Good afternoon,

 

I hope you are well and enjoying the sunshine.  We have had a great week in school.  

Over Monday and Wednesday this week our Year 1 pupils completed their Phonics Screening with me.  It was such a pleasure to complete this with each child and see the progress they have made.  The staff should feel very proud of how confident the children are and I know as parents you will be.

Chaffinch also completed their check this week but this was a Multiplication check.  The children were very prepared and completed the online check confidently and most importantly, calmly. Well done Year 4s and staff.

 

On Tuesday our governors joined us for the day.  We had valuable time working together to reflect on all we are doing and the impact this is having as well as looking at our next steps and our future developments.  In addition to some training, the governors met with our School Council to ask them for feedback.  This was great to capture their thoughts and experiences and the children enjoyed it.

 

Our Pentecost service was led by Reverend Gemma and gave us a valuable opportunity to reflect and sing.  The children who read, did so clearly and Mrs Gan would have been very proud of the singing.

 

Every 3 or 4 years we have moderators in school to check our Year 6 writing.  On Wednesday Mrs Wirth worked with three moderators for the afternoon.  They were very complimentary of the children's writing especially their extensive vocabulary and use of grammar and punctuation.  This is further affirmation of the impact our wonderful teaching and the hard work of our children has.

 

Netball club this week was great fun.  Staff joined the club for a staff V children match.  We all enjoyed it and it was even better as the teachers won!  Netball club will run for a few more weeks and all children in KS2 are welcome to come along for an 8am start.  Children can bring their uniform to change into before the start of the day.

 

The highlight of the week for me was our Careers Fair.  The idea of this event stemmed from our Lifeskills leaders.  They have worked with Mrs Wirth and I to plan the event and it was a great success.  The children asked questions and used the opportunity to broaden their minds to the possiblities that may interest them.  My thanks go to everyone involved.  The children were well informed and certainly inspired.  A strong focus for us was the impact the learning in each subject has on roles for the future and I loved hearing our visitors talking about the importance of Maths, Chemistry, Geography etc. 

 

I would like to thank you all for your support.  We have had parents in school, parents purchasing valuable items from our wishlist, parents enjoying our Chaffinch parents sports club and much more.  This partnership is so important and enhances our provision.  We are working hard to ensure our communication is clear and improving all the time, we are grateful for your positive feedback on this.  We are hoping to set up a weekly reminder screen along the path into school which should support families further.  I would like to remind parents to speak/email class teachers directly over class matters rather than coping me into the emails. Staff will always come to me if needed but they are best placed to support you with a query.

 

I wish you all a wonderful weekend in the sunshine.

With kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone