School Newsletter

We welcome 2019 with a week of expeditions.

“Why is clean and green our perfect dream?” has seen an exciting start to the new calendar year. From Sunderland to Alnwick, beaches, farms and museums, our children have run up yet more miles as they investigate, research and discover interesting facts that keep their learning alive. We were really proud that after weeks of badgering, our Y6 pupils were lucky enough to be the very first school to visit Cramlington’s Biomass Energy facility – watch out for the photos in the papers!

With outstanding behaviour as always, the children have shown their engagement, enthusiasm and a passion for learning with heaps of excitement. Their questions and recall of what they have seen has astounded us and their responses in their written work, and sketching has been amazing. It was apt that we harnessed the interest in bird watching with a visit from the Rising Sun Country Park’s Falconry team. The farmer at Broxfield Farm had a wealth of knowledge and was especially welcoming to our youngest children. We also visited the Cramlington Biomass energy plant in Cramlington inspiring the future workforce with the furnace, giant magnets, and huge control centre, as well as understanding more about the process of clean energy production. Year 4 were able to experience a real mini rainforest at Sunderland’s Winter Gardens, while it wasn’t so warm for Y3 who headed to Blyth Beach to meet the marine biologist and complete a little pick. Year 5 amazed the Great North Museum as they learned all about endangered species in the world showing excellent behaviour throughout.

A huge thank you has to go to all our wonderful staff team for the significant effort it takes to coordinate every trip that not only offers well targeted learning experiences, but also ensures safety, a regard for all our children’s individual needs, as well as keeping costs as low as possible.

Cashless payments for school

We are planning to offer a new payment system in the coming weeks to move towards a cashless payments to minimise the cash that comes into school. This is a popular way to support school admin teams and we will share with you the information about it in the coming weeks.

Parent volunteers

The school is always keen to welcome family volunteers to support reading, sewing, cooking and gardening and supervising some of the many expeditions that take place. If you are looking for a new challenge in 2019 please speak to your class teacher or the school office if you would like to be involved in our regular volunteer programme.

Ashleigh’s outdoor ideas…

This week we have enjoyed a falconry visit which I know the children have been so excited about. It has been lovely to hear that some children are even wanting to work with birds when they are older.

We are continuing our bird theme and I would really appreciate any posters, fact files or artwork of birds for our yurt.

In the next few weeks I would like our children and families to take part in the rspb garden bird watch (more details to follow). If you are interested in receiving any resources it is free to sign up https://www.rspb.org.uk

Attendance

We celebrate positive attendance at CVPS, however in line with the school policy we do notify parents of children whose attendance is at risk. Government statistics show that there is a direct link between strong attendance and positive learning and progress.

Structured conversations

Some parents are piloting structured conversations that will be taking place throughout this term. Your class teacher will check in with you regularly across the school year to promote these effective ways of developing your children’s learning at school. We recognise that sometimes parents benefit from short frequent meetings, while others prefer longer meetings that take slightly more time. Please feel free to discuss what fits best with your children to allow what’s needed.

Attendance and Punctuality

YR 97%(1)
Y1 92%(5)
Y2 99%(6)
Y3 96%(1)
Y4 98%(2)
Y5 90%(3)
Y6 100%(2)

Homework/reading returns (%)

YN 95/88%(1)
YR 64/35%
Y1 50/37%
Y2 73/34%
Y3 60/63%
Y4 Nil
Y5 68/68%
Y6 94/88%

Well done to Y6 this week for excellent attendance AND excellent homework returns… again!