Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to all of you. I hope that you had a restful and enjoyable break with your families. It was lovely to spend some quality time with my own children who were so excited about Christmas. One of my personal holiday highlights (not the Ashes) was watching a pantomime in Aylesbury starring the legendary Su Pollard! I hope that 2018 proves to be a healthy and successful year for you all.

Assembly

It was lovely to welcome all the children back to school on Thursday and despite the dark and the drizzle they all seemed in good spirits and happy to be returning to school. In assembly we talked about our New Year’s Resolutions and the goals we are going to be aiming for this year. A number of the children said they were going to be kinder to their siblings so let me know how that goes! We talked about the qualities expected of Belmontians: to be kind, to try their best and to embrace challenge. I also asked the children to consider adopting a more positive mindset in 2018 and to consider a glass as half full rather than half empty.

This term will see the return of the Belmont Jukebox Challenge, where teachers have a song of their choice played at the start of assembly and the children have to guess the song and the teacher who selected it. To get them warmed up I read out some song lyrics and quotes from a book. The aim was to see if the children recognised them but also if they could identify the qualities encouraged within the words. I wonder if you will be able to spot them as well?

Quotes from the book:

“When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.”

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.”

Song 1

The colours of a rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shaking hands saying ‘How do you do?’

Song 2

I won’t give up, no I won’t give in

‘Til I reach the end and then I’ll start again

I wanna try even though I could fail

I’ll keep on making those new mistakes

I’ll keep on making them every day

New Belmont Staff Welcome

We welcomed some new staff this week. Miss Timishka Williams takes over as 5MS form tutor and she received a warm welcome form the children in assembly. In the school office, we have a job share between Mrs Marcella Griso (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) and Mrs Kerry Mitchell (Thursday and Friday). We wish them all the very best in their new roles.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

With best wishes,

Leon Roberts