Dear Children,
How are you? I hope that you are all safe and well. Well what a strange year it has been. I have been looking back at all the photographs that I have taken of you all over the last year -the magic moments that we have had together. Usually we would look at them in church on the last day but of course we can’t this year. I will save them for you and we will all look at them together when you come back in September.
I wonder—what do you remember about this year? What can you remember from before school closed for a while? Although I have been sad not seeing you all, there are lots of magic moments from the year which make me smile when I remember them.
Do you remember our new Reception starting school? Many of them will be your brothers and sisters. Do you remember how little they were and how lovely they looked in their Cradley uniforms?
Do you remember in September when lots of you picked apples from the school trees? I have many pictures of you doing that—lots of you are sitting on the shoulders of your grown ups or climbing the trees! (which is usually not allowed!) What about the maths challenge? You all worked really hard to learn your timestables and number bonds and raised lots of money for Gairo B. Do you remember when we thought about the value of justice and talked about this during our harvest service? We all sang lovely songs, including ‘Cauliflowers are fluffy’ (which is my favourite harvest song because you always sing it so beautifully). Years 5 and 6—do you remember the sleep over we had in school? I have lots of pictures of you all putting make up on each other and then singing karaoke with Mr Homer and Mr Lowe! Lots of you came to the art evening with your families and made Christmas cards—do you remember?
We had a very special Remembrance service led by Year 6 and our friends from the British Legion joined us. We unveiled the beautiful remembrance bench that you all painted too. I was a very proud headteacher because you were all so respectful during the service. You always are xx
Year 5 and 6—do you remember the Merry Hill choir competition and singing at Lime Gardens? You were all fabulous. And when Santa visited our Christmas fair? My most magic moment of the whole year was our Christmas play, ‘Cradley’s big show’. Do you remember? I think it was probably my most favourite Christmas play EVER! You were all brilliant: Year 1with the beautiful Nutcracker, Year 2 signing their special Christmas song, Year 3 with their dance and gymnastics (and the trampoline at the end!) Year 4 ‘s retelling of Scrooge , Year 5’s Black Country 12 days of Christmas (with the yampy whammels!!), Year 6 and their fabulous top of the pops and of course, Reception’s nativity. Every single one of you worked hard to make it special. You all shone like stars. And the teachers joined in too didn’t they? Mrs Wilkes was a brilliant queen and Mr Lowe and Miss Tromans as Harry and Meghan. (They all made me very proud too, but don’t tell them!) I don’t think we’ll ever beat that—real Cradley magic.
I think about you lots—particularly whenever I hear the song, ‘What have you done today to make you feel proud’ . Were you praised this year? Don’t worry if you weren’t—we have your medals waiting for you and your certificate will be coming out to you soon. Children, you make us proud every day. We have been especially proud of you this year, during lockdown- we know it has been strange. I want to say thank you to you for lots of things: for being good for your grown ups, for working hard on your home learning, for joining in with our NHS thank you video, for raising money for the NHS and for clapping every Thursday night. Thank you for sending us pictures and messages and cakes and cards. It hasn’t been the same without you, but we are all here, waiting for you to come back to us in September. It will be a little bit different and it might seem strange for a while, but you know all the grown ups well and we will make sure that you are safe and happy. Have a lovely summer and we will see you in September.
Love Mrs Harris xxx