Dear Parents/ Carers  

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our staff, pupils and their families back from your Easter holidays and hope it was restful, and you enjoyed the lovely weather.

We had a very successful end of the term and pupils thoroughly enjoyed the end of term reward day. A big thank you to Mrs Osobo, for arranging the fun activities and all staff that made the day very special for our youngsters. Unfortunately, we could not go off site due to restrictions we were forced to impose but as promised it will be taking place early in this term. 

As always, the Summer term is packed full of exciting events such as residential trips, not only for our year six pupils but for several year groups, transition events for our year six pupils, sports day/s, outdoor activities, Larwood’s Got Talent, year 6 performance, end of term rewards, and plenty more.  

Our assembly schedule, to name a few, include:

• International dance day
• The Queens Platinum Jubilee 
• Good work assembly and more.....

I need to make you aware that we will be hosting parents' meetings this half-term, where class teams will share with you, your children’s progress, success and good work. You will have the option of meeting the teachers in person, by phone or virtually, more information will follow via email and class dojo.  

It is with great sadness that we say our farewells to our CEO, Mr Sean Trimble who will be retiring at the end of April. Mr Trimble has been a pillar of strength for Larwood school and our Trust and will be greatly missed. His commitment to doing his best for our pupils, parents, community, trustees and staff and the impact he has had on people’s lives are immeasurable. His drive, enthusiasm, and commitment to create opportunities influenced a great number of people. We wish you and your family well in your future endeavours, and you will be greatly missed  

BRING ON THE SUNSHINE! 

Mr Van  

Dear Parents/ Carers 

We had a good start to 2022 and as we head towards warmer weather, we start looking forward to planning more activities outdoors and hopefully looking at revising some of the restrictions that have been in place. Just to make you aware that no changes will be considered for the rest of this half-term and at the start of the next half-term.  

We celebrated Martin LK and Chinese New Year in January and in February we are looking forward to Valentines/ friendship and kindness and World thinking day assemblies. We are also very much looking forward to the February half-term that starts on Monday the 14th of February, pupils will be expected to return to school on Monday, 21st of February. 

It is with sadness that we are saying our farewells to two longstanding members of staff. Mrs Cox in our kitchen and Mrs Otero in Space Hub. I wish them well with their future endeavours. You will be missed. We are also welcoming to the Larwood team Ms. Courtney who has just joined our administration team.  

I wish you all a relaxed, safe and enjoyable half-term break   

Kind Regards  

Mr Van 
Headteacher 

It is with great pleasure to report that all our new and old pupils have settled in well. Our new pupils are getting used to their class teams, routines, and procedures. 

The end of term draws close as I write this update. At Larwood it’s still go go go go!

Go for bubble based Sports Day events.
Great to see small groups of parents supporting children. For some this may be the first Sports Day they have been allowed to participate in and the first one you have watched? Enjoy!

Go for end of term reports!
These will be sent to you electronically by the end of the week. Having had the pleasure of reading and signing all of them, there are some cracking reports to go home. Plus, amazing progress has been achieved in the most unusual and again challenging of years.

Go for school based trip day on Thursday 22nd July.
A number of activities that will help to round off the year and if course, lots of fun for all involved.

Go for our end of year goodbye to our Year 6 pupils and parents.
For many this year, we continue the relationship, and we will ‘see you down the road’ at Brandles. For others going to Special or mainstream, I will be just as keen to check up and see how you are getting on. Due to the pandemic, this will again be in a different format, but it will always be a very special day for us all.

The weeks are flying by and it is so much better having our pupils on site.

A strange consequence of the pandemic is that we do not have any pupils taking SAT’s, as they would have done up until the summer of 2019. This is the same for all primary aged children across the country. They didn’t happen last year, and they are not taking part this year either. We have reflected upon this, the process, the results and how useful they are for all involved. We have ended up drawing a fairly certain conclusion that they are not missed! They also do not give our pupils the chance to show how well they have done in other areas, such as key skills included in personal and social development. Therefore, next year, we will design our own tests that will continue to review key skills such as reading and maths, alongside others. We will plan for how best to deliver these and our teaching staff will be heavily involved in the process, with our pupils.

Possibly, the shortest blog message ever!