Head Teacher's Blog 04.03.24
3rd March 2024
The half termly newsletter will be with you on Monday and as well as giving you all of the important dates for this term, there are a number of articles written by our fabulous children with a round up of activities and learning opportunities from before the holidays.
Rock Steady ‘rocked’ into Swansfield last week and all our new bands got their first chance to meet and make music together. Fortunately for me, their rehearsal space is right next to my office and so I will get to hear all of the music making each week! Fortunately for you, we will be putting a date in the diary for the first ‘band showcase’ at some point in the summer term - we’ll give you plenty of notice because this will be something you won’t want to miss!
Teachers reported that it was good to have conversations with parents at the consultation meetings that were held last week. Meetings continue for Apple, Pear, Ash, Chestnut, Maple and Sycamore this week. Once again, apologies to Larch and Rowan parents whose meetings were cancelled last week. These are rescheduled for Mon 11th, Tues 12th and Wed 13th March and sign up links will follow early in the week.
Looking ahead to further activities next week:
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Our friends from the NSPCC will visit Y6 on Monday to deliver workshops on ‘Speaking Out and Staying Safe’.
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We are looking forward to celebrating World Book Day on Thursday and children are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite book character or bedtime story ready in their PJs. We have lots of fun activities planned for the day and all of our children will receive their £1 book token that they can redeem for a World Book day book.
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Choir members from KS2 will be heading down to St Michael’s parish hall on Thursday lunchtime to share some songs with our friends from the Ignite charity who are hosting the Gowing Faith Hubs ‘Big Lunch’. Due to space and logistics, we are unable to take the full choir, but to our younger members, don’t worry - there are plenty of singing opportunities coming up throughout the spring!
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Oak class have been hard at work preparing their class assembly and we are looking forward to them sharing this with us on Thursday at 14.30. Family and friends are warmly welcomed to come and watch!
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On Friday morning, our Reception children will be heading to Alnwick Gardens Roots and Shoots programme as part of our British Science Week activities. Children will be back in school for lunchtime as normal.
The children returned from their half term holiday in hard-working mode and as I dotted in and out of classrooms last week, I was particularly impressed with the mathematical learning that I saw. Pear class friends blew me away with their mathematical language as they represented numbers 6, 7 and 8 and began to explore and explain the composition of these numbers. In Ash class, I saw the children using their fabulous fluency with double numbers to speedily calculate additions involving near doubles. Then at the end of the week, I had the chance to work with our Y5 and 6 Beetles learners as they built fluency in calculating percentages of numbers. I know that many of you have enjoyed seeing our maths curriculum in action through our fun with numbers sessions. These continue on March the 14th with an opportunity for Year 2 to share their mathematical learning with parents and carers. Look out for the sign up Google form coming out!
We have a host of stars of the week to tell you about. This week we will be celebrating with: Esme Howd, Erica Crane, Jacob Makepeace, Brogan Richardson, Oliver Bonnet, Anna Hume, Logan Dodd, Ted Edridge, MJ Pringle and Alex Drinnan. We are very proud of you all.
Noah from Willow class always likes to have a chat when he sees me around school but this week, he had a special request as we chatted. He wanted to know if I’d pick his favourite song for the blog this week. Well, here it is for everyone to enjoy, House of Memories, and thanks for the suggestion, Noah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtTeOkfV8A
See you in the week,
Mrs G