Head Master: Robert MacDonald, M.Ed., B.A.
Telephone: (01242) 522086
Email: hm@richardpate.co.uk
December 2009
Dear Parents,
The final fortnight of school has seen a number of highlights which included various musical and dramatic events. We enjoyed an excellent Suzuki concert which showcased our string players from Year 1 to Year 6. The choir acquitted themselves brilliantly at the Mayor’s Charity Concert held in the Town Hall. We were thrilled by the Prep Department’s wonderful Nativity Play, “Baby Jesus” for three days. The Nursery staged their first ever visit for parents and grandparents to join the children in the woodland for a special visit from Father Christmas. The choir will also be visiting the Sue Ryder Care Home and Dowty House Residential Care Home to share their lovely brand of Christmas cheer. As I write this newsletter we are in the final preparations for our Junior Department Carol Service which happens this evening at Cheltenham College Chapel with Acorns Children’s Hospice being the recipient for the retiring collection.
We have been equally busy on the Games front this term with children from Year 3 to Year 6 representing the school in Hockey, Rugby, Football and Cross Country. Our Under 11 girls’ hockey team have played exceptionally well and captured bronze in the recent County Championships. They missed out on gold medals by a single goal in the final match of the tournament. Our attentions now switch to Girls’ Netball and Boys’ Hockey for the Spring Term and we ask that Junior boys bring shin pads and a gum shield for their lessons and the Junior girls remember short white socks for netball. As always we ask that you take some time over the holidays to ensure that all kit is clearly named.
This term’s Maths Curriculum Focus has featured a number of exciting events as well. In Friday assembly we announced all the balloons which had arrived safely from our launch. In the end 42 balloons were found with the others suffering from their bio-degradable fate as the heavy rains took their toll. The winning balloon travelled 109.27 miles eventually reaching Basildon in Essex and that balloon belonged to Sarah Wynn in Year 6. We also enjoyed the many entries to our contest asking why numbers were so important and these quotes were some of our favourites:
Life simply would not add up without them.
They help us to work out the world around us.
They divide up our lives, add to our understanding of the world and multiply our fun.
and my personal favourite:
Without numbers I couldn’t phone my gran or my friends.
Without numbers I wouldn’t know how many stitches I’d dropped.
(This was clearly a member of our popular knitting club)
Next term our attention switches to Religious Studies and we look forward to more interesting revelations.
On a procedural note we have had some issues with people bringing their dogs to school and while I am a huge dog lover (with two of my own) I do appreciate that not everyone is as comfortable with dogs. For that reason I would ask that dogs are not brought on to the school grounds or into school without permission from me in the first instance.
May I also remind junior parents about the morning routine. At 8.45 a.m. the children are collected and taken into school via the back door which remains open until 8.55 a.m. for any late comers. Children arriving after this time should come in via the front door.
I have had the following request from the ladies who run our second-hand uniform shop. They will not be taking in any more uniform until further notice except for good quality, clean winter coats, gloves, jumpers, hats, scarves and large sweatshirts. The shop will be open again on Monday 11th January at 3.30 p.m.
Miss Wright was very pleased with the outcome of our latest book fair and would like to send a huge thank you to everyone who came out in support of this important fixture in our calendar. With your help we have raised £980 which has been spent to support our classroom libraries here at school.
The PTA have been incredibly busy this term as well and we owe them a huge thank you for staging a wonderful Christmas lunch for all 304 children as well as the staff on Friday. It was a great credit to all the volunteers and our superb catering team that the lunch went so smoothly and was so well received. We also enjoyed what was one of our most successful Christmas Fayre events ever. It was incredibly well organised and many people commented on the excellent variety on offer. The PTA raised £2,213.28 and that money will go directly back to the school and your children. I want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who put so much effort into the event and particularly the hard working members of the committee. In addition we would like to thank those who donated the wonderful prizes which raised a considerable amount for our raffle.
Many of our Year 6s took part in the grammar school exams this November and it was one of the most competitive selection processes on record. In the end we had 38 children sitting the exam from Richard Pate and 27 of those have reached the qualifying score for one of the Gloucestershire grammars. We had nine children pass for Pate’s with two missing by a single point. State school places will be offered on the 1st March but in the meantime we have a number of Independent Senior School exams to come. Our children performed very well on the recent King’s Gloucester academic scholarship exams with six children being offered generous awards. I am incredibly proud of our Year 6s for the way they have handled this challenging process and feel confident that they will do us all proud in their senior schools next September and beyond.
We would also like to draw your attention to our new password for accessing the Gallery photos on our website. There are a number of new additions to the website including the Nativity play and the Christmas lunch. If you would like a high resolution photo to print or download simply click on the picture and type in the new username and password, which can be found in the printed version of this newsletter.
All that remains is for me to wish you season’s greetings and a very happy New Year.
Yours sincerely,
R. MacDonald
Headmaster