Dear parents and carers,
The summer term has started with a bang - lots of sunshine, outside learning, celebrations and fabulous FARMERS FOREVER moments! This is always the most busy term for everyone but also the most full of joy! I have tried to fill this newsletter with as much information and as many dates as I can for the summer term. We will send out specific details of any events listed below closer to the time but I wanted you to have as many diary dates as possible to pencil in ahead of time and help you be prepared. It was great to see lots of you in school just before Easter for parents evening and a huge thanks to everyone that completed our parents questionnaire on the night too. It was an overwhelmingly positive response with some small feedback points that were really useful and we are action planning for now. We will update you further in the upcoming newsletters.
If you didn't get chance to complete the survey on the evening, you can still send us your feedback now by clicking the button above to open the Microsoft Form. Many thanks Mrs Webb :)
Farmers Forever Moments
It is our aim to fill the children's time at school with as many memorable moments and experiences that will stick with them as possible, so that they leave us after 4 years with hearts and minds full of learning and joy - that's where our motto LEARNERS FOR LIFE, FARMERS FOREVER comes from! Here are a few of the Farmers Forever moments the children have experienced in the past few weeks...
Comic Relief
A huge thank you to everyone that donated to our Comic Relief fundraiser for non-uniform!
We had some wonderful entries to the 'design a red nose' competition too...
Swimming
Our pop up swimming pool was a huge success again this year - all year 3 pupils enjoyed 2 weeks of lessons with the fabulous Ann and Tom and then some pupils from y4, 5 and 6 also had top up lessons to build on the skills they had learnt when they last had their lessons. The progress we see from the children in the 2 weeks is fabulous and although they only come once a year, Ann and Tom are just like 2 more members of our Farmers Family - championing every child and doing whatever they can to encourage success and ambition in them all!
We also had a really successful Y5 and 6 swimming gala last weekend. Not only were the children excellent representatives of our school and showed great sportsmanship but they also did brilliantly in their races! Every single child that swam earnt at least 1 gold, silver or bronze medal which is a real achievement. A very proud afternoon!
DEN celebration event
We really enjoyed bringing our Den children and their families together for a celebration event last week, to open the newly developed outdoor learning area that we have been able to create thanks to a grant and training from the charity Learning through Landscapes. The children played in the new sand pit, helped their parents plant some seeds and set off on a scavenger hunt or orienteering trail around the wider school grounds. Our Den is a fairly newly developed provision in school that provides additional interventions or curriculum access to pupils that may need time outside of their usual classroom to do some of their learning. It is led by Mrs Watson-Tate as our SENCO and you will find the fabulous Miss Wood and Mrs Enefer working in there every day to support pupils 1:1 or in small groups on a whole variety of different things from small maths groups and pastoral support to bespoke speech and language provision and specific EHCP target work. Our development of this provision is still in the early stages but it has been hugely successful so far thanks to the dedication and ambition of all the staff supporting it. We have also had external specialists in to see what we offer and help us to develop it even further and they have all said what a fabulous space the Den is becoming and how nicely the children are growing together and supporting each other.
Sky Blue Monday
We had a fabulous array of sky blue in school this week for our 'Sky Blue Monday' in celebration of Coventry City's promotion to the Premier League next year! We pride ourselves on our commitment to community and connection here at AFJS and just like being a 'Farmer Forever', football is another one of those things that really does bring people together. Their quest for promotion has been the topic of conversation and helped build many connections in school so it was only right that we celebrated in some way!
Diary Dates
UPCOMING EVENTS - more information will be shared closer to the time but keep these dates in your diary
- Tuesday 28th April - year 6 parents SATs meeting at 5pm in the hall
- Wednesday 29th April - year 5 RAF stem day
- Monday 4th May - BANK HOLIDAY
- Tuesday 5th May - Y5 Gullivers Residential final meeting at 5pm in the hall
- Thursday 7th May - school being used as a polling station but still open to pupils as usual
- Thursday 7th May - Y5 pizza workshop
- wb 11th May - Y6 SATs week
- Thursday 21st - Friday 22nd May - Y5 Gullivers Residential Trip
- wb 25th May - HALF TERM
- Monday 1st June - all pupils back to school
- Tuesday 2nd June - 5pm - parents RSE education information meeting - online - details to be sent out closer to the time
- wb 8th June - IEP parent review meetings (see SEN section below for further details)
- Tuesday 9th June - Y5 trip to the Space Centre
- wb 15th June - arts week and year group open afternoons
- wb 22nd June - sports week
- Monday 22nd June - choir to Rugby School Big Sing event
- Tuesday 23rd June - 9:30 to 13:00 - sports day and family picnic (weather permitting)
- Thursday 25th June - year 4 and 5 to Rugby School
- Friday 26th June - year 4 overnight camp at school
- wb 29th June - assessment week
- Wednesday 8th July - transition day - all children spend the day with their new class teachers and year 6 go to secondary school for the day
- Thursday 16th July - pm - year 6 leavers play to parents
- Thursday 16th July - evening - year 6 leavers BBQ for pupils only
- Friday 17th July - break up for Summer holidays! (Children return to school on Wednesday 2nd September)
Open afternoons and class assemblies
MESSAGES FROM THE OFFICE
All our First Aid alerts will now be sent to you automatically when the member of staff doing the first aid logs it on Medical Tracker. Previously, alerts would have come towards the end of the day because the office were processing them all but now that all staff are confident in how to use the software, they will send the alerts out to parents straight away. Please do not worry - if there is anything significant that you need to be aware of or if your child needs picking up, we will always call you. The email alerts are just to let you know they have had first aid. You don't need to call us to check :)
KIDZONE
A reminder that any ad-hoc (emergency) KidZone bookings must be made via the school office. Please email us on admin2421@welearn365.com or phone 01788 576074
Please share with anyone you know that might be looking for a job either before or after school...
Forest School and Outdoor Play
The developments we have made with our outdoor provision this year are something we are very proud of and the way children play and interact has changed significantly over the year. This has significantly impacted on pupils' HEALTHY BODY & MIND and is promoting a love of the outdoors.
We are looking for a few more donations to support further developments, in particular any fence panels and logs or wood slices that we can use to make more of our little dens like the one below that are super-popular with the children.
Our DEN staff would also like small world play, cars and any sand or water play toys you may have that you no longer need for their fabulous new outdoor space.
Careers Focus
This half term, we are focusing on careers in assemblies and getting children to think about the different opportunities there are for them in the world that they could apply their learning to from school later in life. We have found not only subjects that are important but also our school values, which are key skills for employment and life in the future.
A huge thank you to all the parents that have been in to assemblies this week to share their careers! So far we have learnt about how our parents have helped develop software, supported people to get fitter or stronger, ensured the law is being followed by companies that employ people and also secured financial backing for companies to expand their businesses. We can't wait to hear from all the other parent volunteers we have coming up and find out what they get up to at work!
Ivy is a First Aid Superstar!
We were very proud of Ivy in Year 5 for taking part in a first aid training session, supporting a campaign on behalf of local charity Freddie's Wish recently. We are hoping to work with Freddie's Wish and Mini First Aid in the future to get more pupils trained in these really important life skills and raise awareness among our fabulous Farmers Family!
"Ivy took part in a paediatric first aid and CPR session including choking which was filmed for use by the charity. It was a great session and Ivy got stuck in with trying out the techniques we were learning." (Mum)
Blake is fundraising!
Blake (Y6) is going to be doing the Junior Wolf Run on Sunday 26th April with his football team (Sporting Rugby Spartans Under 11s) and they are hoping to raise enough money for a portable defib for the team through Our Jay Foundation. Here’s their JustGiving page, if you’d like to donate: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sportingrugby-spartans?utm_medium=CF&utm_source=WA
GOOD LUCK BLAKE!
Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service Park It Right campaign
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service has asked us to share this leaflet about their Park It Right campaign. The start and end of the school day are always busy, and we often see lots of cars parked on the roads around the school. Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service would like to remind parents and carers how important safe and considerate parking is. Parking thoughtfully helps keep everyone safe and ensures emergency vehicles can get through if they’re needed. When cars are parked on both sides of the road, the remaining space can be very narrow. While a standard car might fit through, fire engines need much more room. Delays of even a few seconds can be critical when responding to an emergency. Please help by parking responsibly and leaving enough space on the road for a fire engine to pass. Thank you for doing your part to keep our children, neighbours and community safe.
HEALTHY BODY & MIND at AFJS
We are proud to be a Parkrun School!
Would your child like to get involved? There are almost 150 children taking part each week now but there is always space for more! Mrs Jones, one of our TAs, volunteers as a marshall and we love to see how many FARMERS are joining in each week! It would be great to add a few more to the list!
Sleep
If your child struggles with sleep in any way, there are lots of resources available on the Sleep Charity website, which you can access by clicking the button below and, as always, there are some guidance posters from The Contented Child around sleep, how anxiety can impact on sleep and what you can do to help.
There are also sleep workshops available for Warwickshire parents from the Warwickshire Family and Relationship Support team. The one in the image below is virtual but there are also in person events across the county as well as another virtual one later in the year.
If you ever feel you need some extra support with this, please do not hesitate to drop Miss Dolan a message on pastoral2421@welearn365.com We can help make referrals to services, such as the school nurse team, that may be able to offer further support.
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.
SEN information, news and updates
If your child is on the SEN register, please keep an eye out for your invites to IEP meetings this term. The meetings will be at the start of June and the office will send out invites mid-May. This will be the final meeting of the year and it is a key one for reviewing your child's progress towards their targets. It will also be a time to discuss transition to their new schools/year groups and any adjustments that may need to be made for them to support the change.
Messages from the PTFA
UPCOMING EVENTS
The PTFA met this week to start planning events for this term and have lots of ideas in the pipeline, including the fabulous AFJS Summer Fair! In the meantime, there are lots of other super easy ways you can help...
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.
Credits:
Created with images by haidamac - "Spring snowdrop flowers in spring forest on blurred bokeh background" • obpia30 - "clock time alarm clock" • Inga - "Paper colorful people, inclusion, community, childhood concept.,Copy space."