Newsletter22 October Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to our latest newsletter and the new format. We hope that the newsletter will provide you with a greater insight into what is happening in school for your children and their learning.

We have had a great half term in school since returning in September. As per normal the children have settled down to their learning brilliantly well. We have had some great feedback from our School improvement advisor Trevor Davies and Mathematics Improvement partner Jonathan Hughes. Both were very impressed with our learning and teaching at St. Paul’s.

All staff have been working very hard on our 3 school priorities. These are:

Priority 1: Raise pupils’ outcomes in mathematics so that all children achieve their very best especially disadvantage children.

Priority 2: Raise pupils’ outcomes in reading so that all pupils especially disadvantaged pupils and boys can access the full curriculum offer.

Priority 3: Leadership at all levels including pupils is highly effective.

 

Bus Update

We are excited to tell you that the bus and reading hut are almost complete. It is really taking shape out there and will be a major asset in supporting our drive to get everyone loving reading. We plan to be using them shortly after half term and I know that the children I have spoken to are very excited. For reasons beyond our control it has been a long time coming, but we are now so pleased to be approaching the finishing line.

 

Covid 19 update

We do hope to revert back to normality after half term, after having our brush with Covid19 over the last few weeks. However we will continue to follow Public Health advice in order to ensure our school community’s safety.

 

And Finally

It is with some sadness that I must announce that I will be leaving St. Paul’s after the Spring Term. I have decided that, due to personal reasons, I will be retiring from headship after 15 years, 6 of them here. My time at St. Paul’s has been brilliant and as I said to the governors, it has been in equal measures full of love and challenge.

The governing body will now be working hard to appoint my successor and I am sure more information will follow.

You can be assured that in the interim I will remain dedicated to the children of St. Paul’s and giving them the best learning experience possible.

Have a wonderful half term break.

Mr Thornton
Head Teacher

 

Religious value of the week

At St Paul’s we take time to worship, reflect and celebrate every day through whole school assemblies (even though still online), collective worship, hymm practice and celebration assemblies. During our collective worship we focus on our core school Christian values. These are Friendship, Love, Kindness, Trust, Respect and Courage. During the last few weeks we focused on friendship and explored the features of a good friend. Our children listen to and discussed the Bible story of David and Jonathan, as well as Naomi and Ruth. Pine class even wrapped it up with an ultimate favourite ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ sing along. Year 5’s made a bit more of a recent link and talked about distant friendships during Corona Lockdown times and how we can still keep friendships alive through it all.

 

Attendance

Attendance up to 15th October 2021 is 93.01%. The school target is 97%.

 

Staff Book Choice

Miss Turner’s book choice

One of my favourite books as a child was Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne. Tigger was my favourite character and I longed to explore the hundred acre wood which was where the story was set. I remember my Grandad giving me a Winnie The Pooh book for Christmas. It had beautiful illustrations and I treasured it. I still have the book and every time I look at it I think about my Grandad reading it to me.

 

Reading

Reception children have been working hard in phonics. They have been learning to read from day one in Reception where they are learning what sounds the letters of the alphabet make. Once they know the sounds they are learning to blend the sounds to read words and segment the words to spell words.

 

Math’s

Some pupils playing ’24, • a game where you have to use all 4 numbers on the card to make the number 24 – it is great for improving mental arithmetic!

After half term we will be taking part in Math’s week England from the 8th November to 12th November – we have exciting plans in store, watch this space!

 

STEM

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math’s)

Over the next year we have lots of exiting plans for STEM within school. We have already started the ball rolling by having our digital leaders elected from each class and we will be asking for Science Ambassadors to be elected next half term. Later on in the year, we are hoping to hold a science fair, stargazing evening and carry out engineering projects within school.

 

Nursery

In Nursery we have been learning about our 5 senses and how to be amazing listeners. Do you like our listening ears?

 

Reception

In Reception this half term we have been thinking about our wonderful selves and how we can shine like stars at St Paul’s. We have:

• Made self-portraits
• Thought about our emotions and related it to the Colour Monster story
• Thought about who is important to us,
• Thought about how we can be healthy and stay safe
• Looked at our bodies and all the wonderful things our bodies can do

 

Year I

Our Year 1 ‘s have really made us proud. They have had to learn so much more than on the academic side. New routines, new teachers, new environment. However, they are already showing brilliant progress, especially in their daily RWI (read, write, inc), handwriting and maths lessons. In maths we have predominantly focused on sorting, counting forwards and backwards, ordering numbers, more and less than, greater than and smaller than, number line work and ordinal numbers. In Science, we are learning about plants, what they are, their parts and functions. This week we set up our first experiment to observe the water transport in plants. We will go out on a local walk to identify trees and look at how leaves make oxygen in another experiment. In RE we have been exploring the parable of The Lost Son and how it links to God being like a loving and forgiving Father. Our PSHE lessons focus mainly on our rights and responsibilities of a calm and positive learning atmosphere and how we can contribute to that. In music we are enjoying to find the pulse in songs, clap, dance and sing along to it. Our computing lessons are greatly enjoyed by our year 1 s as they get to plan algorithms on the Scratch Junior program and make the cat move in various ways by coding. Our children practice their balance and footwork in our PE lessons in and outdoor. Our topic lessons are fun packed with personal work, such as family trees and special events that happened in our family’s history, as well as analysing new and old toys. We will be on our first school trip this half term to see toys from the Victorian times at the St John’s museum and discover what it was like to be in school in the past.

 

Year 2

In Year 2 we have been learning about different houses with our big question in mind ‘What if we could design our perfect house?’ We have looked at houses through the ages and used our historical knowledge to place them on a timeline. We thought about the difference with our own houses and how lucky we are to have brick walls and warm radiators rather than wattle and daub walls and fires. Did you know wattle and daub are sticks woven together clad in mud, clay and poo! We found it both gross and fascinating!

 

Year 3

Year 3 have really enjoyed going back in time to the Stone Age this half term. They have listened to many pieces of text in English and during Topic lessons and produced diaries and instructions related to the Stone Age. During Topic, they became cave people for the afternoon, cooking a chicken over a fire, shooting arrows, building dens and being hunter-gatherers. They have also became archaeologists and enjoyed discovering about a Neolithic settlement called Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands. One afternoon, Year 3 also became cave painters and were extremely creative. In Science, the children have learnt lots about Rocks and have become geologists, becoming experts at distinguishing what type of rocks they are looking at. During Science, they have also become palaeologists, creating their own fossils and researching about the life of a famous palaeologist called Mary Anning.

 

Year4

Year 4 have been learning lots about mountains and have loved reading the story “The Abominables” by Eva Ibbotson! We have thought about what Christians learn from the Creation story in RE and learned about the different aspects of sound in Science. It’s safe to say we’ve had a busy and great start to the year!

 

Year 5

In Birch we have been working hard on our topic studying the rainforest. We have looked at where rainforests are located and why they are located there. In addition, we took the time to discuss deforestation. As part of our topic we have used the test “The Explorer” by Katherine Rundell and have used this to inspire our writing.

 

Year6

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Year 6 went to Solihull Synagogue and Cadbury World. A Jewish lady told us all about the special scroll called a Torah which was made out of dried animal skin. She showed us the Jewish symbol, The Star of David. We all had the opportunity to wear a Kippah and a Tallit. At Cadbury World, we learnt how chocolate was made. Most importantly, we also learnt how the Mayans used cocoa beans to trade with, for example 100 cocoa beans could be traded for a servant.

 

Humanities

During the first half term of Autumn, each year group has had a History or Geography focused topic.

We aim to make Humanities learning fun for the children by providing memorable experiences. Key Stage 1 have provided experiences for the children in the following ways: Year 1 have been on a visit to St John’s Museum in Warwick for a Workshop about Victorian toys. Year 2 have been on a walk of the local area looking at houses and noticing things they perhaps hadn’t noticed before.

 

Sports

Before and after school clubs have started well, children have had a lot of enjoyment participating in the activities on offer with many trying new sports such as handball, hockey and basketball. Places are still available for year 3 & 4 for hockey on a Tuesday after school. Please contact the school office for more information and to sign up.

 

Choir

St. Paul’s choir have started preparing their repertoire for Young Voices and were sounding fabulous on Monday afternoon. The key stage 2 children have already finished their first song and are hoping to add in the final actions next week. They will be pitch perfect by the time of the Young Voices concert in January!

 

Poppy Appeal

This year Poppies and other merchandise will be on sale the week after half term. We will contact you after half term. Suggested donations as follows:­

• Poppies 50p
• Zip Pulls and Reflectors 50p
• Wrist Bands £1.00
• Snap Bands £1.50

 

E-Safety

It can be tricky to keep up to date with age ratings on games and the like, but we would encourage parents to be vigilant of these with regards to all forms of digital media. There have been a few incidents this term of pupils viewing material not suitable for their age and discussing this in school. Please see below a link explaining video games age ratings.

Feel free to contact Mr Payne or Mr Colley with any questions. Thank you. internetmatters.org

 

Free School Meals

Pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are automatically eligible for a free school dinner under the Universal Free School Meals initiative launched by the government a few years ago.

Even if your child is in receipt of a universal free school dinner (Reception, Year 1 or Year 2) or in Nursery or in Years 3-6, if you are in receipt of any of the below benefits, please still apply by calling free schools meals on 01926 359189 as the school will receive funding to help your child.

• income support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• income-related employment and support allowance (ESA)
• guarantee element of state pension credit
• Universal Credit (with an annual income of less than £7,400)
• Both income-based and contribution-based JSA/ESA if you receive the same amount for both. You should also qualify if you receive both, but the income-based amount is greater, but not if the contribution-based amount is greater.
• Families who are awarded Child Tax Credit and have an annual income assessed by HMRC to be no more than £ 16, 190, providing there is no entitlement to Working Tax Credit (unless in respect of a 4-week ‘run-on’).

When eligibility has been confirmed by the school, you will receive a £25 uniform voucher per child.

 

Accident Reporting

The school continues to use an on-line system for the recording of accidents and parents will receive an e-mail notification of any minor accident such as a small bump, cut or graze. When our first aiders consider the injury may require further medical care by a GP or Hospital or is a head injury, then our policy is to call the priority contact by telephone. Please ensure the school has all up to date phone numbers and an email address.

 

Absence

Could we remind parents that all Illness’s need to be reported/updated daily. This can be via text or answerphone message.

As per Public Health England guidelines, if your child has sickness, Diarrhea or both, they must remain off school for 48hrs from the last episode.

You must complete a holiday request form if you wish to take your child out of school during term time, available from the school office.

 

School Dinners

The new menu from Educaterers is up and running and proving very popular. Meals Cost £2.25 per day and remember if your child is in Foundation or KS1 they are free. Menus are available on the School website and from the office.

 

Twitter

For up to date photos, links and information on what your children are doing and learning at St Paul’s every day, follow us at: twitter.com/StPaulsSchNun

 

 

Dates for Your Diary