Dear Parents and Guardians,

 

I would like to begin by thanking so many of you for attending our Advocacy week celebration last Friday.  It was great to have time to celebrate the learning and also see and chat to you.  In school this week, we celebrated the learning in our achievement assembly. We recognised the importance of readiness, responsibility and reliability.

 

This week and next Mrs Dodds, Miss Bardsley, Mrs Paterson and I have been attending some training sessions on attendance.  In September we shared our new Attendance policy and we are working hard to ensure the support is available for parents who require it.  In turn, I am supported by our Education Welfare Officer who meets with me each term to review attendance that falls below 90% or is of concern to me.  I was shocked when she last met with me and told me that if a child has 90% attendance every year from Reception to Year 11, then they would have missed a year of education by the end of Year 11.  It is so important that attendance is strong for children's learning now but also for setting a positive work ethic for their future.  The correlation between academic progress, behaviour, wellbeing and attendance is clearly evidenced nationally and seen in school.

Next week, Mrs Lawrence will send home your child's attendance figure for the year to date.  School will continue to follow up concerns but if when you receive the information you feel concerned and wish to have support to improve your child's attendance please contact us via finchparents@finchampstead.wokingham.sch.uk.   Of course we understand that children can be unwell and it is important that if they are not well enough for school that they remain at home to recover.  This just becomes compounded if there is already unauthorised absence which is what we need to avoid.

 

On Thursday our School Improvement Officer, Anne Stopforth, spent the morning in school.  The focus of the visit was to explore our Science curriculum, our teaching and learning and the outcomes for our children.  Mrs Crowe joined me in a meeting with Anne Stopforth as our Science leader.  We then carried out a learning walk, looked at books and spoke to children from each class.  I felt very proud of the learning behaviours we saw, the subject knowledge of staff and the pure love for science expressed by the children.   I look forward to sharing Anne's feedback with Governors and we will update the Science page on the website with key quotes from the report.  I can conclude that Science got a 8 or 9 out of 10 by the children spoken to and they articulated the reasons why with enthusiasm and clarity.

 

Due to low numbers of children attending Netball club we have decided to change it for this half term.  Breakfast club on a Monday will now also include a ball games club run by Mr O'Reilly.  If your children wish to join, they can book onto Breakfast club, have breakfast (or not if they already have at home) and then attend the ball games club.  We hope the children will really enjoy it.  

 

We are currently advertising for someone to run Breakfast club, so please let me know if you know of anyone who may be interested.

 

We finished today with a lovely treat from Mr and Mrs Fox and enjoyed a piece of Galettes des rois which is an Epiphany tradition in France. Thank you so much for not only sharing the delicious french food but also for sharing the tradition.

 

I wish you a lovely weekend.

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone