(The full version of St. Mary's Messenger can be found in the password-protected area of the website)

Dear Parents, Children and Friends,

Every January and February we can assume that the weather is going to knock out some of our sports fixtures, which this week it certainly did. On Monday we were phoned by the Head of Games at Ranby and told that the U9 football matches were cancelled as the pitches were under so much water, but if we wanted to bring a water polo team, we could perhaps arrange something! We had to turn that down as well – no-one had brought their swimming trunks that day.

It is always frustrating when these things happen, but this cancellation was such a shame as Mr Easton had managed to have every boy in Years 3 and 4 involved in one of the teams. It would have been great to have such a level of involvement, but the weather cheated us. I hope there will be another chance later in the term.

On Wednesday I watched Mrs Carver and her team lead a warmly-swaddled group of Cornerstone children on a walk to the Cathedral to feed the birds. Seeing the little faces all excited, they looked so sweet. It promised to be a very enjoyable experience, but when they returned, Mrs Carver said that there weren’t very many birds, probably because it was so mild. Another special occasion spoiled by the weather. Fortunately there are plenty of indoor events to look forward to which will take truly extreme weather to spoil, but I had better not tempt Fate on that point.

This week we have been visited for two days by a lovely group of Brazilian teachers who came via Bishop Grosseteste. The ladies concentrated most of their time in the Early Years section of the school, but wherever they visited they will have learned a great deal to take back with them to share with their colleagues. The Brazilians learn a way of teaching that is markedly different from the way we educate in Britain and there are very few schools in the country with similar practice where they can compare notes share ideas and learn innovations, so coming to a top-notch school like St. Mary’s to observe our practices will have given those ladies fascinating insight to better practice. My thanks go to Mrs Ogley and her team for squeezing their guests into their busy schedules.

Coming back to the weather again…the school grounds at St. Mary’s are one of our greatest assets, looking attractive even in the depths of winter. However Mr Johnston and I are noticing that the edges of the grassed areas are definitely getting very muddy this year. May I ask you to please remind your children that they must stay on the paths so that our lawns don’t turn into swamps and so that we don’t have muddy size threes stomping mud into every classroom.

You can see on our calendar that next week we begin our Performance Dance Days. We thought it would be a really good way of involving local schools in a lively, enjoyable activity. We anticipated that we would get replies for about 30-35 children, which is a decent manageable number for Mrs Rimmer to coach. The replies came in and kept coming in, so by the end we had 455 children wanting to come! That’s a couple too many to fit in the Hall, so Mrs Stuffins had to do some hasty negotiation with Mrs Rimmer and the schools involved. Finally we have ended up with lots of Performance Dance Days spread over two terms, so that as many children as possible can spend a great day at St. Mary’s. Poor Mrs Rimmer has my undying gratitude for her kindness and generosity in this.

One of the events that not even the most Biblically extreme weather would prevent me from attending is the Quiz Night next Friday. Get a drink, draw up a chair and enjoy one of the high spots of the year, with all sorts of questions, a music round, a picture competition, in short there will be something for everybody and anybody to argue about with their friends. See you there!

Better start writing the questions now...

Andy Salmond Smith