We have our parent hotline number 08447 707 576 in place and we will be using this more over the coming months to add school messages regarding adverse weather conditions. When you dial 08447 707 576 you need to then dial our school ID Number: 71486 to hear our school messages. Parent Hotline Dear Parents/Carers We have already completed seven weeks of the new school year and we will shortly put the clocks backward bringing the shorter days of winter upon us. In school, the days continue to be bright as pupils and staff work as hard as ever. I hope that everyone enjoys the half-term break and we look forward to seeing all pupils back on school on Monday, 31 st October at 8:50 am. I want to share with you the pleasing improvement in our school attendance figures, though we still need to make further improvements. All schools are expected to achieve 95% atten- dance. Last year we achieved above 94% for the first time since 2005. This is great news for our pupils as they make the best progress with learning when they are in school. Now we are aiming to achieve 95% this year. Jessica Dark (Parent Support Advisor) will continue to work with fami- lies having difficulties with school attendance through letters, meetings and attendance contracts. During the next half-term it is highly likely that school will be forced to close due to industrial ac- tion by ALL school staff over government plans to change pension entitlements. Please be as- sured that staff never decide to take industrial action lightly. We all work in school because we want to support children‟s learning. Unions have been attempting to negotiate over this matter for more than 10 months. At present we expect that Wednesday, 30 th November will be a national public sector strike day. I will write to you with more information as this day gets closer. During this week we have been completing work as part of „Cultural History Week‟. Classes have been able to take part in story-telling and music workshops. During the week children have re- searched and been learning about athletes, Olympians and others from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and cultures. It was pleasing to see the excitement and delight of many children during the workshops. We have spent this half-term covering and cataloguing almost 1,500 new books which will be available on our class and school library shelves. I would like to especially thank my support staff and the big band of volunteer parents who have assisted us with this huge task over the past weeks. Please help us to keep our books in a good condition by looking after books at home when your child brings them home for reading. Mr Dave Woods Head Teacher Message from Mr Woods Newsletter No 17— October 2011
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We have our parent hotline number 08447 707 576 in place and we will be using this more over the
coming months to add school messages regarding adverse weather conditions. When you dial 08447 707
576 you need to then dial our school ID Number: 71486 to hear our school messages.
Parent Hotline
Dear Parents/Carers
We have already completed seven weeks of the new school year and we will shortly put the clocks
backward bringing the shorter days of winter upon us. In school, the days continue to be bright
as pupils and staff work as hard as ever. I hope that everyone enjoys the half-term break and we
look forward to seeing all pupils back on school on Monday, 31st October at 8:50 am.
I want to share with you the pleasing improvement in our school attendance figures, though we
still need to make further improvements. All schools are expected to achieve 95% atten-
dance. Last year we achieved above 94% for the first time since 2005. This is great news for our
pupils as they make the best progress with learning when they are in school. Now we are aiming
to achieve 95% this year. Jessica Dark (Parent Support Advisor) will continue to work with fami-
lies having difficulties with school attendance through letters, meetings and attendance contracts.
During the next half-term it is highly likely that school will be forced to close due to industrial ac-
tion by ALL school staff over government plans to change pension entitlements. Please be as-
sured that staff never decide to take industrial action lightly. We all work in school because we
want to support children‟s learning. Unions have been attempting to negotiate over this matter for
more than 10 months. At present we expect that Wednesday, 30th November will be a national
public sector strike day. I will write to you with more information as this day gets closer.
During this week we have been completing work as part of „Cultural History Week‟. Classes have
been able to take part in story-telling and music workshops. During the week children have re-
searched and been learning about athletes, Olympians and others from a wide variety of ethnic
backgrounds and cultures. It was pleasing to see the excitement and delight of many children
during the workshops.
We have spent this half-term covering and cataloguing almost 1,500 new books which will be available on our class and school library shelves. I would like to especially thank my support staff and the big band of volunteer parents who have assisted us with this huge task over the past weeks. Please help us to keep our books in a good condition by looking after books at home when your child brings them home for reading.
Mr Dave Woods Head Teacher
Message from Mr Woods Newsletter No 17—
October 2011
Newsletter No 17—October 2011 Page 2
Curriculum
News
Over the past weeks
staff have focused
their training sessions
on teaching writing
and teaching reading,
including phonics.
We were notified this week by the
British Council that we have now
achieved the „Foundation‟ level of
the International Schools Awards.
This is a terrific reflection of the
great international links made
with schools in China and France
and of our commitment to devel-
oping an „International‟ curricu-
lum.
We are already planning for our
6th annual Citizenship Fortnight
which will take place in January
and February. This time we will
be working with staff and pupils
from Hambrough and North Pri-
mary School to complete an excit-
ing range of activities and learn-
ing opportunities. Our main
theme will be linked to the Lon-
don 2012 Olympic Games taking
place next July.
Staff have also used staff meeting sessions to explore a range of ICT
software and hardware and we have also looked at how we teach
music across the school.
Premises
News You will have
noticed that over
the summer
holiday period
we had some
additional canopies installed
to cover the exit doors to the
playground and the entry
doors to the dining room.
These are to assist us during
periods of wet weather as
children enter and exit the
building. Please help us by
not ‗blocking‘ the doors at the
end of the school day.
We have also had work com-
pleted to our garden areas at
the front of the school, the
pond area, Nursery play-
ground, Reception playground
and in the ARP play area.
Some planting has already
been completed, but we look
forward to next Spring to see
our new gardens flourish.
The nursery have also had
some decking installed to
provide them with a better
covered area to use for learn-
ing on wet weather days.
Adult Learning
We are hoping to be able to
run some additional adult
learning courses over the
coming months. The funding
to provide courses such as
ESOL (English for Speakers of
Other Languages) is no
longer available to schools.
Mrs Poonai has been working
with adult learning to adapt
some courses to include some
―English‖ learning elements.
Courses that we hope to offer
include: ―Family Maths‖,
―Family Links‖, ―Nurturing‖
and possibly ―Keeping Up
With the Children—English‖.
If you are interested in apply-
ing for places on any of these
courses you need to speak to
Mrs Poonai to register your
name. Places will be offered
to parents/carers who have
shown a commitment to the
school by volunteering time
to support the school with
help in classes.
All about
TAMHS Again this is a busy time for
TaMHS! This term I am run-
ning circle time lessons with
children in years 5 and 6,
which is helping them to
think about talk about their
feelings and make good
choices about their behav-
iour. I‘m also doing a group
with some children around
behaviour and continue to
see children individually as
well. Also this term and next
term I am joined by Holly,
who is training to be a Clini-
cal Psychologist and who will
be working under my super-
vision doing the same kinds
of activities in classes.
For those who are new to
the school, TaMHS is a pro-
ject which works with chil-
dren and families who need
help and advice with chil-
dren‘s social and emotional
needs. I am Ellie Atkins, a
Clinical Psychologist working
in Beaconsfield every Thurs-
day for the whole day. The
kinds of things I can help
with include emotional diffi-
culties, so if your child is
sad, worried or cross I might
be able to help. I also help
children who don‘t feel good
about themselves or children
who are struggling to get
along with others. If behav-
iour is a problem then I may
be able to help and I can
also offer support if a child
has suffered a bereavement
or if there are difficulties at
home.
If you are worried about
your child or would like
some help with an issue
than you can speak to
someone in the school (such
as Mr Woods, Mrs Poonai or
Jessica Dark) who will pass
your concerns on to me.
Reception have been settling in well this term and getting to know each other. We have been learning about our bodies and taking part in lots of fun activities. Here is some of the work we did about our
sense of touch ........
Nursery Nursery have a new garden area and we
have enjoyed planting and looking after
our new plants. We have to remember to
give them water.
We have also been taking our own photos
of our favourite plants.
Newsletter No 17—October 2011 Page 3
Classroom News
Reception
We took part in messy play and talked about how the mixtures felt.
We were blindfolded and had to trace letters and guess what they were.
We wrote about what we could feel inside a feely bag.
Additional Resource Provision (ARP) Classes
In starfish class (ARP 1) we have been very busy
reading and writing every day. We enjoyed read-
ing the story „Whatever next‟ by Jill Murphy. We
made our own rockets out of big cardboard boxes
and went on an imaginary journey to the moon.
Just like in the story.
The children in Dolphin class have been joining
in with the exciting events in Years 3, 4 and 5.
We went to the cinema and enjoyed the Big
Breakfast. In class we have been busy learning
about Food and Farming. We‟ve become quite
good cooks too!
Year 1
Newsletter No 17—October 2011 Page 4
Year 2
We have been learning joined-
up writing this term.
We have also been learning how
to use „Wow‟ words.
This half term, Year 2 have been enjoying reading and listening to the adventures of Katie Morag. They
have written letters to Katie and her Grandma, learnt about the Struay Island Show, learnt how to wash a sheep and written their own Isle of Struay stories. When writing their stories, children thought carefully
about the structure of their stories and used adjectives and wow words to make their writing interesting and exciting for the reader. Mr Pearson has loved reading their stories and has been amazed at their fun
Monday 31st October 2011 Pupils Return for Second Half of Autumn
Term
Thursday 3rd November 2011 ―Silly Hat Day‖ - School Council Event
Friday 4th November 2011 School Portrait Photos
Friday 11th November 2011 Year 5 & Year 6 Science Museum Trip
Monday 21st November 2011 Life Education Van Visits
Tuesday 22nd November 2011 Life Education Parent Session at 8:50 am
Wednesday 30th November 2011 Expected Strike Action by all Public Sector
Staff (SCHOOL LIKELY TO BE CLOSED)
Monday 5th December 2011 INSET/TRAINING DAY
Thursday 15th December 2011 1:45 pm—Reception + KS1 Christmas
Assembly
Friday 16th December 2011 School Closes for End of Term (1:30 pm)
Tuesday 3rd January 2012 School Returns for Spring Term
Friday 6th January 2012 Year 6 Visit to Olympic Park
Monday 23rd January 2012 Citizenship Launch Assembly
Monday 23rd January—Friday 3rd
February 2012
Citizenship Fortnight
Friday 27th January 2012 INSET/TRAINING DAY
Important Dates For Your Diary
Page 11 Newsletter No 17— October 2011
Below are our approved school holiday dates through until December 2012. Please note these dates and ensure that any holiday bookings are made outside of the school terms.
Autumn Term 2011
INSET Day— Monday 5th September 2011
Tuesday 6th September 2011—
Friday 21st October 2011
Half-term Monday 24th October—
Friday 28th October
Monday 31st October 2011— Friday 16th December 2011
INSET Day—
Monday 5th December 2011
Spring Term 2012
Tuesday 3rd January 2012- Friday 10th February 2012
INSET DAY —
Friday 27th January 2012
Half-term Monday 13th February – Friday 17th February 2012
Monday 20th February 2012—
Friday 30th March 2012
Summer Term 2012
Monday 16th April 2012- Friday 1st June 2012
BANK HOLIDAY—Monday 7th May
Half-term
Monday 4th June— Friday 8th June 2012
INSET DAY—Monday 11th June
Tuesday 12th June 2012—
Friday 20th July 2012
Autumn Term 2012
INSET DAY—Monday 3rd September
Tuesday 4th September 2012— Friday 26th October 2012