Date: Friday 26th September 2025 

There is such a wonderful buzz around school at the moment! Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve really enjoyed spending time in classes and seeing happy, hardworking children throwing themselves into their learning. It has been brilliant to watch them building such positive relationships with their class teachers and each other – Heathlands really does feel full of energy and excitement this term.

We are very much looking forward to our Harvest Festival services on Monday. The children have been busy preparing, and it will be a joy to come together as a school community again. I know we’re all excited to see Reverend Heather too – her contributions are always a highlight.

A warm welcome also goes to two new members of staff: Mrs Santos, our Catering Manager, and Miss Jezierski, our Attendance and Welfare Assistant. It’s great to have them both as part of the Heathlands team.

A gentle reminder to please make sure all items of uniform are clearly named – it makes returning lost property much easier and ensures children can get back to their learning quickly.

We now have dates confirmed for our upcoming Parent Consultations, as well as our very first Classwork Celebration. The dates are in the news section of the newsletter/website, and I hope many of you will be able to join us.

Next week, we’re delighted to welcome back the Two Johns. On Thursday 2nd October at 8pm, they will be leading an Online Safety session for parents via Zoom. For those who haven’t seen them before, the Two Johns are ex-police detectives with huge expertise in helping children stay safe online. This will be their fifth visit to Heathlands, and they always receive excellent feedback. The Zoom link is available on Class Dojo. 

Finally, on Friday 10th October, we’ll be joining Wear Yellow Day to support World Mental Health Day. Children are invited to wear yellow to help raise awareness and show their support.

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback on the sound-bite version of the newsletter – I’m really pleased so many of you found it useful. I’m hoping to take it a step further by interviewing different members of staff and our wider school community, so you can hear more about the roles they play in making Heathlands such a special place. If there’s something you’d like us to cover, please drop me a quick message on Class Dojo and I’ll do my best to include it.

Have a lovely weekend and see you next week

Mr Crawley

Attendance

At this time of year, it’s common for children to pick up colds and feel a little under the weather. While it can be tricky to know if they’re well enough for school, regular attendance is really important – every missed day means missed learning and can make it harder for children to keep up. The NHS has produced some helpful guidance to support parents and carers in deciding whether a child is too ill for school. You can find it here:

Is my child too ill for school? – NHS

Of course, we know children will sometimes be genuinely unwell, and some families have also taken holidays. However, if attendance falls below 90%, a child is classed nationally as persistently absent. This means they are missing a significant amount of education, which can really affect progress and wellbeing.

If we have concerns about your child’s attendance, we will be in touch to arrange a meeting. This is not about criticism – it’s about working together to understand the reasons and to offer support where it’s needed, so that every child can thrive at Heathlands.