Welcome back to the warmer weather, the lighter mornings and longer evenings! We have had a great first two weeks back with the first week being our Art and DT week before we commenced on our new spring 2 topics and jumped into World Book Day. There are lots of exciting things happening over the next four weeks so please do make sure you check out the calendar and letters pages.
In this issue:
- In this issue:
- Our School Values
- Curious
- Goodbye Mrs Conway
- Archibald Nursery Applications
- Archibald bags £500 from Tesco’s Stronger Starts scheme
- Vacancies at Archibald
- Online Safety
- Spring 2 Topic
- Time Travellers
- Curriculum Booklets
- Defibrillator Update
- National Crayon Day #AFS Creative
- How to observe National Crayon Day
- Year 4 Robinwood Residential
- Polite Reminders
- NHS Pharmacy First
- Privacy Policies
- Students into School
- Show Me 5
- How Big Is A Million?
- Dates & Letters
Our School Values
This half term we will be focusing on the value 'Curious'. In school we will be thinking about what being 'curious' means and how we can be curious in our lives, play and learning.
Curious
Curious looks thoughtful to show our curious minds. The question marks show how at Archibald we ask questions and generate ideas whilst the magnifying glass shows how we are encouraged to look at things from different angles. The books and maps, along with its ‘curious’ pants represent how we gather knowledge and develop our understanding to be well-informed about the world around us. The question marks also represent possibilities as well as how we make connections in our learning.
Goodbye Mrs Conway
Mrs Conway joined Archibald in September 2018 and has worked in every single year group during her time as a part of our school. It has been a hard decision for Mrs Conway to make, but she has decided to leave school to focus on spending time with her family. Her last day in school will be Wednesday 1st April. In her own words, she has loved working at Archibald; she loves everything about the school and her role so she will be leaving on a high!
Thank you Mrs Conway for everything you have brought and given to Archibald!
Archibald Nursery Applications
Nursery Applications for September 2026 are being accepted. We have dates for tours of our nursery on the website too. Please do share the news with friends, family and neighbours - we'd love to add to our school community. Closing Date for Applications - 27th March at noon.
Archibald bags £500 from Tesco’s Stronger Starts scheme
We have been awarded a grant of £500 from the Stronger Start scheme. We will be using this to purchase scooters and trikes for our children to use.
Tesco introduced a £5m grant programme, in partnership with charity Groundwork, to give children across the UK a stronger start in life. The grants will help schools and children’s groups provide nutritious food and healthy activities that support young people’s physical health and mental wellbeing, such as breakfast clubs or snacks, and equipment for healthy activities. Tesco’s Stronger Starts – previously Tesco Bags of Help and Tesco Community Grants - has already provided over £127 million to more than 74,000 projects across Britain. Claire de Silva, Tesco UK Head of Communities and Local Media, said: “Helping schools and children’s groups access the food and resources they need is vitally important in getting children a stronger start in life. Children with enough food have more energy, better concentration, and ultimately achieve more too." Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive, said: “As a community charity, we have seen first-hand how schools and other groups supporting young people have been playing a much bigger role in ensuring children are getting a healthy start to the day and getting access to spaces and services to support physical activity and mental health. Family budgets are tight and school budgets are tight, but it’s so important that children stay fed, fit and focused, so we’re delighted to be able to prioritise these activities alongside Tesco with the Stronger Starts programme.” Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. To find out more visit tescoplc.com/strongerstarts
Vacancies at Archibald
We are recruiting for September 2026. We are looking for passionate and invested individuals to work as Learning Support Assistants with individual children on a 1-1 basis and to work with groups and in the classroom. If you are Level 3 Qualified and feel you are the person to join our fabulous team, please take a look at the upcoming opportunities.
Online Safety
The Department for Education have launched a new website on 16 February 2026 to support families and encourage regular conversations about what they’re seeing online, asking simple questions, like “who shared this” and “why?”. Based on parents’ main concerns and needs, it provides:
- tips for parents’ conversations with their children
- actions to support each stage of their child’s life
- parental controls information
It also signposts to trusted resources from charities and third parties, where parents can access other forms of support (like speaking to an expert). The website will continue to grow and be developed this year, supporting the Online Safety Act and wider government aims.
Spring 2 Topic
Time Travellers
Time Travellers is our exciting whole‑school History adventure for the term, where children journey into a brand‑new period in time and build on the skills they developed in Autumn 2. Using our core concepts of chronology and significance, pupils explore fascinating people, events and eras, comparing them with what they already know and making meaningful links across different periods of history. From hands‑on investigations to creative, practical activities that bring the past vividly to life, children learn to think and work just like real historians—asking questions, piecing together clues and uncovering stories from long ago. It’s a lively, imaginative and memorable learning experience that sparks curiosity and deepens historical understanding for every child.
Curriculum Booklets
Teachers will continue to use half termly year group curriculum booklets to share information regarding the curriculum and routines for each class. There is also a bank of information on our website about each curriculum subject which you might find useful.
Defibrillator Update
A MASSIVE thank you to you all for helping us to raise the £1000 to invest in a new defibrillator for our school and our community.
We have raised £1000 and still have the pennies to count. Anything raised over the initial cost of the defibrillator will be used to purchase the replacement pads and batteries as and when they are required.
National Crayon Day #AFS Creative
How to observe National Crayon Day
- Get out your crayons and colour away!
- Post them to our Instagram or upload to Tapestry or Seesaw
- Celebrate Every Day (Easy)
- National Crayon Day (Medium)
- Yin and Yang (Hard)
- Gather your crayons and create some original art.
- Show off your crayon collections!
- Share your favorite colours.
- Visit the National Day Calendar Classroom for more colouring projects.
- Use #NationalCrayonDay to share on social media.
Year 4 Robinwood Residential
Year 4 had the absolute best time on their Robinwood residential trip, taking part in an amazing range of exciting activities that challenged them to be brave, work as a team and support one another. From scaling the heights on the rock climbing wall and soaring through the air on the trapeze and zip wire, to paddling together during canoeing and squeezing through tunnels while caving, every moment was packed with adventure. The night line tested their trust and communication skills, while crate stacking had everyone cheering each other on to reach new heights. It was a trip full of laughter, determination and unforgettable memories that Year 4 will treasure for years to come.
Polite Reminders
BIKES AND SCOOTERS IN SCHOOL: It has been lovely to see so many bikes and scooters coming to school - let's keep going with the active travel! Please remember to dismount any bikes or scooters before the main gate and walk them on to the school site to avoid any bumps or accidents. Please also remind children to walk them out of the school site; no cycling or scooting in the yard at anytime please.
PARKING: If it is essential that you use the car to travel to/from school, please park away from Archibald Street. Archibald Street is permit parking only from 9am and from after 3pm. If you do park on the street, please do not idle, park on pavements or block our neighbour's driveways.
Students into School
Show Me 5
In school we regularly ask the children to 'Show me 5'. We use this strategy to help recall learning and facts across the curriculum. We also use this as a part of our safeguarding strategy with our children...
Curriculum Examples:
- 5 facts about the stone age
- 5 words to describe the setting
- 5 parts of the body
Safeguarding Examples:
- 5 adults who you trust
- 5 ways to be a good friend
- 5 ways to stay safe online
- 5 ways to be safe in the house
- 5 ways to keep a healthy body and mind
TRUSTED ADULTS: We advocate for our children to use their voice and we talk to the children about having trusted adults who they would go to if they had a worry, a question, a problem... These adults can be grown-ups at home or school or a professional such as a police officer. Do you know who your child would feel safe talking to? Ask them if they can tell you about who their trusted adults that could help / listen to them are...
How Big Is A Million?
This week is World Book Day. Every class in school has used 'How Big is a Million?' as inspiration for their learning in Maths and English. Next week, each year group will create fabulous new hall displays to showcase their learning on this whole school theme.
In Year 3, in English, we wrote poems about why we were 1 in a million whilst in Maths, we calculated how far 1 million steps would be based on a 20cm stride. It worked out as 200,000 metres. We then used maps to draw a 200,000 m radius from Archibald and looked at where in the UK we would end up!
Year 1 loved the story and explored how big is 100. We created penguin art and learned about penguins creating our own fact files.
Early Years loved reading all about Pipkin's search for his million. We couldn't believe how many stars there were. We focused on the number 10 and explored different arrangements of the ten fish (Pipkin put his in a line) and used our enormous Numicon to make ten. We made our own little hand print Pipkin penguins too.