Newsletter: 11th February 2022
Posted on February 10, 2022 | By Mr Cole
Annual Questionnaire
Having not been able to circulate a parent questionnaire for a couple of years due to Covid, I’m really pleased to be circulating the new one now. The questionnaire is really important in enabling leaders at the school, including Governors to gauge how the school is doing from a parents perspective. Sorry, I know this is on top of the Village Schools Partnership consultation questionnaire too!
The questionnaire can be found here, please take some time to fill in a return if you can. Thank you. https://forms.gle/Z69M8Dpt1gB2XsnYA
Attendance
We are nearly at the half way point through this school year already! Each half term we look closely at attendance and, in normal times, write to you if your child’s attendance is getting very low. Due to everything with Covid we made the decision not to do this during the Autumn Term but now, as restrictions are lifting and cases in our school are mercifully low, it is time to re-start the usual round of notifications for low attendance. If your child’s attendance is less than 90% (which is the Government’s current measure of acceptable attendance) you will either have received a letter from me this week or you will have contact from the Education Welfare Officer.
Attendance at school really matters and I know that after two years of huge uncertainty and enforced interruptions in school provision this is an even more important issue than normal. If your child has an attendance rate of 90% (the minimum acceptable) they will still have missed almost four weeks of school over the course of the year:
| 100% | 190 days per school year |
| 95% | 9 days missed in the school year |
| 90% | 19 days missed in the school year |
| 85% | 28 days missed in the school year |
| 80% | 38 days missed in the school year |
It is important that everyone understands when measuring attendance during the current academic year, any Covid isolating related absence is not counted. This means that if the only absence your child has had has been due to covid isolation, they will still have an attendance rate of 100% – confusing, I know!
I am asking all teachers to share your child’s attendance ceertificate for the year so far when you come in for parent/teacher meetings.
Village Schools Partnership
The statutory consultation meetings are almost complete, with only two of the three Parish Council meetings to go. However, the consultation process remains open until 14th March so there is still plenty of time for you to respond with your views via the google form: https://forms.gle/riZuZiaTMzEK8siX8
Football Success!
We are absolutely delighted with our two girls’ football teams who have had amazing results in their competition at Kingsley School this week. The Under 9s won their age group with some spectacular playing and the Under 11s came third – an equally impressive result. We are so proud of everyone who took part – well done all! Thank you also to parents who helped transport children – without your assistance, we simply wouldn’t be able to participate in events like this.
Their success means that the Under 9s now play in the next round which will be held at Bideford College next week! More photos of this week’s matches can be found over on our blog. Good luck girls!
World Book Day
Just a reminder that World Book Day is the Thursday after the half temr break. Our theme is Bedtime Stories and we’re inviting your children to come to school in PJs or Onsie and bring their favourite bedtime book. Parents and grandparents are also very welcome to come in to school at the beginning or end of the day to share a story.
Chinese New Year
We hope your children enjoyed the special meal Dave prepared on Thursday to mark the second week of Chinese New Year. We are hoping to run more themed lunches in the future so any feedback is very welcome.
Covid Restrictions
I am very pleased to say that due to continuing very low cases at school we have now been released from additional protective measures and so face masks are no longer required on site. You are free to still wear them if you would like to. We are, however, continuing with our frequent clearning regimes in school and additional handwashing/sanitising so please still make use of the pump at the main school gate when you come onto the site. Thanks.
FOWS News
After the half term break, the children will begin to see a few changes in our site as the FOWS vision to create an allotment and polytunnel area at the top of the field takes shape. The old school garden which served us well pre-Covid will be removed to prepare the site for another exciting development and vehicular access to the field will be improved ready for when we’re ready to dig the trenches at the top of the field for the polytunnel, and remove turf for the allotments. It will also allow FOWS to run things kike Car Boot Sales on the school field in the future.
Sadly, though, this does mean we will not be able to open the school field for public access while work is in progress. I know this will be disappointing for some families who make good use of the field and play park every weekend and in schooll holidays but logistics just mean it’s impossible to keep access running at that time. Once work is complete, we’ll turn the electronic gate switch off, as we do at weekends, so please check later in the half term week if you want to use the park.
Platinum Jubilee Day
Just a reminder that the UK has an extra Bank Holiday to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This takes place during our scheduled half term break in the summer, and so we have been instructed to allocate on other day school holiday in lieu. We have chosen to take Monday 28th February as this additional closure day so don’t forget we won’t return to school until Tuesday 1st March.
We have been asked if the school would be willing to take part in some fete-style entertainment on the Jubilee day itself so I am beginning to look at plans for that as well, bearing in mind this will fall on the middle weekend of the two week summer half term break.
Family Group Points
As you know, the children earn Family Group Points for displaying good learning behaviours or acts of particular kindness every day. These points get added to their Family Group total and the winning Group get a treat at the end of the term. The winning family group will be announced in assembly on Monday and will spend their Family Group time on Tuesday afternoon making bread rolls. We will bake these after school and children will be able to take them home on Wednesday.
Well done to our amazing learners who have been awarded their Headteacher Awards today!
Sunflowers: JJ (Dolphin) – diving into learning rhyming words; Riley (Dolphin) – diving into learning rhyming words and verbal participation during circle time
Cranford Class: Ronnie (tortoise) – trying so hard with this handwriting this week; Milo (Dolphin) – making very tall buildings and writing a sentence about them.
Burscott Class: Louie and Molly (Dolphins) – showing great enthusiasm and working really hard on their DreamTree models this week.
Stroxworthy Class: Dolly (Dolphin) – for diving into her maths when tackling her times tables; Bea (Owl) – for looking forwards and backwards when discussing the timelines of Stone Age and Ancient Egyptian cultures
Alminstone Class: Cobain (Dolphin) – always diving into his learning and using excellent expanded noun phrases in his writing; Jackie (Spider) – making links in his Maths learning on division and developing his ideas to create expanded noun phrases
Ashmansworthy Class: Finley (Tortoise) – being resilient to crack decimals this week; Isla-Mae (Bee) working together as team captain for the girls football and encouraging everyone.
| Monday |
Mr Cole at Buckland Brewer (am) Burscott Class Parent meetings Ashmansworthy Class Parent meetings |
| Tuesday |
Winning Family Group Treat Stroxworthy Class Parent Meetings Burscott Class Parent Meetings |
| Wednesday |
Mr Cole out all day (Devon Heads’ Meeting) Ashmansworthy Class Parent Meetings Alminstone Class Parents Meetings Stroxworthy Class Parent Meetings |
| Thursday |
Alminstone Class Parent Meetings Stroxworthy Class Parent Meetings Village Schools Partnership Joint School Council Meeting (pm) |
| Friday |
Burscott Class Parent Meetings Choir Outreach Project with Mr Downton fronm Exeter Cathedral (Ashmansworthy, am) Swimming continues School closes for Half Term Break, reopens on Tuesday 1st March |