Spring is around the corner

Dark mornings and dark evenings are slowly coming to an end as we head off for our half term break. It has been a short half term and we have filled it full of trips and visits and lots of learning. Developing our children's vocabulary is high on our agenda and our rich enrichment offer certainly expands their experiences and provides them with a cultural capital on which to draw.  The newsletter will show some of the highlights from across the weeks. Make sure to check it out in your inbox or on the newsletter tab from the parent tab at the top of this page. 

Thank you to everyone for their efforts in improving attendance. Every child should aim for 100% though our more reasonable target for everyone is 97%+ , that's no more than 5 days missed learning across the year. We know children can pick up bugs and viruses. Our whole school attendance as of today is 95.7%. If we work together we can improve this and reach our target. Please remember, if your child falls below 90% this is considered persistently absent.

90% may sound okay but this is a lot of missed learning. 90% attendance means that your child will miss half a school day each week or 19 days of school during the school year – that’s nearly 4 school weeks.

Research shows, good attendance makes a real difference to how well your child achieves. Those who attend well -

• contribute in lessons
• work with staff to develop strategies to enable progress
• do better at school
• feel happier about school

If your child is absent regularly they may:

• find work harder
• not feel part of the class or school
• find it hard to make friends
• not make the most of the opportunities provided by the school.

It's also important to remember that when you attend school, you should attend on time.

• Arriving 5 minutes late every day add up to over 3 days lost each year
• Arriving 15 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 2 weeks a year
• Arriving 30 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 19 days a year
• 19 days lost a year through being late = 90% attendance.

Children should be in school for 8.45am.

As we head into Spring let's see if we can improve our attendance and punctuality and secure improvements for our children. Congratulations to the children who won a prize in this terms attendance raffle. Those who secured 100% and 97% + were all in with a chance to win. One lucky winner took John the teddy home with them and another a voucher for Asda.

Year 5 had a super day out at Crucial Crew earlier this term, working with other agencies including the emergency services - on how to stay safe. As we head into a week off school please remind your child about important safety messages. We do seem to be getting rather a lot of stranger danger messages of late. Add to that there are cyclists on roads in our community who are wearing dark clothes and on bikes without lights. We want all of our children to come back to school safely when we return on 21st February.

We've ended the day today with our usual celebration assembly. What a delight it is to hear the amazing recounts from the teachers about the excellence in and around our school. Our core values to be kind, be ambitious and be respectful were recognised as the teachers found their job extremely hard to choose just one child from each class to get the highly acclaimed citizenship award. We also saw many more children being awarded a badge for their kindness - as in all things and in every thing we can always be kind. Congratulations to all of the winners. The children have also enjoyed the new lunchtime raffle. The 'big bucket of best behaviour' and the 'treasure trove trunk of treats' meaning we have such fun in our Friday assembly as the children decide whether to take or trade their treats. It's an exciting moment! Congratulations also to Chestnut House who won the cup again this half term. Excellent work Chestnuts!

As ever, thank you for all of your support and as we close today for the February half term, we look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday 21st February as we head into Spring and brighter days.