Dear Parents,

Since the last newsletter there has been a crescendo of activities across the school which are detailed in the separate news items; please do read them to see what we have been up to. Many of the highlights have certainly been of a festive nature, and as I sat working, a little blurry eyed from the school disco on Tuesday night, I was surrounded by the activity of the PTA busily setting up the Christmas Fair and the kitchen staff chopping, roasting and boiling in preparation for another delicious Christmas lunch. Mr Blackman began to present his talk for the pupils on ‘The future of high visibility jackets’, until he was very entertainingly interrupted by the beginning of the staff pantomime. I feel that I must also mention the superb and very moving Early Years Nativity, ‘Angel Express’ and again express my thanks to the children and the staff.

As always music has played a prominent part in recent weeks and I was delighted with the performance of senior choir at The Spirit of Christmas, and of course the impressive list of winners in the carol competition. My thanks go to those performers who joined with the residents of two local care homes to celebrate over festive singing.

Festivities aside the pupils have been setting the world of maths on fire! Mrs Digby has separately written about the extraordinary achievements in the Primary Mathematics Challenge and the Bebras Challenge where we are delighted to have pupils going through to the next round of the national competition. Good luck to them!

As the term comes to a close I would wish to thank parents for their support of the opportunities for learning, creating, enquiring, performing and playing that have been in abundance this term. I would like to thank all staff for their considerable enthusiasm and commitment and wish you all the best for a very happy and restful break. We say goodbye to Mrs May and Mrs Constable Maxwell as she begins her new adventures and takes an opportunity to travel. I am delighted to welcome Mrs Amy Williamson, a former teacher who will be joining our inclusion team as a higher level teaching assistant.

Kind regards

Tracy Handford

Head of Dame Bradbury's and Vice Principal, 3-11

Read more news from Dame B's

Sports Roundup

The Autumn term came to a close with the U11 boys football teams visiting SPF ahead of the Christmas break. Both our A and B teams played extremely well winning their games. It was great to see the boys, many of whom will no doubt be seeing a lot more of one another as they progress in the Foundation next year playing in such good spirit.

A highlight of the sporting year for many  (well me) is the Parents v Pupils afternoon of sport where our Year 5 and 6 pupils take on their loved ones in both netball and tag rugby. With the parents dominating in recent years the same was apparent this year! The tag rugby games were played in great spirit and some fine handling was shown by the more “experienced” players on the pitch. That said, the pupils managed to win the majority of their games putting them in a promising position on the score sheet. It appeared however, the parent netball teams were far less forgiving and showed no mercy racking up a number of comfortable victories against the pupils. Final score was 67-43 in favour of our parents. It was a fantastic afternoon of fun and certainly the most well attended event in years, so many thanks to our amazing parents who kindly gave up their time to be involved.

We look forward to another busy term after Christmas and on behalf of all of the PE team, we wish you all a very peaceful and relaxing festive break.

Keep up to date with the latest goings on within the sports department by following us on Twitter @ DBS_Sport.

See the full Dame B's calendar here

Notices

SIMS Parent App

Over the last few weeks we’ve rolled out the Parent App to enable you to update details more easily. You should have received a SIMS Online Services Invite. If you experience any issues with using the app, please contact Neil Williams, our Data Manager datamanager@stephenperse.com and he will help you.