Newsletter – Friday 3rd February 2017
Dates for the Diary
4th Feb – Jumble Sale in Witheridge, doors open
2pm
6th Feb – Bag2School Collection
10th Feb – Celebration Assembly
13th Feb – Half Term Week
24th February – Movie Night
1st March – Crediton Bookshop: top 20 books
2nd March – World Book Day
3rd March – Celebration Assembly
6th March – Duck Race planning meeting
13th-19th March – Science Week
16th March – Science Fair
24th March – Red Nose Day
29th March – Provisional date for Easter Crafts
Day, Easter egg hunt and Mosaic workshop –
Year 6s back for the day
31st March – Break up for Easter
31st March – Easter Disco
31st March-3rd April – Yr 6 Residential
Our Learning
Oaks have had a busy couple of weeks starting our
topic on the Stone Age and learning about some of the
main points in history. We have also started to learn
about how the key events caused significant and
lasting changes in history.
We have also completed our tests on the spellings lists
that the children have been learning weekly as
homework. All of the children have made progress
with some moving onto the next set of spellings.
Under the new national curriculum expectations,
children who do not spell these words correctly in their
writing cannot meet expected levels and while they
can use a range of strategies to find the correct
spelling this all takes time, so knowing these spellings
well will improve writing levels significantly. On this
note, please can I put in a massive plea for homework
books to come in every Friday without fail.
Can I also remind parents that though it is not set,
children from year 1 to 6 have unlimited access to
Mathletics, as with reading, reading at least 4 times a
week for 20 minutes is required to maintain a child at
an age appropriate level, and while we do have
volunteers in school who do listen to some children
read this is not a substitute for regular reading at
home. Regular use of Mathletics will also ensure that
all learning in class is embedded and extended where
appropriate. Children who do not have access to a
computer or the internet at home can take part in
Mr Hope’s Friday Mathletics club at lunch times.
Acorns have also had keywords sent home to embed
for reading and spelling purposes.
Acorns have been busy designing rockets this week,
ready to make next week. They have learnt about
what is needed to make a good rocket, i.e. a nose
cone to enable the rocket to exit the atmosphere, a
door for the astronauts to get into the rocket etc.
In literacy, Acorns have been working on using
interesting adjectives to make their writing more
exciting. We are working towards writing our own
exciting story next week. We have also worked on
making sure that we correctly punctuate all sentences
and welcome children practising this at home.
At the start of the week, Acorn 2 worked with Acorn 1
to help celebrate Chinese New Year. We split into four
groups and over the day completed four activities
linked to Chinese New Year. We heard the story of
Chinese New Year and retold it through dance and
music. The children cooked Chinese food and then
had a 'Chinese take away' picnic including the food
they had cooked. The children also made lanterns
and dragons as part of the celebration day.
British Values
This week in school we have introduced the children
to five British Values. These are values that are
important in enabling the children to become
successful learners, confident individuals and
responsible citizens. We have learnt some hand signals
to help us remember them.
Well done to all of the children who completed their
competition entries this week. I will let you know who
has the winning entry next week.
As part of our assemblies we will be looking at each
area in more detail. If you feel that your child has
done something outside school that relates to this,
please feel free to share this in celebration assembly.
These are just some of the areas to be covered.
Human rights and citizen
ship/democracy/individual
rights/respect of
opinions
Equality of all races
Rule of Law
Commitment through
Sikh religion
Rule of Law
Tolerance
Mutual respect
Celebrating difference
To emphasise the
importance of good
advice
The right to hold
our opinions and
freedom of
expression Ass1
The Birthday of
Haile Selassie
Respect for rules
To value
commitment
Importance of
playing by the
rules
Religious
toleranceexploring the idea
that people can
see faith in
different ways
Respecting the
elderly- we will be
old one day
To encourage
tolerance
Achieving our best
to reach our goals
Can I also remind parents about our citizenship award.
There are 3 areas to this: Developing skills which can
be demonstrated through attending a club inside or
outside school. Contribution to school life. Raising
money or doing voluntary work. If your child has
achieved something in each of these areas please
download the evidence sheet from the letters and
forms section on the website and hand in to me.
Attendance
As part of our ongoing work on supporting attendance
we monitor this monthly. If your child’s attendance
from September to the end of that month falls below
90% we will let you know. Please be aware that this
is an ongoing monitoring process, you will receive a
letter whatever the reasons for the absence whether it
is ill health or due to holiday, however in some cases
we do appreciate that there are exceptional
circumstances surrounding attendance, so please keep
us informed.
Kirkland Rowell Survey
Please could I ask all parents to return the
questionnaire to the office by Monday at the latest.
We have spares in the office !!
Happy Birthday
Happy birthday to Matilda, Percy, Phoebe, Annabella,
Lottie, Me and Tom, we hope you have a lovely day.
Congratulations to Oliver on passing his Stage 5
swimming award.
Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers are back!
PTFA NEWS
Jumble Sale – tomorrow!
Don’t forget our first jumble sale of 2017 takes places
tomorrow at Witheridge Parish Hall, doors open for
sales at 2pm, but donations can be dropped off from
12.30. As well as clothing, we would be very grateful
for donations for the cake stall (as well as baking, this
can be any home produce such as eggs, jams,
chutneys) and prizes for the raffle, thank you.
Bag2School
Please remember to bring in your bags on Monday
morning, 6th February. The van usually comes quite
early in the day so please bring bags with you at
9am. All the unsold jumble will be bagged up for this
collection too.
Movie Night
We would like to put on a new social event for the
children this term, so will be showing the film “The
Secret Life of Pets” on Friday 24th February. The film
is rated PG and runs for 1 hour, 27 minutes. This will
take place in the school hall (old Oak class), arrival
from 5.45 with the movie to start at 6pm. The
admission cost of £2 will cover refreshments.
Admission by ticket only, NO admission on the
door. Tickets will be available in school from Monday
20th February. If your child(ren) comes on the taxi,
please send money in a named envelope, thank you.
Donna
59 Club Winners
Congratulations to:21/01/17 – No 51 – Rollover
28/01/17 – No 20 – Mary Barlow
Butlin’s
If you’re booking a break at Butlin’s please remember
to quote this unique code EWPS1 and 5% of your
booking will come directly to the PTFA!