Week ending 13 January 2017

 

 

Welcome

We are pleased to welcome Albie Chapman, who joined Year 5 this week.

 

Message from Chair of Governors

As we start the New Year please can I remind all parents that if you have any concerns about your child at school or you have general concerns about the school then you speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance or the Headteacher if the concern relates to the school in general. The PTA Facebook page is not the best route to voice concerns, especially as these comments can border on being quite inappropriate at times. The school does not monitor the Facebook page and therefore cannot respond. If your child comes home talking about what they did that day and you wish to know more please would you email or speak to school directly to ensure that you obtain from school the full facts of the situation.

 

We are open to hearing your concerns and suggestions, all we ask is these are specific as opposed to hearsay or generalisations, and are communicated in a professional manner. It can be very frustrating to hear comments that tend to generalise as this does not enable us to address what the specific issue is, or therefore improve it. Its also great to hear the good news and comments as well.

 

If you have a great idea, as the parent did regarding the exercising before school initiative (see below), please make contact with school and present your idea in a constructive way, preferably with some evidence or research that helps show how the idea can be beneficial. Thank you.

Sara Wright

 

Run A Mile a Day Initiative

As many of you may have noticed children in Class 3 have been starting the morning with a run around the school field. This initiative, which originated in Scotland and Holland, has gained much support nationally over recent months. A parent approached school staff with the idea, presenting evidence and research that explained the benefits, both from a health and mental alertness prospective. The idea is that, before school, children partake in exercise before they settle down to school work as this helps with concentration, focus, health and well-being. Following staff discussions around logistics of introducing this initiative, we decided to conduct a trial of this initiative with Class 3 for a few weeks before considering our ‘next steps’ and we are pleased to be part of such a growing initiative. If you would like to know more about the initiative there are several websites and news reports that can provide you with the background; this particular website is very helpful: http://thedailymile.co.uk/

The activity takes no more than 10 minutes and early feedback from children is very positive, however if you have any concerns or questions, please speak to Miss Raval. Here are some of the children’s comments;

“It gets me ready for the day!”

“Lots of fun and gives me lots of ideas for my work”

“It refreshes my mind”

“It prepares me for the day”

 

“In the morning Class 3 run around the school field to warm up their brains. I think the run works because my writing becomes neater and I think of better ideas. If it is cold children can choose to wear their coat or not. The idea came from other schools and we think it was a great idea! Most children enjoy the run.”

By May H.

 

Class Overviews

Termly ‘jig-saws’ outlining the curriculum areas being covered in each class for the Spring Term (January 2017 to Easter 2017) have now been uploaded onto the school website and can be found under the ‘This Term’ section of the Class pages. Please read these, not only do they provide information about the class curriculum for the term, they also provide important information about group work and homework!

 

ELLI Project Assembly

We continue with our regular focus on styles of learning with the ELLI Project. Our next character to look at is ‘Curiosity Cat’ which Reception pupils presented to the whole school in an assembly on Thursday. Everyone was most impressed by how many of them remembered their lines! They showed and told us the questions we can use when we are curious with our learning. Pupils joined in with our theme of ‘curiosity’ by asking questions of Reception pupils.

 

MEERKAT Champion of the Week

We are delighted to share the names of our "MEERKAT Champion of the Week" award in each class as follows;

Reception – Chloe K

Class 1 – Frankie S

Class 2 – Joshua H

Class 3 – Isabella D

 

Well done to you all!

 

Mrs Ali Eaton

Last term Mrs Ali Eaton was recruited on a temporary, part-time, basis to provide Teaching Assistant cover in Class 3 on Friday mornings. Mrs Eaton has now taken up a TA post at a school closer to home and we will miss her but wish her well in her new job. The Friday morning TA time in Class 3 will be covered by existing members of our support staff; initially this will be Mrs Wilkin and Mrs Singleton.

 

PTA News

The PTA are holding a meeting at The Crown, Stadhampton at 8pm on Thursday 12^th January (TONIGHT!) All welcome.

 

Cake Club
Congratulations to Emily Hackett the lucky winner of last week's cake, kindly donated by Mrs Mason-Flower. A reminder to Mrs Burnell that she is on the rota for Friday 20th January.

 

 

 

Diary Dates:

Thursday 19 January	Y2 Forest School NCMP for pupils in Reception & Y6 (letters distributed at the end of last week to those year groups)
Friday 20 January	Guitar lessons resume for participating pupils
Monday 23 January	Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Thursday 26 January	Y2 Forest School
Friday 27 January	Jian-zi tournament annual event linking with Chinese New Year

 

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:

Little Bears are all settling nicely back into the term. We are looking forward to our topic this term which is ‘Transport’. We have been counting cars and making roads as well as enjoying lots of messy play.