I had a wonderful time with Year 6 on their residential to PGL at Marchants Hill in Hindhead last week. Once again, we were lucky with the weather as the rain did not descend until the final day. The annual trip is an excellent life-changing event for Year 6 children and they usually come back far more independent than when they left. The children took part in a huge range of activities which promoted teamwork and resilience. Plus a few harness-based activities to test their bravery! A huge thank you once again to the staff; they came away from their own families and volunteered to spend the week with the children.  These events can not happen without the continued support and dedication of our teachers and teaching assistants and I'm incredibly grateful to them all.

Assembly this week was based on technology and a new running trainer from Nike that effectively makes you run faster and for much less effort.  With the older children, we discussed whether using technology just to make things easier for us is a good idea or not.  In many cases of course it is, our children hugely benefit from the accessibility options on their Chromebooks in school, but that running long distances and the training required developing key skills in humans such as resilience and commitment. I also started assemblies with our reception classes and this will now happen weekly. We looked at different kinds of shoes and worked out the purpose of each - they also saw the wide selection of shoes in my cupboard!

On Monday the Year 4 children enjoyed their trip to the cinema to see If.  However, the highlight of the week was our Year 5 trip to the Tower of London, but also the fact that the children were able to hand-deliver their letters on climate change directly to 10 Downing Street! The children were inspired by last week's assembly on Climate Change and wrote letters to our Prime Minister explaining what changes they would like to happen and to emphasise that these changes need to happen now to have the maximum impact.  Well done again to the Year 5 team for arranging such a wonderful opportunity, and to the children for their hard work in writing these powerful letters.

On Tuesday, we hosted our second Open Morning, which was very well attended. It was another great opportunity to celebrate all the wonderful opportunities we have on offer here at Poverest.  Thank you to the Year 6 children who acted as guides, and to the gymnasts who put on an amazing demonstration.  Our head girl and boy,  spoke eloquently about Poverest and were a real credit to us all.  If you know of families that missed the open mornings but would like to see the school, please ask them to just give us a call as we have some other times available for them.

Sadly, another reminder about our school street. We have had reports this week of blocking the road and parking or waiting over residents' driveways. Please, please, please be considerate of others when dropping off or picking up from school and use human power wherever you can to keep our environment safe and free from fumes – which is something our Year 5 children wished for in their letters. Our children's voices are very powerful and as adults we can all help to make the world a better place for them and future generations.

Many thanks, 

Mr Haylock