Dear Parents,

Having netball club on a Monday morning is a great way to start the week (for the children it is!) Mrs Workman, one of our Governors, enjoyed watching some of the session with me this week.

On Monday afternoon the second group of Chaffinch children visited Warren Lodge. As I arrived to collect the children I saw many of the residents smiling and laughing with daffodils in their hair. We are so proud of the children; their empathy, understanding, patience and care is wonderful to see.

Our achievement assembly on Wednesday, led by Mrs Wirth, celebrated achievement, progress, attitude and kindness. I was delighted on Thursday to have 19 Goldfinch children squeezed into my office; all pleased to receive achievement stickers for their hard work.

Friday is a busy day with the Year Six children attending the Easter Experience and following this, there is a football match at The Colleton School. Thank you to all parents who are supporting us with transport arrangements; providing the children with so many opportunities is something we pride ourselves in.  Next week is Sport Relief 2018 and we will have a fundraising bucket out each day, the children will be taking part in activities during the week for this.

Each month we hold a Full Governing Body meeting and as part of this I reflect on progress made on an aspect of our School Development Plan. I would like to take this opportunity to share this feedback with you.

Maths

Objectives:

To develop a whole school approach to improve Maths learning and teaching.

To develop pupil confidence in Problem Solving and Reasoning

As Maths Leader, Mrs Wirth has carried out learning walks, she has looked at the children's books and talked to children across the school. The staff have worked incredibly hard to implement the CPA approach (concrete, pictorial, abstract) so quickly. There is evidence throughout the school of concrete resources being used and we are pleased with how well the children can articulate the importance of reasoning and problem solving. I would like to thank Mrs Wirth, all staff and the children for their commitment and hard work in driving our Maths learning forwards. We have had great support from FOFSA regarding the resources we have needed for Math; this has impacted across the whole school. Some of our Year 6 children are accessing some online Maths tutoring through 'Third Space Learning', the children are enjoying it and finding the time and experience rewarding and helpful.

Here are some quotes from the children:

"If you get stuck, you could take ages but if you put the cubes in arrays then you'd have the answer." A Bullfinch child.

"The resources help me because if you don't understand, the resources will show you." A Year 3 child.

"Reasoning helps us to keep thinking about how we might have made a mistake. It helps us to help each other." A Year 4 child.

This is only one aspect of how we are moving our school forwards and I hope you have found it useful to read.

I wish you all a lovely weekend

Jacquie Vanstone