School Newsletter : 02 February 2024

Once again, we’re delighted to host the Scholastic Book Fair at our school. This is a great opportunity to find some new books for your bookshelf, while at the same time helping us to earn free books for our school’s library. For every book you buy, we’ll be able to earn free books for our school!

The book fair will take place in the Ground Floor Hall on Monday 5th, Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th February; from 9.00 – 9.30 and 3.30 – 4.00 each day.

• Easter Egg Competition Template (PDF) >
• Easter Egg Competition Template (Jpeg) >

Since Christmas, our talented Year 4 and Year 5 children have been immersed in the enchanting world of Disney, diligently rehearsing for their upcoming production. Together with the production team, they’ve been working to bring the African savannah to life through the inspiring coming-of-age-tale, The Lion King.

We’ve followed Simba, the Rafikis and a captivating ensemble of characters on their journey from Pride Rock to the jungle and back again. Over the past few weeks, the stage has witnessed the emergence of the fearsome Scar from the darkness to recruit the Hyenas; Mufasa’s dramatic exit, and the dynamic duo of meerkat Timon and lovable warthog Pumba, as they go on the run with the spunky lioness, Nala.

Our children have worked hard to master their lines as well as the lyrics and choreography of iconic songs such as ‘Hakuna Matata‘, ‘Just Can’t Wait to be King‘, ‘Be Prepared‘, and ‘Can you Feel the Love Tonight?‘ supported by the Disney Teaching Artists, Tori and Lauren. Well done everyone!

In conjunction with Capital City College and supported by the Mayor of London, there will be a free numeracy programme held at St. Stephen’s Church. Open to any adults over 19 years old, the program will run every Monday morning @ 11.30am, for six weeks beginning on Monday 19th February 2024.

Please see the information leaflet and the enrolment letter below for more information. If you require paper copies of these documents, please ask at the school office.

• Multiply Free Maths Skills Courses information leaflet (PDF) >
• Enrolment letter (PDF) >

Our next event is the Easter Fair on 15th March. Please come to our meetings if you can, it’d be lovely to meet new parents and it’d be great to have you onboard. Our meetings will be on Thursdays in the Ground Floor Hall from 9 – 10am on the following dates:

• 8th Feb
• 22nd Feb
• 7th March
• 14th March

At our school, we are blessed to have many wonderful daily and weekly examples of good behaviour. This includes behaviour around learning (academic), co-operation (working well with others), in the playground, having good manners and showing kindness to others.

To further celebrate this, we have been reviewing ways to highlight good behaviour in our school. After the half term break, not only will we be naming and celebrating all pupils awarded a gold certificate in our weekly newsletter, we will also be introducing additional forms of celebration:

• Postcards: Each week teachers will select up to 2 pupils who will have a postcard sent home to acknowledge a particular behaviour noted in school. We have trialled this in several classes over the past few weeks, with positive feedback from parents and pupils!
• BC Afternoon Tea: Each week teachers will present invitations to 2 pupils in each year group, inviting them to an afternoon tea with a member of school staff. Staff will take turns hosting the afternoon tea, which will be a wonderful opportunity for children to share and celebrate their reason for attending, whilst enjoying a yummy afternoon tea! Those selected will also have their names shared in the school newsletter each week.

A copy of our Behaviour Strategy: Stay on Green, will be sent home next week, along with a letter outlining these new initiatives, as a reminder of the various steps we have for managing behaviour in school.

In addition, I’d like to remind all parents and carers to make an appointment to meet with either the class teacher or a member of our SLT, should you have a concern about your child and/or the behaviour of another child. We politely request that parents do not approach other parents about such issues directly.

We thank you in advance for your support with this matter and we look forward to sharing and celebrating our pupils’ continued successes within our school’s community.

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct PE kit to school each week.

Pupils who are not wearing their full PE kit will not be able to participate in lessons, and a note will be sent home indicating why they were not able to participate.

The full PE kit for the Autumn/Winter term is as follows:

• Plain navy blue leggings or tracksuit bottoms
• School navy blue PE t-shirt
• School navy blue sweatshirt (all year groups).
• Pupils in KS2 (Years 3 – 6) must wear a school navy sweatshirt for PE and NOT their school jumper.
• Plain black trainers (velcro if your child struggles with shoe laces)
• Please ensure all items of uniform are clearly labelled (with a permanent pen or label)

On Monday 8th January, parents were sent a welcome email from Arbor via the school office email account. Please read this carefully, as it contains vital information of the steps required to download the Arbor app, which is now live and ready to use for our school.

Once you have downloaded the app and followed the setup steps, you will be able to pay online for the following:

• Breakfast Club
• After School Club (6 o’clock club)
• School Trips and Visits
• Nursery Extended Day Fees
• Preschool Fees

You will also be able to view your child’s details held by the school, such as their attendance record  and the named adults allowed to collect them from school.  After the Easter Break, you will also be able to sign up and pay for Extended School Day (Enrichment) Clubs.

We understand that while paying online is the preferred option for many of our families, those wishing to continue paying by cash will still be able to do via the school office.

If you would like your child to move from bringing a packed lunch to having a school meal, you must inform the office at least a week in advance of this change being made. Kindly note pupils are not allowed to alternate between having packed lunches and/or school meals on a daily or weekly basis. If you have any questions, please see a member of the school admin staff at the school office.

You can find the current school lunch menu here >

If you require a printed copy, please ask at the school office. Should you have any questions about the menu, kindly make an appointment to speak with Miss Barnett.

Why good school attendance matters: Missing a few days of school here and there may not seem a big deal, but research shows that it can have a significant impact on children’s learning.

Children who miss a substantial amount of school fall behind their peers, and struggle to catch up. Most of the work they miss is never made up, which can lead to big gaps in their learning.

• Poor attendance often starts at primary school and children who fall into this pattern are likely to under-achieve at secondary school.
• Pupils who miss between 10 and 20% of school (that’s 19 – 38 days per year) stand only a 35% chance of achieving five or more good GCSEs, compared to 73% of those who miss fewer than 5% of school days.
• An attendance rate of 95% is generally considered good; this allows for children to miss 9.5 days across the school year.
• Persistent absence (PA) is defined as an attendance rate of 90% or below.
• All pupils are expected to have an attendance rate of 95% or higher.

Attendance class of the week: Each week we will be celebrating the class with the highest attendance levels.