Dear Parents and Carers

What a busy, productive and successful June we have had! Children have been on school trips (with some still to come), they have all taken part in a wonderful sports week and we have welcomed our new children into reception for September. Your children have produced some really excellent work in their classes and I am looking forward to a packed last few weeks of the term as we all make the most of the rest of the summer term.

Due to the strikes we have moved transition day to Tuesday 4^th July. On this day, children will need to come into their existing class (as normal) and be picked up from their existing class at the end of the day. The children will move to their new class during the day.

Strike Days Wednesday 5^th July and Friday 7^th July

As I am sure you are aware, the NEU have called further strikes on Wednesday 5^th July and Friday 7^th July. As with previous strikes, our school will be impacted by them. I will obviously notify parents and carers if there is any change to the industrial action that has been called.

On Wednesday 5^th July we will be closing 9 classes:

• Apple
• Pear
• Ash
• Cherry
• Maple
• Oak
• Willow
• Birch
• Hawthorn

Beech and Polar will remain open from 8:40 – 3:05pm and all children in those classes are expected to attend school.

On Friday 7^th July we will be closing 6 classes:

• Ash
• Cherry
• Maple
• Willow
• Birch
• Hawthorn

Apple, Pear, Oak, Beech and Poplar will remain open from 8:40 – 3:05pm and all children in those classes are expected to attend school. The school trip for children in Apple and Pear will go ahead as planned.

Children who receive free school meals

If your child receives a free school meal, we will still provide a hot meal for your child. If your child’s class is closed, please bring your child to school at 12pm on 5^th and 7^th July and pick them up at 12:50pm. They will be able to come into the hall to eat lunch and play in the playground afterwards as they normally would.

Breakfast and After School Club

Breakfast and after school club will still be available for the children in the classes that are open on both days.

I would like to reiterate the message that recognising and respecting the right of our staff to make their own decision on this matter is important. We ask that all members of our community continue to treat each other with respect during this period of strike action. On the day of the strike, it must not be assumed that if a member of staff is not in work then they must be on strike. Staff may be absent for many other reasons.

As always, please come and speak to me if you have any questions about anything mentioned above.

Staffing for September 2023

As we come to the end of the school year, we welcome some new people and we have to say goodbye to others.

Emily Sotheran will be taking up a new position at Bramble Infant school in Southsea next year. We have all had the pleasure of working with her over the last three years. It is a special thing to be a child’s first teacher and she has been an incredible first teacher to three wonderful classes. We are very proud of Miss S and wish her every success as she takes the next step in her flourishing teaching career.

Ellie Parsons will be taking up a new position at Edward Bryant School. She has been so committed to our school over the last two years and it has been a pleasure to watch her work with the children. The adults and children will miss her kindness and we all wish her very well as she gets married in the summer.

We have been very fortunate to have had two academic mentors working for our children this year. Both Elaine Clarke and Karen Gauson have worked extremely effectively in their targeted groups so that children could make accelerated progress following the Covid interruption. We are extremely grateful for all of the work they have done and wish them well for the next steps in their careers – we will really miss them next year.

Chloe Johnson will also be leaving at the end of the academic year. We are really appreciative of all that she has brought to Birch class since she joined us in January.

We then welcome Miss McKeown, Miss Noble and Mrs Johnson to our teaching staff in September and Mrs Palmer as our new Teaching Assistant. Our classes will look like this for next year:

 

Class	Class Teacher
Apple	V. Leslie and J. Swires-Hennessy
Pear	E. McKeown
Ash	O. Sturdey
Cherry	S. Fletcher
Oak	A. Stretton-Watts
Maple	L. Johnson
Willow	K. Reed
Birch	L. Noble
Hawthorn	M. Crispin
Poplar	P. Kyriakides
Beech	S. Edwards

 

Sports Week

Thank you to all of the parents and carers for your support during sports week and our Sports Day in particular. It was a joy to watch parents and carers skipping, throwing javelins and competing in the adults races to earn extra points for their children’s houses.

The buddy race where children in Year 6 ran a lap of the field with their buddies was an absolute delight and a real celebration of the community that Kingsham is.

You may well have seen some of the photos on social media from the freestyle footballer, the jolf and sports day itself. We had a wonderful celebration assembly on Friday where we celebrated the jolf golden ball winners, the sports themed work produced in classes, the medallists from sports day and the overall scores from the week. They are:

4. Topaz – 90 385

3. Ruby – 91 485

2. Emerald – 92 712

1. Amber – 97 991

My enormous thanks to all of the staff for all of their hard work in ensuring the week was a huge success.

Girls Football

Our Year 5/6 girls football team remain unbeaten this year. Miss Kyriakides has been so proud of their commitment and teamwork and we saw those attributes in abundance in their 5-1 win over The March C of E Primary School.

We are extremely proud of those girls and grateful for all of the support that the team had during the match.

Family Film on the Field

Our PTA are very much looking forward to presenting our Family Film on the Field on 18^th July. We really hope that lots of families will support us by coming to the film and the stalls that will be set up beforehand.

In order to buy tickets, simply go to the payments section of Parentmail.

Reading

We are edging closer to our school target from last year to read over 101 million words!! We are currently up to 88 424 632 words.

I know there are often other priorities at this time of year. But we ask you to please support your children’s reading by:

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

Please encourage your children to do this 5 times a week- the improvements we see are enormous when this happens!

Maths

Thank you to all the parents and carers for their time and energy in supporting the children at home with their Maths.

We have introduced a number bonds to 5 band so that we can encourage our youngest learners to learn their number bonds at home and begin really good habits with their maths learning. Well done to all of those children who have already achieved theirs.

Important Dates for Summer Term 2023

• Transition Day – 04.07.23
• Strikes – 05.07.23 and 07.07.23
• Year R trip to Staunton Country Park – 07.07.23
• Year 3 and 4 Drumming Concert – 11.07.23
• Year 6 End of Year party – 5-7pm 13.07.23
• Sundown Open-Air movie – 18.07.23
• Year 5/6 Performances – 6:30pm 17.07.23 and 1:30pm 19.07.23
• Year 6 Celebration awards assembly – 9:00am 20.07.23
• Early finish 1:15pm 21.07.23

With my very best wishes..

 

 

Mr Lee Dallinger

(Headteacher)