January Newsletter

Y5 Rainforest Explorer Day

Last week, year 5 welcomed Simon the rainforest explorer in to school to talk to them about his experiences and adventures as part of their Brazil topic this term!

Hello everyone!

My name is Miss Dolan and I’m really pleased to introduce myself as the Children and Families Lead here at Abbotts Farm Junior School. My role sits across the whole school, working closely with children, families, and staff to help ensure every child feels supported, understood, and able to thrive both emotionally and academically. I’m here to help build strong, positive relationships between home and school and to make sure children feel safe, happy, and ready to learn. Outside of school, I enjoy keeping active, exercising, and looking after my own wellbeing — usually with a good book when I get the chance! I strongly believe that a healthy body and mind go hand in hand, and it’s something I’m passionate about promoting within school. I’ve already been overwhelmed by how welcoming the children have been. The smiles, friendly conversations, and many hugs I receive each day really reflect what a warm and caring school community Abbotts Farm is. If you ever need support, have concerns, or would simply like a chat, please don’t hesitate to call, email, or pop in. I’m always happy to help and believe open communication is key to supporting our children and families. I’m really looking forward to getting to know you all. Miss Dolan

HEALTHY BODY & MIND at AFJS

Our HEALTHY BODY AND MIND school value is really important to us at AFJS. One of our pupil leadership roles is our wellbeing ambassadors, who were trained by Sue Kelly, our MHST allocated worker, and are now doing a great job supporting wellbeing across the school, especially at lunchtimes....

Hello!

We are the Wellbeing Ambassadors at AFJS and these are some of the things we do, focusing on a healthy body and mind. We have a cosy area at the bottom of the playground in a shed with fidgets, seat covers, mats and bunting! You can go there if you need somewhere to relax. We sometimes arrange assemblies too so we can talk to and educate our whole school. Being a Wellbeing Ambassador is an amazing job and opportunity and we have much more to come later in the year!

Speed stacking

After a super result at the Level 2 competition before Christmas, our Speed Stacking team headed off to the Level 3 competition this month. The children took part in four activities: timed 3-6-3, stack and back relay, pair stacking (which they were really good at considering they had only just learnt it) and knockout against another school. Priti also won a values award; she was chosen out of all the pupils there on the day by the sports leaders who were running the activities, due to her kindness and great sportsmanship. The all thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and were a credit to the school. 

Is there anything else you might like to see in this section of the newsletter? Drop us an email at admin2421@welearn365.com to let us know.

Diary Dates

UPCOMING EVENTS - more information will be shared closer to the time but keep these dates in your diary

• Friday 6th Feb - Number Day
• Wednesday 11th February - IEP review meetings
• wb 16th February - HALF TERM
• Monday 23rd February - all pupils back to school
• wb 2nd March - assessment week
• Thursday 5th March - World Book Day (more details to be shared closer to the time)
• Monday 9th March at 5:30pm - Y4 parents residentials meeting
• wb 16th and 23rd March - swimming pool on site - all year 3 + year 5 top up lessons TBC
• Monday 16th March - mid year reviews out to parents
• Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th March - Parents Evenings
• Friday 27th March - training day - SCHOOL CLOSED to all pupils
• wb 30th March and 6th April - EASTER HOLIDAYS
• Monday 13th April - all pupils back to school
• Tuesday 28th April - year 6 parents SATs meeting
• Monday 4th May - BANK HOLIDAY
• wb 11th May - Y6 SATs week
• wb 25th May - HALF TERM
• Monday 1st June - all pupils back to school

CLASS ASSEMBLIES and OPEN AFTERNOONS

This term, open afternoons are planned for wb 16th March. However, we have realised there is a slight clash with Y3 swimming lessons so we have had to move the Y3 open afternoon to accommodate this. The revised dates for open afternoons are as follows:

Year 3: Thursday 12th March Year 4: Tuesday 17th March Year 5: Wednesday 18th March Year 6: Thursday 19th March As always, they will take place between 2pm and 3pm - just turn up at the hall doors to join in the fun and have a chance to look at your child's books.

Class assemblies are at the end of the school day this term. We alternate them to try and support parents that work different shifts to attend. Here are the remaining dates for each class this term. The year 6 assemblies will be their last ever AFJS class assemblies as they focus on SATs and their leavers assembly in the Summer term.

• Tuesday 3rd Feb - Mrs Bostock's class
• Thursday 12th Feb - Mrs Hartwell's class
• Tuesday 24th Feb - Mr Evan's class
• Tuesday 3rd March -Mrs Thomas/Macauley's class
• Tuesday 10th March - Miss Neel's class

MESSAGES FROM THE OFFICE

We will be starting to use Medical Tracker, a secure digital system for recording first-aid visits and medication given at school. When your child receives first aid, you will be sent an email notification with details of the incident. We ask that you please acknowledge the email to confirm that you have read it. This helps us ensure important information has reached you. Please make sure the school office has your up-to-date email address so notifications are received without delay. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office.

Please remember that all snacks and lunchboxes should include healthy food choices only. To support our school’s wellbeing policy, sweets, chocolates, candies, and sugary snacks are not permitted. We appreciate your cooperation in encouraging nutritious habits that help students stay focused, energized, and ready to learn. Thank you for your support!

Reminder: Ad-hoc places now available at KIDZONE

These flexible sessions are ideal for parents and carers who may need occasional childcare, including last-minute support due to unexpected changes, an urgent work meeting or anything else really. They are available to all children, not just those that currently attend Kidzone. Ad-hoc spaces are offered subject to availability in both breakfast and afterschool sessions.

If you ever need an ad-hoc booking, simply speak to the office staff, who will be happy to help. Please note that ad-hoc sessions are payable at the time of booking, non-refundable, and separate from our usual yearly contract.

Prices are:

• Breakfast Club: £6.50 per child, per session
• Afterschool Club: prices are per child, per session

Until 4.30pm - £7.00 Until 5.30pm - £10.50 Until 6.00pm - £12.00

Governors needed

We currently have a vacancy for a PARENT GOVERNOR! You need no previous experience of Governance or working in a school - being a parent is all the experience you need and we would really appreciate you considering applying! All parents or carers of registered pupils at AFJS currently are eligible to become parent governors.

The DfE defines parents as:

• All natural (biological) parents, whether they are married or not
• Any person who, although not a biological parent, has parental responsibility for a child or young person (this could be a step-parent, guardian or other relative)
• Any person who, although not a biological parent, has care of a child or young person. This means they are the person with whom the child lives and who looks after the child, irrespective of what their relationship is with the child

If you are interested, you are more than welcome to come and have a chat with someone to find out more! Aisha Mogul (who has a child in year 6 currently) is a parent Governor and Lauren Bird (who has a child in year 4 currently) is a co-opted Governor but also now a parent - if you would like to get in touch with either of them to ask any questions, just ask the office and they will put you in touch. Our co-chairs Lynne Mehta and Deb Short can also be reached in the same way. Equally, you can come and have a chat with myself or Mr Corbett from a senior leadership perspective or Mrs Saunders in the office, who also has significant school governance experience in other Warwickshire schools! A letter will be sent to all parents via Arbor next week with further details and how to express your interest so keep an eye out for that!

And perhaps you could persuade a friend or colleague to join you...

We are also still looking for co-opted Governors to join our fabulous team and would appreciate it if you could spread the word among friends, family, work colleagues and whoever else you can think of! There is no expectation for anyone interested in this role to also be a parent so it is open to anyone that might be interested in joining our supportive, welcoming team!

SEN news and updates

Support services and information for parents of children with special educational needs

Girls and Autism

This month, we are having a focus in our newsletter on Girls and Autism as this can often present quite differently to the way Autism presents in boys or to the way that Autism has been typically understood in the past. There is so much more information out there to support girls with autism now and there are many girls in our school with similar struggles; we want you as parents to know that you are not alone and that we will always do what we can to support you!

As always, I have taken some infographics from the fabulous THE CONTENTED CHILD Facebook page to start the conversation off, focusing on how masking is more common in girls but also harder to spot!

And it isn't just girls that mask! Here are some top tips from THE CONTENTED CHILD that might help if you think your child is masking...

And finally... The Autistic Girls Network is a small registered charity working to support, educate, and bring change. They have a great website, which you can go to by clicking the button below, that is full of resources to help autistic children and adults as well as their families.

Is there anything else you might like to see in this section of the newsletter? Drop us an email at SENCO2421@welearn365.com to let us know.

Messages from the PTFA

UPCOMING EVENTS

**🌸 Join Us for a Night of Fun at the PTA Charity Spring Ball! 🌸**

Hey friends! We’re excited to invite you to our annual PTA Charity Spring Ball on **April 25, 2026**, at **7:30 PM** at the **Rugby Railway Club**. This is a fantastic opportunity for a night of great company, delicious food, and lively music, all for a worthy cause! ✨ **What to expect:** - **Drinks** to keep the spirits high - A **raffle** with awesome prizes - **Delicious food** to enjoy throughout the night - **Good music** to dance the night away Ticket prices and dress code are TBC. This is an 18+ event, so grab your friends, dress up, and get ready for a memorable evening! Let’s come together to support our school and community — your presence makes a difference!

Others ways you can help us to fundraise...

If you shop at Asda, please make sure you sign up to their 'Cashpot for Schools' initiative - they will donate much needed funds to us every time you shop with them. Literally money for nothing! :)

You can also sign up to EasyFundraising and elect to allocate funds to our school - again, this is literally money for nothing! You just need to log in via EasyFundraising to do your online shopping at any of their many retailers they work with and they will donate much needed funds to us every time you shop. If you have joined us from another school that uses this initiative, please log in and swap the cause you are supporting to ABBOTS FARM JUNIOR SCHOOL :)

And finally...you can also play the Rugby Lotto and raise money for our PTA at the same time - we had several wins within our school community last term so it is worth a go! You can just log on and opt for it to automatically charge you to play each month.

Here are details of some local activities we have had shared with us recently that may be of interest to you.

Please remember that we cannot vouch for any of these providers, we are just sharing information that might be of use or interest to our families that has been sent to us.