ISSUE 27
| February 2015
Put yourself in
someone else's shoes
Mon 2nd Mar | 3.30pm
Value of the month
Tues 3rd Mar | 3.30pm – 5.30pm
Upcoming events
Open Classrooms
Having gone through all the values in the last two years, we begin again with Empathy. I have
been working with the school council to review our list of values so look out for some policy
tweaks in October. We would also love to hear from parents if you feel any values are missing
from our list.
Reception Parents Evening
We had a lot of fun swapping shoes, listening to some of the muppet characters explaining
empathy and doing some practical activities to test how good our own empathy skills are.
Following on from this, and in light of recent news events, we tied empathy to the problems of
racism and the children saw, through listening to other children, how we can use this value to
understand the richness of the world around them.
Y6 Class Assembly
Wed 4th Mar | 4.30pm – 7pm
Reception Parents Evening
Thurs 5th Mar
Thurs 5th Mar
World Book Day
Fri 6th Mar | 3.20pm
Book Swap
Martin Smith, Headteacher
Fri 6th Mar
Young Voices
FOPHS Film Night
We have worked very hard to improve
the quality of music across the school
and really want to inspire a love of this
subject. I’m sure you’ll agree from this
selection of photos that the children
really enjoyed their time at the O2 arena.
They were joined by choirs from all
around the country and it is lovely to see
the pride they had in their performance
and representing the school. A big thank
you to all staff and parents who gave
time to ensuring this extremely long day
was a successful one!
SIP Governor Committee
Thurs 12th Mar
Fri 13th Mar
Comic Relief
Thurs 19th Mar
Y5 Class Assembly
Tues 24th Mar
Pupil Progress Meetings
Tues 24th Mar
Full Governor Committee
Thurs 26th Mar | 5pm
Curriculum Evening
Cycling Proficiency
Come rain or shine, older children are always given
cycling proficiency lessons from our friendly
instructors. Their expertise helps children to know
how to ride a bike safely on the road. This year, they
have practiced navigating a junction, using the
correct hand signals and turning left and right into
adjacent roads.
Harman in Y5 commented that he felt the course had
been really useful and that he felt he was safer riding
a bike on the roads as a result of his adventures this
week.
Don’t forget that we have a cycle park in school. If
your child is in Y5 or Y6 and we have parental
consent, they may use the park to ride to and from
school each day!
E-Safety Workshop
Thank you to all who attended the
E-Safety workshop.
We had a good evening thinking
through cyberbullying, grooming
and inappropriate websites using
the CEOPs materials.
If you missed this event but would
like a copy of the materials used,
you can find them in the entrance
lobby in one of the racks.
Thank you for the great feedback –
we will update the quiz next time we
run the event!
Books, books, books…
To celebrate world book day, we have several
events happening this year.
Monday 2nd March will see the launch of our
sponsored reading challenge and an assembly by
Usborne books.
On Thurs 5th March, we would like children to dress
as their favourite book character. We will have a
programme of fun activities running throughout the
day.
The final event on Friday 6th March will be a book
swap taking place in the school hall from 3.20pm
where children have the chance to bring an old book
and swap it for another one.
Celtic Harmony Trip
Autism Awareness Evening
As an inclusive school, we are richer
and better for the experience of having
a number of children at school with a
diagnosis of autism. If you’ve ever
wondered what this is or what this
means, come and join Mrs Fitzgerald
and some of our parents who will be
speaking about their own personal
experiences. The event will be taking
place on Thursday 2nd April at
5.30pm and will last for approximately
an hour. We have designed this course
around parents of non-autistic children.
Starsof
theweek
Week of 09/01/15
Reception: Abigail Hook
Year 1: Finley Corcoran
Year 2: Hayden Marsh
Year 3: Lewis Welfare
Year 4: Ryan Pearce
Year 5: Libbe Houlihan
Year 6: Holly Prosser
Week of 16/01/15
Year 3 and 4 battled the weather and
had a wonderful day out at Celtic
Harmony to support their stone age
topic. The children learnt about the early
methods of creating fire with flint. They
also learnt how, as Celts, they would’ve
created their own encampment in the
woods, hunted for food and how early
trade started to evolve.
NB. All trips on our new curriculum have been
planned to best suit a topic and the feedback from
the children is that they are certainly enjoying the
outings with a tighter focus towards what they are
learning. (See below for more details)
Curriculum Showcase Evening
Join Mr Smith, Mrs Thingsaker and the teaching staff on Thursday 26th March at 5pm for a
evening on the new curriculum. We will explain our journey of how we developed our new
national curriculum to be exciting and engaging whilst meeting new government standards. On
show will be some behind the scenes information on how we plan and prepare and what it looks
like for each class in practice. We will also discuss the future of assessment as the school
prepares for life without national curriculum levels.
Reception: Dominic Reynolds
Year 1: Isla Alderman
Year 2: Lincoln Hyland
Year 3: Ryan Barnes
Year 4: Bobby Wright
Year 5: Ella Broadbent
Year 6: Liana Statie
Week of 27/02/15
Reception: Louie Edmund
Year 1: Zohha Alvi
Year 2: Lila Rance
Year 3: Harrison Leeks
Year 4: Elliot Clarkson
Year 5: Harman Walia
Year 6: Nicholas Martinez-Wise
It has been a very busy year of government reforms, the likes of which have not seen in over 30
years. Come along and find out what this looks like in practice!
Parent Forum
Front Entrance
Thank you to those who have agreed to be a class
representative on the parent forum – which will be in
touch shortly with a date and time for our first
meeting. However, we are still looking for
representation in Y1, Y4, Y5 and Y6. This is a
chance as parents to give views and opinions which
will shape future policies and decisions in homework,
behaviour, etc.
Please could I ask all parents to ensure
they bring their children into the
playground on a morning via the side
gate. We have recently had a number
of parents dropping off via the front
entrance and this is making it difficult for
teachers to spot who is here to register.
If for any reason you are late, your child
should go via the front entrance so we
can log attendance appropriately.
Please refer to the recent letter sent out or view it on
our website under the letters section.
Well done
to everyone!