September Newsletter

Help us to help safeguard your child

We try our very hardest to be as accessible as possible to our parents so that you can always find someone to talk to if you need us. If one of our safeguarding leads in the image above are not available at any time, the Children and Families team may also be able to help. You can contact the C&F team by calling the office or emailing pastoral2421@welearn365.com.

Pause for thought...

I urge you all to take a moment to watch the video below and consider the rules and routines that you have in place for online access for your children at home, especially for children that have their own mobile phones.

While this is a US video, it is so relevant to us here in the UK too and really does highlight the many dangers that our connected world can pose to our children. Online risk is one of the biggest safeguarding issues for the children and families at AFJS! We have seen first-hand the impact unsupervised use of mobile phones, the internet, social media and chat apps can have on children's friendships, mental health and wellbeing and their learning. While I know it is not an easy thing to navigate as a parent, I really do urge you all to think very carefully about how you manage this as a family and to seriously consider whether you really want your child to have access to all of these dangers and risks.

Quick step-by-step: reporting an absence at Abbots Farm Junior School

1. Decide whether your child needs to stay home. If your child is unwell and you are in doubt about whether they should attend school, please see NHS guidelines: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/. If they’re genuinely unwell or cannot attend for an unavoidable reason, please follow this procedure.

2. Notify the school before 9:00am on the first day (and on each subsequent day of absence). Call the school office and leave a message on the dedicated absence answer machine or email the admin address.

3. Give clear information - Child’s full name and class/year, reason for absence (please give details if your child is poorly, not just ‘unwell’), expected return date, if known.

4. Update the school daily while absence continues. The policy asks parents to notify the school each day of ongoing (unplanned) absence until your child returns.

5. If the school asks for proof — provide it. For repeated or unexplained illness absence the school may request medical evidence (appointment card, prescription, GP note). Keep appointment cards/letters handy. The school will only request this where needed.

6. For medical/dental appointments during school time. Notify the school in advance, show proof of appointment to the office (by email or in person), and keep the time out of school to the minimum necessary. Where possible, book appointments outside school hours.

7. For planned term-time leave (holidays etc.). Term-time leave is only granted in exceptional circumstances. To request it, please email details to the office as far in advance as possible. The headteacher decides whether to authorise the leave.

8. If your child will be late / punctuality rules. Pupils should arrive in good time for the start of the school day (the policy states children should be in school by 8:50am and registers are taken at the start of the day). Arriving after registers close will be coded as late. Keep lateness to a minimum.

9. What the school will do if you don’t explain an absence. The school will email guardians on the morning of any unexplained absence. If they cannot contact anyone and there are safeguarding concerns, they may carry out a home visit or involve external services. Repeated unauthorised absence will be referred to the Local Authority.

Sport and HEALTHY BODY & MIND activities at AFJS

Sport and physical activity is an integral part of every school day here at AFJS and we are taking this even further this year with our PLAYTIME REVOLUTION and 1000 HOURS OUTSIDE CHALLENGE, to prioritise one of our school values: HEALTHY BODY AND MIND. We provide as many different opportunities as possible for children to get active throughout the school day, as well as opportunities to understand positive mental health and healthy habits, find ways to seek help when needed and much, much more. Here are a few of the HEALTHY BODY AND MIND opportunities that have been happening since we came back:

• Year 6 have been on their final AFJS residential to Condover Hall this week and those that stayed at school have been making the most of the sunny weather with orienteering and sporting activities.
• Next week year 6 will also take part in the tag rugby event at St Andrews Rugby Club.
• Year 3 have started their Forest School sessions on Friday afternoons and a new group of children have been doing Forest School club after school too.

The AFJS 1000 HOURS OUTSIDE challenge

To support our continued efforts to get children outside in nature, playing and learning, whatever the weather, just have started our 1000 HOURS OUTSIDE challenge

Why not get involved at home...?

If you would like to get involved as a family, there are some lovely visual trackers you can download on the website so that your children can colour in a section for every hour they spend outside. We would love for you to share your outside adventures with us too so that we can celebrate all the fabulous outside fun our Farmers families are engaging with! You can tag us in your Facebook or Instagram posts, comment on our recent 1000 hours Facebook and Instagram posts or send us an email with some photos - please always let us know if you are happy for anything you send us to be shared on our school website/Facebook/Instagram or not.

Here are some ideas of ways to make a walk in the woods or a stroll in the park feel even more fun and help children to engage in the nature around them. Why not just start local with a walk through the beautiful bluebell woods right at the end of Abbotts Way?!

And if you can find any blackberries still growing (it was a bumper year for blackberries this summer!) then why not try this healthy recipe...

Rugby Parkrun

And here is a great way to spend some more time outside... Mrs Jones, one of our TAs, regularly volunteers for the Rugby Parkrun and loves to spot some of our Farmers and their families there. However, she thought that there are a lot of other AFJS children and maybe their families too that would love to join in this wonderful local event, so she asked me to pop it in the newsletter for you all. She also talked to the children about it in assembly last week and will always be happy to help with anything you may need.

Supporting Charities

Another way in which we promote our HEALTHY BODY AND MIND school value, is through teaching children about social responsibility and empathy for others when they find themselves in times of difficulty for whatever reason. Our children learn about recognising and celebrating differences through our No Outsiders curriculum.

We also regularly support different charities and discuss different awareness days in assemblies to help children understand the world they are growing up in and to feel like they can help to make a difference. Each term, our House Captains choose a charity to raise money for and organise an event (or maybe even more) to help get the donations rolling in.

This term, we are also celebrating Harvest Festival and hopefully making a huge school donation to Rugby Foodbank on Friday 3rd October...

... and then the week after, we will be marking WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY on Friday 10th October. At AFJS we mark this with our 'Hats on for Mental Health' day where children can come to school in any hat they like for the day in return for a donation to CWW Mind - a local charity that provides services to all ages, including children, young people and adults, supporting in excess of 40,000 people each year including members of our own AFJS community. You can make your donation at any time by clicking the button below to visit our Just Giving page.

Grapes

Please cut grapes (and similar round foods) into halves or quarters before putting them in to children's lunchboxes. Whole grapes are a common choking hazard.

SEND support at AFJS

To support parents of children on our SEN register, we have changed the way we have scheduled the review meetings this term to give you more opportunities to touch base with your child's teacher. Teachers will share the current pupil passport and targets for your child with you at parents evening in October. We will then have a further set of meetings in December for parents of children on the SEN register to come back and meet with the teacher again and review provision, progress and next steps together.

If your child is not on the SEN register but you have concerns, please speak to your child's teacher first and ask them to complete an initial SEN concerns form with you. SEN needs fall into 4 key categories although children may often have needs that cross over into more than one. The 4 areas of need for SEN are:

• Cognition and Learning
• Communication and Interaction
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health
• Physical and Sensory

Staffing update: Due to a change in personal circumstances, Mrs Berry is stepping down from her role as Assistant SENCO. Until Mrs Watson-Tate returns from maternity leave, Mrs Webb will be the main point of contact for any SEN needs and will pick up emails from the SENCO2421@welearn365.com email address, with support from Mrs Saunders in the office. Thank you Mrs Berry for the hard work you have put in over the last few months.

Diary Dates

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

• Thursday 2nd October - Year 6 at Tag Rugby Festival
• Friday 3rd October - Harvest Festival (collection for Rugby Foodbank)
• Tuesday 7th October - Year 5 Loudmouth theatre sessions in school
• Friday 10th October - World Mental Health Day - wear a hat and make a donation
• Tuesday 14th October - gardening club to attend Rugby in Bloom ceremony
• Wednesday 15th October - Y4 trip to Tamworth Castle
• Wb 20th October - Hunts book fair in school all week
• Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd October - parents evenings - appointments to be booked through the Arbor app - details will be sent soon
• Friday 24th October - AFJS Diwali celebration day for all pupils
• Wb 27th October - HALF TERM
• Monday 3rd November - - training day - SCHOOL CLOSED TO ALL PUPILS
• Tuesday 4th November - NHS team delivering nasal flu spray immunisations in school
• Monday 10th November - School Photos Day
• Wednesday 12th November - whole school author visit
• Wb 24th November - open afternoons (see further details below)
• Tuesday 25th November - Year 5 RAF STEM day
• Monday 1st December - Year 5 Fire Safety sessions
• Wb 8th December - IEP meeting for parents of pupils on SEND register - appointments to be booked through the Arbor app - details will be sent closer to the time
• Wednesday 10th December - year 3/4 Christmas Play performances (2pm and 6pm)
• Friday 12th December - PTA Christmas Fair after school
• Wednesday 17th December - AFJS Christmas jumper and lunch day
• Wednesday 17th December - year 5/6 Christmas Carol evening (6pm)
• Thursday 18th December - whole school theatre visit to Albany Theatre - Beauty and the Beast
• Friday 19th December - break up for Christmas
• Monday 5th January - training day - SCHOOL CLOSED TO ALL PUPILS
• Tuesday 6th January - all pupils back to school
• Wednesday 7th January - Young Voices

Term dates for this academic year

Class assembly dates

All class assemblies start at 9:05am this term - just come to the hall door and we will let you in as soon as we are ready. All welcome!

• Tuesday 30th Sept - Mr Wolsey's class
• Wednesday 8th Oct - Mrs Beech's class ***DAY CHANGE***
• Tuesday 14th Oct - Mrs Berry/Mrs Solomon's class
• Tuesday 21st Oct - Mrs Bostock's class
• Tuesday 4th Nov - Mr Evans' class
• Tuesday 11th Nov - Mrs Thomas/Mrs Macauley's class
• Tuesday 18th Nov - Mrs Hartwell's class
• Tuesday 2nd Dec - Miss Neel's class

Open afternoons - wb 24th November

Our open afternoons 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. If you would like to come along, they start at 2pm and you can come straight to the hall doors to sign in. We look forward to having many of you join us.

Messages from the PTFA

The PTA are going to be running a second hand Halloween costume stall on the playground on Friday 24th October straight after school. Please send in any donations of old Halloween costumes that your children have grown out of or don't want to use anymore for the PTA to sort out by Wednesday 22nd October to help support this great initiative.

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.

After a visit to our school in autumn term last year, Vets for Pets would like to invite our pupils, staff and families to an open day on Wednesday 15th October between 3pm-7pm at their Rugby Central branch. Please see the attached flyer with all the information about the event. It is set to be a great opportunity for any budding Vets, Vet nurses or animal care assistants to learn what it takes to fulfil their ambitions.