School Newsletter

A Season of Change. Good news! Our Ofsted letter was sent out to all parents this week, and has been uploaded to the school website. We were delighted that the inspector acknowledged a range of positive statements including: ‘curriculum topics are rich and inspirational.’

‘Written work in books is alive with the colour and excitement gleaned from the authentic and meaningful experience.’ ‘The Macbeth project…clearly captured pupils’ imagination’ ‘Outcomes at the end of Reception have risen year on year and remain consistently above national figures; an above-average proportion of pupils have attained the expected standard in the Y1 national phonics screening check; assessments at the end of key stage 1 have continued to match or surpass those seen nationally. This provides a strong foundation for pupils entering key stage 2.’ The inspector agreed with two next steps already identified by the school:

1. To further refine reading and technical writing skills.
2. To further develop middle leaders in the school

and he identified a third that we agreed would be valuable:

3. To develop our library provision

At CVPS we like to be proactive and had already identified some of the areas Mr Smith suggested. As a staff team we will integrate these next steps into our school development plan which will be uploaded to our website once approved by governors.

Changing Mathletics homework

We are piloting two different apps for children’s maths homework. This means no more Mathletics. Instead Doodle Maths and Eedi will be used across school for the next few weeks. Children, parents and staff will influence our decision to use them. We consider accessibility, ease of use, and the app’s flexibility to meet children’s learning needs. please feed back to your class teacher how your child engages with the new apps and how accessible they are for you to download, log onto etc both on Facebook and in person.

Changing play times

On Wednesday this week Lisa Brown and I used our whole school assembly, to remind the children about our school rules, and how we can stay safe outside using our many playground equipment and toys. The children were reminded of the timings for playtimes and we explained the importance of responding promptly to our stop signals, and lining up to come inside. The children have been very poor at this recently, taking up to ten minutes more every day to come in. We intentionally shortened playtimes by 5 minutes for three days this week to impress upon the children the importance of being on time and caring for playground equipment by bringing it inside straight away, so that lesson time starts promptly. I’m pleased to say that the impact on pupil behaviour has been almost immediate and usual timings for playtimes will resume on Monday next week.

Ashleigh’s outdoor ideas

We have been using our sticks for all kinds of activities over the last few weeks and we really need your help to top up our collection. Please can you bring a stick to school (small or large) and pop it into our materials box in the Forest School area. You could estimate the length of your stick (cm, mm or even using your hands) and check to see if you are right. Thank you!

Homework Update – again some positive changes in uptake of homework. Well done!

Thanks so much for the fantastic effort made to support the children’s homework – we have seen amazing homework especially across Y3 and Y4 who have baked Viking recipes this week and shared the photos of their children having a great time. From early years reading meetings, we have always promoted home reading on a daily basis as it makes the biggest difference in children’s reading outcomes. For working families we work closely with Little Angels, to promote the completion of homework, and homework activities for younger children align closely with topics and themes. Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you would like ideas and strategies to support the completion of home learning.

Harvest festival next Wednesday the 17th October

Parents will be welcomed into the church from 1.30pm. Children will be able to be collected straight after the service and others can come back to school until their normal collection times.

Parent consultations on Weds 14th November 3.30-6pm

These take place as a chance to share with you how your children are doing at school. There will be a chance to look through books and also to meet the SENDCo. Parents of children in Y1 and Y2 will hear about phonics screener and SATs from Lisa Brown, KS1 Coordinator.

Christmas lunch dates

As usual we can offer one adult ticket per child – all at the great value of £6 per lunch. (usual £2 per child) Unfortunately we can’t mix children other than the year groups timetabled for the following sittings although we do group siblings together when in the same sitting:

Tuesday 4th December

Nursery, Reception and Y1

Thursday 6th December

Y2, Y3

Wednesday 12th December

Y4, Y5, Y6

Attendance and Punctuality

YR 97% (2)
Y1 96% (4)
Y2 97% (5)
Y3 100% (2)
Y4 96% (2)
Y5 97% (5)
Y6 99% (2)

Y2 win extra playtime this week for best attendance!

Homework returns

YN 92%
YR 64%
Y1 83%
Y2 80%
Y3 86%
Y4 80%
Y5 100%
Y6 100%

Well done to Y5 and Y6 100% return! Great improvement too from Nursery, Y1 and Y2.