Comic Relief Dressing Up goes down a treat!

Y6 pupils have done a great job of practising for their SATs tests this week, which kicked off with bacon butty breakfasts back in the hall. What a way to start the morning – sitting with friends and munching on a treat!

Wednesday saw the busiest session with nearly the whole of the Y6 class enjoying time together.
Many families have switched incredibly smoothly into remote learning as have staff. Huge thank you to everyone for keeping up with sessions from home – both staff and children! It really helps the children to swiftly evolve back into school on their return – a week away misses a lot of learning so any contact with the class helps minimise so called ‘lost learning’!

Covid Update

It’s back!
We have had a number of Covid infections again throughout school after only one or two children developed it. Symptoms with some have included diarrhoea, night time coughing, sore throats and headaches. Please be vigilant.

We are very frustrated having to send children home, but are obliged to minimise the transmission of the virus in line with current government guidance. If your child has any of the symptoms listed above please test with a lateral flow test kit. We have plenty at school if you need them.
If you send your child to school and know they are unwell you will only be asked to collect them, so a quick test at home saves a lot of disruption all round.

Huge thanks to all families who work so closely with us and follow the rules well – it really is much appreciated. Prompt collections are really appreciated as the provision of 1:1 cover for children awaiting collection takes valuable learning time away from children in school.

We continue to monitor school systems carefully, but in line with government guidance we have prioritised education and so do not have plans yet to change class grouping arrangements, or lunch times which take place to regularise the afternoon session. start times.

Just a normal day…?

It’s been delightful to have visited every class this week as part of our usual performance management visits – and the quality of input the children are receiving is phenomenal. Children are so engaged with topics and themes, such as Captain Green and the plastic scene, Greta Thunberg

‘She’s my neighbour you know!’ in Y5 and Y2, and topics like Rama and Sita in Hinduism in Y4. We are now benefiting closely from specialist input from our academic mentor for mathematics with a ratio of three adults per maths lesson for three of our classes which are seeing accelerated progress – lovely to see.
Underpinning everything is our ambition for all children at CVPS to be happy – they will only thrive in their learning when that’s the case and it’s incredibly reassuring to see happy children in every class.

Yes, not all the time – sometimes some children prefer to do their own thing rather than what the teacher’s asked them to do – but children’s understanding of why they’re asked to do things is really strong. It was particularly inspiring to see Y2 children’s understanding of Greta Thunberg, climate change and how we have freedom of speech to be able to influence big things. Every session gives something to be proud of, and it’s a privilege to be a fly on the wall to see this.

I loved the EYFS children’s knowledge of why it’s dark at the bottom of the sea. Because if the dark was at the top of the sea you wouldn’t see where to go! Creating some of these deep level thinking skills really gives the children strong ownership of their learning and helps their voyage of discovery.

Update on last week’s World Book Day fundraiser

Zambia fundraising for books has raised an amazing £78 – thank you so much to everyone who donated on ParentPay – it’s not too late if you want to add something on! The Y5 class will be speaking to the children at the Linda Community School at the end of this month about the books they read and a bit about climate change.

Dr Bike returns…

Dr Bike has set April 7th as the next visit day when he’ll come along to school to support a review of those bikes he didn’t manage to see last time. If your bike wasn’t seen last time please bring them along to the front of school that morning.

Paul’s Outdoor Idea

Thanks so much for the journey sticks – they were great and it was a treat to see some of them brought in on forest school days!

This week we are going to look at two areas of the calendar:
17th March (Thursday) was St. Patrick’s Day but also the ‘equilux’ which means equal light and dark – so going forward until the Autumn we will get more light than dark in a day – which is perfect for getting out and about more.

The other date is Monday 21st March – National Poetry Day.

This week’s task is to celebrate the longer light, poetry day and to get out and about with your family. Enjoying the outdoors and then writing a poem about what you see.
Here are some nice examples (could you decorate it?)

Spring (Author unknown)

Open the windows and open the door
And let the fresh breezes blow in, blow in
Jack Frost has gone to his home in the north
And all of a sudden it’s Spring!

Spring (Author unknown)

I love Spring
Spring is new
It’s new blades of grass
It’s rain on glass
It’s violets and rain
It’s a wood scented lane
It’s a new bird song
It’s days growing long
It’s a tree in bud and puddles of mud
It’s birds in a tree and a buzz from a bee
It’s kites in the sky
It’s Spring. That’s why.
I love Spring.

Family Support Worker Amy’s Update

Woohoo! 100% attendance in Y6 this week. It has been a super important week for Y6 with SATs practice going on, so I am really pleased to see 100% attendance. It shows great dedication to your learning! A tough week for Y5 with attendance, but NO lates! Well done!

Lates are quite high in Reception. Alice, Rachael, Sue and Ashleigh are ready to welcome in the little ones from 8.20am so that learning can begin at 8.30am. We are half way through this half term now – only 3 weeks to go! Three weeks left until our next attendance awards. Keep up the good work!

Kindness champion – Carter Merrett

Swimmer of the week – Reece Hopkinson

Gold celebrations – YR – Heidi Ord and Eliza Lister, Y4 – Mohammad Al Haj Moussa, Matteo Trevisan, Maddison Fyfe, Megan Finlay, Maddy Dickinson, Daisy Bushby and Ava Skidmore

Achievement Awards

Dates for your Diary