News from the school

Working Hard and Aiming High

School has had a busy and exciting feel this week with all of our classes immersing themselves in their new topics.

On my Learning Walks around school I have seen wonderful weather art work in Amethyst class, colourful Kandinsky art work in Pearl and Sapphire classes, some imaginative pop-up book designs in Amber class and some impressive laptop research and skills in both Ruby and Diamond classes.

We have also had several visitors to school over the last two weeks; we welcomed
two Headteachers from schools in different local authorities who had been advised by
school improvement partners and HMI to come to see the way that we work at our school.

This is a real credit to the staff and children in school whose hard work and high expectations and standards are being recognised by advisers and OFSTED as being good practice.

School Council

Our School Council have started the term with an important decision. Following on from a Council meeting with Reverend Helen just before Christmas, class representatives have been talking to their classes about different quotations from the Bible which they feel echo the heart of our school.

At this week's meeting a final decision was made and I am very proud of the quote that the children in school have selected. It is:
'Let your light shine' Matthew 5:16
which I feel captures the ethos and values of our school perfectly. Well done to all of the School Council members and many thanks to Reverend Helen for giving her time to help them with this work.

FASA

The FASA team met yesterday to plan our next fundraising event at school, the Spring Term Disco. This will be a wonderful way to end our half term, please look out for more details coming soon.

Parking

Can I ask that anyone driving to school to collect or drop off children are mindful of pedestrians. There have been a number of occasions when cars have blocked pavements and made it dangerous for adults and children to get past. Your consideration of pedestrian safety outside school is much appreciated.

Parent Governor Election Nomination Forms

All parents will have received a Parent Governor information update from school this week. A reminder that all nominations should be returned to school by Friday 31st January

Internet Safety Meeting

The NEP parents meeting on Tuesday was a very useful and helpful reminder of the importance of the role we all have in keeping children safe online. Our PSCO, Nick Jarvis, and his colleague spoke to parents from across the cluster about the need for us to talk to our children about sites they are accessing and to check our family and privacy settings on all devices we have at home.

They recommended several websites including the CEOP site – www.ceop.gov.uk which has a range of thought provoking and informative video clips and site Thinkuknow site, a resource we will be using in school as part of our Internet Safety Day on 11th February, which has a parent section – www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents


Gritting at School

I would like to remind you of school's gritting plan. In the event of icy weather our Caretaker, Mrs Naden, will grit identified pathways and parents and children must use these routes for their own safety.

There will be a gritted path from the main gate to the main entrance and around the perimeter of the main building up to the Highfield Drive entrance. Please note the Heathfield Road playground entrance gate will remain locked on these occasions.

Finally

I met with the Chair and Secretary of the Parent Forum this week to set the agenda for our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Tuesday 28th January from 9.15am – 10.15am in the school hall. Thank you to those parents who have suggested agenda items. Agendas will be sent out to all families early next week.

The Forum is YOUR Forum, a chance to ask school about any areas of school life you are concerned about or wish to celebrate.

Please send any comments you would like to have discussed at this meeting into school. You can do this via email, the Parent Forum postbox outside Mr Griffith's classroom or by sending a note into school in your child's reading folder.
I look forward to seeing you there.
R Jewitt

More tomorrow on The Beanstalk initiative

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.