Dear Parents

Well there is no other topic in town than the Euros, so we start by saying what a surprise it was to us all that it was France vs Scotland in the final! Of course, we're not talking about the inferior competition in Germany, but the vastly superior one in our school playground! Well done to France, who were worthy champions following a great goal in open play and then a wonderful penalty, both scored by Luca! His dedication was so profound that he missed the legendary semi-final of England vs Netherlands on Wednesday evening as he knew he had a big match in the morning and needed an early night. What an absolute superstar! The level of sportsmanship and skill was so impressive from both teams and all the players were eagerly cheered on by the rest of the school. It was a brilliant event, superbly organised by Miss Wakeling and Miss Heseltine and it has really united the children as over 120 of them took part in the competition over the last few weeks. We are so proud of them all, well done! We hope their collective positivity and enthusiasm lifts the nation to victory on Sunday, but whatever the result, we will celebrate the incredible achievement of our national team on Monday, when we look forward to seeing your red and white outfits, or any England kits!

In other sporting news, we are very proud of our Year 2 Cricket finalists, who played in the 3 Tees County Finals in Colchester today. I had the pleasure of watching some of their games  during the day and was so proud to see their skills on display, they played so well! Although the team didn't win overall, to have made it into the last stage of the competition against so many other Essex schools is such an impressive result! Huge congratulations to them all.

Our final piece of sports news concerns Mrs Wingate, who was a very deserving winner at the Chelmsford School Sport Partnership Awards which recognised her tireless volunteering for our school. Not only has Lindsay chaired our PTA, she also gives up her time to help run our cheerleading squad and her expertise in dance meant that she choreographed their routines too! We are incredibly lucky to have her support and are so delighted that she has received rightful recognition for her dedication to our school.

On Wednesday morning all children were involved in our Class Swap Day, when they all moved up to their new classroom with their new teacher for the morning. The children were very excited and are now ready to begin their next adventure in September. We will of course be sad to say goodbye to our Year 2s who are moving up to the Junior School, but they will have a very special celebration assembly next Thursday morning and an exciting afternoon of treats to follow! We were also sorry to say goodbye to Miss Palmer, our trainee teacher in Parrots, who the children have absolutely adored this year. We wish her the very best luck as she begins her teaching career in a local school and we hope to see her again soon!

All our year group trips are now complete, with our Foxes and Squirrels just returning from a great trip to Hylands Park for the day. We look forward to hearing all about it next week! We have one more special assembly next Wednesday with a visit from the Essex Fire Service to talk to the children about water safety which is especially important at this time of year.

As next week is our last week in school, can I please ask that all children return their reading books, as it's really important that we have complete sets of books ready for the next academic year. Please also bring a named carrier bag to school so that every child can take home their things from the classroom.

It's a big weekend, we will be keeping everything crossed, but no matter what happens, enjoy the atmosphere and let's hope it's coming home!!

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson