A message from the Principal

I want to extend a warm welcome back to SKiPPS to all of our returning families and also to welcome those families who have enrolled at our great school for the first time (including the families of our 62 new Foundation students). After the disruption to our lives in 2020 and the continued grim situation around the world, it is wonderful to be starting the year with positivity, a sense of normality and, most importantly, on-site.

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking time during the first week of term to visit all of our classrooms, chat to students new and old and find out all about the things that have happened over the summer.

Our 361 students have all made a great start to life in their new class groupings thanks to the hard work of our teachers and our CAPSE (Creating A Positive School Environment) program. By taking time at the start of the school year to set clear routines in classrooms and build relationships with classmates, we lay the foundations for a productive, positive year of learning right across the school.

The positivity and calmness throughout the school is a testament to the success of this approach. The new Foundation classes started their school journeys last Thusrday and I am so excited to welcome them to SKiPPS and see them settle into their new routines and make new connections over the next few weeks.

Whilst many of our routines have returned to something that feels close to pre-COVID normal, we are very aware that times have changed and we must continue to act with vigilance and follow the health guidance provided by the government.

Mask wearing (for staff and parents), regular hand hygiene and extra cleaning have become part of how we must operate for the time being. Sadly so has social distancing and this means, for the first time in three decades, we will not be running our usual start of year 'Jazz in the Park' event. 

This was a sad decision to take as it has long been such an important and much-loved evening to start the school year. However the regulations we would need to follow to run a public event safely mean this is not possible. We hope that the event can run later in the year or in 2022.

Neil Scott, Principal