Newsletters

25 September 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to this year’s first edition of the Wooden Post.  To reduce the number of communications that you receive, we have decided that for the time being, we will issue the Wooden Post on the last Friday of the month.  

I mentioned this in my welcome back letter, but it is truly wonderful to once again have our school buzzing with the sound of children.  They have all settled in well and are now really used to the new routines and changes that we have put in place to protect us all.  Thank you to all of you too for following our new rules and expectations when dropping off and collecting your children.  The feedback from parents is that the windows for drop off and collection  are working well and the one way system is also working well.  There are a couple of tight spots around the school; particularly outside Greenfinch and outside Reception.  Please continue to ensure that you distance from other parents in these areas.  Thank you also for using the boxes outside classes to distance yourself from staff; they very much appreciate your support and co-operation with this.  There have been a few questions around the expectations of parents wearing facemasks while on school site.  At the moment the government do not expect parents to wear facemasks while dropping off or collecting children.  As we have effective measures in place in our school (the windows, the one way system and the expectation that all parents distance) we do not need to enforce this, at this time and wearing of face masks remain optional while outside.  We do insist that you distance from other parents, children and staff and that if you wish to speak to a member of staff or come to the office then you must wear a face mask or covering.  

Now that we are more used to the routines of our COVID safe school, I am keen to bring back a sense of community (also because I really miss seeing your wonderful children each week!).  Sadly, we cannot have assemblies of any sort.  However, I am going to hold a virtual whole school assembly on Monday.  If I can make this work effectively and IT doesn’t fail me, I will hopefully be able to introduce the Star Award Assembly  in the next couple of weeks.  Following on from that, our Key Stage leaders will also be able to introduce virtual assemblies.  

You may recall that a few days before we broke up in the summer I asked if any talented parents could help make some chair bags for us.  I have been utterly blown away with the overwhelming support to make this happen.  In the end, we have managed to have a chair bag made for every child in years 1-6 which has saved us an absolute fortune.  More importantly, it has once again demonstrated what a supportive community that we have.  The volunteers are made up of parents, grandparents, parents of staff, staff as well as an incredibly kind volunteer who actually has no link to the school. 

Thanks goes to:

Mr & Mrs Prior 

Mrs Lonergan

Miss Branchett

Mrs Clarke 

Miss McGowan’s mum

Mrs Bradley

Particular thanks goes to Katrina Sheppard, who has no links to the school but very kindly offered her skills and talents to help us.  She usually makes wonderful quilts so took on this very different challenge.  She has a Facebook page called Crafted by Katrina or @KbyKatrina.

Some of the easiest money that we made in the summer was with the Bag2School initiative.  We are running this again, with the collection in November, more information is attached.  Please help us raise some much needed funds for the school! Another company are also supporting our school by giving us a % of all funds raised in the selling of hand sanitiser holders for bags.  Further details are below. 

Finally, following a busy week of interviewing we are thrilled to be welcoming a number of new people to the staff team over the coming few months.  Joining us shortly is Laura Frost who will be working 1:1 with a child.  Karen Skinner, who is not new to us, has successfully been appointed a new role, also working 1:1 with a child.   Successfully appointed in two roles is Laura Branchett.  She will soon be joining us as our Family Support Advisor (FSA) and in our new role, as our Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Support Worker.  We are thrilled to be welcoming them to the team and to their new roles.  

As always, thank you for your continued support of the school.

Kind regards,

Mrs Lagares

Nursery Roundup

The theme for this half term in the nursery is 'Ourselves'.

The children have been settling well into their new surroundings. It is amazing how quickly they are learning the routines. It is lovely to see so many smiles when they arrive and to hear how excited they are to come each day. 

The children have been talking about our families and looking at photographs of each others family members.

Over the last week the children have been talking about hearing and the importance of listening to others and have played listening games such as musical statues.

Click here to see all the Nursery news.

Year 1 Roundup

The children in Otter class and Beaver class have settled very well into into their new routines and it has been lovely to see them coming into school with happy and smiley faces!

They have been busy learning their sounds in phonics and have been practising their handwriting. They have also done some writing linked to the story ‘Augustes and His Smile’ and what makes them feel happy. The children have enjoyed looking at the book ‘The Heart and the Bottle’ by Oliver Jeffers and this weeks new story ‘The Journey’ by June Crebbin.

In Maths, the children have been practising counting and writing numbers to 10, and  have used a variety of different objects such as counters, cubes and animals.

The highlight for the children was making a train in the classroom.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 1 news.

Year 2 Roundup

The children have settled incredibly well; showing great resilience and kindness. Miss Smart (Rabbit), Mrs Brown and Mrs Parker (Deer) are thrilled that the children are enjoying being in school.

The children have enjoyed looking at the book 'Silly Billy' by Anthony Browne. The book is based on managing anxieties and different ways that we can self-soothe (including by making worry dolls)! 

This past week, the children have been looking at 'The Marvellous Fluffy Squishy Itty Bitty' by Beatrice Alemagna. The book is based on giving as the main character Eddie searches for a Fluffy Squishy Itty Bitty for her mother's birthday!

The children have focused on giving and how giving and receiving feels. The children made lovely, handmade bookmarks as part of an experience lesson.

Over the past few weeks, we have enjoyed starting our 'recovery curriculum' where we have eased the children back in to school life through the use of key texts. The children have loved the books we selected, which focus on PSHE and mindfulness. So far, we have explored 'Silly Billy' by Anthony Browne and 'Three by the Sea' by Mini Grey. 

It has been great to see how many children are completing the weekly phonics challenge (and to a brilliant standard)! There have been some fantastic examples that have been sent in through Google Classroom. Please do ensure that your child completes our phonics challenge, it will really support their in-class learning.

Well done Year Two, you are all superstars! 

Click here to keep up with all the Year 2 news.

Year 3 Roundup

This week, Year Three have continued to have great fun in PE learning golf and archery skills.

The children started their new English unit using the book ‘Star in the Jar’, and had the chance to look at stars and even sit under a starry sky! They used some amazing vocabulary to describe the stars, and each class had the chance to come up with a name for their very own class star. Greenfinch called their star The Majestic Mesmerising Star and Chaffinch called theirs Graceful Wonder.

Year 3 have been reading the book Silly Billy this week and have been making their very own worry dolls. In the story, Billy shared his worries with his worry dolls so he could sleep better.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 3 news.

Year 5 Roundup

Year Five began the term reading the book 'Where Happiness Begins' by Eva Eland. They have thought carefully about what their ingredients for happiness are and used watercolours to paint their own happiness jars.

The children have written stories about a character overcoming a problem. They thought carefully about what their character would see, hear, smell and feel during their adventure.

In Science, the children have explored air resistance by testing parachutes to find the best one for future adventurous eggs. They discussed how to carry out a fair test and were taught to write conclusions that clearly linked to their results.

In maths, the children have been developing their understanding of place value in large numbers and have been rounding to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 5 news.

Year 6 Roundup

Year 6 have been reflecting upon their time during lockdown and thinking about the positives and negatives that it brought. They have used this knowledge to think about their emotions and to ensure that they are ready to get back into school life.

They have even created a display for the office area where they all thought and wrote about three things:

• What the hardest thing about lockdown was
• What the most unusual thing to happen during lockdown was and
• What new skills they learnt during the lockdown.

This last week saw the children use the story, Journey by Francesca Sanna as inspiration for their writing. They have created short pieces of writing that focus on the positive and negative emotions of the main character and understanding the feelings that children and families went through during a war.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 6 news.

~ Notices and Reminders ~

Flu Vaccinations

Please not that flu vaccines are on Tuesday 17^th November for all children with the exception of nursery.

Uniform

Please ensure that your child wears the correct uniform and school shoes.  PE uniform must not have any other logos, writing and branding.

Parking

Please be mindful of our neighbours and park considerately on Staplehurst, making sure that driveways are not blocked.

Sweets

Unfortunately, due to Coronavirus, we are unable to give out sweets for children to take home to celebrate a birthday.  We are sorry for any disappointment that his may cause.