Swimming
As you may be aware, Market Drayton swimming pool is due to close next Tuesday for repairs due to a rather large leak. Due to this the swimming plans for KS2 have been amended.
Next week Y5&6 will now have their last lesson on Monday 13th October. There will be no lesson on Friday 17th as the pool will be closed by then. We just managed to squeeze in their session before they closed! Huge thanks to Leanne Bradley who has made this possible for us.
Unfortunately we do not have any new scheduled dates for Y3&4 but it will no longer be straight after half term as originally planned. We await further information from the pool staff and will let you know when lessons can commence when the pool reopens.
Author visit and book signing option
On Tuesday we are excited that James Warwood, an author and illustrator, will be joining us as part of our Careers and Aspirations week. James will be working with all children across the day. He will start the day with a whole school assembly before reading one of his books to Classes R, 1 and 2. Classes 3-6 will then have a illustrator workshop with James where he will work on character drawing.
This day has been kindly funded by the PTA.
James will be holding a book sale after school in class 1 if any children would like to purchase his books. Please see the attached poster. Cash or card payments on the day only.
Mrs Bessant, English Lead.
Parents evenings 11th and 12th November
Parents/Carers are invited to attend our parents evening after half term to discuss how their child/ren have settled into their new class and the progress they are making. This is also an opportunity to see their learning books and leave them a ‘positive post-it’ to celebrate their achievements. We ask that all parents attend, ensuring that they can meet the teacher/s and therefore work together to ensure a strong educational partnership for the bests interests of the children.
We use an online booking system to enable families to book their own convenient time slots, the times will be available to book via School Cloud from Wednesday 15th October. Parents need to log in to School Cloud using their first name, surname and email address, this must be the same information registered with school. A letter with the log in link will be sent home next week. Parents will then be able to access the parents evening and book a slot for their child. We ask that separated parents come together and have one appointment per child, unless there is a court order or other safety reason why this cannot take place. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact Mrs Lyall. If you are having difficulty booking a slot, please see your child’s teacher in the first instance.
- The booking system will open for parents on Wednesday 15th October at 3pm
- The booking system will close for parents on Monday 10th November at 4pm
- Parents evenings are on Tuesday 11th November 3.30 – 5.00pm and Wednesday 12th November 3.30 – 7.30pm. Parents only need to book one appointment per child on one of the optional days, we have two days to ensure we can meet demand.
We look forward to seeing you.
Mrs Lyall
Celebrating Success. Certificate of Achievement 10.10.25
Well done to everyone who received awards or shout outs today. We are very proud of you.
- Class R – Benedict for being ready to learn and always showing a positive learning attitude.
- Class 1 – Arlo for increased confidence in his own ability. Well done!
- Class 2 – Hannah for fantastic story writing this week.
- Class 3 – Ava for super class participation and settling in really well.
- Class 4 – The whole of class 4 for being super Hodnet school ambassadors on the school trip this week. We are so proud of you all.
- Class 5 – Lacey for always working hard, persevering and showcasing our values. Well done.
- Class 6 – Freddie in recognition of his fantastic attitude to learning, being determined, kind and committed. This has been recognised by multiple staff. Well done.
- Raffle ticket – Eden in class 3
- EYFS/KS1 Headteacher’s award – Hudson in class 1 for being ready to learn and working so hard independently.
- KS2 Headteacher’s award – Finn for his outstanding contribution to the Enterprise event at Thomas Adams today. Staff commented on his determined, positive approach and how wonderful it was to see his increased confidence. Well done, keep it up.
Careers and Aspirations week plan
As you are aware next week is our careers and aspirations enrichment week. We are so lucky at Hodnet school to have so many people who are keen to come in and support with our learning and we are thrilled with the volunteers that are joining us next week.
- In our Monday carousel we have a staff careers talk, RAF careers officer, a scientist, a nurse, a zookeeper, a firefighter and an archaeologist.
- On Tuesday we are welcoming an Author/illustrator to lead workshops all day. He is a dyslexic author so will have faced challenges along the way, we hope he can inspire with the message that you can be anything, always follow your dreams!
- We also have a horse visit to show how to care for animals.
- On Wednesday we have a local Author visit for KS1, Michael McCarthy, and a Secondary teacher visit, Mr Winter, for Y5&6
- On Thursday we are hoping to have an RAF Helicopter visit, landing on our field for us. We also have a message from fashion designer Scamp and Dude.
- On Friday we have another carousel where we are welcoming a female commercial aircraft pilot, a radiographer, an armoured vehicles engineer, a veterinary nurse, a message from a royal baker, a pilot and an air traffic control officer.
We will be running a competition alongside the Royal baker workshop. More detail to follow about this next week. The baker is Claire Ptak, who has a connection to Mrs Thorpe our vice chair of governors. Mrs Thorpe is running the workshop which involves decorating a cup cake.
We are hoping for a really exciting week with fun alongside ‘real life’ preparations for the big world, with messages about enterprise, life skills, jobs and adulthood. We will keep you updated with photos on the website.
Celebrating Success. Book Worm 10.10.25
Well done to everyone who received awards or shoutouts this week, we are very proud of you.
Today we celebrated reading in our celebration assembly, with praise for lots of children for their reading at home and reading throughout the curriculum in school.
- Class R – Betty
- Class 1 – Alice
- Class 2 – George
- Class 3 – Ava
- Class 4 – Scarlett R
- Class 5 – Molly D
- Class 6 – Charlie
Congratulations to all our chosen Book Worms, your reading at home and school was excellent this week.
Remember to keep up those good reading habits.
Harvest assembly Monday 13th October
Rev Becky will be joining us in school to lead the Harvest assembly for the children on Monday. Please send any donations for the food bank in throughout the week. We will be taking the donations on Friday 17th, I will be taking some children and to experience the food bank in operation – hopefully helping to process the food and stick on some stickers.
Dried/tinned products only please.
Thank you for supporting local families in need through our Harvest donations.
Mrs Lyall
Weekly House Points 17.10.25
Weekly house point totals are:
Owls = 68
Badgers = 105
Squirrels = 92
Foxes = 72
Well done to the Badgers team this week.
Safeguarding concern reminder – Spy Dogs books
On 8/10/25 we were alerted to this safeguarding concern and sent out the following message:
Dear Parents/Carers,
We have been made aware by the LA safeguarding team that several titles in the Spy Dogs, Spy Pup, and Spy Cat series by Andrew Cope contain a weblink at the back of the book that no longer directs people to information about the books. Instead, the link has been compromised and now leads to inappropriate and unsafe material, containing pornographic content with no age restrictions.
We have removed copies of the book from our school library and classroom book corners.
Below are images of some of the front covers in the series to help you identify the books should you have any at home. We advise you remove them immediately. Should any be the property of the school, please return them and we will dispose of them accordingly.
Mrs Lyall.
Omega Pupil Pals
As part of our community work, we support Omega in their Pupil Pals programme, sending cards and letters to people in need.
They have contacted us to say that they are desperate for Autumn pictures to send to their clients. They currently do not have enough to send at the start of November. If children would like to create an autumn picture at home before half term, please send in to school and place in the Pupil Pals box in the hall. We have paper in the hall which children can collect then return decorated.
No names on any creations please.
Baby news!
Congratulations to Steph from our Kitchen team who is having a baby in April. We are thrilled for her and her family.
We will be advertising a maternity post to cover Steph’s leave. Please look out for information on our website if you or someone you know is interested. This will be a kitchen assistants role, working from 11-2pm daily in our school kitchen for approximately 9 months starting after February half term.
Half term
A reminder that we break up for half term next Friday, 17th October, school will reopen on Tuesday 4th November.
We have 2 weeks now inline with all 318 Trust schools. The children still do the 190 days per year as statutory, we have disaggregated or ‘moved’ days so that we work slightly longer in July, finishing on 22nd July. The aim of this being that families can have a longer break in the Autumn, which is the longest and often the hardest term, providing time to reset the batteries ready for long winter term. We know that this has been a popular decision with some families making use of cheaper holidays at this time.
Monday 3rd November is a planned PD day for all 318 Trust schools, this is our Trust Conference day, providing high quality professional development for all staff.