Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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19th December 2017
Tue 19 Dec 2017Dear Parents,
The past ten days have been such a wonderful celebration of our children and their talents. It was great to see so many families at the Christmas plays last week and I am sure you felt as proud as we did of the children. Thank you for the donations you made both to our chosen charity, Shelter and towards the new Key Stage 2 furniture. Gift aid forms for FOFSA donations are available in the lobby if you would like to complete one.
The children in our school choir have demonstrated wonderful commitment over the last few weeks. For the first time, I was invited to both the Loddon Valley carol concert and the Friendly Finches; I thoroughly enjoyed both festive celebrations. Our carol concert was a very special evening; it was wonderful to listen to children, staff and governors all playing instruments together.
I can’t thank Mrs Gan enough for her work leading all the music activities in School. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a talented Music teacher who is so dedicated and generous with her time.
Today I have enjoyed delivering Christmas cards to our neighbours with some children from our School Council. Thank you for being careful and considerate when parking near school.
As the Acting Head teacher I feel incredibly proud of everything we have achieved over the last term and I am looking forward to a successful 2018. This progress would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of all the staff, govenors and children. We have also received some wonderful parent support this term; we value your contributions and are pleased to be working so closely with you.
This week we said goodbye to Mr. Fisher and also James from St James' Church, we wish them both all the very best. We hope we will see them in school again soon.
On behalf of all the staff I would like to thank you so much for your generous cards and gifts, your appreciation is very important to us. We wish you all a wonderful Christmas we look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.
Jacquie Vanstone
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15th December 2017
Fri 15 Dec 2017Latest news will be published on the website on Tuesday 19th December 2017. Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Jacquie Vanstone
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8th December 2017
Fri 08 Dec 2017Dear Parents,
All of a sudden the end of term feels incredibly close! The Christmas play rehearsals are improving by the day and the children looked wonderful today in their costumes. I am delighted to have been able to arrange for the play to be filmed. This will take place on the Monday afternoon performance. DVDs will be then be available to buy. I would like to thank the team at Pulse 8 for providing us with this service.
On Monday after school Mr O'Reilly, Mrs Arlon and I took 20 Year 5 and 6 children to Bohunt for a Sportshall Athletics competition. They were brilliant; Imogen and Evie won two events and Joshua had the top score in the Javlin (17.6 meters) and Mason got the top score in the Chest push event (8. meters). The behaviour of our children was outstanding.
Today we have received the results for the Year 3/4 competition and the children came 4th. This is amazing, well done to all the children who participated. We await the Year 5/6 results.
On Tuesday this week we were delighted to welcome Richard O'Neil to our school. He is a story teller who travels around the country working in lots of schools. We enjoyed a wonderful assembly and then Richard worked with each class. We received great feedback from Richard about the staff, children and the ethos of our school.
I am very excited to announce the amount of money that was raised at the Christmas Fair. An amazing £3345.23 was raised and we envisage this increasing with the possibility of matched funding with two companies. Thank you to FOFSA and everyone who supported the school.
We are looking forward to seeing lots of you next week at the different Christmas Play Performances. We will have a collection for the charity 'Shelter' This year we have a project with FOFSA to replace the very dated tables and chairs in Chaffinch and Goldfinch. We will hopefully have details of the furniture we wish to buy available next week for you to see. There will be an opportunity for all visitors to contribute towards this if they wish by possibly sponsoring a chair or table!
Recently I have had several conversations with parents about behaviour – many thanking us for our prompt implementation of our Behaviour Policy, others querying what we do in different circumstances. We implement our Behaviour Policy consistently for all children. Please address any need for clarification to your child’s class teacher or to myself: even with the best of intentions, playground conversations can be misleading.
I conclude this email with the news that Mr Fisher is sadly leaving our school at the end of term for health reasons. Governors, staff, children and parents have all enjoyed working with Mr Fisher. He has been an asset to our school and we hope to maybe welcome him back in the future. I would like to thank Mr Fisher for his hard work and dedication over the last term and I know you will join me in wishing him well. We are incredibly fortunate to have secured arrangements for Goldfinch which will provide continuity and high quality with staff known to the children (details were sent home with Goldfinch children today).
Best wishes
Jacquie Vanstone
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Governor Newsletter
Fri 01 Dec 2017The November Governor Newsletter has been sent home with all Eldest and Only children today. A copy can be found in the Office Updates section. -
1st December 2017
Fri 01 Dec 2017Dear Parents,
I cannot believe how close we now are to Christmas!! The Christmas Play music is all around school which is lovely.
FOFSA
It was wonderful seeing so many of you at the Christmas Fair on Saturday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank FOFSA for their hard work, time and dedication in organising such a successful event. Once we have a final figure of the amount raised we will let you know. Thank you to everyone who supported the event.
Sport
Many of you will be receiving lots of letters involving your child in sporting events. The children are always a pleasure to take and we are keen to provide as many experiences as possible. Last Friday Mr O'Reilly and I took 9 girls to a match in Windsor. They lost 2:1 which was so close and we were proud of them. The minibus journey was a highlight although they were desperate for us to stop at Legoland on the way back! On Monday Mrs Dodds and I took 19 children to Bohunt School for a Sportshall Athletics competition. They worked well in the team events and tried their best. Results have not yet been sent. The same competition is taking place for 20 Goldfinch children next Monday. Today we have a football tournament for the girls and a match for the boys; we determined to win a match before the end of term!
As you can see the amount of competitive sport is great. I would like to thank Mrs Weston for being so accommodating as each event creates a great deal of work. I am sure you will join me in thanking her.
Christmas
It was lovely to have so many parents with us for our Advent Church Service on Tuesday. The singing was particularly beautiful and it was a perfect opportunity to reflect as we approach this busy time of year. Mrs Gan is working hard with the Music group and also with the children who will be participating in the Loddon Valley Carol Concert. On a lighter note, since our Advent Service an Elf has joined us and will be keeping an eye on the children although he is hiding all sorts of wonderful places!
School Information
On Wednesday Chaffinch were pleased to welcome Miss Parish into the class and we look forward to welcoming her into our school properly in January.
Today our Diocesan Advisor, Robin Sharples joined us in school for the morning. It was a pleasure to share with him the progress we have made this term and also to look ahead to 2018. He was impressed by how engaged our children are and how keen they all were to share their learning.
Today you will have received the Governor Termly Newsletter. There is an email address on the Newsletter for communication with Governors. We were so grateful for such positive feedback last year and welcome your comments.
Kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
