Autumn Term Newsletter 2020/2021
Dear Landmark Community
We are approaching the end of another busy, productive and enjoyable term at Landmark. School has been a different environment during the pandemic and we are proud of how well our students have adapted to the new routines and arrangements.
We opened our first Reception Class in September and it has been great to welcome this group to the school; they have settled excellently and the other children have welcomed them warmly. Along with the other students in Kingfisher and Robin Class, they have loved their weekly visits to Forest School as well as Kung Fu, Mandarin and the range of exciting experiences our students enjoy.
At the start of October National Poetry Day was celebrated by the whole school. All students took part and the poem written by students from Reception Class to Year 10 demonstrated how many talented writers we have in the school. A socially distanced assembly enabled students to read some of their own poems and for some of the teachers to share their favorites with the community.
The whole school celebrated Remembrance Day in November; in art club poppy sun catchers were made and we enjoyed some very moving pieces of writing from our senior students; a blog written by Veer about his bubbles remote remembrance service was published on our website.
Physical exercise has continued to play an important part of school life during the pandemic and Mrs Seabourne adapted to the most recent lockdown by running circuit training in the car park and playground – I was persuaded to demonstrate my skills with a skipping rope! The high impact training certainly tested the fitness of our senior students.
Our students took part in the annual Vocab Express League of Champions Competition. As usual our students gave the competition the full force of their enthusiasm and talent; their efforts were paid off magnificently by Landmark School winning the Piccolo Cup and coming 10th in the Genius Cup!
This term we have sponsored the Rotary Club of Cambridge’s Virtual Christmas Concert. The proceeds from this concert support Centre 33 and Cambridge Churches Homeless Project, two organisations which are vitally important for the Cambridge community. It was fantastic to have the opportunity for our youngest students to showcase their learning in choir by contributing a song to the concert. If you would like to support the event tickets can be bought from the eventbrite website here.
We have missed being able to welcome parents into school during the pandemic and have tried to develop the website to allow viewers to gain more insight into life at Landmark. We have added some great blogs from Landmark alumni about their time at school and their transition on to sixth form and university as well as a section on ‘Why Landmark’ giving some parent’s perspective on their reasons for choosing our school. We are very near to finishing our Landmark film, very kindly made by David Spurdens – we let you know as soon as it is finished and on the website.
The final week of term has been a busy and exciting one for us all; the children enjoyed their celebratory end of term lunch. The primary students filmed their end of topic presentations; we are sad not to be able to share an end of term production with you this year but hope these films will allow us to share some of the children’s learning experiences from the term.
Next term we look forward to welcoming Thomas, Jake and Angelica into Year 6, Jasper into Year 5 and Leila into Kingfisher Class.
As always, myself and the staff at Landmark are grateful for the wonderful support you parents offer us. Thank you for all your patience and understanding as we have navigated our way through a full reopening and a second national lockdown. The support of the community has helped us to make it a positive experience for our students.
We wish you a happy and relaxing break with your loved ones and a happy and healthy New Year. We will look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 5th January.
Gareth Turnbull-Jones and the Landmark Team
