July 2016
www.towcesterprimary.northants.sch.uk
Tel: 01327 350332/350487 Fax: 01327 358079
Dear Parent/Carer,
Welcome to the final newsletter of the year, and what a year this has been for Towcester
CE Primary School! I have tried to pick out some of the highlights over the past 10
months, but have not included all of the main events due to so much happening at our
school.
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Headteacher of the Year Silver Award
Sports Mark Gold Award
Fantastic Christmas productions
Largest carols around the Christmas tree
Visits of German and Spanish pupils and return visits to Germany and Spain
Numerous sports successes
Young Voices concert in Birmingham
Holy Week celebrations at school and St Lawrence Church
Conversion to PDET academy
Official opening of the bus
Successful KS1, KS2 SATs and Phonics
Successful EYFS moderation
Queen‘s birthday celebration
Staff team of the year—Congratulations award
As you can see the list is long and varied, but by no means exhaustive. All of this, and
much more, would not be possible without the whole school community working together
for the benefit of the school and pupils. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to
say a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in Towcester CE Primary over
the last year, in particular the supportive governors, hard working whole staff team, dedicated pupils and you as enthusiastic parents who give us your help and support all the
time.
This school really is a community school where everyone plays their part, as has been
demonstrated over this year. I know we have a lot of work still to do to move the school
from ‗Good‘ to ‗Outstanding‘ over the next year or two but I am sure it will be an exciting
and eventful journey.
Finally I would like to wish you all a very happy, safe, relaxing summer holiday and hope
that eventually the sun does shine! I look forward to seeing you all refreshed in September.
Thank you all, enjoy the break.
Richard Camp
Attendance
01/06/16 – 30/06/16
Group
Inkpen
% Attend
97.6
Rosen
95.1
Whybrow
95.3
Donaldson
97.2
Ahlberg
94.5
Anholt
94.9
Potter
96.8
Morpurgo
98.4
Dahl
97.0
Pullman
96.5
Strong
96.8
Shakespeare
95.0
Totals
96.2
Text System
You may have noticed that texts from us
look a little different, we are currently trialling the same system we use for our
emails. Please remember to keep your
mobile phone and email address up to
date, thank you.
Photos of children
Just a brief reminder that any photos taken of children in school should be for your
own private use and not shared on social
media. Thank you for helping us keep
your children safe.
The annual school target is 95.4%
Well done to Morpurgo —
best attended class!
Reports
As you will already know, the Government removed ‗levels‘ for all pupils last year.
Due to this we have had to change our reports to be inline with the Government
wording for pupil achievement at the end of the year.
KS1 and KS2 pupils will be assessed against end of year statements and then be
awarded a ‗Working at National Standards‘ or ‗Working towards National Standards‘ in English, Maths and Science.
The same criteria will be applied across all the other school subjects.
I hope that this system will be easy to understand and that next year we will all be
more accustomed to it. Pupils will still have targets and effort grades as per last
year.
For EYFS the reports have stayed almost the same as last year.
Thank you for your support and co-operation.
Richard Camp
We have reached our target!!
We have some brilliant news to share with you - we have reached our first target as the new
FOTOPS committee – yippee! We have raised £2000 which over the past 6-8 months has
bought new pots and pans for the kitchen in the bungalow, a music tree to store the music
equipment and building items to go with the new outside classroom. This wouldn’t have been
possible without all your help and efforts, thank you!
We have now been set our new target of £2350, which we will start working towards this
month, this will buy:
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A presenter to do a transition day about Space for all classes
T-shirts for the 'mile a day' challenge
15 x Xylophones
A class set of recorders
30 sets of Numicon
An annual subscription to a new scheme about well-being for all the pupils
We are in our final few weeks of fundraising for this school year, however we are not winding
down, quite the opposite, this is the busiest time of year for us. You should have each received
two raffle books (per child), but if you would like more then please ask for as many as you can
sell from the school office. Remember that we need all of the sold raffle stubs back in by 9am
on Friday 8th July to qualify for the class competition. If you do not wish to buy or sell any
raffle tickets please could you simply hand the unsold books/tickets to your child’s teacher or
the school office.
Thank you for returning all of your colourful filled cups for the tombola in exchange for a Mufti Day at the end of last month and also a big thank you for your amazing donations of cakes
for the Sports Day Cake Sale – we really do appreciate it. Our next fundraiser will be the end
of term disco on Wednesday 13th July, please make sure all forms are returned to school by
9am on Friday 8th July.
Our main event – the Summer Fete (16th July 2016, 2-4pm) – is just around the corner and
planning is in full flow now. We still have a few more spaces for stallholders if you or anyone
you know would be interested. The stalls are £10 and can be booked by emailing us at
FOTOPS@hotmail.co.uk. Also, we will once again be holding our popular ‘Great Towcester Primary School Bake Off’ event at our Summer Fete – the entry form and more information on
this will be appearing in book bags very soon!
As this is the last newsletter of the school year FOTOPS would like to say Thank You to all our
helpers who kindly give up their own time to help at events, and to all of you too. Without our
helpers and your support, donations and generosity, we wouldn’t be able to do the things we do!
Have a wonderful summer!
Your FOTOPS Committee
Governors
When it comes to curriculum, foreign language and travel opportunities can easily be overlooked on the importance scale when placed against the core subjects of reading, writing
and arithmetic – after all, it is these subjects that our school‘s performance is measured on.
However, at our school, we try to make sure these core subjects are taught in balance
against the other developmental needs of our children.
Last month, I was really pleased to be invited to attend a special event to celebrate our German exchange programme. It was attended by former pupils, local contributors as well as
the current pupils from this year‘s exchange; both those from our school and our German
partner.
For me, both as a governor and the parent of a primary school aged child, it is far too easy
to be focused inwardly on what we do within the confines of our own school grounds. This
event was a great opportunity for me to see how some of the former pupils have developed
since their departure and onwards move to Sponne. It was also a unique chance for me to
share with them some of their experiences from yesteryear. It was particularly funny to hear
their recollections of how our two cultures differed, with the smallest of differences in the
German daily routines being something they recalled vividly years on from the actual experience.
To be honest, I expect you will all have had enough of the European topic given the massive
coverage around the national EU referendum and perhaps even due to the wall-to-wall coverage of the Euro football finals (I am actually writing this ahead of both the referendum and
before any of the home nations have been knocked out of the tournament). Anyway, regardless of your European stance, I urge anybody who is interested to try and get involved
in the exchange programme, whether it is in travelling to Germany or hosting a child on the
return trip.
Learning a foreign language provides our children with a deeper understanding of their own
language while also providing a route for them to travel, immerse themselves in a different
culture and possibly have a life experience that they will never forget. I wish I had had that
opportunity.
Peter Light
Parent Governor
End of Key Stage Two Assessments
During the week of 9th May, all of our Year Six children completed the SATs papers, which
included: three maths tests, two SPaG tests and a reading test. This group of children are
the first cohort to have undertaken the new tests, since they have been changed by the government. The whole class worked extremely hard in the build up to the tests and showed
great maturity and positivity during this important week!
Well done Shakespeare- you should all be very proud of yourselves!
Miss Letts
Key Stage One SATs
The Year Two children need a pat on the back! Throughout most of May and the
start of June they have been sitting tests and assessment tasks in Maths, Reading
and Writing. They have had to revise all that they have learned in Years One and
Two and bring it all together to answer questions correctly and write in order to
show off everything that they know.
As you may well be aware now, the assessment system has changed this year.
Children are now judged on three simple criteria – ‗working towards‘ the Year 2 expectations, ‗meeting‘ the Year 2 expectations and working at ‗greater depth‘ within
the Year 2 expectations. If learning is well below Year 2 expectations, children will
receive a ‗pre-key-stage‘ judgement. The vast majority of children now fall within
the ‗meeting‘ category, and we are delighted with the fantastic results that the children have shown us so far.
They have truly worked hard as a cohort and we are all very proud of them!
Ms King
Music for ‘Coming in to Assembly’ this term
This term we are listening to traditional hymns as we enter the school hall for assembly/collective worship.
We try and sing a variety of songs in school, including hymns, but sometimes we
need reminding of those hymns sung at special celebrations such as weddings and
christenings… and it would be good for our children to be more familiar with them
for their own understanding when attending family events.
Ms Brown
Sports Day 2016
Our annual sports day takes place today. Various events and races will take
place throughout the day. You are welcome to come along and show your support during the afternoon events from 1:30pm onwards. The front gate and the rec
gate will be unlocked, so there will be no need to come in through the reception.
The children will be participating in the events as classes but will be gaining
points for their house teams.
Hopefully the weather will be good and results will be announced in assembly
next week.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Miss Letts
Foundation Stage ‘WOW’ Morning
As part of our topic this term, ‗Can I have Chocolate for Breakfast?‘ Foundation
Stage brought their breakfast to eat at school.
‗First Mrs Booth asked us to get a spoon and a bowl. Then we got our cereal.
Some children brought Weetabix, some brought shape cereal and some brought
coco pops. Mrs Johnson and Miss Maidment helped us with the milk. Then we all
ate our cereal. After that we came back to class and talked about healthy cereals.
We learnt that a really healthy cereal is porridge and a chocolate cereal is not
healthy. We all enjoyed eating our breakfast at school.‘
Idena, Jacob, Alice, Harry, Sophie, Keira, Matthew.
Queen’s 90th Birthday Party
On Friday 17th June 2016 the school celebrated the Queen‘s Official 90 th Birthday.
We had a street party. Each House displayed their game, the song they had
learnt and made food from a set era. All the Houses had studied a different decade from the Queen‘s life.
―I enjoyed performing the song!‖ Sebbie, Ahlberg
―I loved trying the food from all the decades.‖ Lucas, Ahlberg
We all loved working with different teachers and the other children in our House.
Thank you to School for Life for supporting our event and to Karen for helping on
the day.
Ahlberg Class
Phonics Screening 2016
During the week commencing 13th June we had Phonics Screening in school. All of
the children from Year 1 and some children from Year 2 who needed to re-take
completed this. We were also given the opportunity to take part in a pilot scheme
which has allowed children from Year 3 to re-take the Screening if they have not
already passed in previous years. It was a great success and this year we are
hoping to achieve a higher pass rate than previous years!
The children were amazing, they should all be very proud of themselves, well done!
Scholastic Book Club and Book Fair
A big thank you to everyone who has bought books from our online
Book Club and our School Book Fair this year. Your support has
earned the school £633.24 worth of books. This has enabled us to have the latest titles by popular authors available for pupils to read, as well as buying nonfiction books to support their topic work in class. This is something the children
really appreciate and benefit from. Thank you !
School Council News
The results of our poster competition are in – congratulations to:
KS1
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Emily Ramplin
Aiden Fowler-Smith
Spencer Camper
KS2
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Skye Roberts
Ewan Nelson
Candy Wu
Look out for their posters in the lunch hall soon.
We hope you all listened during our recent assembly and are remembering
to take care crossing the road – also don’t forget to look carefully when you walk in
front of the school gates on your way into school.
Sadly this is our last newsletter – if you are in Strong Class start thinking
if you would like to be on the School Council next year.
From your School Council
written by Abbi and Justin
Just a reminder………..
If your child has hot meals and is either a Universal Infant Free School Meal child (FS-Y2), or is eligible for Free
School Meals, please can we ask that on days that they
are off ill you cancel their meal before 9am. If the meal is
not cancelled the school is charged, thank you. Please
remember to cancel on the 5th July as we have the whole
school trip.
UK-German Connection
We are very proud of the link that we have with ‗UK-German Connection‘. Their
support and financial subsidy allows the school to give many children the opportunity to visit Germany or have a German pupil stay with them.
On Tuesday 21st June, Mr Camp and I were invited to go to The Royal Horseguards in London to attend the ‗2016 German Teacher Award‘. There we listened
to a speech by the German Ambassador, Dr Peter Ammon, and the Rt Hon the
Lord Watson of Richmond about the importance of language, learning languages
and the connection it brings to all people regardless of their background or culture. In particular, how the German language is taught and inspires people to
travel and appreciate the German culture. We then saw some teachers of the
German language in British schools receive their awards.
It was great to meet other teachers who lead trips like ours and share stories and
discuss the benefits it has for our children.
Our recent visit from the German pupils was a success! We had 12 German pupils and two teachers visit. If you haven‘t looked already, please have a look at
the photographs from their visit on the school website in the ‗school trips‘ section.
Ms Brown
Whole School Trip to Wicksteed Park
We are counting down to our trip to Wicksteed!
A reminder to parents that the children can wear comfortable
clothes and shoes, but school jumpers are to be worn over the
top. An appropriate coat/sun hat/sun cream will also be needed.
Please send your child into school with a disposable packed lunch. On the day,
you can send in £2 in a named envelope if you wish them to purchase something.
This isn‘t compulsory.
We are all travelling by coach and have lots of staff to supervise. The children
will experience the playground and a couple of rides with the tokens you have
purchased within the price.
We hope your child will have a memorable day and I am sure the sun is going to
shine brilliantly for us!
Ms Brown
Stackpole
During our Stackpole trip, we had such a brilliant time doing all of our activities! Some of these were: visiting five beautiful beaches, a boat ride to Skomer
Island, Ice-Cream at Stackpole Quay and telling ghost stories whilst roasting
marsh mallows around a fire we made.
Overall our Wales trip was a fantastic experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
Aimee—Year 6
Transition days
On Thursday 7th July and Friday 8th July, the children will move up
to their new classes for September and meet their new teacher. The theme
for the two days will be ‗Outer Space.‘
We have lots of exciting activities planned for these days including
workshops run by Fun Scientists and a dress up day with a space
theme.
Please see the transition
letter for details.
Mrs Barnes
Dates for your Diary
Current school year
July 2016
1st
13th Year 6 Leavers Trip
Singers to Leeson Court for WI
No Celebration Assembly
Queen‘s birthday celebrations
Sports Day - Gates open 1.20pm
FOTOPS end of year discos
FOTOPS Cake Sale/
14th Church Service 9.30am
Refreshments
Truck Art competition entries in to Ms
Reports Out
King
3rd Ahlberg Church Service
4th FOTOPS meeting 8pm at The Bull
Strong to Towcester Library
15th Final Celebration Assembly
5th WHOLE SCHOOL TRIP
Y1 End of Year Review for Parents
6th Last swimming sessions
KS1 Hall
Y6 Rounders at Sponne
16th 2-4pm FOTOPS summer fete
2.30pm Open Book Afternoon
18th House Mufti
7pm Governors meeting
Everdon trip leave
7th Summer School Games
19th Everdon trip returns
7th Y6 SPONNE INDUCTION/
20th 9.15am Y6 Leavers Assembly
TRANSITION DAY
20th Term Ends 1.20pm
Fun Scientists Workshops £1
Summer School Games at Moulton
College
8th Y6 SPONNE INDUCTION/
TRANSITION DAY
Space themed costumes to be worn
3pm Parents invited see new classes
11th Y2-4 PDET Sports Event at Spratton
Hall
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Next School Year 2016/17
September 2016
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