It has been a busy week at the end of an extremely busy year. Of course, the core purpose of the school remains the everyday delivery of an ambitious curriculum to support the children’s learning but it is worth taking a moment to reflect on some of the achievements of the past year.
In October, the school was inspected by Ofsted for the first time since 2008. We were pleased with the outcome of the report as it acknowledged the strengths of the school while also understanding the journey the school is on.
In December, after much hard work by children and staff, all year groups put on Christmas shows for parents and grandparents. It was a lovely festive celebration and a chance to showcase the children’s musicality.
In February, the school hosted our first ever, whole -school Museum Day. The opportunity to tour the school and see the children’s work in their Thematic subjects was readily accepted by parents and it was great to have so many visitors. The children loved sharing their work with parents and talking about the various topics they have covered.
As well as the above, the children have been on lots of visits and trips with many year groups using public transport to take advantage of our proximity to London. Year One have been to the Science museum, Year Two visited The Monument and various London Landmarks, Year Five went to The Tower of London and the Science Museum and Year Six went to the British Museum and The Natural History Museum. Elsewhere, Year Three became Stone Age people for a day and visited RHS Wisley (see more here: https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/year-3/atwood-year-3-visit-rhs-wisley ). Year Four camped on the field (despite the rain) and visited the Hindu Temple. Even Reception made it out to Godstone Farm. There have also been coach trips to the beach, The Horniman Museum and many local trips. We are ever grateful to parents who help us on these trips. Thank you!
The children in Year 5 and 6 continued the Atwood tradition of building on their Camp Atwood experience with residential visits to Carroty Wood and Stubbers Adventure Park.
The children have enjoyed considerable sporting success with great seasons for the boys’ and girls’ football teams and the netball team. There was a strong showing at Cross Country events and some excellent performances at the Croydon Athletics. We hosted (at Whitgift High School) our first ever invitational swimming gala and took the opportunity to compete in a number of trust-wide tournaments with other Pegasus schools.
There has also been the usual array of special events through the school year. The dad’s breakfast saw a huge turnout. We were treated to a brilliant performance of The Jungle Book by Year 6. The sun shone for Sports Day and the Reception classes enjoyed their Fun Day. There have been various fundraising events for the school’s chosen charities culminating in a hugely productive afternoon last Thursday raising over £2000.
FOAP have continued their fantastic fundraising efforts for the school with fireworks, fairs and various other activities. In addition to many smaller pledges that that have been completed, we look forward to unveiling a brand new climbing frame for the playground in September. There is also another exciting project in the pipeline. The school is indebted to all the volunteers who give their time to support the school.
We have also continued a programme of refurbishment and upgrades throughout the school. Some of you will have noticed the new doors by the reception that, along with new radiators, insulation and an improved heating system will help to keep the children warm in the winter. Four key stage two classrooms have been completely refurbished and the Year One communal space has been redesigned to improve access and create a better learning environment. Internal office spaces have been repurposed and improved to create spaces for teachers to work when not in class and new fire doors were fitted to the hall to allow us to gather as a whole school more regularly. In total, the Trust have invested over £50,000 in capital projects to improve the school buildings. Many of you won’t know him (although you may have seen him around) but we are extremely grateful to Mr Hill, our facilities manager, who works tirelessly with contractors to make all these projects happen.
Although I am sure there are things that I’ve missed, when you look back and write it all down it amounts to a great year at Atwood. It is to the credit of all staff that the school is able to offer so many great opportunities for the children and I would like to put on record my thanks to them all.
On a personal note, it has been lovely to get to know the children, staff and families that make up our community. I would like to thank everyone for welcoming me so warmly and for helping me to settle in. I wish you all a restful summer and I look forward to seeing everyone back in September refreshed and ready for another exciting year.
On a final note…
It is with sadness that I inform you that Mr Beaumont will be leaving us. He has decided to pursue some exciting alternative opportunities that have come his way. We are sorry to see him go but we wish him all the best in his new ventures.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Please check because new dates are being added below
- Wednesday 4th September: First day of autumn term.
