Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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27th November 2020
Fri 27 Nov 2020Dear Parents,
I hope you are all well. We have had a fantastic week in school. I have seen such enriched learning in every class and some of the photographs are beautiful. Chaffinch had such a busy day on Thursday with both Mrs Gan and Mrs Dodds leading creative learning both inside and out. The hot chocolate around the fire sounded perfect but I think the mashmellows were the biggest hit!
It had been great this week that Mrs Wirth and Mrs Guillaume have organised for two Prefects each day read on Google classrooms to Rosefinch. Rosefinch love to see their buddies. Listening to and watching Anna and Carla today made me feel very proud of them. They were fun, confident, animated and articulate, great role models for Rosefinch.
The virtual Christmas fair comes to an end tomorrow so please support us to raise as much money as possible. There are some wonderful items on the auction just waiting for another bid! The balloons outside school this week to celebrate the Christmas fair looked fantastic and I cannot thank FOFSA enough for their efforts.
https://auctionofpromises.com/2020AuctionFOFSA
Next week we will have a box for each class at the front and back of school for the children to put Christmas cards into. This will enable the children to write to children from any class which is important for them and a purposeful writing opportunity. There will be no lids on the boxes and we will leave them untouched until the last week of term when the teachers will distribute them. Please can I ask that the children do not lick the envelopes when sealing them.
As great as each week is, I cannot help but feel releieved to have come to the end of another week with no Covid cases. I thank you all for the part you are playing in this and long may it continue. I must however reinforce the message that if you or a member of your household should need to access a test, you inform me as soon as possible by email: head@finchampstead.wokingham.sch.uk
After the busiest of days teaching Rosefinch I wish you and all the staff a lovely and safe weekend.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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20th November 2020
Fri 20 Nov 2020Dear Parents,
Another week has flown by and I am pleased that we are all still well with no Covid cases. The Covid numbers locally and within Wokingham schools creates a worrying picture. We will continue with all the measures we have in place and I thank you for following the government guidance.
This week we enjoyed a Google classroom achievement assembly. It was a pleasure to see the whole school together on the screen celebrating each other's successes and progress. I have also spent time this week carrying out learning walks. Normally this is an opportunity for me to be in the classroom, seeing the learning and chatting to the children about it. This week was different (I stood in the doorway!) but it was still so enjoyable and valuable. The learning throughout the school was active and purposeful and a real sense of a love for learning and a desire to achieve. Thank you to all the teachers, what they are achieving at this time is not easy but it is wonderful.
Yesterday FOFSA organised a Bags2Schools collection which raised over £150 for our school, thank you for supporting this.
FOFSA are doing an amazing job with the Virtual Christmas Fair. Please support the Virtual Christmas Fair, the auction begins on Monday and ends on the 28th November. There is already lots to buy and join in with, I keep going back on the page for extra purchases!
The committee are continually planning, initiating ideas and liaising with school to support us as much as they can.
A couple of weeks ago I informed you that FOFSA had renovated the staff room. This was a big project which has had an enormous impact on staff wellbeing (although only half of the staff are using it at the moment due to distancing!).
For the project to be the success it has been, it was dependent on the generosity of so many people. I list these companies and individuals here and I know you will join me in thanking them all.
- Frost Carpentry & Building - Sourced and fitted the kitchen, plumbing, coordinated plasterer, decorator and electrician - Craig Frost - https://www.facebook.com/Frost-Carpentry-and-building-254645247883761/
- Thames Valley Surveying – Sourced and delivered second hand furniture, arranged for new kitchen flooring and flooring contractor, coordinated electrician - Oliver Wilson - http://www.thamesvalleysurveying.co.uk/
- RSE Electrical - Electrical work - https://rse-electrical.co.uk/
- Spread Well Plastering – Plastered kitchen ceiling – Dan Mepham
- Smith Electrical – Electrical work – Myron Smith
- Howdens Wokingham - Provided new laminate flooring
- Howdens Bracknell – Donated kitchen
- Bracknell Heating & Plumbing Supplies Ltd – Supplied sink and kitchen tap
- Heritage UK Services - Paid for flooring to be fitted - https://www.heritageukservices.com/
- Russel Clarke Carpentry - Fitted floor
Thank you FOFSA for the tremendous time and hard work you put in for the benefit of our school.
I wish you all a good weekend and I look forward to another busy week next week.
Jacquie Vanstone
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13th November 2020
Fri 13 Nov 2020Dear Parents,
As I have emailed you a letter today I will be brief. I did want to share with you some of the enrichment from this week.
On Wednesday, as we couldn't be together as a school for a Remembrance silence, we came together through Google classrooms. Goldfinch and Chaffinch led prayers and we held that silent, reflective time together, just separately. This year we joined a Remembrance day webinar which I know Goldfinch found interesting and certainly eye opening.
Today we celebrated Children in Need using the BBC theme of '5 to Thrive'. The 5 aspects are: Be active, connect, give, notice and be curious. We have certainly done all 5 today! The whole school began the day with the final half hour of Joe Wicks' 24 hour workout which was wonderful to be part of. Mrs Dodds had organised for staff to share photos and facts and she displayed them on the playground so we could all be curious and match the facts/photos with the teachers. The staff are still feeling puzzled about some of them!! I would like to thank you for giving money today for Children in need but also under giving we gave compliments to each other; this was so lovely in Rosefinch. We took the children for walks to take time to notice and finally we connected through Google classrooms. Rosefinch and Bullfinch connected by sharing jokes. Rosefinch all thought they were experts at telling jokes and we had a lot of fun!
Thank you Mrs Dodds for pulling it all together and giving us a way to focus on '5 to Thrive'.
We are continually enhancing our learning and experiences and I look forward to more next week. I wish you all a lovely and safe weekend.
Jacquie Vanstone
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6th November 2020
Fri 06 Nov 2020Dear Parents,
It is lovely to be back after half term and I hope you all received my letter by email yesterday morning.
Since then I have been incredibly busy responding to the national guidance regarding this lockdown period. At a time when we wanted to provide more sport than ever, we have had to cancel all our sports club from Monday. I have shared my views on this with Wokingham and this will go forward to the DFE. We have been running our clubs since September in a Covid secure manner and in class bubbles; it is sad that they now need to stop.
I would like to thank the parents I have emailed for their wonderful support with this and also NSsport. I have worked with Mr Ward, a director of NSsport and Mr O'Reilly and we have responded in a way that supports them and our children. We are fortunate to have fantastic sport provision and this will continue throughout the school week, during school time. If anyone has any questions please email me. We are planning some virtual events for the children to join in with to motivate them to be active. Rosefinch had a fantastic run today on the field. Jack said that it made him feel stronger and Charles said it was great running a marathon! These are moments we need to hold on to.
With Covid-19 in mind I would like to remind parents that children should be bringing in the absolute minimum. It is vital that do not tranfer lots of things between home and school unnecessarily. Some of Goldfinch have begun bringing in rubix cubes etc. and unfortunately this cannot happen given the current climate.
I know that since September there have been many timing changes to drop off and collection. I do not wish to change the times again but in light of lockdown I would like to extend the drop off time in the morning as of Monday to 8.35am-8.55am. Whilst I am confident that within the school premises there is room to distance, I appreciate that the pavements are narrow and the road is busy. I hope providing this extra time allows people to feel more secure in their approach and departure in the village.
I wish you a lovely, safe remembrance weekend. Next week I will share with you updates and photographs from FOFSA; I look forward to celebrating their hard work.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
