Welcome to 2018 at Orchard Primary School

Summer Term
We are now well and truly, into the last half-term of the year. The tiny nursery children who took their first hesitant steps with us last September, will all be starting school next year, some of them with us at Orchard, and some at other schools. We wish them all the best of luck. Our Year 6 pupils have now outgrown their primary school and will all be moving on to secondary schools. We wish them all well, and hope that they will put to good use, all that they have learnt whilst at primary school.

The last half term is always action packed, what with Year 6 leaver’s productions ‘Bugsy Malone’, Summer Celebration, Infant and Junior awards assemblies, meetings for new Nursery and Reception parents and culminating in our fabulous end of year picnic for our Orchard families.

We have been very lucky to have some exceptionally warm weather over the last weeks, and the forecast is for even more sunshine. It is always a great opportunity to enjoy our school field. Parents are reminded to apply sunscreen and to send a hat in to school to avoid ‘red’ faces after lunch. The children all have water bottles in their classrooms and they are encouraged to drink throughout the day.

The children have enjoyed the new curriculum, and have had opportunities to study a range of topics. All of the infant classes have been studying topics related to the sea, and they enjoyed a great day out at the seaside. The Year five’s have visited an allotment, as well as a trip to the theatre to see Gangsta Granny. Year 6 have been to Chessington, and year 3 have been to look at a local river.

Mr Cowley and his gardening team have been working very hard to look after the garden. Fruit trees, and a lovely salad garden are now well and truly underway. We are hoping that our Kitchen will be able to use some of the produce for the children to taste. The gardening club have already sampled some of the strawberries. We were pleased to accept an apple tree from Izabell and Daniel, when they moved back to Hungary – it will be something to remind us of them.

We are delighted to have such supportive parents and grandparents; earlier this term, parents, grandparents and teachers gave up a Sunday morning to help give our EYFS area a facelift. Thank You! It is looking great.

Don’t forget to follow Orchard Primary School on facebook, and @Orchard Sidcup on Twitter to keep up to date on the latest news flashes.

Best wishes

Mrs Jo Rowntree
Head Teacher

2 July 2018