Welcome back everyone and what a great start to the year! I do hope that you took the time to read the September newsletter over the weekend.

I am delighted to see all the students back to Chantry after the summer break. They look so smart in their uniforms. A special thank you to all the parents for making this happen. I do appreciate the work and money that goes into this. Our first value of the term was responsibility and I reinforced to the students about the need to take responsibility for their uniform. If they lose it in school they need to look for it and we need to encourage others if they find it with a name in it, to return it to it’s rightful owner. I would be grateful if you could reinforce this with your children at home.

A very warm welcome to our new students and parents in Year 5. Year 5 spent the day at Kirkley Hall last Wednesday engaging in a number of team building exercises and making new friends. Thank you to Ms Clark and Mrs Irving for organising this. As I write this blog the students are participating in Road Safety workshops – again the children have been reminded about the need to use the Green Cross Code and use the crossing patrol at the bottom of the drive if they are walking down into Morpeth. I also asked in the newsletter that parents do not use the drive and park sensibly on Mitford Road. I would be very grateful if you could support me in this matter, as health and safety on the school campus and around it are very important to us.

Our value for last week was reflection and the children were asked to carefully consider what they would like to achieve this academic year – this might be to do their best in their end of year tests or to learn a new skill at a club in school. I do hope that they will work hard to achieve this.

On Friday, it was fabulous to invite Ian Lavery, our MP, into school. He spoke to the students about his work at Westminster. He was very impressed with the questions that the students with subjects from Jeremy Corbyn to the migrant crisis discussed. The students asked questions very clearly with maturity – well done. He presented badges to those students who have been elected to our Student Parliament. Congratulations to;

The Student Parliament will meet on a regular basis with Mr Shaw and Mr Nicholson. I look forward to hearing about some of the things they think would make Chantry , an even better school!

I am sure that we have a fantastic year ahead with many highlights to come!

With kind regards

Steven Johnson