16^th July 2020

Dear parents/carers,

As we find ourselves at the end of the school year, I would like to reiterate how extremely proud I am of all our resilient pupils, dedicated school staff and amazingly supportive families that we are blessed with at Seaburn Dene. Actually, pride doesn’t adequately describe how I feel about the way our school community has dealt with the huge adversity placed before us. It goes beyond that.

I have lost count of how many times I have used the words “unprecedented” since March.  But it has been, with every unforeseen twist and turn that saw our school, society around us and everything we knew frozen in a way none of us could have predicted, at the start of this year, in September 2019.

As parents, this has been a really tough time for you as you have had to cope with your own worries, while trying to keep your children engaged and occupied whilst you have been at home. I would like to thank you all for the support you have given to your children as we have tried to ensure that they were able to continue with their learning as best as possible while the school was closed to all but a handful of key worker and vulnerable children. Your kind words of support, furthermore, have sustained the staff at a very challenging time.

This way of working is all very new to us all and not something that we had prepared for, so I think you can be incredibly proud of all you have achieved for your family over the weeks and months since school closed. There are lots of things that we have all learnt already but the most important thing – I believe -  is that the health and wellbeing of your family is our top priority and comes before everything else.

There are lots of problems and issues that may have arisen as your children have tried to continue with their education at home and by persevering and continuing to work in partnership together, we can work out how to continue to adapt and solve these problems as they arise. That said, September and getting your children back into the routine of school life and learning as safely as possible is what we are now planning for. By working together, we can develop the grit and resilience the children need to bounce back.

Tomorrow, we say goodbye to our Year 6 pupils. In school, we haven’t been able to celebrate their transition and achievements in the usual way, but we will mark their “moving on” – as they are part of our school and always will be. We are proud of them and will look for their names in the future as they forge new paths in KS3 and beyond. We will also bid farewell to a small handful of children, moving onto places and pastures new. Each of them, like our Yr 6, will leave indelible footprints at Seaburn Dene Primary.

All our children, this year, have been outstanding; in the way they have lived our core values of respect, determination, kindness and aspiration.  They are a credit to themselves, their families and our school and I would like to wish each of them every success in the future.

It has been a challenging year and one I won’t be sad to see the back of. I am genuinely excited to see school starting to return to normality. We start that journey again on September 2^nd.

Stay safe

Mr J Howe