11Th October 2024
Save The Date
Every Thursday in term time – Tiny Tiddlers - 8.50am – 10.30am
Thursday 17th October – Tea & Talk: Welcome to Lower Key Stage 2
Thursday 17th October - Year 3 parents 3.30pm
Thursday 17th October - Year 4 parents 4.15pm
Friday 18th October – Year 6 cake sale
Thursday 24th October – Preloved uniform sale – 3.10pm in the main hall
Friday 25th October – Half term – Collection at 3.10pm
Thursday 31st October – Pumpkin Trail – 11am – 2pm
Monday 11th November – Return to academy
Friday 15th November – Children in Need
Wednesday 27th November – Individual and sibling photographs
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear parents and carers,
This week has been a hive of activity with community events. Yesterday was a great example of this. The morning began with 47 reception parents and carers in the main hall for a ‘Welcome to Nursery and Reception’ meeting. Due to the high number of attendees, we did not hold this as a ‘tea and talk’ in our soft room but managed to have play toys at the back of the hall for our little ones. Miss Wise gave a presentation outlining the approach in the Early Years and shared our video of children demonstrating the pronunciation of our ‘pure sounds’ in our phonics programme.
Our staff are always free for any conversation or questions and look forward to tea and talks in the future. We may even need to hold a few more as they are proving so popular! It is fantastic to see such a high level of engagement and community. Thank you for your continued support.
Yesterday was also Hello Yellow. Our children wore yellow accessories and focused on what makes them unique and special. I shared the importance of understanding ourselves and our emotions and how we can support and help each other. We celebrated our personal attributes and uniqueness – what makes us special! We shared how we can bring comfort to each other and my three cuddly comfort creatures travelled around the academy visiting children in their learning and play. Children in KS1 loved seeing them and are designing their own comfort creatures. In KS2 we talked about our own interests and attributes. We made links to how our academy logo represents a special message and that badges can be worn to celebrate or share a special message too. They took on the challenge to make their own badges. One of our children handed this badge to me on the gate.
Year 4 also made me some special badges during their ‘Hello Yellow’ art lesson. I started the first lesson by sharing my rainbow butterfly badge design and together we decided that the four rainbow words for my wings were: Trust, Kindness, Courage and honest. Take a look at their designs:
In the evening, we hosted our Open Evening for prospective parents. The staff, Active Citizens, Prefects and Cheer Squad were all there to showcase the academy and share with our visitors, ‘What makes Darlinghurst Special’. Families were able to tour the academy – following the stars around the academy. The children enjoyed collecting stamps and making a wish. The teachers chatted with families and demonstrated the curriculum and approaches within the academy. Children took part in activities too. I was delighted to share my Principals speech alongside my past and current Head Prefects. The Cheer Squad made everyone smile and added to the happy buzz!
As always, enjoy your family time together.
Mrs Nicholls
In the spotlight
Hello Yellow
On Thursday 10th October, we celebrated World Mental Health Day along with thousands of schools across the country to raise vital funds for Young Minds as part of their #HelloYellow campaign. If you haven’t donated yet, you can still donate via your child’s ParentPay account!
Hello Yellow supports the charity Young Minds and promotes the importance of children’s mental health. We recognise the importance of supporting our children with their emotions and needs. At Darlinghurst, we are supportive of children’s emotional and social needs as well as educating them on healthy relationships and wellbeing. We help our children to navigate their feelings and interactions by referencing our zones of regulation. Why not talk to your children about the colours: red, blue, yellow and green and what they mean.
This year’s theme was ‘Wear it loud, wear it proud’. In KS2, children focused on what was unique and brilliant about them! They have designed badges or posters to show everyone how special and fantastic they are- some were star shaped to show everyone they were a star, while others were heart shaped because they believed the world should be full of love and kindness. In KS1, children designed their own comfort creatures who could help them get back to green - some included soft fur so they were cuddly, while others included big ears to make sure their creature was a good listener.
Active Citizens
Sports Committee
This year, we asked children who wanted to become a Sports Committee member to apply by filling in an application form telling us why they thought they would make a good member of the committee. An amazing 76 children applied, with lots of compelling reasons as to why they should be chosen!
After much deliberation we managed to whittle it down to 18 children who were then presented with their lanyards and badges. They now proudly wear these around the school.
The committee got straight down to business attending a meeting with the Mr Felton to talk about how action some of the suggestions made by our children, they also have started to organise a future Santa Run event to raise money for some basketball hoops for the playground.
The Sports Committee suggestion box will be delivered to each year group throughout the coming weeks and the members will, as always, make sure the voice of our children are heard loud and clear and implemented where appropriate.
Eco Committee
This year, we asked children who wanted to be part of the Eco Committee to create a poster on how they think we could be more sustainable. Ideas included litter picking, walking and using bikes and scooters more often.
“I want to be part of the Eco Committee because I want to care for the environment and make our country bright and beautiful. I want to make people healthy and happy” – Samara, Year 4.
Since being selected, the Eco Committee have already undertaken an Environmental Review to see what we are doing well and what we need to improve on as a school across Eco-schools ten topics. As a result, we have chosen our three topics to focus on this year – water, transport and litter. The children quickly set to work, meeting Mr Clarke and Mrs Churchman over some delicious lunch to look at our water usage from previous years and what actions we can undertake to reduce the amount of water we use. This week, the children have started making posters to encourage children to waste less water in school.
Next month, we will be meeting with our local schools to share what we’ve been working on and on sharing our ideas. Our other aims are to reduce litter in our community and encourage everyone to walk, scoot or cycle as much as possible within the local area. We hope to meet with local councillors and talk to members of the public to make sure our work has an even wider impact this year.
Play Leaders
With the success of the playleaders last year, we had plenty of children lining up to be ambassadors of the playground this year. Returning from last year, our year 6 children continued with their roles along with some fresh faces from year 5 to bolster a strong playground team. The children were presented with their yellow lanyards which they wear around their neck with pride!
“I want to be a playleader because I want to help everyone out on the playground. I want to be a smiley face children can come to for a game or just a chat” – Lucy, Year 6.
Since starting their roles, the playleaders have been out on the playground everyday spreading joy and happiness across the academy, playing games and helping children with refereeing team games. The positive nature of the playleaders on the playground has led to long lines of children wanting to play their games with many children loving the bowling!
Next for the playleaders, we will be meeting to discuss future equipment that the children can engage with and deploying some of our children into the KS1 playground to oversee fun games and spread joy and positivity.
Reading Ambassadors
After reading lots of letters of application and interest slips, we carefully selected our Reading Ambassadors (RA) for this year. Although there are a couple of more places up for grabs TBA!
Y6 Bembridge Honor Mayflower Jack
Y5 Billet Adam Strand Nika Victoria Flossie
Y4 Swordfish Ivy Stingray Frances Orca Alyaanah
Y3 Dune Edie Seashell Fox Coral Ava-Rose
The children were selected for their love of reading for enjoyment, for reading a variety of different genres and authors, for wanting to read to others and spread the word about how enjoyable and rewarding reading can be.
Some quotes of the children’s applications were-
“I would like to be a reading ambassador because I would like to help people read.” Ava Y3
“I love to read because it is my happy place, and it is like a secret room where you can hide.” Ivy Y4
“I enjoy reading in my spare time and enjoy learning new things from books.” Honor Y6
Our first lunch time meeting was held in the school library, which consisted of a brief introduction to some of the roles and responsibilities of being a RA. These include recommending different books, promoting any reading ideas and events, keeping the library and class reading areas tidy and reading to children across the school.
We also gave them the take-away challenge ‘of to think of as many ways to promote reading’ so that in our next meeting we hope to discuss some of their ideas with one another and then eventually feed them back to Mrs Nicholls and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
Active Citizens, Honor and Jack from Y6, did the team proud as they promoted the library, AR and KS2 reading to the children, parents and carers that attended the Open Evening event last Thursday. They gave tours, answered questions and promoted other book related activities.
Stay tuned for more great news and ideas from the Reading Ambassadors.
Junior Governors
Junior Governors are democratically elected by their peers every academic year. There are two Junior Governors elected per class.
Since being elected the Junior Governors have been meeting fortnightly. We will be undertaking three projects per year, one each in term.
This term, we have decided to support our local hospital and a local charity that supports vulnerable families. We will be collecting unused miniature hotel toiletries and distributing them to both of the worthy causes. The toiletries that go to the hospital will help patients who are unexpectedly admitted and so do not have anything with them. The toiletries provided to One Love in Southend will support vulnerable people in our community.
The Junior Governors have already produced posters which will be placed on our social media platforms prior to half-term. We hope to be able to deliver what is collected in time for Christmas.
Year 6 cake sale
Year 6 will be starting their fund-raising activities on Friday 18th October by holding their first cake sale of the year. This will take place on the playground (weather dependant) after school. Please ensure you bring lots of change to support them!
Thank you for your support.
DARLINGHURST ACADEMY
Pavilion Drive
Leigh on Sea
Essex
SS9 3JS
CONTACT US
T. 01702 478379
F. 01702 509207