Friday 9th September 2022
Headteacher's Update
It has been wonderful to welcome the children back to school for an exciting new term of learning. The children are already working hard and are rising to our high expectations of work and behaviour.
I would like to thank all of the parents who have responded to the launch of our new website, logo, vision and values - all of these are important steps in building a Federation that serves our community and provides children with all the tools we need to 'let their light shine'. We are very pleased with our new website and I would like to thank our Governor Jon Walters for the enormous amount of work that he put into building it. If you haven't had a chance to take a look, please click here. I will be producing a guide to the wealth of information it contains in the near future - we intend it to be a 'one-stop-shop' for all the information you need to support your child as they journey through our Federation.
We have relaunched our House system across both schools in the Federation and today your child found out which house they are in. Our new houses follow the seasonal theme of our logo, being named after constellations that can be seen in the night sky in Woolton Hill at various points throughout the calendar year.
The children met in their new house teams for the first time in both schools this afternoon to find out a bit more about the constellations and elect their house captains. The Federation is planning to hold an astronomy evening later in the Autumn. If you are keen on the night sky and are able to lend equipment (binoculars and telescopes) then please do make contact with the school office.
Attendance, Medical Appointments, Illnesses
Attendance is vitally important to your child’s education and time at school. Showing your child the importance of attending school every day not only helps your child to settle quickly when starting school but helps them to keep and maintain friendships and enjoy the school environment.
As a school we aim to have our overall attendance of 96% or higher and appreciate your efforts in supporting us with this. Persistent absence (PA) is defined as an attendance rate of 90% or below.
Missing a half a day of school a week (which would lead to an attendance rate of 90%) equates to missing a year of school over their time in education and research has shown that those with higher attendance rates achieve higher results at both the end of KS2 and KS4.
The DfE has released new school guidance on attendance starting from September which can be found here. As a school, we are here to help you if there are any barriers to getting your child into school, so please do let us know if you need further support.
I understand that there are some exceptional cases where your child must attend a planned medical appointment during school times but I ask that, wherever possible, dentist, doctor, physio appointments etc. are held outside of the school day or during the school holidays. For those appointments where that is not possible, it is best to bring your child in for as much of the day as possible.
It is fine to send your child to school with a minor ailment such as tummy ache, head ache, cough or common cold. The NHS provide some advice on helping to determine if you should send them in or keep them at home . If your child is too unwell to attend school, you must contact the school on/before the first morning of the absence stating the reasons.
How will I find out what my child is learning about and how they are progressing?
There are many ways of finding out what your child is learning about and how they are doing.
• Meet The Teacher meetings for each class at the start of the school year
• Parents Evenings in the Autumn and Spring Term for Years and written reports in the Spring Term.
• If your child is in an end of key stage year group (Year R, 2, 6) or takes any statutory assessments (Year 1 and 4), results of these are also sent out in the summer term.
• Regular updates of what is being covered in class can also be found on our website here.
If you would like more information than this or have any concerns about how your child is progressing, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher through the school office.
Meet the Teacher
Come along and meet your child's new teacher. You will find out all you need to know about the year ahead, find out how to support your child's learning at home and have an opportunity to ask questions. We will run a ‘crèche' for school age pupils. Younger children can be taken into the meeting if necessary.
Meetings take place on the following dates
Development of the Outdoor Learning environment
The Junior School are very fortunate to have an amazing outdoor learning environment and the children and teachers are always keen to take learning outdoors as much as possible. Unfortunately over the past few years, the forest area towards the back of the school field has become overgrown and run down and it has not been possible for the children to use this area. We have embarked upon an exciting new project to develop the outdoor environment, with plans to introduce Forest School learning sessions and outdoor Science lessons focusing on habitats, animals, ecosystems and pond dipping.
We are pleased to say that during the summer holidays some exciting changes have taken place. The local company Green Tips came to the rescue and very kindly agreed to take on the huge job of starting the clearance process. Not only did they agree to do the work in line with the schedule requested, they also offered to do this completely free of charge. Without this amazingly generous donation the school would still only be in the fundraising stage and this would have hugely delayed this project.
I hope that you will be able to see from some of the before and after pictures what an amazing job they have done!
Over the next few weeks we will be organising a further grounds clearance day, where we hope as many families will be able to join us to continue clearing the area in preparation for the children to begin to start using the forest. This clearance will be stage 1 in the development project and will result in the children having a safe path through the area, leading to an outdoor camp area.
Once again, thank you so much to Green Tips for all their hard work – it is very much appreciated and the children are already very excited by the changes. We look forward to sharing more pictures as we continue to develop the area and to inviting you all to come and explore the forest for yourselves!
Before:
After:
Open Mornings
Does your child start junior school in September 2023? Do you know someone who is looking for a Year 3 place for next year? Come along to our open morning to meet staff and children and to see our brilliant school in action.
Open Mornings will take place at 9.30am on Tuesday 18th October and Wednesday 30th November.
Star Awards
The following children received Star Awards this week! They should all be really proud, well done!
Rose H, Zara B, Bertie J, Maxey R, Brian S, Izzy C, Ashley M, Josie F, Harley H, Alice F, Nicholas M, Archie L, Jack D, Freddie L
Hot Chocolate
The following children were invite to have Hot Chocolate with Mr Davies and talk about the highlights of their week!
Seb L, Isabelle G, Finn E, Grace G and Harvey W
Term Dates and Inset Days
For term dates and inset days, check out the page on the website
Please note that we have changed the last INSET day of this academic year. This will now take place on Friday 16 June 2023.
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