24th February 2023

I hope that everyone had a good half-term break and is feeling refreshed for the rest of the spring term.

It has been good to see parents and carers in school this week for the parent consultations and I hope that you are pleased with the progress the children are making. The progress reports that you were given during your consultation will give you an indication of where your children are working, in relation to expectations for this time of year, and also some next steps for them to be working on.

Butterfly class worship yesterday was wonderful, the children did a great job teaching us about the school value of service and their singing was very uplifting. Thanks to Mr Creese and Ms Green for helping the children prepare for their class led worship.

As the spring approaches, we will be working on preparing our wild and Eco areas for the key growing months. We are blessed with some lovely areas in the school grounds that the children enjoy and learn from. In the past, we have been very fortunate to have groups of parents to help us with the upkeep of these areas, and I am hoping that this will continue this year. You may have noticed an article in the newsletter before half-term which was asking for help with the Wild World, to which we had a limited response. We have a special morning on 17th March, for which we will need at least 8 helpers, led by Tash Somers, who has been instrumental in the development of our Nature Corridor and Wild World areas, so if you would like to and are able to help with this there are more details below. 

Mrs Reynolds

Next Week's 'Learning at a Glance'

Trip to Woolley Firs - Reception

REMINDER: Please complete your consent via ParentPay for your child to be allowed to take part in this trip.

Look out for the letter from Edward that will be coming out in Book Bags on Monday, asking the children to bring a teddy with them on the trip.

Class-Led Worship - All year groups

We will be holding class-led worship over the next few months. Each class will be basing their worship on their class value. We would like to invite parents/carers to join in with the worship. Each class worship will be 9-9.30am. To book your ticket via EventBrite, please click the link below.

Bee Class (Thursday 9th March) Click here

Ant Class (Thursday 16th March) Click here

Great Fire of London Day - Friday 3rd March - Year 2

The topic for Year 2 next half-term is the Great Fire of London.

Please see below for some costume ideas.

Winner - Jenny Britnell!

We are very pleased to announce that our Jenny Britnell won 'Best Teaching Assistant' at the Hidden Gems Awards 2023. Well done Jenny!

Google Classroom & Class Home Pages - Whole School

Home learning on Google Classrooms is now live. Please log in to your child's class page to view what your teacher has set.

The Class Home Pages for this half-term have also gone live - these pages can be found on the school website. Parents/carers must use their login for this. The Class Home pages provide information about the areas of learning that each class will be covering over the next 5 weeks.

Wild World - Whole School

Thank you to those who have volunteered already. We are still looking for 4 more people to complete our team.

We will have our first session on the 17th March. This will include things like:

• removing grass from around new hedge plants
• tieing in the willow fence and mulching
• clearing paths for the children
• tending beds and some planting where appropriate.
• checking the composters and removing ready compost for the children to use

If you have an interest in gardening and would love to help, please register your interest here.

Scootability Day - All year groups

Monday 27th February 

Scootability Day has been developed to train children how to scoot safely and sensibly to and from school. This programme encourages safe and active travel from an early age whilst providing children with fundamental skills to aid their balance and awareness which will help further in their lives, like when they come to riding a bike.

The children will be provided with scooters, helmets and knee pads. They will learn about being considerate to others and about finding a safe place before crossing the road, then STOP, LOOK and LISTEN. It's lots of fun!

Teacher Strike-All year groups

We are planning to be fully open as usual on the 1st of March. This, of course may change nearer the time but at the moment, indications are that the classes will all be operating as normal. 

Curriculum Information Session - Reception

Monday 27th February 7.00pm

This session will be a follow on from the one we held in the autumn term. It is open to all Reception parents who would like to find out more about how and what their children learn in Reception. We will be covering end of year expectations, the next phase in learning in phonics as well as giving further hints on how to support the children at home. We do need to know how many parents will be attending so that we can prepare resources. Please click here if you will be coming along.

World Book Day - Thursday 2nd March - Whole school

This year we have lots of events planned around World Book Day. Details of these are below:

World Book Day Dress up

On World Book Day itself, we are inviting children to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. The costume does not have to be elaborate or expensive and there are ideas for simple homemade costumes here. We love seeing which books the children are enjoying, and it's a great way to get reading ideas from your friends by looking at their costumes. 

Mystery Reader

We usually finish our school day with a story read by the class teacher or teaching assistant. During the week of World Book Day we would like to surprise the children with some 'Mystery Readers'. If you would like to come into school for the last 10 - 15 minutes of the day to share your favourite story with your child's class then please sign up to let us know.

We have a limited number of opportunities across the week for the Mystery Readers, so there is a chance that we will not be able to invite everybody in on this occasion.

Please email the school office if you are interested in being one of our mystery readers.

Challenge Time 

We are holding a creative challenge for all children linked to their reading. We would like all children to choose 1 of the challenges outlined below and send it into school the week commencing 27th February.

1. Take a photograph of yourself reading in an unusual or an exciting place
2. Paint, collage or draw your own inspirational quote or phrase from your favourite book or author
3. Create your own story props to tell one of your favourite stories
4. Make a book. You could theme it around your favourite book, author or illustrator

Online Book Fair

We also have an online Book Club running with Scholastic Books. Please click here.

All the books in the Book Club are discounted, some by as much as 50%. For every £1 you spend the school receives 20p to spend on books.

   Wine & Cheese Tasting Quiz Night   

There are still tickets available for our inaugural wine and cheese quiz night being held on Saturday 18th March at 8pm in the school hall. It is being run by 2 of our reception parents (Helen doing the wine and Carly the cheese!) and looks like it's going to be a fabulous evening! Tickets are £25pp and family/friends from outside school are welcome to join (adults only). This is going to be a fun and relaxed evening of wine tasting (12 different wines!) and cheese eating in a quiz style and no prior knowledge about wine or cheese is needed. No other food apart from cheese and biscuits, but you're welcome to bring snacks. Bar and other games on the night.