I am often asked what I love about our School and what makes it so special. For me, this is an easy question to answer for it is, of course, our wonderfully supportive and inclusive community. We are a School that lives its ethos with each caring for all and we do this whatever our background or culture, our race or religion.

October is Black History Month and, as a School, we are taking the opportunity to highlight and celebrate achievement in a range of different fields. I will talk to the children about Black History Month in Monday’s assembly and then, over the course of October, we will learn more about the lives and accomplishments of several historically significant black men and women.

I hope that the children will see that black history is all our histories. I am sure they will enjoy having the opportunity to have their learning enriched as they find out about historical figures, such as Septimius Severus, a black Roman Emperor who ruled Britain in the Third Century or John Edmonstone, who taught Charles Darwin at Edinburgh University. Of course, we will also look at some of the modern-day black men and women who have made huge contributions in the fields of art, music, science, literature and many more areas. I would like to encourage our community to keep the conversations going at home, as we make it a special month that enhances all our knowledge and understanding of black history.

As you know, our Sutton Valence community also extends all the way to China to our sister School in Tianjin. Usually, at this time of year, I find myself, along with Mr Grindlay and the rest of the HIKSVS Advisory team, over in Tianjin visiting the School. Whilst we are not able to go ahead with the trip this year, we are making good use of Zoom to remain in touch with the HIKSVS community. Mrs Allison has been appointed our HIKSVS Liaison teacher and she is in close communication with her counterpart in China, so we look forward to launching more joint projects as the school year develops. For now, though, we wish all in Tianjin a very enjoyable break as they are currently on holiday and celebrating the Moon Festival with their families.

Here at SVPS, we have also been celebrating a key festival in our calendar, Harvest. As we weren’t able to have our usual services at St Michael’s, this week the children were able to watch films made by our School Chaplain, Mr Davies, and it has been wonderful to see so much food coming in for each class collection. In these challenging times, supporting local families via The Salvation Army and Dandelion Time means even more to these charities than normal and I know they are extremely grateful to you all for your generosity. Thank you.