Newsletter 9.2.24
Dear Parents,
It’s national story telling week, which is a celebration of the art of storytelling and the power of stories to connect, entertain and inspire everyone. Storytelling was a huge part of my Irish culture growing up and I still remember the ghost stories my older brothers and sister used to tell, when we made tents with our blankets late at night and sat huddled underneath with a small torch for light. This anticipation of what was going to happen was palpable under the soft, low glow of the torch and I hung on every word they said!
I had the joy myself this week of reading to the children in the Creative Learning Hub at breaktime. As one of the guest readers, I got to set the scene for a spooky story of my own- the Purple Gorilla and it was so much fun. Seeing children from Year 3 all the way up to Year 8’s sitting and listening intently to a story was fantastic.
Love was in the air for 1ES’s assembly where we met the love monster and the children told us about what love means to them. They were so cute and it was all about the family, but one that stood out to me was Arabella’s which involved her pet mouse. At the end of assembly, I like to say well done to each of the children, and when I got to Arabella I asked her about said mouse and she told me it is called Lily. I asked if she keeps Lily in a cage in her bedroom or somewhere else and she looked at me like I was mad…. ‘no silly, Lily lives outside in the garden’! Apparently, Lily is a wild mouse whom she has befriended and who she sometimes lets come into the house and who tickles her nose. She was so excited to tell me all of this that I still don’t know whether her chat is real or not! It was superb listening to her though for the funny factor!
We ended the week with 3C’s class assembly about Chinese New Year and I will be heading up to London on the 10th for the Chinese New Year Festival which is always lovely. Then we had a special assembly to say goodbye to our lovely Ukrainian pupil Aliona, who is leaving Holmewood with her mum to join her father and brother in Poland. I am sad to be saying goodbye, but I am also so excited that her family will be together again. I am so proud that we were able to have Aliona at our school and a huge thanks goes out to the Sheppards for all they have done- it was a community effort- home and school working together. I did say to Aliona- once a Holmewoodian, always a Holmewoodian’ and she will be forever in our hearts.
Happy Friday everyone,
Ruth
