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Posted on: 3/09/2018

Autumn Term 2018

Welcome back everyone to a new academic year.   I hope you all have had a fantastic summer and enjoyed the sunny days with family and friends.  We are looking forward to getting back into the swing of school life.   We started off the academic year with two busy INSET days.  On Monday we kicked off with our Fordwater Values training.  The staff worked together to look at different Values that matter to us as individuals, groups and at an organisational level. Through group activities and workshops we discussed the importance of a shared Value based Culture and Identity at Fordwater.   At the end of the day we came up with 6 Values that we now identify as our Core Fordwater Values: Fun, Respect, Achievement, Independence, Fairness and Understanding.  We are excited to work on these Values over the course of the year.   Our 2nd training day ensured staff are up to date with important statutory training including Safeguarding, Universal Medical Precautions, E-Safety and Sensory Processing.   We welcome 2 new SSA’s, Charlotte and Danielle, to the school.  We welcome Roy, our new Governor (see Governor’s Page) alongside our new Clerk to the Governors, Carol.  Vicky Oliver-Catt has now started in post as our new Deputy Head.  She is looking forward to meeting with you over the coming months.   We have many exciting things on the horizon this year including working on developing our Curriculum and assessment, amongst many other initiatives.   Autumn is always a really busy term at school with lots of exciting things to look forward to including Harvest Service, Jeans for Genes, Duke of Edinburgh residential and everything that comes with Christmas.   Look out for our weekly newsletter that will be sent to you on Parentmail giving you our highlights for the week and any important dates that are upcoming.  The pupils will this week name the newsletter and we hope to introduce this communication within the next few weeks.   I am delighted to be starting another exciting year at Fordwater and have no doubt we will have a great year full of joy and achievement.   As always please contact me, Kathryn or Vicky if you have any questions.   Sophie