7^th September 2022

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to a new school year. It has been a delight and a privilege to see the smiles on the children’s faces as they have arrived back in school. The year starts with a huge amount of optimism which is shared across the school. We achieved the best results we have ever achieved in Year 6 last year and those came despite the significant challenges of Covid over recent years. This demonstrates that the school continues to go from strength to strength and all of the hard work of the children, their families and the staff is making a big difference.

I am incredibly proud to be headteacher of this fantastic school and look forward to working with you all as we continue to build on that success.

Welcome

We would like to extend a warm welcome to both Mrs Gauson and Mrs Clarke. They join us as Academic Mentors and are both going to be focused on working with small groups across the school to support children to make accelerated progress.

 

A warm welcome also to Miss Goman who joins us as a Teaching Assistant in Beech class.

Congratulations

We would like to say a huge congratulations to Miss Fletcher who got married during the summer holidays.  Miss Fletcher’s married name is Mrs Fletcher.

Meet the Teacher Afternoons

These meetings will take place in the hall straight after school and are an opportunity to meet your children’s teacher for the coming year. They will outline the curriculum the children will learn this year and highlight any key areas of learning and organisation for you to be aware of. After the meeting in the hall, there will be an opportunity for children to show you their classrooms.

• Year 6 – Monday 12^th September 3:05 (followed immediately by a meeting about the residential trip to Little Canada)
• Year 5 – Tuesday 13^th September 3:05
• Year 3 and 4 – Wednesday 14^th September 3:05
• Reception and Year 1 – Thursday 15^th September 3:05 (including important information about our new phonics and reading scheme)
• Year 2 – Friday 16^th September 3:05 (including important information about our new phonics and reading scheme)

 

Healthy Lunchboxes

We are very keen to promote a healthy lifestyle throughout our school curriculum and we are calling upon parents and carers to support us with this.

Could we ask children to bring in a snack of fruit or vegetable at breaktimes? This should not be any form of processed fruit or vegetable in a packet.

Equally, please could you consider the nutrition in your children’s lunchboxes with absolutely no sweets. This NHS website has some great ideas: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes/

Clubs

We will send out further information about the extra-curricular clubs which are available this term. They will begin during the week beginning 19^th September. There will be no clubs in the last week of term so the last club will run on Friday 9^th December.

Reading

Last year, the children of Kingsham Primary School read over 101 million words!! This was achieved through a lot of hard work from the children and we would also like to recognise the huge amount of support from our families that made this happen. Please continue to support us by:

• Reading to your children,
• Reading with your children and
• Listening to them read.

When this is done five times a week, it makes a massive difference!

Homework

Our homework policy remains the same this year. We expect children to be reading 5 times a week which can be reading to your children, reading with your children and listening to them read.

We then expect all children to practice their number bonds or times tables – for which they can use Numbots and TT Rockstars. If you cannot access a device please speak to your child’s teacher who will be able to provide you with some practice cards to use. For those children who have earned all of the bands and demonstrate that they are confident in all of their times tables, we will provide additional Maths challenges.

Year 6 will also receive additional revision homework throughout the year to support their learning and prepare them for the transition to high school.

Parking

Can we take this opportunity to remind parents and carers to be considerate when parking their cars to pick up and drop off their children? We would like to encourage you to park your cars in Hay Road on the far side of Whyke Park and walk across the park. This will reduce congestion and save time in the long run.

School uniform and PE Kit reminder

As the year starts and children are wearing new school uniform, could we please encourage you to name all items of clothes and shoes so that they are easy to return if they get lost.

As with last year, children will need to wear their PE Kit to school on their PE Days - they will not get changed at school. We have noted below when the PE session is an outdoor session so that you can consider jogging bottoms on these days when the weather gets colder.

Can we please stress that children must not wear football shirts on their PE days. A full list of the school's uniform is available on the website.

Class	PE Days
Apple	Wednesdays
Pear	Tuesday and Friday (outdoors)
Ash	Monday and Friday (outdoors)
Cherry	Wednesday and Thursday (outdoors)
Maple	Tuesday and Thursday (outdoors)
Oak	Monday (outdoors) and Wednesday
Willow	Monday (outdoors) and Tuesday
Birch	Tuesday (outdoors) and Thursday
Hawthorn	Monday and Tuesday (outdoors)
Beech	Wednesday (outdoors) and Friday
Poplar	Wednesday (outdoors) and Thursday

Volunteering

Some parents and carers have spoken to us about volunteering at the school this year. We would warmly welcome volunteers to support with reading and school trips throughout the year. If you would like to volunteer at the school, please speak to Mrs Whall in the office who will give you the appropriate forms to complete.

With my very best wishes

 

 

Mr Lee Dallinger

(Headteacher)

 

 

Date reminders:

INSET DAYS

• Monday 31^st October 2022
• Friday 25^th November 2022

New Parent/Carer Open Events

Open Evening for new parents and carers – Thursday 29^th September 2022 at 7pm

Open afternoon for new parents and carers – Wednesday 16^th November 2022 at 1:30 – 3pm.

Parent/Carer Consultation Appointments

• 3:30pm - 6pm – Tuesday 8^th November 2022
• 3:30pm - 6:30pm – Thursday 17^th November 2022

Half Term

Monday 24th October - Friday 28th October 2022

First Day of Spring Term

Wednesday 4th January 2023