“At Acremont this week, the Hall has been bedecked with paper lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year. Mr Logan, Mrs Harnwell and the Kitchen Team put on a fabulous array of dishes for our Chinese Banquet. With wonderfully carved fruit sculptures, colour was certainly a key theme of the menu, and the children were in awe of their dessert choices!
“I would also like to thank our King’s Ely Gardening Team for their supportive oversight at Acremont. We are very fortunate to have a school playground that is also a sizeable garden of wide spaces to run around, little nooks to make dens in, and charming playhouses for imaginative role-play. It is also a carefully curated space for specimen trees. I am pleased therefore, that Mr Temple and his Team have been able to replace our mighty Oak Tree that was dying, with a similar variety, and the much-loved Apple Tree, whose branches snapped during the very dry days of the summer holiday, has also been replaced this week. As one of Ms Gervasio’s Forest School projects, she and Mr Temple are creating an Acremont Garden guide, which will detail the planting dates and record the names and locations of our trees. As part of our outdoor learning, the children will then be able to identify and describe the trees. In our fast-paced and increasingly urban lives, ‘tree spotting’, as with birds or flowers, feels like valuable knowledge not to be missed out on.
“Thank you enormously to parents who joined us for our ‘top tips’ Maths and Phonics Evening on January 26th. This was an informal event aimed at supporting children at home with their learning, and it was wonderful, given our experiences over the last few years, to also socialise together again as a parent community. I look forward to seeing parents again at our ‘Book Share Afternoon’ on Thursday 9th February, from 2.15pm. This is a much-anticipated event for the children to welcome their parents into their classrooms. They are very proud of their achievements, and this is an exciting opportunity to share their endeavours.
“On January 27th, Ms Gervasio and Mrs Strudwick met with Year 2 parents at the ‘At Home’ meeting. Thank you to those who were able to join us online and in person for a cup of coffee (and a King’s cookie!) to discuss matters concerning the children. Our transition programme for joining Year 3 at King’s Ely Junior is already a key focus for Ms Gervasio and Mr Everest. The first part of the programme is a visit to our Year 2 classrooms by Mr Everest on Tuesday 7th February. We look forward to detailing these key events with you in the coming weeks. Next week, Mrs Strudwick looks forward to chatting with Nursery 1 and Nursery 2 parents at the ‘At Home’ meeting, which will take place on Friday 3rd February from 9am.
“With best wishes for a relaxing and happy weekend.”