Wear your jeans to school on Friday 22nd September and make a £1 donation to support Jeans for Genes Day. The money raised on Jeans for Genes Day funds a range of initiatives that improve the quality of life of children affected by genetic disorders. Children must still wear their Downderry jumper.

You should have received a letter outlining after school activities for the Autumn Term. These will start the week beginning Monday 18th September and will run for 9 weeks at a cost of £25. Please check with the school office for availability. The full timetable is available on the school website.

There is an opportunity to meet your child's class teacher after school on Thursday 14th September.  Meetings will be held in your child's classroom and should last no longer than 15 minutes.

If you have children in more than one class, please see your youngest child's teacher first. If you are in a meeting with your youngest child's class teacher, their sibling will remain in their class.

The school photographer will be in school on Thursday 28th September. If you or other members of your family, NOT siblings attending the school, would like to be included in a photograph, please wait in the Middle Hall at 8:30am.

Once again, we will be celebrating Roald Dahl Day by studying his books, and completing lots of fun activities.

On Wednesday 13th September, children are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite Roald Dahl character. There will be a prize for the best dressed class, and the prize will be ‘whoopsy-splunkers’ as the BFG would say!

The headteacher and staff at Downderry School have been selected for top roles supporting schools in challenging circumstances and training new teachers.

Mrs Tracey Lewis is one of more than 75 headteachers to be appointed to the role of national leader of education in the latest recruitment round.

National leaders of education along with staff in their school – appointed as national support schools – use their knowledge and experience to provide additional leadership capability in other schools in need of support. 

The type of support provided is flexible and tailored to meet the needs of each individual school. National leaders of education also have responsibility for developing the next generation of NLEs and national support schools.

The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) has responsibility for the appointment of NLEs and the quality of the NLE programme. There are now over 1,250 NLEs across England.

Roger Pope, Chair of the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), said:

“I’d like to congratulate Tracey Lewis and Downderry School on being appointed as a national leader of education and national support school. They should be very proud of this achievement.

“National leaders of education are at the heart of school improvement. They’re supporting other schools and developing the next generation of leaders. At NCTL, we want to do all we can to support their work. “

Thank you to all parents, carers, children, friends and family who attended our summer fair. There was a fantastic atmosphere with everyone enjoying the activities and performances.

We would like to thank all the businesses and parents who donated prizes for the raffle. We raised an impressive £1,200.

A massive thank you to our PTA who dedicated their time and support to ensure that the fair was a great success. Also thank you to all performers who took part on the day.