Our Fantastic musical journey to The Sage!

Thursday saw us taking 150 children into Newcastle to enjoy seeing Fenwick’s window (Shaun the Sheep) and to take in the sights of the Quayside bridges before going to The Sage, Gateshead for a guided tour. The children once again received compliments about their outstanding behaviour, and they were all very excited to be out and about on one of our learning expeditions again.

Y3 and Y4 were bowled over by the ‘Music through the Ages’ exhibition, before joining Y1, Y2 and Y5 at The Sage.

Susan and Stephen from The Sage’s school visit team hosted us brilliantly (despite us being the first school in since restrictions eased). She was adept at describing the acoustics, the costs, the design and the experiences of musicians and performers. The children visited two of the performance halls, and went back stage, visited the green room, saw the ‘decagon’ shaped Hall 2 and sat in the auditorium as well as standing on the stage. The Northern Sinfonia’s music was really moving and we were so impressed with their playing.

There were some tired little ones on the bus on the way home and I know some tired big ones will have slept well last night too! Well done Team CVPS – it was a great day all round!

COVID Update

Covid rates continue to be scarce in school and thankfully this has meant that our attendance figures are starting to become more positive.

We have had notice of two positive cases from children in school and both cases were not likely to have been caught from within school. Please continue to be vigilant – we really appreciate it.

School opening times for Reception

At long last we feel the time has come to normalise the start time for the reception class back to 8.30am. We will call families forward to the gate once the older children are all in, to minimise congestion. We hope this will allow all families with more than one sibling at CVPS to be able to now drop off both children simultaneously. Thank you all so so much for accommodating the staggered start times. It has significantly reduced the congestion in school.

Reception children will be finishing at 2.30 now they are starting at 8.30 daily. They will also now be able to regularly join our whole school assemblies.

And back at school Y6 whittled in forest school and there were exciting things with snow and Christmas themes starting to emerge in early years this week…yes the C preparations are definitely fully in flow now. We even have the school Christmas trees up on Friday!

Early reading changes in EYFS and KS1

We launched some exciting new changes to the early reading plans at CVPS on Friday in assembly with the children. There was a huge new order of reading books that arrived this week which we were able to show them. We have revised our reading for the youngest children in school and parents will receive a separate letter outlining the new approaches. The aim is not for the children to race through the schemes, but to explore the pictures, vocabulary, words and understand the books they have at home, at a different depth to what we are seeing currently. We look forward to working with families on this journey and will be sending out some regular updates over the first few weeks with hints and tips about how to support this new reading approach.

Staffing update

We are excited to be able to let you know that Sarah Koratzitis will return to us in a promoted position of Vice Principal and English Coordinator after February half term in 2022. Sarah will be non class based this year but will work in all classes. The team are very excited to welcome her back and staff and children were over the moon when we shared the news with them.

Parent governor roles

We have three parents who have expressed an interest in the parent governor roles. We will share information with all families next week about their skills and interests and why they wish to be a parent governor at CVPS to allow candidates to be offered out for parents to elect. The closing date for the election will be Friday the 3rd December.

DfE Uniform guidance

All schools have received updates about the merits of keeping uniform costs reasonable to families. This is something at CVPS that we have always borne in mind when making decisions about uniform. Some schools rack up a whopping £900 worth of uniform for pupils. At CVPS we do expect all pupils to wear a logo for their sweatshirt or school blazers and to purchase a forest school hoodie, book bag and water bottle. This is to promote a sense of belonging to the school and to help with the practicalities of managing hygiene related issues for water bottles. While we do not have an expectation for branding for other items in school the school funds do receive a slight commission from the branded items you buy (such as polo shirts and PE kit) but this subsidises the many learning expeditions we undertake meaning that everyone gets some of that back in a small way throughout the year.

Make up and nail varnish

As a general reminder we have explained to the children that make up is not permissible in school including nail varnish and for safety reasons we ask that you always have ‘spacers’ for any children with pierced ears. As a general rule all our children are very well presented – again – we received compliments from members of the public today about our children’s presentation. (When they didn’t have their high vis jackets on!) A huge thank you for supporting our uniform policy.

Family Support Worker Amy’s Update

The holiday season is upon us! With visits to Fenwicks window this week and the exciting addition of some decorations in School, the children (and staff!) have really started to get into the spirit. Although I’m sure that some Christmas lists have already started to be written, spending time with loved ones and spreading joy is just as important.

Here are some ideas to spend time with loved ones whilst getting into the Christmas spirit.

Watch a Christmas movie, sing carols, visit family members, go and see some Christmas lights, play some family games, make your own Christmas cards.

Paul’s outdoor idea

This week I would like you to make a teepee using sticks, wool, cardboard, a glue gun, scissors, pen or pencil and battery tea lights. First take five sticks roughly the same length and some small balls of coloured wool. Tie three sticks together and spread them out around a circle shape to work out the size of cardboard base you need, a cup or a glass might help. Cut out your cardboard circle and cut five notches around the edges making sure to leave a wider gap between two of them for the entrance (wide enough to get a battery operated tea light inside) using a glue gun glue the three sticks not the notches you cut out of the circle. Glue the remaining sticks in place before tying the wool around them. Keep tying the wool tightly around the sticks until you are just below the join of the two sticks that form the opening of the teepee. Keep going until you have wrapped the whole teepee.

Achievement Awards

Children achieving gold this week
YR – Will Allen, Eleanor Aplin, Charlie Thirlwell and Theia Black, Y3 – Avraj Singh and Oakley Taylor

Swimmer of the week – Lola Welford
Kindness champions – Miles Straker, Archie Chambers, Megan Finlay and Maryam Kodirova