A mixture of emotions in this last week before half term.

It’s been a rather busy half term and we are now (both staff and children) all ready for a break from school. The children worked really hard throughout term and all now know a lot more about whether there is time to save the world! We will continue to learn more about this important topic next half term when Sarah Koratzitis will rejoin our team. From Monday the 28th February Sarah will become our English coordinator as Vice Principal for the Quality of Education, and she will spend time across all classes in the mornings.

Final Farewells to Lyla

Monday this week was a sad day in school as we shared a celebration of everything Lyla Ives meant to so many people at her funeral. The horse and carriage carrying her coffin brought Lyla past the front of school for one last time. The children from Y4 and Y5 and staff from throughout school, came to the front of the school to pay their last respects. We appreciated the kind words from parents who joined us on Bowmont Drive about the respectful way that children conducted themselves. They were silent when Lyla came past – entirely unprompted and without being asked. Kind words were written on notes, flowers and other tributes that were left on the bench at the front of schoolwhich have been taken away for Lyla’s family. The flowers are being taken to Lyla’s final resting place in Mayfield cemetery. We will always remember the special little girl that Lyla was, and we will work with Lyla’s family over coming weeks to create a special memory garden in the school grounds. Huge thank you to everyone for sharing their condolences, and for the kindest words of encouragement given to myself, Melissa and Michael who spoke at the funeral. It was an honour and a privilege despite being incredibly difficult. But Lyla deserved a fantastic send off and we believe that’s what she had. The church was awash with blazing yellow as everyone wore an item of clothing in Lyla’s favourite colour. Memories of Lyla will always burn as bright for us too.

COVID Update

Following the recent changes and de-escalation of Covid restrictions nationally, we have reviewed some of the in school restrictions returning to the following practices in school that the children tell us they have missed:

• Lunchtimes no longer staggered in the hall – reverting to two sittings
• Opportunities for children to play with other classes at playtimes
• Re introducing the re-grouping of children in class so teaching can target groups fluidly and adapt to meet children’s learning needs.
• Whole school assemblies to take place in the hall again.
• Reception children to start school at the same time as the rest of school so they can be dropped into school into the classrooms from 8.20 to 8.30am. Gates will close at 8.30am in line with the rest of school.

From next half term we will no longer expect families to wear masks when they drop the children off, unless they come into the school building.

Covid review

In line with government guidance we continue with our Covid Contingency Plan which allows us to respond promptly to any potential Covid outbreaks. This means that while isolation guidance remains the same, we retain the option to review our systems and implement any necessary restrictions as and when required. We are crossing our fingers and toes hoping this won’t be the case! With local rates reducing nicely, and symptoms for those infected being very mild now – we are hopeful that we can be cautiously optimistic about next half term.

Oracy speeches in Y6 this week and so much more.

It was Y6’s turn this week to deliver their speeches about climate change. Inspired by Greta Thunberg the Y6 children stood at their podiums and stated their case for change. The energy, enthusiasm and expertise they used when they spoke was phenomenal – well done Y6! While it was great to hear from those who showed an aptitude for public speaking it was also a delight to see those who were not looking forward to the task, play their part too.

Both Y5 and Y6 are hoping to lead a local debate that we are coordinating with other local schools in April next half term!

Our new playground leaders have made an excellent start to their new roles. And school council continues to be active having created and responded to a pupil science questionnaire that has been used this week. I’ll ask them to share the results on our next newsletter.

‘Catch up’ progress

The mid year pupil progress reviews have taken place this week and my meetings with every teacher showed once again how well our teachers know the children – not only academically but socially and emotionally too. I’m so proud of the focused teaching, and loving care that each child experiences from the teaching teams at CVPS. Every individual child’s progress and attainment is discussed and reviewed and I chat with teachers about what the current teaching is and how we can continue to inspire the children to make positive progress in their learning. It’s really important to us all that we can support any individual children’s interests, excitements, anxieties or home issues and we value families communicating with us when there are any issues. Many professional visitors to school regularly comment on how well the staff really know and genuinely care about the children. We take this for granted in some ways but such an embedded culture of care has been hard earned over the years and recognised especially by parents of children new to CVPS. Only this week once again a new family commented on how positive their experience has been at CVPS, reflecting how distinctively different our care and support for CVPS children is. We hope you take the opportunity to let us know when this has been your experience on the school survey – and also if that’s not your experience too so we can address any potential issues!

Parent survey reminder…please take a few minutes to share your experiences for your child at CVPS on the link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/F3PQVCZ

Paul’s Outdoor Ideas

This week there are a few ideas for over the half term – but let’s use the time to get outside and breathe the fresh air.

February 14h (Valentines Day): Look outside for inspiration for the joy of friendship and family. Make collages, cards and pictures with a heart or just something that you ‘love’ to do. Most importantly get outside and feel the fresh air.

Look for signs of spring: While outside – challenge yourself to find as many signs of spring as possible. From new leaves and buds, bulbs that are coming up. Is there a new bird song or signs of animal activity?

North Tyneside Art Trail – During the holidays I will be off to see all 20 of the Morph characters. They are spread all around the North Tyneside area. A nice reason to get outside and see how many you can find.

https://newcastlegateshead.com/events/morph-trail

Family Support Worker Amy’s Update

It is fantastic to be able to give out our attendance awards for this half-term. We have our Attendance Heroes who have 100% attendance and no lates for this whole half-term, which is phenomenal! We have also celebrated out children who have received 97% attendance or above. I know we have been unfortunate with COVID isolations this year, but we should be seeing a lot less of this in the next half-term. So those children that haven’t achieved Attendance Hero status yet will still get the opportunity to get there. I will be starting my Hero workshops the first week back so that we can make a plan to work towards achieving Hero status. Remember, you can only get to HERO status if you are Here, Everyday, Ready, On time.

Well done to Year 2 this week – 100% attendance and NO lates! Year 5 have also had an amazing week with 98% and only 2 lates. Year 3 definitely have some competition now, I’m sure Mr Watson will be pushing to get back onto that gold trophy! I can’t wait to see you all in school on the 28th February ready to start school at 8.30am. Enjoy the holidays!

We are delighted to welcome Dr Bike into school on Thursday the 10th March. You will receive a letter about this after half term – but Dr Bike will fix anyone who brings their bike into school, and give your bikes a really good MOT!

Achievement Awards

Kindness champions – Maxwel Wren, Heidi Ord, Jaxon Gunnell, Lockie O’Brien, Amelia Nicholson, Zara Wallace and Ellah Parker

Swimmer of the week – Miah Taylor

Gold celebrations

YR – Ayman Alwendi, Mia Younger, Noah Brown and Polly Ross, Y1 – Joseph Shipley, Ralph Shipley, Francesca Duffy, Millie Mitchinson, Sofia Atzeni, Safiya Kodirova and Jaxon Gunnell, Y2 – Annabelle Lister and Lockie O’Brien