Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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29th March 2019
Thu 28 Mar 2019Dear Parents,
We have really enjoyed the warmer, brighter weather this week; the skipping on the playground is great to see and the children are making such progress!
It has been delightful to see our chicks growing; staff have created so many learning opportunities focused around the chicks. Four Goldfinch children enjoyed teaching the Fledgelings children all about them.
On Wednesday I had a consultation meeting with our Education Welfare Officer. I am pleased to have her support as she guides us to maintain and improve attendance of all pupils. I would like to take this opportunity to reinforce the importance of consistent school attendance and the strong correlation between attendance and academic success. We do understand that at times pupils will be unwell but with holiday absence on top of this a pupil can quickly become deemed as persistently absent. At the end of the summer term we will be awarding certificates for attendance of 98% and above.
On Thursday we had a fire drill; the behaviour of the whole school was fantastic and the best we have seen in that situation. We had safely evacuated the school and completed registers of staff and pupils all within 2 and 1/2 minutes. Well done to the children, all staff felt very proud.
It has been a busy week for staff. We have had a supply teacher for much of the week in Rosefinch and also cover for Mrs Guillaume and Mrs Dodds to attend a Pie Corbett, Talk4Writing course in Oxford. Mrs Lawrence has been in school for handover time with Mrs Weston which I know is invaluable. It will be very sad to say goodbye to Mrs Weston next Friday; I hope you can join us for our end of term assembly and cup of tea afterwards. A letter also went home this week to inform you that Mrs Leen will be leaving us at the end of the school year. Mrs Leen has been a valued member of staff for many years. She has made the decision to return to Australia to be near family. We have begun the process of recruitment for September and I will keep you informed.
Today Mr O'Reilly and I took some Year 3 and 4 boys to a Madjski football tournament; they came 3rd in their group and played very well all day. Thank you to Mr Grenfell who has led the younger football club this year, the tournament was a great way to finish.
Finally I wish all mums a special and relaxing Mothering Sunday. I know many of us will be enjoying seeing the school choir perform at WASMA on Sunday evening. The children have worked so hard and Mrs Gan even harder!! Thank you to Mrs Gan, the children and parents for supporting such a wonderful event. I look forward to seeing you there.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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22nd March 2019
Fri 22 Mar 2019Dear Parents,
What an exciting week we have had! Monday morning began with the eggs and incubator being delivered and since then the corridor has been a busy place to be!! We have seen 10 beautiful chicks hatch and the children have enjoyed seeing and holding them. We have them all of next week so please pop in at drop off in the morning if you would like to.
Excitement continued at Luckley as our Year 3 and 4 boys won all of their football matches, scoring a total of 12 goals. Mr O'Reilly was delighted with their attitude and commitment and we are all proud of how well they did We now wish them luck for a Madjski tournament next Friday.
The children who are performing at WASMA on the 31st March have been working really hard and I know Mrs Gan was pleased with their efforts and behaviour at the rehearsal on Monday afternoon.
It has been an absolute pleasure this week to spend time in each class during English lessons. The continuity and progression through the school is fabulous to see.
To bring my newsletter to a close I have some requests!
Firstly Lex is due, with his brothers, to go and help out at the homeless cafe in Camberley. They will be taking a big bag of goodies and just wondered if they would be able to do more. I will place a basket at the front of school each day next week, please add to it if you wish; the list of desired items is below.
https://camberleyallnightcafe.co.uk/
Safiya and Meg are working hard to produce a newspaper called The Scribbler, if your child can contribute, articles, jokes, pictures or photographs please bring them in by Thursday next week. Meg and Safiya would be very grateful and it would be great to see your ideas and work in the paper.
Finally, we are missing a lot of football kit, if you have any at home please send it back in on Monday. The kit has been used by both the girls and boys, please check and return any you have to myself or Mr O'Reilly.
Have a lovely weekend
Jacquie Vanstone
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15th March 2019
Fri 15 Mar 2019Dear Parents,
It has been lovely to spend even more time with the children this week. I have also given out lots of headteacher stickers to children throughout the school which is always a pleasure. It made me smile when Theo came to the office looking for the 'headteacher sticker lady'!
The children who have led at Fledgelings and attended Warren Lodge have represented the school brilliantly and when the children return to school they are always keen to share their experiences.
Starting on Monday afternoon, Kate Meads, from St James' church, will be in school as a Family Support Worker. Please see the poster attached and on Facebook and I hope you find this opportunity to chat and gain support and advice useful.
Chaffinch enjoyed their RE learning through the wonderful bible knowledge and experience of Ian Fox this week, thank you Mr Fox for your time.
On Tuesday in our Staff meeting we looked at English books from Reception to Year 6. It is great to see the progression both across the school and individually through each book. The children are always proud to share the differences between their cold write (first writing piece and then their hot write (final piece). Mrs Dodds and Mrs Guillaume will be spending a day in Oxford soon on a training day with Pie Corbott, the founder of Talk4Writing which is a fantastic opportunity.
Mrs Wirth and I attended a Wokingham conference on Thursday this week; it is so important to spend time with colleagues reflecting on our school development. We both felt proud of our school and excited about the plans for continued improvement.
Red Nose Day has been a great fundraising day. With parent support to raise money in the morning and our skipping competition. Thank you to Antonia McDowall, Sam Khan and everyone who helped. The skipping was amazing to watch with a total of 5408 skips by the children. Staff joined in but with no counters!! Thank you to Mr O'Reilly for organising and to the Sports Leaders for their support. The winners will be announced on Monday but Julie Swaffer, the Malteser treat is yours!
Mrs Beakhouse is now off work for her second knee operation following the success of the first; we wish her well and a speedy recovery.
We will be starting next week with the excitement of the incubator and eggs arriving from Living eggs. It provides a wonderful experience for the children (and adults!) but always creates a delay as we walk along the corridor! We also have a WASMA rehearsal and a Luckley football tournament to look forward to next week.
As the Easter holiday approaches I wish to invite you all to join us for an end of term assembly on 5th April; this will be also be a leaving assembly for Mrs Weston and I hope many of you can join us afterwards for a farewell cup of tea.
I wish you a fantastic weekend
Kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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8th March 2019
Fri 08 Mar 2019Dear Parents,
It has been a pleasure to see so many of you throughout the week at our Learning Reviews. I hope you found them useful and that you are clear on your child's next steps for their learning as well as their personal target.
The week started with the excitement of a Mad Science Assembly; the children loved the experiments and the learning was clear to see in such a short space of time. Letters went out today for a Science club.
It was very disappointing that the weather prevented us attending Church for the Ash Wednesday Service. Reverend Julie led the service and I thought the children read and sang beautifully. Reverend Gemma is now joining Rosefinch for their learning each Wednesday and I know the children enjoy having her with them.
The highlight this week has been World Book Day. The children all looked fantastic in their costumes and I thank you very much for your support. Each class have done some wonderful learning surrounding books and reading which I am sure has inspired them further.
The cake sale was a sell out!! Thank you FOFSA; this event is always so popular and it was great to see so much second hand uniform being sold.
I wish you a lovely weekend
Jacquie Vanstone
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1st March 2019
Fri 01 Mar 2019Dear Parents,
Welcome back after what I hope was a lovely half term. For part of the INSET day staff attended a training session with our cluster of schools. The training was led by a lady called Stephanie Davies who worked as a stand-up comedian with John Bishop and then took a degree in philosophy; she put the two together to create the company Laughology. The focus of the morning was happiness and engagement and the impact this has on learning. Whilst staff were working hard the children at the NSsport activity day were having a great time and I was delighted to see how well attended it was. I would like to thank NSsport for the wonderful service they provide.
It was great to see so many Chaffinch parents at our Brass Concert; I felt very proud of the children and of the comments made by James Baker. He complemented our music and could see that we are clearly 'a music school'. I hope Mrs Gan feels very proud too. Children are invited to continue learning the Tenor Horn through Berkshire Maestros and after seeing how well they have progressed it would be great to see this happen. Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson are very busy preparing the choir for WASMA which takes place later this month; Mrs Gan would also like to lead a Music Achievement assembly on 14th March. Please write into the office by 12th March if your child would like to share their music achievements with the school.
On Wednesday afternoon Mrs Wirth and I had the pleasure of showing our new School Improvement Officer, Anne Stropforth, around our school. We spent the afternoon discussing the School Development Plan and the progress we are making. It is very clear how focused we are on improvement in all areas and the positive impact of collaborative working between all stakeholders. Also on Wednesday Reverend Gemma joined Rosefinch for their afternoon learning; it was a pleasure to have her in school and we look forward to welcoming her each week.
Yesterday I sent home an Internet Safety letter following the assembly and the chat with parents on 9th February; I hope you found this information useful. I also included some information on The Momo Challenge which you may have seen information about on social media/news. I can now confirm that this has been a hoax. It has been valuable to reinforce internet safety rules and procedures with the children and I thank you for reiterating the same messages.
The Year 6 children have now found out about their secondary school places; they have all seemed calm and happy today and I am pleased for them.
I wish to finish this update with thanks to FOFSA. When you look around our school the impact of the money raised by FOFSA is evident throughout. The children have enjoyed creating logos, drawings for tea towels and you will hopefully have seen the posters showing the committee members and also the up and coming events. Thank you FOFSA.
Next week will start with the excitement of a Science assembly and then we have our Church Service and World book day dressing up and learning to look forward to.
There is a poster on the website, on Facebook and around school regarding the Science club which will follow on from the assembly on Monday. I would also like to make you aware of a lady running dance classes on a Friday afternoon at the Memorial hall and has spaces if you would like to explore this option for your child.
Have a lovely weekend
Jacquie Vanstone
