News, updates, half term dates, useful stuff...!

Lovely to be back in the swing of a new half term. The children seem recharged and ready to learn! I have a growing list of things that I thought might be of interest to you, so here they are. I'll be as brief as possible!
 
February half term - unfortunately this is not at the same time for all schools so I have decided to take the week off which fits with the majority. Plenty of notice that I will therefore not be working from 17th - 23rd February inclusive. (If your child attends a group class, the dates may differ slightly and you received all dates back in December. Feel free to ask me if you can't remember!).
 
Podcast - I've been enjoying Dr Chatterjee's podcasts recently and listened to one this morning that I think might interest you as parents. He is in discussion with a psychologist about the many factors that help children to fulfil their potential and the importance of the character skills of prosocial, proactive, discipline and determination over cognitive skills and knowledge accumulation in the longer term. (Please don't panic if you have a child in Reception with an inexperienced teacher after listening to it though!). Find out more here. It is worth listening to the whole podcast as they return to the topic multiple times and the other issues discussed probably resonate with many of us (perfectionism did for me!).
 
Children's book suggestions - A nice little list of some recent quality books. I loved Escape to the River Sea and The Highland Falcon Thief and will now be buying Greenwild and Peanut Jones. (If your child enjoys drawing and you didn't discover Rob Biddulph's draw-along videos during COVID, take a look here.)
 
Finally - writing competition! A reminder of the 50-word story writing competition which runs until 10th February. Please send your child's typed entry to me over the coming weeks.