Newsletter 4 – Autumn Term 29th September 2016
Happy Home Learning
We have two parts to our Happy home learning this week, we are busy bees! In class this week we have been learning the rhyme, 5 little speckled frogs and enjoyed learning to recognise numbers, counting with the frogs. The rhyme will be sent home with your child and we would like you to practise singing it. Also, because the weather is turning colder, we have been practising putting our coats on without our grown up’s helping us. We would like you to practise at home, making the activity fun by using a timer to see if you can get quicker the more you practise. Enjoy! We look forward to seeing your progress next week.
Foundation Stage 2
This week we have had some really exciting news! Each class now has a pet fish! We have been learning how to look after pets, and we will be taking it in turns to be fish monitor. Can you draw a picture of your class fish in its bowl in your homework book?
Your child will also bring home a reading book and diary this week. Please share this book with your child and write a comment in the diary. If you read 3 times in a week you will get a stamp in the back of your dairy!
Year 1
Literacy – Can you think about what you would put in your Gruffalo crumble and write it in your homework book? Please read your reading book three times.
Spellings – he, has, there, you, are, is
Maths – Can you practise counting backwards from 10 and then choose a number between 10 and 20 to count backwards from?
Year 2
Spellings of the week – castle, kitchen, dungeon, grand hall, windows, arrow slits
Please ensure your child practises their spellings using the Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check method. This requires children to keep reading the spellings and writing them over and over again until they are secure.
Maths – Can you write these numbers in numerals?
six, thirteen, twenty-four, eighty-five
Can you write these numbers in words?
5, 27, 43, 92
Literacy/Topic – Can you watch the clip of The Paper Bag Princess told by Robert Munsch on YouTube. Can you write down in your homework book who was your favourite character and why?
Wickersley Library
Starting on Saturday 5th October Wickersley Library will be holding ‘Lingotot’ classes in Spanish and French for 0-7 year olds. Both classes will be in 10 week blocks and booking is essential. For further details or to book your place, please visit www.facebook.com/lingotot.com , telephone 07804695917 or send an email to paula@lingotot.com. Further information regarding Lingotot Courses can be found at www.lingotot.com.
Macmillan Bun Sale
Please bring any donations of baking into school tomorrow morning and leave at reception. The doors will be open from 2.45pm for you to come along and purchase buns and cakes. Any children who bring money to school for the sale will be taken into the hall before the ‘grown ups’ arrive.
FABSS Fashion Show – Friday 14th October 6.30pm
If you intend to purchase tickets for the fashion show, please return the booking forms by tomorrow, Friday 30th September. The event will only go ahead if enough tickets are sold. Thank you
Class of the Week
Congratulations to the children in Class 9 who have attained 100% attendance for the last two weeks. We are very proud of you. Class 7 also attained 100% attendance for the week 12th to 16th September and the data collected so far suggests that we will meet the schools expected level of attendance for September.
Messy Church
Messy church will take place at St Francis church this Sunday, 2nd October at 4pm. The theme this week will be ‘Harvest’ and any donations of produce would be gratefully received. Thank you
Stay and Learn Sessions – Please note the change of date
We look forward to welcoming you into your child’s classroom to take part in our Stay and Learn Sessions which have been designed to give you an insight into the expectations for your child. We will be focusing on handwriting and the sessions will be on the following days:
Year 2 – Thursday 6th October @ 9am
Year 1 – Friday 7th October @ 9am
Diary Dates
Friday 30th September Macmillan Bun Sale
Friday 14th October Fabss Fashion Show – 6.30pm
Friday 21st October School closes for Half Term
Monday 31st October Inset Day
Tuesday 1st November School Resumes
Friday 16th December School closes for the Christmas Holidays
Tuesday 3rd January School resumes for the Spring Term
Important Attendance Matters
Attendance data for children in Year 1 and Year 2 is collated and sent to the authority on a monthly basis and the Education Welfare Officer makes fortnightly visits to school to monitor attendance levels. You will be aware that the recent Ofsted Report highlighted attendance as an area requiring improvement and therefore, we will be working closely with the local authority, the Education Welfare Officer and yourselves, to implement strategies to improve attendance in school.
This week, we have received notification from the Local Authority Attendance Team that there were 23 children in main school, whose level of attendance was below 91% at the end of the 2015 to 2016 school year. This equates to a level which falls below the national and local authority average and is unacceptable. Children who fall into this category are Persistent Absentee’s and will be monitored closely by the Education Welfare Officer during the coming weeks and letters will be sent to the parents/carers of the children concerned.
Although Foundation Stage attendance isn’t included in the data collections, there were a further 10 pupils in last year’s Foundation Stage 2, who also had a level less than 91%. As these children are now in Year 1, they will also be monitored closely and letters sent out to inform parents/carers of their attendance levels.
We appreciate and are very proud of those who attend regularly and on time and will continue to reward those children over the coming year. We are also seeking out new incentives and reward schemes to encourage good attendance and would love to hear any suggestions that you might have.
We would also remind you of the following expectations and routines:-
1. School should be contacted on each day of your child’s absence. If we do not receive a message before 9.30am a member of the admin team will contact you.
2. If we are unable to make contact and no reason is given for the absence, an unauthorised absence mark will be entered on your child’s record.
3. The admin team should be notified of any medical appointments in advance and an appointment letter or card should be shown, so that we can record the absence as a medical appointment. Where possible, we would also expect your child to attend school before, or return to school after the appointment, in order to miss minimise the amount of learning time lost.
4. We appreciate that it is not always possible to choose an appointment time or day but we would ask that where possible, appointments are made outside school hours or during the school holidays.
5. School begins promptly at 9am. If your child arrives after this, a late mark will be recorded.
6. Term time holidays will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances surrounding the request. Rotherham local education authority are still issuing fixed penalty notices to parents who take their children out of school for 5 consecutive days or more and whose attendance level is below the authority’s accepted level of 95.6% for the previous 3 terms.
7. If your child’s attendance drops below 91% we will inform you by letter and all absence will be unauthorised unless evidence is provided. (e.g. prescription or appointment card)
We look forward to working with you over the coming months and are confident that together we can increase our attendance levels to an acceptable level. Thank you
