Merry Christmas from the PTA
We have come to the end of the Autumn term and our first term back after such an unusual end to the last school year. I want to say thank you firstly to our amazing class reps who have had a lot to pass on to their year groups this term as we find the best way to keep staff and children safe and negotiate the current situation. Also thank you to Mr D who has been painting spots, putting up barriers, disinfecting and a constant presence at drop off and pickup helping with social distancing and doing sterling work with the hand sanitiser for Key Stage 1 every morning.
Miss Mair and her team have worked so hard to make the return to school as fun and ‘normal’ as possible for the children and we know this has often meant working late and starting early so a huge thank you to you all – we hope you are able to have a relaxing and well deserved happy Christmas break.
Though we may have been restricted on the socialising, the PTA have been busy fundraising and have had some incredible help from parents and teachers doing their own efforts. Thanks to Abi (Year6) for her incredible Stoptober efforts, Joe (Years 3and 1) for his frightening Movember and Miss Mair who decided to be abstemious in November and give up As including Amazon and Alcohol – between them they raised nearly £5k for the PTA. At the time of writing with Sophy and Krista still working on the calculations we have raised around £12.3k this term which isn’t far off where we would usually be which is wonderful. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed and helped.
The Christmas Fair
Initially it looked like the Christmas Fair would be completely online this year, a challenging task in terms of fundraising but we were able to have a mulled wine and mince pie stand at school, the Year 6stall and the amazing Christmas Trail organised for us by our John Betts Master of Ceremonies Damian Krushner (Year 3) which was so much fun for the children. Thanks to all the families who joined in;
I think it was lovely for the kids to have something festive to do after missing out so much of the year.
Merry Christmas!
The online Christmas Fair is still going on our new PTA website www.johnbettsschoolpta.com where you can see our stall holders, get your John Betts merch (vintage tea-towels anyone?) and purchase the amazing Year 6calendars and mugs. In the New Year we will be sharing all current fundraising and PTA news on here and hopefully it will be the place to get all your second-hand uniform so bookmark it to keep up to date with all thingsJohn Betts PTA.
Families of John Betts
We have set up a Facebook Group for (and called) Families of John Betts School which parents can join to sell any unwanted items with proceeds going to the PTA and also share information, ask for recommendations etc.Thank you so much, Eleni and Yanni (Year 6), for getting this up and running.
We are sadly saying goodbye to the Baseden family who have been a huge part of John Betts but are returning to France. Big thank you to Stephanie for being a wonderful Reception rep for this term (and thanks to Mihir Warty who is stepping in to take over). Will Christmas parties be the same without Cyril at the piano and Stephanie in charge of the Mulled Wine atChristmas Fairs? We wish you the best of luck, we will miss you and prepare for lots of visitors once we are allowed out.
Corinna 'Chippy' Harrod
Chair of John Betts PTA