End of Term Letter

Dear Parents,

This has been a long and very busy term, with many events to celebrate our Diamond Jubilee.

Topics
	Residential Visits		Charities
	Key Stage 2 Sats		Bright Sparks
	FSDF Events		Diamond Jubilee
	Sports		Looking Ahead
	Language Challenge		...And Finally

Residential visits

At the start of the term children in J2 enjoyed a residential visit to the Robinwood centre in Cumbria, taking part in a variety of challenging activities and team building exercises.
Our second residential visit took place just before the half term break when J4 pupils visited Rhoscolyn, Anglesey. They combined scientific and geographical studies with adventurous activities such as coasteering, kayaking and the Tyrolean, an activity which entailed crossing a chasm in a “boatswain’s chair”!
Thank you to Mrs Burns, Ms Roach, Mrs Davies, Mrs Lawrenson and Mr Sheppard, who gave generously of their time to enable these visits to take place. Click any picture below to enlarge:

Key Stage 2 SATS

J4 took part in the national tests for Key Stage 2 children (SATS) and gained the following excellent results:

Congratulations to all of J4!

FSDF (Firs School Development Fund) Events

The second half of the term saw two major FSDF events. The first was the splendid Diamond Jubilee Ball at the Grosvenor Hotel, Chester, which raised over £1500 for the Tsunami appeal and an amazing £7000 for The Firs!
The second event was the Fabulous Forties Fun Day, held in glorious sunshine. This was a wonderful family occasion, good fun was had by all and the day raised £2500. A huge thank you to Michelle Ellis and all of the FSDF (Firs School Development Fund) for their hard work and commitment.

Sports

Sport at The Firs continues to develop, with club activities for both infants and juniors including: football, tag rugby, cricket, athletics, ball sports and cross country practice and a full programme of sport within the curriculum.
Junior children have taken part in matches and tournaments, including girls’ football, tag rugby and handball. I am sure that you will be delighted to know that we are the Chester schools’ handball champions!
Thank you to Alison Cheshire for all her hard work and enthusiasm, and to everyone who has helped with after school clubs in any way. Click any picture below to enlarge:

Our sports days went very well, even though we had to use our reserve date for the Junior sports! The results were:

Language Challenge

Both ancient and modern languages have continued to thrive this term with French and Latin as part of the curriculum and a very popular Spanish club run by Mrs Rodriguez!

Junior children have also had the opportunity to learn Portuguese as part of the Junior Language Challenge, a national competition which combines skills in ICT and modern foreign languages. I am delighted to tell you that seven of our pupils have reached the semi finals and now have to learn Japanese for the next stage of the competition! Congratulations to our linguists, who should be rightly proud of their achievements and to Mrs Wilcock for preparing and supporting the children so well!

Charities

This term we have raised £270 for Macmillan Cancer Care, £270 for Action Research and £1000 so far for OXFAM as part of the Make Poverty History campaign. Thank you to Mrs Johnson and the J3 helpers, to J4 for organising excellent charity fund raising activities and to Mrs Davies for all her hard work organising monthly collections for K. Azariah in India.
Thank you all for your generosity and continued support for all our charity fund raising events. Click the images below to enlarge:

Bright Sparks

We are very proud to have been part of the Bright Sparks initiative for gifted and talented children! This term the focus was dance and pupils enjoyed Indian dance workshops led by Mrs Sharma. Thank you to Mrs Scott for all her work as Bright Sparks co-ordinator for The Firs, and to all the staff who have supported Bright Sparks’ events over the course of the year.

The Diamond Jubilee!

The Firs Diamond Jubilee children’s party was held on 20th June. We released celebratory balloons, one of which reached Bradford, West Yorkshire and enjoyed a delicious cake made especially for us by Mrs Smith of J1.
We have recorded a Diamond Jubilee CD featuring Top Infants, J4, the Junior, Chamber and Parent’s choirs, Mrs Hunt and her daughter, Olivia and some of our instrumentalists. The CD should be available in October. Thank you to Mrs Arran and to everyone who gave generously of their time and musical talents!

Our service of celebration and thanksgiving took place on Thursday 14th July at 2.15 in Chester Cathedral, as you can see from this letter, we have much to celebrate and be thankful for and I do hope that you will be able to join us for this very special occasion.

Looking Ahead

I have been very happy to receive many positive comments about our revised school lunch menus. Thank you to Mrs Patino Pan and all the kitchen staff.

Our next inspection by the Independent Schools Inspectorate will take place in March 2006, and plans are well under way for our kindergarten class which will open in September 2006.

As usual the summer break will see a full programme of work, including the refurbishment of the J3/J4 block, many thanks to Mr Sheppard and all the estate team for everything they do, both in term time and out of it!

And finally…

I would just like to thank all the staff for their hard work and support and to join them in wishing you all a very happy and restful holiday.

M A Denton

Headteacher