Term 2 Newsletter – December 2025
A season of song, spirit, and togetherness. There’s something truly magical about the way our school community comes together to celebrate. From the sparkle of the Nativity Play to the heartwarming harmonies of our Carol Concerts, this time of year reminds us of the joy found in unity, creativity, and shared tradition.
We are incredibly fortunate to have Mrs Greenbank, our talented music and singing specialist, whose passion and dedication help our pupils shine, not just in weekly lessons, but in performances that reach far beyond the school gates. Whether it’s a recital in the hall, a song at the local café, or a chorus with the Young Voices Choir, our children continue to inspire with their confidence and charm. Their hard work and joy in performing are a true reflection of the spirit of the season.
To all our pupils, staff, and families – may your Christmas break be a relaxing one, filled with laughter, and just the right amount of sparkle. And here’s hoping Santa brings a little extra cheer to us all!
One of our seasonal highlights is the Years 1 & 2 Nativity Production – bringing Christmas cheer by the bucket-load with delightful performances, plenty of audience participation and some truly fab dance moves and songs! I hope you all enjoyed their production as much as we did! The below photos were taken at the whole-school performance.
Our Reception took part in a rousing and heartwarming Christmas Concert! Pupils were especially pleased that their performance would be on stage – and they certainly owned it!! Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to share the festive fun!
Whole-school Christmas lunch! Thank you to our canteen staff for our delicious festive treat. As you can see … we thoroughly enjoyed spending time together celebrating!
Back by popular demand! Singing in the Community – Year 4 and Year 6 have both been out to sing in the Community. Year 4 sang beautifully at the Wilmington Christmas Market and it was fantastic to have many of their parents and carers there to support them. They really impressed!
Year 6 visited the Elderberries Cafe for Over 60s based at Wilmington Community Church. The cafe guests were a very enthusiastic audience and joined in with singing and even some dancing. After their singing the children had a chance for refreshments and were able to chat to the guests. The visit was enjoyed by young and old!
Tuesday 16th December brought the KS2 Carol Service held at St Michael’s Church, Wilmington. This was an enjoyable evening where the audience was treated to a performance by the school orchestra and The Young Voices Choir. Year 6 pupils read some festive poems and gave us a performance of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. Everyone joined in with the carols and other festive songs.
Even as a headteacher, being in in the classroom with Year 1 reminds me why I chose this profession. There’s something magical about watching our pupils discover that numbers aren’t just marks on a page they’re patterns and puzzles waiting to be solved. For me, these lessons (and those in every classroom!) are a reminder that leadership starts with connection. No matter how busy the role of headteacher becomes, I will always feel most grounded in the classroom, where education is as its most rewarding!
Year 3 pupils have been using their whiteboards to support their spellings practice. In the featured lesson they learned a new word, its definition and synonyms before practising writing the word in a sentence – this lesson we looked at … catalogue and then dialogue. Great work Year 3!
Year 3 Design & Technology pupils have been exploring the work of Charles Macintosh and how clothes and items are made waterproof. Pupils investigated the waterproofing merits of a number of materials including hairspray, plastic film, crayons and tape. Pupils first made a paper boat, then tested their chosen waterproofing method with a water launch!
Our Year 5 pupils have been working on a very ‘hands-on’ project in their Design and Technology lessons. Pupils first studied different types of trusses and bridges before drawing their own design for a new road bridge strong enough to carry cars and trucks across the river. In the below pictures, pupils are bringing their designs to life, creating working prototypes! Pupils then ‘road-tested’ their designs with toy cars!
Our Year 4 pupils enjoyed an amazing opportunity to train at Premier League Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground in Enfield! Mr White had entered a sporting competition, and this was their fabulous prize. Pupils worked with Spur’s trainer to practice their football skills in the special indoor training dome before taking part in a workshop … all whilst the first team were taking part in their training!
Teachers and pupils regularly work with white boards in lessons to check learning and provide quick-fire feedback to their teachers before progressing to the next topic or task. In the featured Year 6 Lesson pupils were revising key vocabulary words with irregular past tense ‘ought’ endings. And as you can see from the below images Mrs Griffin was able to immediately gauge an extremely high level of recall! Well done everyone.
Pictured, our Year 6 pupils working on their computer science project – to build a website of their choice, a couple examples of their work are featured below.
Year 5 took part in a hockey festival at St Edmunds Primary school in West Kingsdown. Fantastic attitudes were on show, winning compliments from other school staff. The children had never played hockey before and really enjoyed the experience. Turns out we are quite good at it!
Michael Rosen Poetry Party Day! Pupils across our school took part in a live National literacy initiative designed to make reading, listening to and writing poetry fun and accessible to every child! Classrooms took part in a range of activities that encouraged us all to play with rhythm and rhyme and perform with expression and humour as well as to write from our own imagination!
Year 1 pupils took part in a ‘read along’ with Michael of some of his food inspired poems including, the below poem
Mr White and his Year 4 are pictured making Christmas preparations … designing and sewing Christmas stockings before adding decorative embellishments to their design! Mr White was delighted to be presented with his own beautiful stocking, designed and hand made by his class! Some very creative work indeed.
Our creative Year 4s designed and made their own personailsed family Christmas cards – making the central design digitally before hand-finishing their wonderful and throughtful cards!
Reception. Pupils’ sense of imagination and creativity is brought to the fore by the Reception team’s wonderfully conceived ‘play stations’ which allow pupils to apply their morning’s learning and try their hand at a huge range of (constantly changing) activities. Reception learn through the EYFS National Curriculum, which is inherently play-based. It is the foundation of childhood development in terms of language, emotional intelligence and regulation, creativity, and intellectual reasoning…. And in practice, learning made fun!
Become a School Governor. Our school governing bodies represent different groups of people who have an interest in the school: staff, parents and the community. Serving as a school governor is a highly rewarding experience, offering numerous personal and professional benefits. While we do not have any Parent Governor vacancies at the moment, we do have some Community Governor vacancies in schools across our Trust. If you a looking for an opportunity to use your experience and skills to help make a difference within your local community and to help shape people’s futures, please contact governance@endeavour-mat.co.uk for further information on the role of a school governor.
Forthcoming Dates;
Last Day of Term 2 – 19th December (Half Day, finish at 1.15pm)
First Day of Term 3 – Monday 5th January
Best wishes,
Jack Curry
Headteacher
