Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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4th April 2025
Fri 04 Apr 2025Good afternoon,
I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Easter. We have had such a wonderful term and it has been great to see the engagement of all the children.
I feel blessed to work with such caring and talented staff and I wish them a well deserved break. We are sad to be saying goodbye to Mrs Lawrence but we are excited for her as she retires. The contribution Mrs Lawrence has made over the long time she has been associated with the school has been incredible. Her knowledge of the school, her care and love has been valued everyday and I wish to thank her wholeheartedly for all she has done for the school and also for me. We will miss you Mrs Lawrence but we know you will be back.
We have fullfilled the lunchtime controller roles available within school and whilst I have enjoyed the opportunity of being in the hall and outside with the children at lunchtime, I am pleased to now be successfully recruiting for the position. I will continue to join the children as often as I can during the lunch hour and it has been a pleasure to do it routinely.
I would like to thank those who have emailed about the careers fair. I will be in touch after Easter with more information and we are keen to have your contribution and support.
On the Tuesday back I will send out a sign up sheet for the Maths parent meeting which will be at 3.30 on Wednesday 30th April. I really hope many of you can join us as we share information which will help you to understand our methods and therefore help you to support at home.
I would like to thank you for your support this term. I wish you a wonderful break.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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28th March 2025
Fri 28 Mar 2025Good evening,
Each week I am amazed by what we squeeze in but this week has been incredible. Thank you so much for being part of so much!
The week began with Bullfinch brightening up the front of school with their planting - what a difference it has made, thank you Bullfinch.
We have had three learning events this week with parents sharing learning with their children in Rosefinch, Bullfinch and Chaffinch. It is wonderful to see the cross curricular learning coming together and coming to life with such passion from the children and such dedication from the staff. The Chaffinch staff looked great in their costumes!
This all follows a fantastic WASMA performance on Saturday. One parent said to me that it felt like a Finch School show! We are proud to perform alongside many other Wokingham schools and we really were at the heart of the Hexagon performance with singing, acting and percussion. We are proud of the children and everyone involved. We are lucky to have Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson leading our pupils and they know they have the support of the whole school community.
All of the above require our pupils to demonstrate the 5Rs which we talk about in school all the time; responsibility, resilience, respect, resourcefulness and readiness. I look forward to celebrating the children in our next achievement assembly. We have had many governors in school this week so it has been great for the children to share their learning and experiences with them. I know Goldfinch enjoyed showing Mrs Fox the French books they are carefully making for Rosefinch.
Today, Mrs Baker and I had the privilege of taking a group of Chaffinch children to share their learning and further their learning on energy efficiency. This took place at the David Wilson show homes in Finchwood Park. I was so proud of the children and the staff along with the Mayor of Wokingham were impressed with their questioning, their confidence and their understanding.
I would like to remind you of our uniform policy and ensure that your child is wearing the full uniform with a tie and correct footwear. We are checking each day and sadly I had to speak to a few children today to remind them for Monday. If you need any support with uniform, please just ask.
Next week we look forward to our Easter Service on Tuesday morning with drop off at church. We then have an end of term assembly on Friday morning at 9am with a 2pm end of term. This will sadly be Mrs Lawrence's last official day with us. Parents are welcome on both occassions and we will have tea and biscuits after the assembly with Mrs Lawrence, we would love you to join us.
Earlier in the week, I sent out our parent survey and have the link here for you. We are very grateful for your support and feedback.
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hfZp01bu2UK5ogS9jogJNI_zTt7QxaZAtDnOW6ttbFFURDMwVTFWVVpZSVhaSVVWNVhUVlRDM1NWUi4u&origin=QRCode
I wish you a lovely weekend and a Happy Mother's Day. Mrs Metcalfe has led the organisation for the flowers which has supported by staff and FOFSA - Happy Mother's Day!
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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21st March 2025
Fri 21 Mar 2025Good afternoon,
I hope you have had a good week enjoying the sunshine.
School was a busy place last weekend when we had the opportunity to welcome some Wellington College students. We are excited to be linking up with Wellington College in a variety of ways and the first was having a group of students to come and do some gardening and outside tidying for us. This was wonderful and has made such a difference to our outside space and our outdoor learning.
We have also been pleased to refresh the furniture in the school office over the weekend. We are delighted to say that we did it to the total cost of £180 but I am sure you will agree, it a much more welcoming and a pleasant space to work in.
The school has been full of excitement over our new chicks. They are so lovely and it has been great to see the children full of anticipation, excitement, care and compassion.
On Thursday, I had the pleasure of joining Bullfinch for a walk up to church. The children were wonder historians and were keen to learn and appreciate the history of our church and the meaning of key features.
Thank you to the parents who came for a coffee this morning, we look forward to doing this more often.
As we look forward to the events and the learning over the next two weeks, I thought it would be helpful to share the dates on here.
Monday 24th March Bullfinch learning event. Parents welcome at 2.30pm
Thursday 27th March - Chaffinch Egyptian day. Parents welcome at 2.30pm.
Friday 28th March - Rosefinch Stay and Play session 8.40 to 9.30am on Friday - we will offer more dates next term so there is no pressure to attend each one but you are welcome to come.
Friday 28th March - Finchwood Park energy event for Mrs Vanstone and a group of pupils TBC.
Tuesday 1st April - Easter Service - drop off at church in the morning. Parents welcome to join us.
Friday 4th April - End of term assembly at 9am - parents welcome.
Friday 4th April - 2pm End of day.
Date for next term - Wednesday 30th April 3.15pm - All parents invited for a Maths information session.
Good luck to our WASMA children tomorrow. I can't wait to see you perform, we know you have worked so hard. Enormous thanks to Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson for all the time they have given.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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14th March 2025
Fri 14 Mar 2025Good evening,
We have had a lovely and busy week in school. We have the continued excitement of the tadpoles in each class and the incubator in Bullfinch. Having said that, our Goldfinch children are still giving lots of time and love to our guinea pigs!
There has been lots of football this week. On Tuesday, I enjoyed taking 7 Bullfinch children to a tournament. They played so well and were noted for being happy, relaxed and polite which was wonderful.
Today Mr O'Reilly took 7 Chaffinch children to a tournament and again the children behaved well and played well.
Yesterday, I met with our Education Welfare Officer. This is always a very important meeting each term and I was delighted to show her the progress that we have made in improving our attendance. Every day really does count socially and academically and we thank you for your support.
I would like to thank all the parents who have supported us this in different ways. We have had a Wasma rehearsal, the football. We re-furnishing the office and I am very grateful to staff and parents who have helped us. On Monday, Mrs Crowe led our Phonics meeting and it has been great to hear parents using the information to support them at home. If you missed the meeting and wish to have some support, please ask class teachers.
I have the pleasure of reading lots of letters written to me by Bullfinch as they enjoy writing for a purpose to support our community. I have also attached some Rosefinch photographs to show their absolute love for learning about transport.
I wish you a great weekend.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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7th March 2025
Fri 07 Mar 2025Good afternoon,
It has been such a pleasure this week to see so many parents both at Learning Review meetings and this morning at our Reception Bible assembly.
This week we have celebrated Shove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and World Book day so it certainly has been busy. Between flipping and eating pancakes, Goldfinch going on a live Mission to Mars workshop and the exploration of frog spawn, school has been an exciting place to be.
Over the week, I have felt so proud of the children for their manners in holding the door open for each other, for their commitment to WASMA rehearsals, for the leadership of our Subject Leaders and of our lovely Year 6 buddies in our Bible assembly this morning. The list could go on and we are thanking the children for all the ways they are living out our vision.
I would like to thank Mr and Mrs Fox for leading our assembly this morning. The children were proud to be presented with their bibles. These have been donated by FOFSA and were presented by Mrs Baker, Chair of FOFSA.
I am delighted to inform you that Daniel and Alex's mum, Yasmin will be our new Parent Governor. We are looking forward to welcoming her to our next meeting, thank you Yasmin.
Next week, we have our Phonics meeting on Monday at 2.30pm. I have added a survey question link to my email for parents to sign up. Parental support is so valuable and whilst this is open to all parents, we would really welcome support from our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 parents.
Rosefinch and Bullfinch will have their Tuesday PE lesson swapped to a Monday just for next week so please adjust uniform accordingly.
On Tuesday we have a Year 2 football event for the boys in the afternoon so please can you make sure letters are returned on Monday. There is also a WASMA rehearsal on Tuesday after school and a Year 3/4 tournament for some children on Friday.
I would like to thank you for your continued support and wish you a lovely weekend.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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28th February 2025
Fri 28 Feb 2025Good afternoon
It has been so lovely to finish the week in the sunshine, we have even allowed the children a picnic lunch which is unheard of in February. It has been a pleasure to see the children on the playground with so many playing in the ballcourts, on the trim trail, playing basketball and skipping. I thought at this point I would share that we have an advert out for a Lunchtime Controller, please be in touch if you may be interested and I can share more information about the position.
Since the half term break our Year 6 children have really stepped up. They are excited by their role as Subject Leaders and they are supporting staff with all their responsibilities. It is great to see and we appreciate them demonstrating the 5Rs with big smiles.
Today, some of our Year 5s have led a Chaffinch assembly on Ramadan. The Chaffinch children loved it and we are proud of the Year 5s for being so prepared and keen.
I had great fun on Thursday in Rosefinch. We took advantage of the sunny weather and used some of the new resources purchased by FOFSA. It was brilliant to see the children exploring so confidently and using appropriate and ambitious vocabulary. We did end up a little wet by the end but they assured me they would dry in the sun!
Bullfinch are buzzing with their animal learning and were excited to carefully place each egg into our incubator. It has inspired poetry, singing and so much more. Thank you Mrs Metcalfe, the whole school loved seeing your chickens and we can't wait to see what happens next!
Chaffinch have started some seed experiments for their Science which they are keen to see how different conditions impact growth. Gardening club in the Chaffinch garden also started this week and the children were delighted to have seeds kindly donated through our wish list. Thank you.
We have had a great week which was topped off with a cookie and uniform sale by FOFSA. Thank you for supporting FOFSA and thank you to the committee.
I wish you a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you at the Learning Reviews next week, if not before. Next week we will be celebrating World Book Day within school and have activities planned. We are also looking forward to our Reception children being given their Bibles on Friday morning.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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14th February 2025
Fri 14 Feb 2025Good afternoon,
I hope you have had a good week. There has been so much going on in school which has made this last week before half term a real treat.
We began with Mrs Metcalfe on Monday bringing in her two ponies. The purpose of the visit was to support the Bullfinch Science learning on animals but this was certainly an experience enjoyed by the whole school. Thank you so much Mrs Metcalfe, we know it took a lot of organisation which shows our dedication to Finch's enriching curriculum.
You will hopefully have seen a letter I have attached to the new update email from Mrs Metcalfe regarding further enrichment. I would like to thank FOFSA for their support with this project. If you have any questions, please be in touch.
It was wonderful to see so many Chaffinch families in school on Thursday afternoon. The nest was a buzz of energy and it was a fantastic way to celebrate reading in our school.
I had the pleasure of taking a group of children to a badminton competition on Thursday after school. The children were so happy and motivated which was great to see and they performed well in each activity.
This afternoon, we had two football matches for our Goldfinch teams. We are proud of the children for their hard work. Thank you Mr O'Reilly for providing so many with a great afternoon of football in the sunshine. Well done to our two Chaffinch players who played with such confidence against older children.
Finally, Reception had a visit from an ex pupil and his colleague. They are both work as police for Thames Valley and provided a wonderful talk for Reception this afternoon. There was a silence as they walked in even though they were expected and they left with many gifts from the children. The way the children articulated their experiences and questions was fantastic to see and I hope they learnt how approachable our police are. Thank you so much to PC Thomas Branch and his colleague Nathan.
I am delighted to see progress with attendance across the school and would like to thank you for your support with it. On Wednesday our School Council led class assemblies about attendance which the children really engaged it. It was so valuable and I thank Mrs Dodds for leading this with them.
It has been a fairly short half term but a very busy one. I wish you a great half term and I wanted to remind you that Holiday Club will be running in school throughout the week. You can book on via the NSsport website.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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7th February 2025
Fri 07 Feb 2025Good evening,
This will be a short newsletter following two fantastic discos. The children have behaved brilliantly and have had a great time. Thank you FOFSA for organising the event which will provide special moments and memories for the children. We saw some great dancing!
This week began with a visit from our School Improvement Partner from Wokingham, looking in depth at our Maths curriculum. The staff and children should all feel proud of the feedback. The feedback included comments around our consistent approach, the skill of our staff and the benefits of teaching our Maths in year groups.
Mr O'Reilly had a super day on Wednesday at Pinewood Gymnastics with two groups of Key Stage 2 children. The Goldfinch group performed well but we do not know their position within the competition. The Chaffinch children proudly wore their 3rd place medals on Thursday. Well done to all of them and thank you Mr O'Reilly.
On Wednesday we were pleased to welcome Peter Savage to lead an assembly with the children on active movement. The principle behind the project is for us to support each other to be sitting less and moving more. Peter presented to the children, he has designed a walk for us to follow within the school boundary and he has put up posters to remind us. I have found it so interesting to learn of the benefits of just standing up every 20 minutes apposed to remaining seated for longer periods without moving or simply standing for a moment. I would encourage you to chat to your children about it; I hope they are as keen as I am.
We will be swapping PE from Wednesday to Monday for Goldfinch and Chaffinch this week so please alter uniform accordingly. Thank you.
Finally, I would like to thank you for your Wishlist support. It has been brilliant to have so many deliveries and all of it directly supports the learning, thank you and here is the link with new items added.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/3MNENM29ORJKF/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex
I wish you a lovely weekend.
Jacquie Vanstone
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31st January 2025
Fri 31 Jan 2025Good afternoon,
I hope you are well. We have had another great week of learning and I have enjoyed spending time at lunchtime with the children. Our lunchtimes have been filled with outside play, loom banding, chess, choir and lego and all clubs have been enjoyed with lots of creativity and laughter. Today I joined Mrs Gan to listen to many of the WASMA solo auditions and felt very proud of all of them.
Everyday in school is full of active learning and it has been a pleasure to see the children coming in after a walk or run, smiling, rosy cheeked and ready for learning. Bullfinch are routinely building up the miles and the progress day to day is brilliant.
I enjoyed today's PE with Goldfinch as they played a Mayan ball game called Pok-ta-Pok. Both teams were aiming for a goal on the opposite side but they could only hit the ball with their knee, elbow or hip. It was wonderful to see how much fun they had, how honest they were with how they had hit the ball and how determined they were to win! I was impressed Mrs Pasha knew the rules so well. Well done for such fantastic cross curricular learning!
As wider development for Goldfinch, they enhanced their learning with a visit to Winchester Science Museum on Tuesday. They had a super day with the highlight for many being the planetarium.
Our football girls from played a match today in Slough. It was a hard match which they didn't win but Mr O'Reilly was so proud of how well they played. We look forward to the next match!
I would like to thank you for your patience as we address maintenance issues. We are grateful that Caterlink have worked quickly to repair the dishwasher and that meals have returned to normal. We are a day or two away from our new boiler installation being complete which will be appreciated by us all.
On Monday, we are pleased to be joined by our School Improvement Partner for a deep look at our Maths teaching and learning and I look forward to sharing his feedback.
I wish you all a lovely weekend.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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24th January 2025
Fri 24 Jan 2025Good afternoon,
I hope you have had a good week. I have spent some of my time in the classrooms this week which has been such a pleasure. It was great to see Goldfinch so engaged in their blogging on the laptops. I saw Chaffinch in their Maths lessons, enjoying their problem solving, Bullfinch writing with such improved stamina and Rosefinch playing traditional games in their Maths.
We have taken some time this week to remind the children of certain procedures within school as well as general manners and behaviours. It is so lovely to see the children holding the door open for each other and all these behaviours are important to us. Please can I remind parents to check uniforms are correct and complete so the children look and feel smart both in PE kit and in their school uniform.
Please can I remind you that the children should not be walking through the carpark at any point. Please always ensure they use the pedestrian path so they remain safe from moving vehicles.
Sadly, our football match today was cancelled. The girls are due to play in Slough next week for their County Cup match and letters will go out on Monday. We are aware of the distance and would be grateful to know if a few parents are happy to take the team between them. Please be in touch if you can help.
We have taken a group of infants and a group of KS2 children to Pinewood gymnastics club this week. They had a great time and the older children performed their prepared routine very well.
As you know, we have continued without our main school boiler this week and look forward to the new boiler being fitted next week. I have learnt a lot about boilers and sadly the cost of our new boiler is going to impact our budget enormously. One of the children keeps telling me to find a shooting star and wish for it to be free but in the absence of a star, we have an Amazon wishlist!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/3MNENM29ORJKF/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex
Staff will continue to add to the wishlist and we would be very grateful of any support you can give, I am hoping the link works successfully. Deliveries can be made to school.
We are grateful to our wonderful FOFSA team as they remain committed to our Rosefinch outside development along with other projects.
I look forward to another busy week next week and I know Goldfinch are looking forward to their Winchester Science Museum trip on Tuesday.
Wishing you all a good weekend.
Jacquie Vanstone
