General Announcements

As usual, we have another half term full of activities and sessions for children and parents to get involved with.  Here’s what’s coming up:

 15th January 2020
Young Voices concert for the KS2 children taking part.

21st January 2020, 2.15pm
Cuppa and Cake with the Headteacher, Mr Smith. An opportunity for parents, guardians and relatives to find out what the school is working on currently and going forward, welcoming feedback and input from a parents’ perspective.

22nd January 2020, 5.30pm
Online Safety session for parents. We have previously run these sessions and they have proved invaluable for parents – even those parents who consider themselves to be ‘tech-savvy’ have been surprised at what they’ve learnt.  In a constantly changing online environment it is important to ensure our children remain safe whilst online – this is not one to be missed!

w/c 27th January 2020, 9-10am
Learning Lens week: Maths focus.  This is a great opportunity to learn about Power Maths; the new maths scheme which the children have been working with.

The various Learning Lens sessions are scheduled as follows:
Monday 27th               Years 1 and 2
Tuesday 28th              Years 5 and 6
Wednesday 29th        Years 3 and 4
Thursday 30th            Reception

28th January 2020, 1.15pm
Super Seahorses music concert.  A chance for parents and relatives to see what their children have been learning in music this year.  We do understand that the timing of this event is not the most practical but unfortunately we are restricted by the tutors availability. We do hope you can make it.

 

6th February 2020, 3.30pm
Year 6 residential – Beaumanor Hall, parents meeting.

11th February 2020
Safer Internet Day in school. The children will be learning throughout the day the benefits and potential dangers of the online world and what they can do to remain safe.  All content will be age appropriate.

 

 

12th February 2020, 2.30pm
Reading: A Deeper Understanding.  Mrs Smith will be running a session for parents of children in Reception through to Year 3. We will be highlighting tips to help support your child’s reading at home, enabling a deeper understand and comprehension.

 

13th February 2020, 2.45pm
Golden Dove Assembly – notified parents and relatives welcome.

 

13th February 2020, 6pm
Year 6 SATs Prepare Aware sessions for parents and their Year 6 child.   An informative session which is aimed to help parents’ understanding of the SATs levels and what will be required of their child – it’s not as scary as you think!

 

14th February 2020, 2.30pm, St. Mary’s Church
End of Term Assembly led by the Super Seahorses class. Parents and relatives are welcome to join us for the service at Church.

 

 

I’m sure you are all looking forward to seeing your child participate in the Christmas performance of ‘Christmas Recipe’. Just some final details in advance of the performances:

For the evening performance on Thursday 19^th December, please ensure your child is back at school by 5.15pm in order to start getting ready. Children should be dropped off via the main reception entrance.

The children and staff have been working incredibly hard to get the children ready for these performances and their moment in the spotlight. We would kindly ask as a matter of courtesy, if little ones need to come with you, that you take them out of the hall if they become restless so the production is heard and enjoyed by all.

We would also like to reiterate that you will be unable to film or take photographs during these performances due to safeguarding and licencing reasons. Please inform other family members who will be in attendance. You can, however, order an individual photo of your child whilst at the performances for a small donation of 50p.

Should you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to catch one of the teachers from Jolly Jellyfish or Delightful Dolphins on the yard.

Thank you.

The Terrific Turtles class was full of lively debate this afternoon as they reviewed and discussed the manifestos for the various political parties, prior to tomorrows general election.

    

   

   
The children came up with some interesting ideas for their own manifesto:

– Equal pay for men and women
– Plant one million more trees
– Stop animal cruelty
– Stop plastic pollution
– At Christmastime, provide shelter for the
homeless
– Build houses for the homeless
– Lower taxes
– Build more hospitals
– Build animal shelters
– Stop animal poaching internationally
– Save endangered animals
– Stop illegal deforestation
– Raise emergency services pay by 10%
– More money for research into medicines
– Regulation for more eco-friendly clothes, packaging etc
– More funding to help the homeless get back on their feet.

Looking at these suggestions, it seems like our recent Ocean Rescue Week and environmental discussions certainly made an impact.

However, when it came to the question of ‘how do we pay for it all?’…. the room went a little quieter to start with, then a few suggestions came forward:

– Pay more taxes
– Rob a bank (not advisable)
– Don’t pay celebrities as much in order to save money
– Hold fundraisers
– Ban gambling / casinos so people wouldn’t get into as much debt

After much discussion, the children held their own election for which political party they wanted to win…..and the results are in:

6 votes    Green Party
5 votes    Labour
4 votes    Conservatives
4 votes    UKIP
3 votes    Liberal Democrats
2 votes    Brexit

There was a lovely atmosphere in school yesterday afternoon when the children came together to make their Christingle decorations, in preparation for this Thursday’s Christingle Service at St. Mary’s Church.

The children love working together with other year groups, and it was lovely to see our Year 5 and 6 children helping and guiding our youngest pupils with their creations.

We spent some time talking with the children about what Christingle meant and why it was significant for Christians.  We are pleased to say that many of the children could remember it’s meaning from our last Christingle celebration a couple of years ago.

    

   

Following on from the Viking Day last week, it was the turn of the Delightful Dolphins class to have a WOW! day, focusing on the Victorians.

Once the children had paid their penny for education and had their fingernails checked, the rules of the Victorian school were reaffirmed to the children.

All the children were given Victorian names of the time, including Raspberry Lemon, Happy Chum, Minty Badger and Freezer Breezer!

 

   

Throughout the morning, there was lots of learning to be done; practicing their alphabet and numbers 1 to 100, all done with their chalk and boards.  They also had to recite a poem.

The children had much fun creating their own Victorian toy; the cup and ball, as well as looking at other toys of the era.

As it is coming up to our Christmas holidays, the children learnt about a Victorian Christmas and were astonished to hear what Victorian children received for Christmas…….”an orange?”, it certainly made them all think how lucky they are today.

Having already made their own Victorian toy, throughout the afternoon the children experienced a variety of other toys and games of the time; quoits, marbles, skittles, tin-can alley, puppet theatre and hoops. There was also a reading corner for the children too, if they wanted a little quiet time.

          

The children thoroughly enjoyed their Victorian experience.  They absolutely looked the part and behaved impeccably – thank you to the parents for organising their costumes for the day.

 

 

It has been quite a busy week in school, with a couple of WOW! days taking place as well, the first of which was our Viking Day for the Super Seahorses class.

First of all, we must say how amazing all the children looked, everyone had clearly gone to a lot of effort – thank you parents for your support.

The day began with the Vikings and their leaders heading out to Coton Woods to start their adventures, sorting themselves into three tribes; Raging Raiders, Vicious Vikings and Viking Vengers.

Their first task was to make a shelter for their tribe, ensuring they could accommodate all of their tribe members!  Once all the hard work was done, the tribes were able to then raid the shelters of other tribes for their own gain – there wasn’t much of each shelter left by the end of it!

   

In the midst of the raids, the horn siren blew and the Vikings gathered into their tribes, ready for attack!  A battle ensued on the clearing, in which all of our Vikings fought with vigour and valour for their tribe – it was very entertaining and the children loved it!

    

After the battle was done, our Viking tribes marched back to school having worked up an appetite for lunch!

In the afternoon, our Vikings immersed themselves in crafts of the time, making pewter-style brooches, Viking bracelets and also creating Viking runes.

The children had a fantastic day – here’s some of their feedback:

“It was really fun making shelters and going into battle”

“It was amazing and I loved it when we went into the woods”

“Before Viking Day, I wasn’t that keen but I loved making the shelters out of branches – it made me more confident”

“I really enjoyed Viking Day, especially making the Viking bracelets”

I really enjoyed Viking Day because we learnt about what they did and what they had”

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done. I wish we could do it to tomorrow”

For the majority of people, Christmas is a time of excitement, spending time with family and friends and maybe, if you’ve been good, opening a few presents from Father Christmas.  In some cases though, not everyone is as fortunate.  All around the world, including your local town and village, there are families and individuals who find this time of year difficult for a variety of reasons.

Compassion is a big part of our school vision and we continue to teach our children to show compassion and understanding to others, both inside and outside of the school environment.

Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day
Next Wednesday, 11th December 2019, we will be having our Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children.  Children can wear a Christmas jumper instead of their school jumper / cardigan for a donation of £1.  It just so happens that this is also our whole school Christmas Lunch day too!

Burton Hope
Burton Hope are a local charity that help the homeless with everyday essentials, food supplies and taking them to appointments for example.  Our school, together with the Pre-School, would like to show our compassion by creating a ‘box of treats’.  Where possible, we would like children to decorate and fill either a shoebox, stocking or a gift bag with anything you would class as a treat yourself, i.e. biscuits, energy bars, chocolate, snacks, smellies etc.

These gift packages can be handed to Mrs Cresswell at the School office between now and the last day of term. They will then be taken to the Burton Hope event on Sunday 22nd December, Burton Market Place, at 6pm, where you are most welcome to come along.

The time for our Christingle Service has changed to the afternoon – the rescheduled time being 2pm on the 12th December 2019 at St Mary’s Church, Coton-in-the-Elms.

Parents and family members are welcome to join us.

Thank you.

This Friday, 6th December 2019, is non-uniform day in lieu of items for our Christmas Fayre.  If you’re not sure what to donate, we are in need of the following:

• Party bag toys
• Bottles of wine / alcohol
• Tombola donations for adults and children

Any donations should be sent in to school via your child’s classroom, with the exception of alcoholic donations, which should be brought to the school office.

Thanking you in advance for your support.