Autumn Term 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
It was lovely to see you all this week for our Family Consultation evenings. Feedback was very positive - thank you for all your support. We also wanted to thank our Year 6 Badgeholders for greeting our visitors, helping parents find classrooms and supporting at the Book Fair. Well done!
We launched our competition for Firework and Diwali posters this week and half term may be the ideal opportunity to get the arts and crafts out for some colourful creations! We look forward to seeing all the entries. Please check the Community Events at the end of this newsletter for events that may be taking place over the half term/Autumn.
Tomorrow is an INSET day and therefore school is closed to pupils. We hope you have a lovely half term week with your children and look forward to seeing you all again when school returns on Monday 6th November.
Mrs Arnold
Harvest Presentation
Our Year 1 pupils have given their Harvest Presentation to parents today. They sang beautifully, sharing some familiar songs such as 'Cauliflowers Fluffy' and the 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow'!
They spoke clearly and confidently and we are very proud of them all.
Thank you for all your donations for our Harvest Display. Tomorrow, all the donations will be taken to local food banks which will make a massive difference to many families they support. Local foodbanks have advised that whilst the cost-of-living crisis is pushing up demand, donations are significantly reduced. As a school, we would like to assist local foodbanks wherever we can.
Thank you for your support with our Harvest celebrations. We believe this is an important opportunity for children to reflect, be thankful for what they have and to empathise with others.
Sports for Schools Athlete Event - 16.11.23
We are very excited to be welcoming top athlete Joe Roebuck to the school on Thursday, 16 November 2023. GB Olympic swimmer, Joe was ten times British Champion, double Commonwealth silver medallist, double European medallist and London 2012 Olympic semi-finalist. His events are the 100m and 200m Butterfly and the 200m and 400m Individual Medley.
Joe Roebuck will be leading a sponsored fitness circuit with all pupils, followed by a motivational assembly, and Q&A session. The aim of the event is to inspire the pupils to be more physically active, but just as importantly, encourage them to discover and pursue their passion in life. The event will also raise money to improve physical activity in the school, as well as supporting both athletes and para-athletes, so that they can continue to inspire the next generation.
Please also make sure that your children come to school on the event day with their PE Kits!
Winners of the 3 Rs Prize Draw
Each half term, the names of all pupils who have completed their achievement books and been noticed for displaying the 3 Rs - Respect, Responsibility and Ready to Learn - are put into a 'hat' and randomly drawn out. There is a winner from each year group and the prize this time is a £10 voucher for Waterstones Bookshop. The winners are...
Year 1 - Alfie 1KT
Year 2 - Kira T 2HF
Year 3 - Lennon 3CH
Year 4 - Ella-Rose 4AR
Year 5 - Mason F 5LE
Year 6 - Lexi A 6SB
Well done - we are very proud of you. Thank you for being such excellent role models for the other children.
Keeping Your Children Safe Online - Filtering and Monitoring
Technology and the Internet can be fantastic – they can help our children to learn, to create amazing things, to communicate and to entertain themselves and each other. Our children are surrounded by this technology – it is part and parcel of their daily lives.
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Using technology and the Internet well is about using it safely and responsibly. Things can go wrong by accident or if behaviour isn’t sensible or respectful. Our job is not to stop our young people from using technology but to ensure that they have the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to successfully navigate themselves through the online world, so they become good digital citizens.
What is filtering and monitoring?
Filtering and monitoring systems are used to keep pupils safe when using school’s IT systems.
- Filtering systems: block access to harmful sites and content.
- Monitoring systems: identify when a user accesses, searches for certain types of harmful content or types harmful words/phrases on school devices.
As a school, we are fully compliant with the Department for Education's ‘Filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges’ as well as the requirements of Keeping children safe in education 2023, and through this we ensure our children are safeguarded during the school day,
Gaming at home
Gaming is a big part of children’s lives today and that is why it’s important their devices and accounts are suitably restricted to age-appropriate limits at home. PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch consoles all offer their own parental control options, including time and spending limits, as well as managing access to games and online purchases.
There are three general areas to consider with your child to encourage safer gaming:
Consoles and their associated online stores give you the option to limit what games your child can play, based on the PEGI age rating system. This can help ensure they play games suited to their maturity level.
If you don’t want your child chatting in-game with people outside of their friends list, you can disable chat functions or restrict gaming to 'friend circles'.
Many online multiplayer games let players block, report or mute anyone they don’t want contact with. If they don’t already know, show your child how to do this in each of the games they play.
Art Club
Thank you to Mrs Price's after school Art Club for creating some
lovely Autumn decorations to brighten up our Offices!!
Design and Technology
Inspired by Brunel, our Year 6 pupils have been working collaboratively to design and make bridges as part of their Design and Technology project. Some excellent designs!
In Year 4, our pupils have been busy using mechanisms in their designs to add functionality to a model. The have explored the use of mechanisms such as levers, axles, cams, gears and pulleys.
Community Events and Family Support
