Dear Parents and Carers,

Festive Fun

I am happy to report that we have had another busy and productive week, highlighted by the Reception, Year 1 and 2 seasonal performances. Our Reception children entertained a school hall full of parents and family members with their wonderful rendition of ‘Shimmer, Sparkle and Sing’. We all agreed that their collective talents as singers and performers was clear to see and we are proud of their hard work and amazing confidence.

Combining their brilliance, years 1 & 2 brought a fantastic performance of ‘Simply the Nativity’, this week. With three full renditions and no stage fright in sight, our parents were enthralled and entertained with the children’s confident, exuberant and energetic acting and singing skills. Our thanks to the parents and family members for your wonderful support and to our staff team for putting it all together.

It was the turn of our key stage two children to visit the Redgrave theatre this week, watching Jack and the Beanstalk. The children loved the show and we again extend our thanks to you for your generous voluntary contributions, without which this would not happen.

Christmas Jumper Day has been a great success and seeing our children in festive spirit is a heart-warming reminder of the seasonal cheer. You have raised £313.00 all of which will be donated to Save the Children.

A Helping Hand

As we all understand, life for too many is extremely hard and the current financial climate has left so many with too little. Next week, we will be collecting for our local food bank and I would appeal to you to please donate as much you can to ease the struggle and show that as a community we care very much. Every little bit makes a difference to the lives of those who may need our generosity and respect. Thank you.

Staff Changes

Last week I wrote to you to explain that we had appointed a new Business Manager to succeed Mrs Jordan. For reasons beyond the school’s control Mrs Farwell will no longer be joining us. Fortunately for us, the ever-reliable Mrs Jordan has agreed to continue to support us through this unforeseen situation and will continue for another term in a part-time capacity. I am personally extremely grateful to her for this as her role is crucial. We recognise that her plans to leave and future intentions have been interrupted and I am sure that you will join me in thanking her for her commitment in providing stability in the management of our school at this challenging time.

Notices

Thank you for responding so positively to our request to support us by arriving on time in the morning. This is enabling us to begin the day on time and positively.

Thank you for ensuring that all dogs are kept safely off of the school site in keeping with our Health & Safety regulations.

Our cake sales continue to be a great success and a huge help to our fundraising efforts for the classes. It has been great to see the children choosing games, books and resources they would like.  Thank you all.

Please help us to commit to our Healthy Eating drive, unfortunately many of our older children are bringing crisps and confectionary into school for snacks. This is also beginning to create more demands upon our stretched resources to keep litter out of school. Again, I would respectfully ask that only healthy nut free snacks are provided from home.

As the end of term 2 approaches, we are looking forward to our final school week of 2024! We will sit down with the children, at our Christmas meal on Wednesday and come together as a community at Christ Church on Thursday at 10.00am, where we look forward to seeing you all.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards

Mark Oldfield

Headteacher

Inset and Academy days for the rest of the year (these are days when school staff are in training involved in other school oepration - children are not in school on these days):

• Friday 23rd May - Academy day
• Monday 21st July - Inset day
• Tuesday 22nd July - Inset day

Year 3 – Year 6 were lucky enough to watch Jack and the Beanstalk at the Redgrave Theatre. It was a fantastic afternoon, packed with laughter, music, and a touch of Christmas magic! Thank you so much to all the adults who accompanied us and helped with road crossings – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Wow what a week we have had in Reception, so busy! We arrived to a Christmassy classroom as finally December was here! We enjoyed playing in Santa’s workshop, using our writing and number skills in our play. We enjoyed dressing up with our friends and taking on the role of Santa and the elves. We continued developing our fine motor skills and our creativity using loose parts to decorate Christmas trees and rolling out some Gingerbread playdough!

Our maths provision involved problem-solving using buttons on the snowmen and sorting seasonal clothing.

On Wednesday morning we welcomed our parents and carers to the school hall, so they could enjoy our Shimmer, Sparkle and Sing performance. We loved twinkling as stars and we performed brilliantly! All of our school adults, parents and carers were very proud of us. We hope you enjoy the photos.

We found out about the journey that a letter takes after posting it. This certainly has got us in the mood for making and writing our own cards using our colourful stamps, stickers and envelopes in school for friends and family at this time of year.

On Thursday afternoon once the costumes were away we welcomed in Pastor Ruthy, she taught us all about a Christingle, the symbolic object used in Advent at Christmas. We learnt about what each part of the Christingle represents. We were very proud of our learning and showing our parents and carers at pick up, telling them what the ribbon and sweets represented. Well done reception, you all listened really well to the learning.

We have certainly had a very busy and fun week in reception and next week are looking forward to time to explore the Christmas activities and learning some more Christmas songs for the Christmas service on Thursday at Christ Church.

This week, Year 1 received a surprise letter from Percy the Park Keeper. He explained that a mischievous squirrel in the park had chewed a hole in his favourite coat, and he needs help designing a new one. Percy is looking for a warm, waterproof coat to keep him cosy during the winter months. In Science, we've been learning about different materials and their properties, preparing for our design challenge. Next week, we'll be testing a variety of materials to find the best one for Percy's new coat.

This week was extra special as we celebrated our Christmas show, Simply the Nativity. The children shone as singing and dancing stars and angels, and we are incredibly proud of the effort, enthusiasm, and hard work they put into their performances. Well done Year 1!

This week, we finally got our chance to show everyone what we had been rehearsing so hard for over the past 2 weeks - our nativity! The children put on an absolutely incredible performance for the whole school and their parents across three days. They were nothing short of amazing, bringing the story of Christmas to life with energy, enthusiasm, and wonderful teamwork. Their acting was filled with heart, and their beautiful singing left everyone in the audience (and their teachers!) beaming with pride. From the perfectly timed entrances to the immaculately learned scripts, every detail was thoughtfully executed. The children’s confidence and joy were infectious, making the performance a truly magical experience that will surely be remembered for years to come. What an unforgettable way to celebrate the season - we are sooo proud of you all, Year 2. 

Just look at their faces!

Year 3 had an absolute blast at the pantomime today. It was a brilliant way to relax after two very busy and productive terms. We hope you will all enjoy the Christmas story that they will present next week just as much.

This week, Year 4 let their imaginations take flight as they designed their very own dragon leaflets! Tasked with creating unique dragons, they skillfully used technical vocabulary, subordinate clauses, and subheadings to make their leaflets both informative and eye-catching. From fiery details to soaring creativity, the children proved they’re nothing short of roarsome dragon designers!

Year 5 have had lots of fun in Literacy this week writing job advertisements and cover letters for Buddy the Elf, who wants a job as Elf Bakery Team Leader at Asda. We have loved sharing and reading examples of formal writing, filled with Christmassy and wintery ideas. In Maths, we've been working hard adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators and converting mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa. We also loved our Winter Workshop Christmas Treat in the outdoor classroom. 

This week we loved watching the KS1 ‘Simply the Nativity’, and visiting the Redgrave Theatre to watch ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, but our absolute favourite performance was watching our Reception buddies sing their Christmas songs. Shy said, “My buddy looked really cute singing all the songs.” 

Kosi said, “It was fun! It was so nice seeing my buddy sing.” 

Billy said, “The actions were good, there was a lot of them to remember.”

Our outdoor workshop was also a highlight. We loved listening to our nature story where the character was kind to nature so nature rewarded them with magical powers, however, there was a twist to the end of the tale – I wonder if you can guess what it might be? We also enjoyed making bird feeders. Ted explained, “We put chopped-up apples on a skewer. Then we dipped the skewer into a bowl of mixed-up cinnamon and sugar. Next, we roasted it on the fire. It went golden.” We hung these around our outdoor classroom for local birds to enjoy, whilst some of us took them home to put in our gardens.

Merry Christmas from the PTA! 

Please save the date for School Disco 28th Feb and also Quiz night 9th May!! 

Have a wonderful break one and all!