No 15 for week ending 8 January 2016
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome Back!
Well as you would expect the new year
has started at quite a pace with lots of great learning
taking place from the off! It has been great to see
pupils ready and keen to learn straight away and to
see such an excellent start with punctuality. Thank
you!
Epiphany
On Monday our liturgy focused on the visit of the
Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. With the
addition of the Kings, our Crib was completed and we
concluded the Christmas story that began at the end
of last term. Pupils
reflected upon the
gifts of Gold,
Frankincense and
Myrrh and how these
travellers from a far
off land sought the
new King and Saviour.
We prayed that we all
should look for the
face of Jesus in
everyone we meet.
Space Day in year 5
“Space day was really,
really fun and I absolutely
loved it! It was amazing
and I learned a lot today.”
Lauren
“I really liked astronaut day because I liked learning
interesting things about space.” Freddie
No 15 for week ending Friday 8 January 2016
Thank you to all the parents and carers of year 5
pupils who helped to prepare their children for the
very exciting Space Day to “blast off” their new topic.
Pupils had great fun being in ‘Mission Control’ and
learning about key facts of space and space
exploration. At the end of the day, we composed a
tweet to British astronaut Tim Peek. Although he has
over 300,000 followers, you never know, we might get
a response!
Year 2 African
Drumming
On Thursday of this week year 2
had great fun learning about
rhythm and how to play African
drums. Children learned how to
create a great drumming
composition with two or three
parts of different patterns and
sounds. I was amazed at how
good they all sounded and how
well they listened to each other
to keep their rhythm going!
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Other great learning
As usual, I have visited all classes this week to see how
the children have been approaching their learning and
I have been delighted to see such application and
focus across the whole school. I observed some
challenging maths lessons, some great work with
phonics and spelling, real effort and control in PE (in
Foundation), along with some deep thinking to reflect
upon the goals for this term. Well done children!
Growth Mindset
Theory
Parents will probably know that
teachers attend a staff meeting every
Wednesday, where we focus on aspects
of teaching and learning. This week we
discussed Growth Mindset Theory. This concerns how
teachers can enable pupils to recognise that attitude
and application bring results and that the harder we
all try and work through problems and challenges in
our learning, the more ‘expanded’ the brain becomes!
In other words, intelligence is not fixed. We already
try to instil on our pupils the importance of
perseverance and resilience and in all our classes we
have a poster saying, ‘Mistakes are
expected, respected and inspected’ to
remind pupils that this is how we learn (especially
true in maths). You will hear more about our approach
to growth mindsets throughout the year.
Parent Questionnaire
Finally, once again
thank you to the
very high number of
you who completed
the parent/carer
questionnaire. The results, which show a very positive
picture of the school from the parents’ perspective,
are attached to this newsletter. I have looked
carefully at the results and have raised the key
development points with the Leadership Team. For
example, some parents felt that they didn’t know
enough about the RE taught at the school. To address
this, we have included a link on our website to the
parent information sheets on the Come and See
Scheme. I will also hold a meeting for interested
parents on the evening of Thursday 3rd March to
explain in detail what the children are learning and
where parents can look at work samples.
No 15 for week ending Friday 8 January 2016
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I also recognise from some additional comments on
the forms that, in some cases where parents had
ticked the ‘neither’ box, it was because they did not
yet have an opinion because they had no experience
of that aspect of the school yet. This was especially
true of parents of Foundation pupils.
Science and Engineering Week w/c 14th March
This is the fourth year that this we have carried out
the same questionnaire and the results show very
high levels of parent satisfaction, which mirrors the
progress that school has made over the same period
achieving consistently high results. Once again thank
you for your feedback. It is highly valued. Results will
be posted on the website.
INSET DAYS FOR NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR 2016-17
Please note that these coordinated dates give parents
an oportunity to plan and book holidays next year
amd take adveantage of cheaper prices! Please
remember that holidays during term time are not
authorised!
This newsletter concludes with the very sad news that
this week we learned that the father of three of our
pupils has died suddenly. Please pray for his children:
Dylan in year 5, Eloise in year 4 and Alannah in year 2
and for Lisa their mother. A prayer tree has been set
up in the foyer for anyone to write their own prayer
or thoughts. We give thanks for the gift of Nick, a
much-loved dad and husband. May he Rest In Peace.
Remaining Inset Days for the current academic year:
Thursday 24th March 2016 (Maths)
Friday July 22nd July 2016
Monday 5th September 2016
Friday 25th November 2016 (this also ties in with St
Paul’s College)
Friday 17th February 2107 (Music)
Monday 24th/Tuesday 25th July 2017 (these days tie in
with St Paul’s College)
………………………………………………
Kind regards
Angela O’Hara
Forthcoming Dates:
Safer Internet Day Tuesday 9th February
Pizza Express Visit year 4 Wednesday 10th February
Locality Orchestra Morning at St Pauls Thursday 11th
February
Year 3 Roman Day – Friday 26th February
World Book Day Thursday 3rd March (Pupils will be
asked to dress up on this day!)
No 15 for week ending Friday 8 January 2016
For more information please get a letter from the
school office.
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Bikeability:
weighed and exchanged for a monetary donation to
the school. Extra bags can be got from the school
office. Please bring the bags to school on the morning
of Thursday 21st January. There will be collection
points in the school playground. Please don’t bring
them in before this date as we do not have room to
store them. Thanks.
Second Hand Uniform Sale
Please come along to our next Second Hand Uniform
Sale at 3.15pm on Friday 15th January to grab a
bargain.
Vacancies:
We currently have a cleaning vacancy and a Midday
Meals Supervisor vacancy. Please visit our vacancies
page on our website for all the relevant information
and application packs.
The Friends would like to wish everyone a Happy New
Year.
Bags2school
You should now have received the Bags2school bags
before the Christmas holidays. Please fill these with
unwanted clothes, paired shoes, bags, toys etc
following the guidelines on the bag. The bags will be
No 15 for week ending Friday 8 January 2016
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