Hi everyone,
Another fantastic BSPS! I cannot thank you enough for all your wonderful support and kind words during our fabulously successful 17th year. And all the cards and flowers and naughty chocolates given to us all on the last day of school were a lovely surprise.
This year was particularly good with a higher number of children overall. 95% of children come to us through word of mouth, and I think that is soooooo fantastic! Every day was amazing and the art work even more impressive than last year.
The team (mostly family and people I have known for many years) are one of the biggest reasons why the school works so beautifully. They are dedicated, clever, funny, caring and above all they really enjoy and are interested in your children. Cecilia, Pat and I are all mothers, so that certainly helps, but the others are also nice happy people who put the children’s needs first. Another reason why the school is a success is, of course, you and your children. So, THANK YOU again and again for continuing to support us by sending your children year after year.
I hope you noticed the lovely beach scene paintings hanging on the wall. They were to be auctioned on our last day, but we didn’t get around to doing that. Gilbert Giggles, our regular highly skilled dellusionist of disaster, who came to entertain the children on our last day, rather took over our thoughts and we just simply forgot to do it! However, the pictures are for sale @ a starting price of £40. All profits will go to my favourite charity ‘Teenage Cancer Trust’. They were designed and sketched out by Pamela Lloyd-Jones, a local portrait specialist, and the children (mainly the 5 - 7 age group) carried out the job of painting them. Pamela came in one day and helped them along by finishing off the wobbly edges - and they look absolutely fantastic. Three are already sold! Don't wait any longer and choose yours here.
Packed Lunches this year - BEAUTIFUL!!! So thank you all for making the effort to be part of our Healthy Schools eating policy. It really is important that whilst your children are in my care they eat good healthy food. As you know we only give the children organic apples, carrots, raisins, apple juice and water throughout the day.
Once again the dressing up corner is one of the biggest ‘wows’ for the children. To make it even better, I have a request. If any of you have any old dressing up clothes I will swap them with a new toy or new book for your child. I especially need boys clothes, and in particular clothes for the Super-Hero’s (Spiderman especially) and for Disney characters (Snow White especially).
There will be a few changes for next year and I thought I might give you a taster of what to expect. We will keep the Raspberries (3 - 4 years), and the Strawberries (5 - 6 years) but will add a group called ‘Mini Tops.’ They will be the older 6 and 7 year old children who will spend the first two hours inside and then go out for lunch and an activity. The activities will be sports based and will be within the locality of Barnes. I am thinking along the lines of Football training, Cricket, Tennis, Swimming. These will be small groups of 8 with 2 staff. Your feedback is most welcome, so do let me know by email if you have any thoughts on that. Also, we have decided that 8 years old has to be the starting age for Big Toppers, giving us the opportunity to make their journeys even more adventurous. Finally, we are also planning to team up with a local drama/music group for drama workshops for the Strawberries and the Mini Toppers, so watch this space!
I hope the rest of your summer will be fun and I look forward to seeing you again next year. I will write around June time, but until then, please check the website for updates.
Much love to you all!
Yvonne Wake