A year we will never forget! My sincere thanks to the whole Copthill community for adapting without fuss to the challenges that have been put in our way, often at short notice, throughout the year. We have been extremely grateful for your continued support for all we have set out to achieve this year and we have never taken for granted the difficulties you have all had to face, including the challenge of home learning! We must never lose sight of the fact that at the heart of all this has been 300 children who have all embraced the changes, thrills and disappointments of the last year with great spirit. They have all still achieved so much and, above all, stayed healthy and happy. I think we can all look back this year with a sense of pride. Children, parents, staff and management have all worked together to carefully ensure the health of the Copthill community with no interruption to education for any year group except that required on a national level. Whilst this is of course an achievement, sadly we would be remiss to be complacent as we have a long summer of activities planned here coinciding with the easing of restrictions. September suddenly does not feel far away and plans for the new school year are, of course, being carefully thought about. At the end of term, we will sadly be saying farewell to a small number of our team, including two very long-serving members of staff. Jonathan Aughton has been teaching in the Music Department since September 2002. I remember how he introduced himself to the children by marching into our assembly in his guard’s uniform and I’ve never seen so many wide eyes! We wish him all the very best on his retirement and thank him for his many years of outstanding service. We will also be saying farewell to Diane Llewelyn who has been teaching the cello here for the last year but is leaving for a full time role. We thank them both for their contributions to the Copthill Music Department. Finally, we are sad to say goodbye to Lyn Venables, who will be retiring from Copthill, having begun teaching here in November 2002. She started as maternity cover in our PE Department, then led PE for many years before taking over another of the subject areas in which she has great skill, Art. We will miss her expertise and energy in so many areas of school life and we do hope she will keep in touch. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the staff. Everyone from our catering and domestic team, assistants, musicians and teachers have all had vital roles to fulfil, always going above and beyond normal expectations as part of one genuine great team. They have all made a crucial contribution to the success of the year and the inspirational learning that takes place daily at Copthill. The immense efforts of this team have genuinely meant that we have been able to run as ‘normal’ a year as possible for the children (and parents, where possible!), within the safe parameters of the restrictions throughout the year. I would also like to thank Vicky Fisher (Chair) and all members of the CPSC team for their support this year behind the scenes. Some of the events that we have managed to put on, have only been possible with their support and input and we are hugely grateful. We’re looking forward to some more familiar CPSC events in the coming year. We wish you all a happy and healthy summer holiday. We have a very busy programme of activity weeks planned and we look forward to seeing many of the children over the coming weeks.

Best wishes

Mr Jonathan Teesdale

PRINCIPAL