Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s been great to see the new year start to unfold. I’m excited for 2022 – it feels like an optimistic, hopeful new season. For me personally, I’m enjoying celebrating my daughter’s engagement and as a family we’re enthusiastically making plans for her summer wedding. Ellen was previously a child at HTPD and I’m still grateful that she learnt so much during her time here about who she was. Learning to live life in all its fullness has been at the heart of her growing up and I’m so thrilled that she’s found someone to share the next chapter with. I’m sure I’ll keep you updated over the coming months as I look forward to being “mother of the bride”!

As a school community we’re also feeling optimistic; we’re glad to be seeing covid infections locally start to reduce, and we are looking ahead to a fantastic term of opportunities. With new guidance meaning that self-isolation will be for only 5 full days, children’s attendance in school will be less disrupted (as long as your child has two negative lateral flow tests on day 5 and 6 they can return to school). Please do continue to keep them at home if they show any symptoms of covid, use lateral flow tests if you have household contacts, and do check with our office teams if you’re unsure about the guidance.

Our teacher teams are making the most of introducing their new topics; they’ve spent time thinking deeply about the needs of the children in their classes, and have planned for some super learning sequences. Do keep a close eye on the JTLYK pages each week so that you can be involved in supporting your child at home. It’s so much easier to start a conversation with “I see you’ve been looking at…” rather than asking “what did you learn today?”.

Our new term’s assembly series has also begun, albeit we’re meeting on Zoom for the time being. We’ll be using two key passages from the New Testament where we are encouraged to live as God intended us. From Ephesians 6 we look at the idea of putting on the full armour of God to face each of life's challenges. This seems particularly important as we emerge from a pandemic. Meanwhile, alongside this idea each week, a different fruit will help us to look at what living life to the full might be, as we consider the fruits of the Spirit described in Galatians 5; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Linking the fruit of the Spirit to different delicious fruits each week will also help us to think about being healthy in body, mind and soul. Which reminds me to reinforce our healthy snack rules! Remember we’re a nut-free school, we try to avoid sugary snacks and plastic wrappers, and we encourage children to eat healthily whenever we can. Take a look at the assembly slides each week on the website if you’d like to follow our fruit of the week ideas!

With love,
Clare

Thought of the week: Strawberry “Be real. Do you know who you really are?” 

WHOLE SCHOOL

Vacancy
We are recruiting for a new School Secretary / Administrator on the Holy Trinity site. Further details and an application pack for this vacancy appear on the school website and ETeach. This is a busy and varied role and the successful candidate needs to be able to multi-task cheerfully in busy, sometimes hectic and noisy office environment. Candidates should have excellent (high level) computer, secretarial and typing skills, including good working knowledge of Excel. SIMs knowledge an advantage, but not essential. Includes First Aid (training provided) responsibilities. Post is subject to enhanced DBS clearance. For further information, please email Bev on recruiting@htpd.surrey.sch.uk

Harrison Catering services are also recruiting for:
General Kitchen Assistant – 20 hours per week over 43.2 weeks at Pewley Down.
Chef Manager – 35 hours a week over 43.2 weeks to manage the Pewley Down kitchen, creating meals for 180 students a day and managing the site.
Anyone interested, or who knows of someone who may be interested, please contact Paul Thorne in the first instance: paul.thorne@harrisoncatering.co.uk.

INFANT

Parking
We have been contacted by the residents of Pewley Bank (the road that is adjacent to the school) about their concerns regarding parking. Can I remind you that this is a private road and that we are not able to use it at drop-off or pick-up. They do have a barrier, but hope not to have to use it. The volume of traffic is certainly a concern, especially as it is a pedestrian route that lots of families use - cars entering and leaving the road make it very challenging. Please can you find alternative parking, perhaps at the top of Pewley Hill. Thank you for being careful to keep the children safe on the route in and out of school.

Teacher-led clubs
We will continue to adapt the activities and teachers leading the clubs next week in order to reduce mixing of year groups. This is for a limited time while we are operating our outbreak management plan.

Menu: week 3 beginning Monday 17 January

JUNIOR

Dates for the Diary
Friday 28 January – Year 5 Trip to Winchester Science Museum

Clubs Updates
Monday Hockey Club – will finish at 4:15pm – please collect the children from the lower playground.
Friday 21 January - Tag Rugby Year 4 – CANCELLED

Sports/Fixtures Updates

PE kit in the Spring Term
It can be cold and wet on the pitch during PE and we urge children to wear appropriate clothing so they can fully take part in PE lessons, and also stay warm. A pair of trainers is essential, boots and school shoes worn in PE lessons can be dangerous as children can slip. Unisex Lyrca leggings are really effective in the colder months as they also stay dry for longer. You can buy these from Decathlon for under £10.00.

Holy Trinity fixtures and Clubs w/c 17/01 & 24/01
We have quite a few fixtures coming up and very sadly we are still missing netball and football kit, borrowed last term. If your child borrows school competition kit for fixtures against another school, please wash and return it to school asap so that another child can borrow it. All kit can be returned to the office. Thank you.

Wednesday 19 January - Y5 & Y6 are playing a hockey match v Barrow Hills after school at Holy Trinity. All Y5's and Y6's who currently come to Mary's club on a Monday are invited to play in these matches. Approximate finish time 4.30pm. Please feel free to come and spectate.

Thursday 20 January - There is a Y4 mini football tournament at Northmead.
Y4 Teams have been sent out on ParentMail.

Tuesday 25 January - Y5 Football club is CANCELLED

There is a football match v Boxgrove at Holy Trinity after school on Tuesday 25 January
Y5 teams have been sent out on Parentmail

Wednesday 26 January - Y5 Netball club is CANCELLED

There is a netball match v St Joseph's after school on Wednesday 26 January
Y5 & Y6 Teams have been sent out via Parentmail.

Lunch
Week 2 Menu Week commencing Monday 17 January

FOPS News

Hi all,

I hope you’ve all had a good start to term so far.

We are starting to plan our February fundraiser, which will be another sponsored read, following the success of last year's. More details to follow in the coming weeks.

In other news, while we are having a quieter period due to Covid restrictions please remember you can use easyfundraising to help us continue to raise vital funds for the school. When you shop via the easyfundraising website or app, with over 4,100 retailers, including John Lewis & Partners, eBay, Amazon and many more, you will raise FREE donations for the school.

If you’re not already registered, please visit our easyfundraising page here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fopd/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_content=s-e3

Happy weekend,

Kate – FOPS Chair