Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• 20th January 2023

  Fri 20 Jan 2023 Jacquie Vanstone

  Dear Parents and Guardians

   

  Another week has flown by!  It has been a pleasure to have some children bringing me their learning and reading records this week to celebrate their hard work and progress.

   

  I hope you all received your child's attendance information.  If your child's attendance is below 90%, a member of our Wellbeing team will be in touch with you to look at how we can support you further.  The majority of children have 97% attendance or above which is fantastic.

   

  Mrs Dodds led a School Council meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss our Behaviour policy and to get their views.  We are delighted with the feedback the children gave.  They had a clear understanding of how we support children and how this may look different for different children.  Last week, Anne Stopforth described our children as polite, courteous, confident and articulate and during this review they showed the same behaviours and reflected with maturity and care and pride. 

   

  We finished this week with our Chaffinch football team getting through to the quarter finals and then sadly losing on penalties.  They played well as a team.  They scored lots of goals and Briony saved lots too, including some penalty shots.  On Tuesday after school we have a Year 5/6 match and on Friday a match for the girls (there will be no football club).  We are really proud of how well all the teams are doing.

   

  Mrs Dodds, Mr O'Reilly and I are looking to start more clubs at lunchtime led by Goldfinch and also add more games and equipment to enhance our play and lunchtimes.  If your child wishes to add any playground equipment ideas, I have left a suggestion box on the shelves outside my office which will be there until Wednesday next week.  We would love to have their ideas incorporated into our plans. 

   

  Goldfinch have their trip on Monday to Winchester Science museum which is a great way to start another busy and exciting week.  

   

  I wish you a lovely weekend

  Jacquie Vanstone

   

   

   

   

   

   

• 13th January 2023

  Fri 13 Jan 2023 Jacquie Vanstone

  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

   

• 6th January 2023

  Fri 06 Jan 2023 Jacquie Vanstone

  Dear Parent and Guardians,

   

  I would like to begin by wishing you a happy new year.  It has been great to see the children back and we have certainly made the most of the first three days back.

   

  On Wednesday morning the children enjoyed an assembly led by a lady who is very special within our school.  Jill Anders has been a parent and member of staff at our school and is inspiration to us.  Jill launched our Advocacy week in an assembly. She shared information about her nursing role, volunteering within the Covid vaccination programme.  The children learnt so much about what her role entailed but also what drove her to volunteer at such a difficult and worrying time.  We were delighted to award Jill her HOC badge (Heart of the Community).

   

  On Thursday every child received first aid training which is fantastic.  I saw how focused the children were.  They understood the importance in their learning and are equipped with such important life skills. This is something we are proud to commit to building on every two years.  The lady leading the training does offer family first aid training and we may look at how we could facilitate family training if enough interest is shown.

   

  All of the above has been complemented by creative learning within the classrooms and sharing all this with parents this afternoon was exciting for the children.  Thank you so much for supporting our learning and sharing our commitment to serving one another and our community.  I thank Mrs Wirth for leading the three days and all the staff for organising such valuable learning experiences.

   

  https://www.finchampsteadschool.org/photographs-12/

   

  An exciting start to 2023.  I wish you a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you next week.

   

  With kind regards

  Jacquie Vanstone