Colebourne Primary School Updates from Mr. Guest – 22nd September 2017
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آپ کے اسکول کے ویب سائٹ پر دیکھنے کی طرف سے یہ خط میں مختلف زبانوں میں دیکھ سکتے ہیں: کے بلاگز کے صفحہ پر جائیں اور ‘مسٹر مہمان-22 ستمبر 2017 سے تجدید خط’ پر کلک کریں
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PAPERLESS! (Well mostly!)
We are increasing the use of technology and providing more and more information to you via the text message service and through our school website. We are aware that for some of our parents this may be difficult. If you have any problems accessing the internet and accessing information we send out – please let us know and we can make sure that we provide you with a paper copy or information in another language.
PARENT INFORMATION SHEETS
The parent information sheets are now available on the school website. These give you a flavour of what your child will be learning this term. Follow the ‘Parent information sheets’ link in the parent section of the school website.
PARENT UPDATE MEETING WITH MR. GUEST
Thank you to the 30+ parents who attended the update meeting with me this week. It was great to be able to share some of the school successes with you and also to share our school improvement ideas.
I was once again thankful for your support but also the questions and ideas that were generated in the meeting. We make notes of each meeting and aim to address any issues that arise and feed these back at subsequent meetings and/ or in the newsletter. I was pleased that there was wide support for our new homework approach (see later in this letter). The presentation slides from this meeting and previous meetings are all on the school website (Parents section and then click the ‘parents’ update meetings’)
ACHEIVEMENT ASSEMBLIES
We have made a slight change to these assemblies: we are now alternating the classes in each year group to ensure that we can give each child or group of children a chance to show their work. We will also be including other items into these assemblies such as songs and reports of things happening in school. You will receive a text on a Wednesday if your child is due to be in the assembly on the Friday and we hope that you are able to attend.
STAR ASSEMBLIES
We have also made some changes to how these work! There will be separate stars assemblies for:
Reception, Y1 and Y2 Y3 and Y4 Y5 and Y6
These assemblies will take place each half term and 5 children from each class will be selected as ‘Stars’ for things related to school life; these parents will be specifically invited to attend. There will also be other items in these assemblies such as trip reports, sports reports, pupils’ achievements outside of school, musical performances and showcasing of homework activities. All parents are welcome to attend any of the star assemblies.
ATTENDANCE
High attendance is still important to us and at Colebourne children want to attend school to learn and have fun with their friends. We will acknowledge children with high attendance at the end of each term. We will no longer be having attendance assemblies or having any end of year prizes for high attendance.
HOMEWORK
Homework is always a contentious issue amongst parents, teachers and pupils. We like to keep learning fun and focussed as much as possible and we have reviewed our approach to homework.
This year homework will be in the following format:
MATHS AND ENGLISH There will be no specific homework set for this on a regular basis. Children who require specific support will get this through in class support and specific interventions. If there is something specific that we feel you may be able to support your child with at home, we will contact you. We will also give you this information at parents’ evenings.
If you feel that you would like your child to complete additional maths and English work at home we will be selling maths and English activity books – targeted at specific year groups – at the Parents’ Evenings in November. Similar books are also available from books stores such as WHSmith, Waterstones and online retailers like Amazon. If you need any guidance or have any questions – please ask.
Regular reading and practise of key spellings and times tables are a great way to help at home!
Remember we also subscribe to Education City home access and Times Table Rockstars (Y2-6)– both of which provide great learning activities. Please let us know if you are unable to access these.
THEME HOMEWORK
Near the start of each theme the children will bring home a ‘Theme Homework Sheet’. This will contain 2 sets of optional homework: Theme and Pupil Expert
1: Theme: There will be 5 activities which cover aspects of different subjects. Children can complete these in any order and do as few or as many as they would like. You may wish to do one a week! Children can bring any work they do into class; they will be able to share their learning with their class and some work may be displayed in the class, appear on our twitter or newsletter or be shown in an assembly.
- Pupil expert: For those children who want to take their learning even further they can become an ‘expert’ in an area of the theme they are learning about. Details will be on the ‘Theme Homework Sheet’ which are due to come out at the end of next week. You will get a paper copy and they will be on the website.
INVOLVEMENT IN THE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
We have a new feature on the school website that enables parents, children and staff to submit reports for the newsletter and for our blogs. It’s really easy to do! You just go to the student section of the school website and click on the button that says ‘Colebourne Submit‘. There is a short online form to fill in! You could share your thoughts about school, write a poem, story or a report about school trips, visitor or a sports event! You could also submit a quiz, puzzle or riddle! What about a factual piece about a current news story! Why not share an event or something going on in the local community! Feel free to use it as much as you like! We will select some reports and post them on our blogs, Twitter feed or through the newsletter.
There will also be times where we will ask for certain things such as jokes or riddles to help produce our children’s edition magazine – coming soon!
SCARECROW FESTIVAL
We would like to invite all our families to take part in our
‘4th Annual Scarecrow Competition’. This year’s theme: ANIMALS
When will the competition take place?: Monday 9th October to Friday 13th October. Scarecrows will be on display down the main pedestrian entrance. Please see website, newsletter and posters around school for further details.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Following an excellent suggestion made in the parent update meeting – we are aiming to get a full list of dates for the Autumn Term out to you next week. Key dates will continue to appear on the website and newsletters.
Mr. Guest