At last, a Christmas end of term that felt like it should! It has been an amazing term, rounded off with a multitude of Christmas events for the whole Copthill community. Special thanks as always to all our wonderful staff who have gone ‘above and beyond’ to ensure excellent and engaging teaching and activities throughout the long term.

A special Christmas welcome back to Imogen Hesford (Year 5/6), who has returned from maternity leave - she has been missed by all but, of course, especially by the children. Thank-you to Gemma Alcoran who has covered Mrs Hesford’s absence as 6H form teacher; she has been a great support to all.

At the end of term, we will sadly be saying farewell to Sophie Bingham, who has been an inspirational part of the Forest School staff. She is embarking on a new path as Project Officer for Rockingham Forest.

As some of you will remember, Linda Flynn was our School Administrator but has been away from school and very poorly over the last two years. While she is thankfully slowly recovering, she regretfully has had to retire from her role at Copthill. She has been a vital part of the school for 17 years, providing an exceptional level of service to staff, parents, pupils and the directors. She was fully involved in all aspects of life at Copthill at all hours of the day and night! We wish her the very best for the future.

In the meantime, we have been so fortunate to have had Emily Needham in the office. She has done an amazing job in such a varied role, as have all the admin staff. Emily will be away most of next term completing her teacher training but reinforcements are at hand! After an extensive recruitment process, we are delighted to have appointed Sarah Kettlewell to the new role of Receptionist from January. She is very familiar with all things ‘Copthill’, as a past parent and chair of the CPSC.

This term, I have had an opportunity to meet many Old Copthillians at various social events. As always, it has been an absolute delight to see them or their parents and hear about their careers and families. They all have fond memories of their time here and what is particularly lovely is the fact that they all still keep in touch with so many of their friends.

We are embarking on a more active social media for the Old Copthillians with some fantastic pictures of the past and do hope it will help to put even more of them in touch with friends from their time here.

I want to end by wishing the entire Copthill community, pupils, parents, Old Copthillians and staff a very happy Christmas holiday and look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year.

With best wishes

Mr Jonathan Teesdale