Week Ending 2nd February 2018

This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:

WOW…so many this week!

Evie – EYFS – for spelling some of her key words accurately and being able to put them into a sentence independently to match a picture

Zara – Year 3 – for fabulous use of inverted commas in her dialogue homework and accurately using the 8x table

Miley – Year 3 – for beautifully creative artwork designing Stone Age necklaces

Callum – Year 1 – for using his number bonds knowledge to write subtraction numbers sentences

Noah – Year 1 – for using his number bonds knowledge to write subtraction numbers sentences

Beatrice – Year 1 – for writing an amazing sentence independently about Neil Armstrong using full stops and capital letters accurately

Freddie – Year 2 – for following instructions FIRST time ALL day, listening well and answering some great questions!

Oliver – Year 5 – For writing a fantastic scientific description of why we have night and day

Morgan – Year 5 – For developing a much neater and consistent style of handwriting after breaking his arm. So much effort to get back to a neat and joined style

Alexander – EYFS – For trying REALLY hard in literacy and using his phonetic knowledge to write the word ‘Sam’

Archie – EYFS – For some brilliant writing: using the tricky word ‘I’ and being able to segment ‘Sam’ independently

Eva – EYFS – For writing a sentence independently for the first time and using finger spaces and a full stop

Robyn – EYFS – WOW…for writing a whole story independently, using excellent letter formation and superb spelling

Attendance figures this week are as follows:

WILF will be visiting class 5 for 100% attendance.

Jessica will be visiting class 9 for 99.7% attendance.

3^rd place for attendance goes to Class 4 for 99.3%

Diary of the week:

Once again, another enjoyable and busy week in school.

My week started on Monday morning with an assembly about achievements; what achievements are really about for us as individuals? I am a huge believer that talents and achievements sometimes go beyond the classroom…and rightly so. Over the last few weeks, I have seen a number of children with medals, trophies and certificates and it is important to me, and the school, that these talents are recognised and celebrated. Please encourage your children to share their achievements with us. Feel free to email me photos of your child achieving something outside of school or tell them to see me with their trophies, medals and certificates…or even an anecdote of something they should be proud to tell us. It always makes my day when I hear how children are challenging themselves…even out of school! As part of the assembly, I also talked about the fact that achievements are not just about being awarded with a medal, trophy or certificate. I asked the children what else an achievement could be and they suggested:

1. Achieving a goal;
2. Planning to do a task and then being able to complete it;
3. Being able to better scores without actually achieving top marks;
4. Small steps to meet a target;
5. Feeling much happier about something, which has previously made you feel unhappy, worried or sad

On Monday evening, our staff meeting concentrated on meeting the ‘expected standard’ and ‘greater depth’ in writing throughout the Primary years. We looked at the materials sent to us by the Department for Education and the standards that they deem to demonstrate the expected and greater depth standard. As a school, we are constantly aiming higher and are working on ways in which to challenge some of our children even more, whilst still making their writing experiences fun, real and enjoyable.

Tuesday was a very long day; spent in many a meeting and ticking off items on the ‘things to do list’. But, what a joy it was when Mrs Barrowcliffe presented me with a surprise at 7pm when I left school; a scrumptious dinner in a foil container saying, ‘For your tea, Mrs Bates J’. I was delighted to see that Tuesday night’s afterschool cooking club had cooked me my very own, rather large, toad in the hole. Following a disastrous Tesco delivery at 8pm, it was true fate and absolutely delicious! Just look below at the photos! It totally made my day and my little note from the children was delightful! My husband really was rather jealous. I really am looking forward to apple crumble next week. Thank you, children, and thanks also to Mrs Barrowcliffe for arranging and organising such a great club. Currently, year 6 children are beavering away in their SAT boosters on a Tuesday evening, but we promise to make such a club available to them later in the year.

This week, the children have been thinking about the 13 words we have chosen for the new school vision and have been helping the staff to write their own school vision statements. On Monday, these will be very useful as we are meeting with governors and all staff to put together what the new vision may look and sound like. Exciting!

Gold book was brilliant this week, and I loved presenting the news about our first ever ‘Top Table’ for lunch on a Friday. The children have been awarded for their manners in the dinner hall this week, helping others when needed, making more of an effort when eating their lunch and generally being helpful to the dinner staff. I think the photo below reflects their delight at such a reward.

The NEW ‘Top Table’ VIP lunch awards goes to:

Ethan – class 5

Amelia – class 5

Freddie – class 6

Keegan – class 3

Stephanie – class 2

Paige – class 13

William – class 7

KJ – Class 9

A great week in school and a well-earned restful weekend for everyone. Have fun!

Warm regards,

Mrs Michelle Bates

(Head Teacher)