Westonzoyland community primary school and pre-school
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Newsletter No. 1. 4th September 2013 Dear Parents, Carers and Pupils, Welcome back to the beginning of a brand new school year, I do hope that you all had a wonderful summer break. Many of the children have been sharing tales of their holidays and staff are delighted with how well they have settled well into their classes. We start this year (for the first time in many) with our complete teaching team in place and no expected changes and so we look forward to a very good learning year. Over the summer we have had some building work and alterations undertaken and are very pleased with the results. Two toilet blocks; the Early Years Foundation Unit (between pre-school and Merlin class) and the block between Buzzard Class were totally revamped and look fabulous. We hope that in time we will be able to save the funds to upgrade the block between Kestrel and Osprey classes. Additionally, we have had alterations made to our ICT suite which was made possible by a generous donation from a local organisation that does not want any public acknowledgement or publicity. This project is not yet totally complete as the ceiling and lighting is due to be upgraded during the Autumn half term break. I do hope that the children think the changes are great and help us to look after these newly refurbished areas. New House and Class name reminders –
We are staying with our House team link to the RSPB and the classes are all to be called after birds of prey: Mrs. Simpson (Pre-School) = Fledglings Miss Cordiner = Merlin, Miss Cardwell = Buzzard Miss Squibbs = Kestrel, Mr. Powell-Thomas = Osprey Miss Hale = Hobby New Starters - children Although we already know many of our new reception children (Merlin class) from their attendance at Pre-school we would like to formally welcome to the start of their schooling: Archie, Amber, Ella, Freya, Freya, Isabel, Izzy-Lee, Jack, Jed, Katey, Kianna, Libby, Lucas, Megan, Mia, Rhys, Skye, Sophie, Tamira and Theron. They are in school full-time immediately with no induction period and had a brilliant first day which is testament to the success of our Foundation Unit last year. Joining us for the first time in our Pre-school this year we would like to welcome: Daniel, Evee, Euan,
Additionally we say a big hello to Dominic in Osprey class and Alfie and Debbie in Kestrel class and would like to welcome all of our new starters and their families to our school community. Staff News We would like to congratulate and welcome Mrs. Val Humphrey in her new role as school caretaker as she takes up the post from Mr. Spraggs. Mrs. Maclean returns to us for the Autumn term. She will be working afternoons with children doing individual and group support across several classes and Mr. Lyons the FA skills coach is helping us again in the Autumn term including running an after-school infant football club.
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-2- PTFA – A huge thank you to our wonderful PTFA and their efforts to raise money for your children and to parents for your continued support. We are very excited as we have received our trolley containing 25 Ipads for the children to use as soon as the protective covers arrive. The PTFA have funded the first year of a 3 year lease and will be fundraising again this year to try and help partially towards the next 2 years’ costs. These tools have already proved to be very beneficial in supporting good learning. Ofsted – During this academic year we will welcome the inspectors back to the school so the new team can achieve the rating of ‘Good’ as we are confident that we will move away from our ‘Requires Improvement’ judgement. This will probably be in the spring term as indicated by Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI) who has been very pleased with the progress that we are making. Key Stage 1 data 2012 – At 7 years old the expected level is 2b. The staff are all pleased with the individual efforts of the children over the year (last year’s Year 2s) to achieve these results.
Y1 Phonics
Key Stage 2 data 2012 – At 11 years old the expected level is 4b. Miss Hale and Mrs Hall were exceptionally proud of the hard work that the children put in to achieve their results (last year’s Year 6).
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-3- Absence and lateness – As mentioned in the last newsletter we are introducing an enhanced record system to enhance the monitoring of attendance and lateness which has had a negative impact on learning. Please continue to let us know of any reasons why your child could be off and phoning in when your child is ill, when a child is off or late a standard letter will be sent home with your child upon their return; this needs completing and returning for our tracking records and meetings with the Local Authority Education Welfare Officers. Extra – curricular clubs - A list has accompanied this letter for your child to choose any clubs that they would like to participate in. There will be waiting lists for some so we will be drawing names out of a hat. Again we are fortunate that so many staff are willing to give their time voluntarily to enhance provision for the children. Please discuss commitment with your child as last year there was just a quick decision from many children and they took places others could have had and then did not attend. We are introducing a 2 missed session system this year. If your child does not see the person leading the club in advance (as far as possible) with a plausible reason for absence (I don’t feel like it today – isn’t one) they will lose their place if this happens twice. The Malachi Trust - Every Thursday this Autumn term the Malachi Trust will be in school and will be able to work with parents. These sessions are purely voluntary and are designed to help parents and families. Many parents have had many informal chats with the team during the course of the summer term sessions and have found them to be very helpful. For more information about Malachi, please visit www.malachi.org.uk. School Council - This year our School Council will take on a new style which has been successful in other local schools. Instead of representatives from each class, children from Years 5 and 6 can put themselves forward to becoming school councillors. The 8 chosen children will then be allocated classes to represent and will keep their allocated classes updated with information and will seek the views of the children in those classes for driven projects. They will also host regular open sessions where children can raise issues or discuss school improvement opportunities. We are very excited about this new format and the new school councillors will be elected by the end of next week, they will be led by Miss Squibbs and will join me to share pupils’ views regularly. Eco Team – We are also changing the role slightly of the Eco Team this year (as requested by the children). As Outdoor Education is so popular we have so many children that wish to be Eco –warriors and we want to expand the opportunity for more children. Eco-warriors will hold the role for one term at a time so we can have 3 sets of Eco-warriors per class over the year. They will be guided by Miss Stockford and Mrs. Butler and will have a very hands-on role helping to maintain the school grounds and sustaining our provision through the sale of our produce etc. Uniform and Labels - Thank you parents for ensuring that the children look so smart in school uniform as they have returned to school. Please ensure that all of the new garments (including PE kits) are clearly labelled; the school sent a staggering 9 black bin liners of lost property to be recycled at the end of last year. Pre-School – Please could children have a suitable change of clothes in school for PE sessions. The children are fortunate to access all of the schools facilities including climbing apparatus. Recycling and Reusing – Mrs. Simpson would like to request any old boys’ clothes that could be donated for the spare clothes box (ages 3-5) please. Also any old unwanted small electrical items for the deconstruction area – children have previously taken apart and explored keyboards, laminators and hair straighteners. These donations do not need to be in working order. Jason Eveleigh …./4 -4-
September 2013 Monday 9th September Extra-curricular clubs begin this week Wednesday 11th September Year 6 ‘Wow’ Sports Day at Bridgwater College Academy Wednesday 18th September First Star of the Week assembly Tuesday 24th September Hobby class trip to Walled Gardens of Cannington Thursday 26th September Whole School trip to Bristol Zoo – details to follow. October 2013 Tuesday 1st October Osprey class trip to Walled Gardens of Cannington Tuesday 8th October Kestrel class trip to Walled Gardens of Cannington Thursday 10th October from 9am School Photos (Individual and Siblings) Tuesday 15th October Buzzard class trip to Walled Gardens of Cannington Wednesday 16th October (tbc) Harvest festival at the Church Monday 21st October – Friday 25th October Years 5 and 6 residential week at Charterhouse Tuesday 22nd October Merlin class trip to Walled Gardens of Cannington Friday 25th October Last day of half term
Fri 1st Nov or Sat 2nd Nov (tbc) PTFA Halloween disco at Community Centre Mon 4th November INSET day Tuesday 5th November Children start back Wednesday 6th November Parent Teacher Evenings (3.30 pm – 6.00 pm) Thursday 7th November Parent Teacher Evenings (3.30 pm – 6.00 pm) Friday 8th November (tbc) PTFA Shopping night
Monday 2nd December at 2.00pm KS1 & EYFU Nativity at the community centre Tuesday 3rd December at 10.00am KS1 & EYFU Nativity at the community centre Friday 13th or Sat 14th December (tbc) PTFA Family Bingo night (venue tbc) Thursday 19th December from 9 am ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Image Theatre performed to whole school funded kindly by the PTFA. Friday 20th December Last day of term | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
