welcome to families who have joined us at Straits Primary School this September. Mr Wade and I have been ‘visiting’ classrooms and have been impressed with the children’s successful start to the school year: they all seem to have settled well and we’ve witnessed some very smart children with some great learning behaviour.

We have been busy during the holidays and I hope you have noticed some of the changes – we have a new hall and dining room roof, a new dining room floor and new toilets in Year 1. Our plans for the coming year (and part of our fundraising efforts) will be to develop and create a new library area.

We have welcomed new members of staff to Straits this September: Mr Scullion (Year 6), Miss Dyson (Year 5), Mrs Riley (Year 2) and Mrs Dakin (Year 1). In addition to this, Miss James and Miss Naylor married during the holidays and will now be known as Mrs Leavesley (3L) and Mrs Cooper (5C).

You will also recall that we previously shared information with you regarding our ‘healthy breaktimes’ policy. We ask that children eat a healthy snack at breaktime. This could be a piece of fruit or vegetable, a cereal bar, a yoghurt or crackers and cheese. The items we will be asking our children not to eat at breaktimes are crisps or chocolate bars; please do not send these into school as your child’s breaktime snack.

We are busy preparing a range of exciting activities and events and will soon be issuing our autumn term calendar as well as our autumn term curriculum newsletters.  We have an ‘open door’ policy at Straits and if you do need to speak to a member of staff about an issue, please make an appointment for the end of the school day so that we can allow dedicated time to discuss any concerns.

Please also remember to check the parent hub app, the school website and follow our Facebook page – this will ensure that you are able to take an active role in school life and plan busy family lives.