Dear Parents and Carers,

Science Club
The week of March 22nd is our Science Week. We will be having a visiting Nutty Professor in to excite the children with a range of wild and wacky experiments and will be spending much of our time experimenting, predicting and talking about Science. There is an organisation who has approached me about running an afterschool Science Club. Each week the children would take part in a range of fun, educational activities designed to excite their interest in Science and support the work that they do in the Science Curriculum. The club would run for 8 weeks and costs approximately £48 for the 8 sessions. I would be really grateful if you would let me know whether this is something that you would be interested in your child attending. We need 15 children to be able to run the club. The information poster is displayed in the display cabinet outside the office.
The club is likely to run on Wednesday afternoons after school. However the day of the week is open to discussion and we will go for the one which most of the children can attend.

Apple Awards

Well done for setting such a great example.

Coffee Morning
Thank you to the parents who came to the first of our informal Wednesday coffee mornings. It was a really good occasion to talk about school life and for us to hear what information and services would be helpful to you as parents. The next coffee morning will take place on Wednesday March 31st when there will be a talk by the PTFA.

Morning routines
We have a large number of children arriving in school after 8.45 am. Could I remind you please that all children need to be on the playground by 8.45am ready to go into class when the bell goes. If you arrive after 8.45am and the gate is still open your child needs to go into class from the playground. If you arrive late and the gate is shut you will need to come in through the front office where you will be marked late. The children will then go to class either on their own or accompanied by a staff member. Late arrivals are very disruptive to the classes, so please could I urge you to ensure that your child arrives on time. Thank you.

Behaviour Policy Working Party
The next Behaviour Policy Working Party will take place between 2.00pm and 3,00pm on Tuesday March 30th. If you were unable to attend the first meeting but would like to be involved in this the follow up session, you are more than welcome.

Tag Rugby Tournament
Congratulations to our Tag Rugby Team who did so well at the Tournament on Tuesday. We came a very respectable 3rd place in the competition.

Y3 Poetry Production – Thursday March 11th 2.15pm
The Y3 children are looking forward to showing parents, grandparents etc how well they have been doing in their reading and writing of poetry. Their little show will start at 2.15pm and afterwards they will be serving you refreshments.

Unaccompanied children
With the evenings becoming lighter and even sun on some days, we have had a number of enquiries from parents requesting what the procedure is if their child in Year 5 or Year 6 is to go home unaccompanied. We will need a signed permission slip from you stating that they may do this. Forms may be downloaded here.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Barnes

Spring Term update on progress towards the Ofsted Action Plan

Early years Foundation Stage

• Greater emphasis on child initiated activities and curriculum planning which reflects the interests and needs of the children
• Daily Phonics across the Foundation Stage
• Provision for more able and those requiring additional support

Key Stage 1

• Greater use of integrated Topic approach, leading to children making links between subjects and more opportunities for practising concepts
• Greater use of talk for learning and role play, to extend the children’s vocabulary and sentence structure
• Tracking and target setting systems embedded for English, Maths and Science, leading to staff and pupils having a much greater idea of what they have to do to improve their work

Key Stage 2

• Greater range of teaching styles and methods being used, leading to more opportunities for children to talk about their learning and embed knowledge
• Greater range of practical activities to engage learners
• Tracking and target setting systems embedded for English, Maths and Science, leading to staff and pupils having a much greater idea of what they have to do to improve their work
• Extension groups for the more able and those requiring additional support
• As from February half-term, improved notification to parents of child’s progress and where this lies against National expectations

The focus for the Spring Term is continued drive towards improving Behaviour and Attendance, for the Subject Leaders to have a greater role in monitoring and raising standards in their subjects across the school and ensuring that the children are aware of their targets and how they can improve.