Dear parents and carers,
It has been great to welcome so many of you through our doors for Parents' Evenings this week. I hope you found the conversations with the teachers useful and enjoyed looking at your child's work in their books. I definitely saw many proud parents' faces and happy children leaving the building after their appointments. Thank you for taking the time to come in and meet with us - we really do appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and discuss your child's learning.
At the start of this week, years 3 and 4 enjoyed 'Creating Calm' workshops with our Mental Health in Schools team workers from the NHS. Mrs Hartwell's class helped me out with this part of the newsletter and here is what they told me...
We talked about anxiety being a normal feeling and that it is usually to help protect us
To understand what anxiety feels like, we had to try drawing a picture of our dream house with the hand we don't usually use for writing. Then we got to draw it with the hand we usually use and compared how it felt.
We watched a video about how our body goes into 'fight, flight or freeze' mode when we are anxious.
We learnt that when we are anxious, we should talk to someone or write it down. We learnt about the 'worry tree' too. The NHS staff were very pleased that we all knew our network hands.
PUBLISHED AUTHORS
A huge congratulations to this group of pupils from year 3 who won the chance to have their poems published in a book. They had to write a poem based on the theme 'Once Upon a Dream' and they were selected to be published alongside other primary school pupils from across the country. Well done to you all!
OVER AND ABOVE AWARDS
At the end of last half term, Mrs Watson-Tate had the honour of presenting the Over and Above awards, as Mr Corbett and I were out on a course. A huge congratulations to the pupils pictured below! Well done to the pupils who won the 100% effort prize draw too! :)
Please take the time to have a look through our newsletter to find out more about what is going on in school and also to keep yourself up to date with upcoming events. When I started writing this month's newsletter, I thought it would be a short one because we have also had half term, but it has turned out to be quite a bumper edition with lots to share!
Have a great weekend, Mrs Webb :)
Our amazing library
Our school library is the hub of the school and there are always children changing books or working in there. It is also open every lunchtime for pupils to come and read, listen to a story or even do some sewing or crafting with Mrs Jones.
The children particularly love listening to stories on our listening station and they would love a few more stories to add to the collection. Do you have any audio books at home? We would really like to grow our audio library and were wondering if any families had any that they could donate or even loan to the school for us to upload onto our listening station. Please get in touch or drop them in to the office if you do.
Governors
Message from the chair of Governors:
Thank you to those of you who responded to our recent Parent Survey. We received some really valuable feedback and are in the process of reviewing this as a Board. We will keep you informed of actions taken via the newsletter so watch this space for future updates!
Many thanks, Mrs T. Forsyth (Chair of Governors) and Mrs G. Webb (Headteacher)
The quality of education at AFJS
This week, our School Improvement Partner, Mr Watts has been back in school and he visited maths lessons in every year group, then spoke to some pupils and looked at their books with them. He was very impressed to see all pupils engaged in their learning, and he commented on the consistency of teaching across all the year groups and the clear implementation of our tecahing and learning policy in lessons.
Mr Watts also spoke highly about the children's behaviour both in lessons and around school. He spoke to a group of pupils in the afternoon too and they 'knocked his socks off' with the way they spoke about our No Outsiders curriculum, British Values, Online Safety and personal development. Most of them told him that they had never experienced bullying at school and when he asked those that said they had experienced it if the adults had helped to sort it out, they answered with a resounding "Absolutely!" Mr Watts agrees with us that Personal Development is a real strength of the provision here at AFJS, so we are very proud of both the pupils and the staff for this!
Learning around school
Year 3
Year 3 have been busy learning about measures in their maths lessons and applyng some of their excellent arithmetic skills to be able to convert measures. It has been tricky at times but they have shown our school value of resilience and kept on trying. I have also been treated to a performance of the songs that year 3 have been learning in their music lessons this morning and it was BRILLIANT! I loved the singing, the moves and most of all, the big smiles on their faces!
Year 4
I have had the pleasure of teaching some English lessons in Year 4 recently. The children are really enjoying their work on a book called 'The Ice Palace' and have been developing their writing to be able to write effective setting descriptions of a snowy scene. Their topic of Ancient Egypt for this term has led them to develop their skills as both historians and geographers recently, as they have been looking at the River Nile and why it was so important to the people of Ancient Egypt.
Year 5
Mr Corbett got to teach a lesson in Year 5 this week and was very impressed with their attitudes to learning and the clear routines in place for learning in the classroom. They also impressed him with their maths skills and can already tell they will be excellent Year 6s next year. Year 5 have also been developing their geography skills by comparing different locations in Brazil to help them understand that it is not all rainforest. Their topic learning is also feeding into their English lessons now as they are starting to write non-fiction texts about sloths.
Year 6
Year 6 have been working very hard to learn a new skill in maths recently - algebra! Many of them have realised it is not as scary or unfamiliar as they first thought, and they have been really resilient in their learning. They are also really enjoying their WW2 topic for history and have developed a deep understanding of the key turning points in the war, such as the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Your child will be bringing home their SATs revision home learning books this week to start recapping all of their learning from their time at AFJS to prepare for their SATs tests. Please encourage them to get this home learning done to enable them to take part in the sessions back in school fully prepared.
AFJS sporting achievements
It has been a bit wet and soggy for the past few weeks so sporting events have been a bit limited. The year 5&6 football team braved the weather at the start of the month and Mr Corbett and Miss Wood said that the boys all gave it their all and were proud and grateful to be playing and representing our school! Amazing to hear boys! Well done!
The county cross country heats started at the beginning of February, just up the road at Hart Field and the AFJS runnners did us proud as always!
A huge congratulations to Thomas Edwards who came 2nd in Year 5 - a huge victory given how many pupils take part in this event - but also to all the other pupils who did well against such large numbers of entrants!
- Year 5 2nd - Thomas Edwards
- Year 5 30th - Nikhil Giribabu
- Year 5 31st - Toby Cartwright
- Year 5 37th - Cooper Billingham
And from year 6, we had the following results:
- Year 6 12th - Bella Heeley
- Year 6 14th Megan Grover
- Year 6 24th - Erin Woolhead
Unfortunately, the next heat, which was due to take place this week, had to be cancelled because it was just too wet and muddy, but we look forward to hearing if any of our pupils make it to the final in March.
Charity work
This term, it was the job of the Kestrel House Captains to decide on a charity and plan some fundraising events. After our impromptu visit from the Air Ambulance last half term and the talk and tour the pilot gave the children while he was waiting for his crew to return, the children have decided they would like to support the amazing work they do, so they will be our charity this term.
They are planning to hold a film night to screen the new Wonka movie and will be sending our further details very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
Reminders
Breaktime snacks - please make sure that your child has a healthy snack for breaktime such as a piece of fruit. It is helpful if you pack it in their bag separate to their lunch so they know what they are to have for break.
Attendance - Please make sure that children are in school by 8:50am each day so that they are settled and ready to start their learning on time. The gates are open from 8:40 to 8:50.
School uniform - school shoes should be sensible black shoes/boots/smart, completely black trainers. In bad weather, children may wear other boots, shoes or wellies to walk to school but they must bring their school shoes to change in to once they are here.
Diary Dates
UPCOMING EVENTS - more information will be shared closer to the time but keep these dates in your diary
- Tuesday 27th February - Y5 & Y6 Creating Calm workshops
- wb 4th and 11th March - Y4 swimming lessons
- Wednesday 6th March - AFJS choir performing at the Warwickshire East Area Choir Festival at the Benn Hall - you can buy tickets to come and watch by clicking here
- Thursday 7th March - World Book Day - Bedtime stories theme - come in your PJs!
- wb 11th March - open mornings
- Friday 15th March - Red Nose day
- Friday 23rd March - BREAK UP FOR EASTER
- Monday 8th April - BACK TO SCHOOL
- Friday 12th April - Year 5 start Forest School
- Wednesday 17th April - Y4 trip to Leicester Museum
- Monday 22nd April - No Outsiders day
- Thursday 2nd May - Polling Day - school is being used as a polling station but we will still be open for pupils
Class assembly dates
There are 3 more class assemblies still to go this half term - Miss Neel's class, Mrs Hartwell's class and Mr Wolsey's class. Please remember they start at 9:05am.
Open morning dates
Open mornings are this half term. They will be between 9am and 10am in the week beginnning 11th March 2024. See below to find out the day for your child's year group.
Our open events are a great opportunity for parents to come in and complete some activities with their children linked to their learning this term. You can also have a look through all of their books and chat to year group staff. Even if you can't stay for the whole hour, come along for as long as you can.
Messages from the office
T2P School Money Accounts – Please check your account and bring all outstanding amounts up to date ASAP or by WEDS 6th MARCH latest as it is our financial year end. Please be aware if you access through the School Money T2P website you can view and do more than when through the app (i.e Part payments and more info details).
** Please note there will be no fees showing on your accounts for KIDZONE (April & forward) until after our financial year end is completed. You can still make voucher payments in the normal way but these will be credited after year end completion. A text will be sent once fees available to view & pay. Thank you.
Medication - if your child needs to take a regular dose of medication within the school day for a short period of time for any reason, you need to complete a form at the office and hand in the correct daily dose to the office ladies for safe keeping. Do not put it in your child's bag. Please note that we are unable to refrigerate any medication.