Autumnal Artwork continues. This week some of the pupils in Y6 enjoyed a new Book Club opportunity with lower sixth students from Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School (RGS). They explored themes and conventions used by the author in the text ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. This was a fantastic opportunity for some really deep discussion and a great breadth of dialogue about what makes the stories and author so interesting. We were so proud of the way the Y6 pupils from
CVPS held their own in the discussions and aim to continue them from now on.
Covid Update
Parents in our Early Years classes have received an update letter about planned changes to their bubbles after half term. The new storytelling pod is being released to the EYFS team and Carly’s bubble will be the first group to be in there next half term. All the usual hygiene and hand washing procedures will continue in the lovely new space, and our reception children will stay in the main building with the 30 hour nursery children, enjoying a lot more space than they had previously! So more space all round!
As we approach the half term break we are aware that another extended lockdown is planned. We have been assured that this will NOT affect school’s usual opening times and term dates. So half term dates will remain unaffected. CVPS closes on Friday the 16th October and reopens on Monday 2nd November.
Fire drill time
This week we undertook the first fire frill of the new academic year, which was the first time we have all stood together as a school too! (Thanks Covid!) The children were brilliant at getting out of school quickly and efficiently as you can see from the photo below. They remembered to keep in their separate bubbles throughout the 5 minutes it took to get out and complete our usual roll calls. Well done everyone!
Work in classes this week has included a host of assessments. What has become very evident is that those children who engaged fully in the online learning offer, from CVPS have been very much more on track in their learning than those children who have not. The government has recognised this and made available additional tutoring, and some element of funding for a national ‘catch up’ programme.
Thankfully this is left to schools to decide how best to spend the small additional funds and which children to target. Leaders in school are reviewing this over the coming week to allow us to put things in place after half term.
What it does is highlight the huge positive impact that home reading has on children’s reading abilities. Please encourage your child to use the online reading programme we have in school and to clarify if there is anything we can help you with in terms of internet access or issues with devices. We do have a very small number of devices in school which we can loan out over the weekend for homeworking if needed. Please ask your class teachers.
Ashleigh’s outdoor idea
Want to get crafty with your conkers? Have a go at making some super Halloween crafts using conkers or other natural materials. Are you going to create a spider, a bat or a pumpkin? I can’t wait to see them!
Achievement awards
Kindness champion – Jack Rowell
Dates for your diary
