Dear Parents/Carers 

I hope that your child has enjoyed the final week of term, with its Christmas lunches, PD Pantomime, HT quiz and joyful carol services. The singing at both St Mary’s Church and Holy Trinity Church was amazing, as was the Junior Orchestra; the children joined in with real enthusiasm and joy, and the prayers were so thoughtfully written. It was wonderful to be able to share both these occasions with so many of you too, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. Thank you for being part of such a great community! 

Each year, the Diocese invite schools to display a piece of work in the Cathedral at Christmas.  This year, for the first time, one of the entries was to be awarded a prize in memory of Deborah Drury who was an RE teacher at Send Primary School. The award was made by Deborah's husband and father-in-law.  We are very pleased to tell you that Holy Trinity Pewley Down won!  We are delighted that our prize is £100 to spend on RE resources.

The judges liked our work because: 

• It was bright as light should be.
• The star demonstrated that Jesus was not only human, but he is also God, who lit up the world when he was born.
• The synonyms for light, love and hope were well thought out.
• It was clear that the children had a major input into the display.
• It was clever how they made something 2D into 3D, including the ripple in the middle.

Here is our piece, created by Year 4, on display in the Cathedral. You can visit the exhibition right up until the end of January!

You’ll be so pleased to hear that our final contribution to Homestart Guildford was £410 – this will make such a difference to so many families. Thank you so much for your amazing generosity! Giving to such a great cause has been a really positive act of kindness.

This week we said farewell to Bridgit Beynon and Debbie Chadwick and celebrated their long years of service and dedication to HTPD. We need to announce another retirement; Alison Tester will be retiring at the end of January after more than 30 years at HTPD. She started her teaching career at Pewley Down Infant School and when the two schools federated, she moved across to Holy Trinity and has been a class teacher in every year group!

Finally, I’d like to pass on thanks from the staff team for your Christmas wishes and for all your support. We appreciate your kindness, your gifts to us and your partnership. We’re looking forward to a relaxing holiday – and are excited to look ahead to 2025! We’ll see you all on Tuesday 7 January. Until then, have a peaceful, hopeful and happy Christmas! 

Best wishes

Vicky

Thought of the Week: “Find the true meaning of Christmas” Jesus – the ultimate hero!