Penshurst has been jingling all the way to the weekend this week as our productions are underway. My favourite part of this week was attempting to greet all of the Nursery parents whilst 40+ 3-4 year olds tried to get the attention of their mums and dads behind me. Seeing all of the nativity characters really brought back memories of being a little girl in primary school and what a wonderful time (for most) this is.  

Alongside this, we held Christmas Jumper day on Thursday which was a delight to see. What a wonderful variety of attire we have to choose from now for the festive period. Often, our faves are the ones that we can see have been lovingly made by families together at home. We would always encourage these, especially in these difficult financial times.  

Another lovely sight was as I drove back down Winthorpe Road after attending a meeting offsite this week, see the Reception pupils trundling to the Post Office on their annual trip to deliver their Christmas lists to Santa. Fingers crossed he gets to read them all in time for the big night! 

Mrs Smith encouraged pupils to cycle or scoot to school this week as we held our annual Bling Your Bike event. The hot chocolate and festive cheer were flowing! 

Finally, the PFA held their annual Christmas Movie Night for Years 3-6, at which our pupils could enjoy a showing of Home Alone – possibly the best Christmas movie of all time.  

Speaking of Christmas (a lot!), we have received a few emails expressing the disappointment at only one parent being able to attend the Years 4-6 Christmas production at the church. I must stress that this is a restriction that has been enforced by the church and not the school. We have 207 pupils in the production and initially, the church stipulated 150 in the audience. We managed to negotiate one per family but they will not accommodate more for safety reasons. We were only told this recently which is why we have been unable to explore other options such as additional productions. Should this be the case next year, we will have more time to look into the possibility of extra events etc. Thank you for your understanding. 

Polite reminder: Children in Reception year, Year 1 and Year 2 should enter the school in a morning via their classroom doors, and children in Key Stage 2 should enter via the KS2 doors. The doors at the side of the main school reception will not be open. I will reiterate this in an assembly but would be grateful if you could please inform your child of this so that they are not stood waiting. Thank you.  

With the run up to Christmas, there are many families accessing the Disney+ app to watch films.  As with any apps, there are potential risks.  

Please see attached more information on what to look out for. 

Have a wonderful weekend and as always, I look forward to seeing you next week.  

Mrs Preston

Head of School