As this half term draws to a close, it is lovely to see the nights beginning to get lighter and a hint of Spring arriving.  We have had a busy term, with lots going on and the children working very hard.  

It was lovely to see so many parents at our SLT coffee morning, thank you for coming.  It was, I believe, a really productive and useful hour spent discussing some key areas of our school and a great opportunity to listen to your views on our curriculum, behaviour and attendance and communication with parents.  A summary of the key points discussed is included and the date for the Summer term meeting will be sent out after half term. 

I would like to take this opportunity to say 'goodbye and goodluck' to Mrs Williams who is leaving to have her first baby.  We look forward to hearing her special news and meeting the new addition very soon.

I wish you all a lovely half term and look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday, 25th February.

Lucy Collins

Headteacher

We are delighted to introduce three new members of staff to Linden after the half term break.  Mrs Helen Smith will be working alongside Mrs Hodgins, Mrs Gemma Worth will be working within Year 2 and 5 and Miss Violet Maile will be working across both Key Stage 1 and 2. 

This term's value has been resilience.  Well done to all our winners this term.

Many thanks to those who were able to attend the first of our 'Meet the SLT' (Senior Leadership Team) coffee mornings. We were really pleased to be able to share with you some of the developments around the school and look together at areas we can improve. 

There were 3 main areas covered in discussions:

• Curriculum-
  • What this looks like within Linden.
  • How we try to build journeys for the children's learning.
  • Thoughts about homework. 
  • Breadth of the curriculum.

• Attendance and Behaviour
  • Current difficulties with attendance.
  • How can we improve attendance, specifically lateness.
  • Playtimes and lunchtimes.
  • The use of Playleaders.
  • Behaviour and expectations around the school.
  • The systems in place at the moment and how we can develop these.

• Communication
  • Upcoming changes to Schoolzine.
  • How we can get more parents signed up.
  • Difficulties of multiple mediums of communication.
  • Social media, specifically Twitter. 
  • Giving plenty of notice, including specific times, for events.

The outcomes and shared ideas from the morning were really helpful and will feed directly into school development planning. We do value the 'voice' of the parent community. 

We will be having our next Meet the SLT coffee morning after the Easter Break, we hope you can make it.

The SLT Team @ Linden

Parking- On a daily basis we are recieving complaints regarding parking around the school during drop off and pick up times.  Whilst we appreciate that parking is restricted immediately outside the school, the safety of children has recently been put at risk by illegal parking (especially on the corners of Bowly Road).  Please can we urge you to take into consideration the safety of pedestrians using the footpaths, some of which will have pushchairs and wheelchairs.

Playground - Please can all children refrain from riding their scooters and bikes until outside of the school gates.