Communication

Message from the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

Welcome back to a new half term. There has been a great energy amongst the community with friendly faces and engagement all round. Thank you to everyone that participated in our half term events; local PTA trail, Harvest Halloween Trail and the Tree planting. There has been such a sense of belonging, including the wider community and neighbours. This has continued this week with visits from Bluebird Care, collecting some Christmas card designs for their company Christmas card this year. Our Junior Governors have also seen our dear friends at Admiral Court again, sharing a remembrance wreath.

Looking ahead at forthcoming events that will be taking place, please take a look at the ‘Save the Date’ at the end of this K.I.T. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Attendance continues to be an academy focus and classes are awarded for excellent weekly attendance. Attendance last half term was positive, please continue to send your child to school. We appreciate that common coughs and colds may begin to appear as the temperature starts to drop. We remind you to ensure children are dressed appropriately for the weather. If you need any support with regards to attendance please contact Miss Davis on 01702 509205 so that the academy can work with you on this.

As always, enjoy your family time together.

Mrs Nicholls

In the Spotlight

Community Tree Planting

On Sunday, we were really excited to be involved with charity Trustlink’s Greening Southend Project and planted around 50 trees at the back of our field. Over 50 volunteers helped plant the trees including our families, staff, members of the community and the Mayor. It was so lovely to see the community working together on a project that will not only benefit our school but also local wildlife, our community and the environment.

Councillor Richard Longstaff said, “What an uplifting experience to be tree planting alongside so many community volunteers, including many families with children. A big thanks to Darlinghurst Academy for preparing some space for this project and to everyone who helped make it happen.”

Volunteer and local resident, Stuart Allen reported, “It was great to be involved with the community to plant much-needed trees for the next generation of children. It was a fantastic atmosphere and a great example of the community coming together for a fantastic cause.”

We hope to plant more trees on our school grounds in the future. A huge thanks to Trustlinks for organising the event and to all our staff, families and local residents who attended.

Halloween Autumn Trail

Families and staff came together in the half term break to take part in our Halloween trail. It was a fun, community event and that we will most certainly be repeating. Thank you to all staff involved and the families who came to support us. A wonderful sense of belonging!

Cut Your Carbon Month

We have signed up to the Eco-school’s Cut Your Carbon Month for this November. The idea behind it is to help us reduce our carbon footprint through 9 simple actions. We are asking all our families to try to see how many of these 9 actions they can complete to help raise awareness and challenge behaviours to reduce our use of items related to carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. We believe that as a community we can be a powerful tool at implementing positive change.

We would love for you to share your photos and videos showing how you are completing the actions and don’t forget to return them to school at the end of November so we can see how everyone has done!

Our children were chosen to share why they think it’s important to ‘cut your carbon’ as part of a takeover of Eco-school’s social media. You can watch the video here:

History and Art

Remembrance

This weekend, the nation will unite in remembering the fallen. At Darlinghurst, we will also come together to reflect on past and current conflict and all the sacrifices made by others so that today we can live in peace and safety. Pupils have been watching Newsround and having discussions in class about the origins of the Royal British Legion and how the poppy is used as a symbol of hope and peace.

In art, Year 5 have explored using charcoal and oil pastels to create silhouettes of soldiers amongst a field of poppies producing some very powerful imagery. Other children have been creating collages of large poppies in red, as well as purple to show respect for the animals lost alongside people in wartime. Art club have painted leaves and poppies for a poppy wreath for Admiral Court and our Year 6 children have been creating ‘Lest we forget’ silhouette art.

Some pupils have also been finding various places around the country where there are statues and plaques and other memorials to commemorate these heroes.

To help our children understand more about change and continuity and make comparisons with life today, we hope to soon have a visit from a member of the parachute regiment to come in and talk about life in the military and the skills needed to perform this important job.

Visit to the Art Room

We had a visitor to the art room this week who specialises in pre- history. He brought his stone tools collection along as well as many other artefacts for the children to handle and investigate. Mr Carr also gave an informative talk on prehistory based on a timeline to make it clearer for our learners. The children also printed their hands on a replica of a prehistoric cave wall. This all links in to Year 3’s history unit where we will be making our own paint and recreating cave art. This visit ignited the children’s curiosity and may well inspire some budding archaeologists of the future.

Perfect Pets Winners

Art club entered a design your own pet competition before half term and we had 7 winners who will have their illustrations included in a set of books featuring children from all around the UK. The children received a sticker and a certificate, and I am very proud of them as well as everyone else that took part. The pets chosen were Luigi dog in socks, Penelope the bird, Galaxy cat, Unicorn Fish, Patricia the make up artist turtle, Star Fire and Variety.

Leigh Art Trail Winners

I am looking forward to Friday evening when our winners of the Leigh Art Trail competition will be attending an awards ceremony at College St Pierre School celebrating art in our school and the community.

Parent Tours

Do you have a child starting school in September 2024 or interested in an early viewing of the academy at work? Due to high demand, we are now offering additional dates. To secure your place, please email mrslowe@darlinghurstacademy.org.uk.

Children in Need and Anti-Bullying Week

To recognise Anti-Bullying Week and World Kindness Day, we will be focused on many of our rainbow words and supporting children in their understanding of bullying and relationships on and offline. We will focus on our collective message of using the word STOP! Several Times On Purpose and Start Telling Over People. On Friday 17th November, children are invited to come to school wearing odd socks with their full school uniform to show their support.

Also on Friday 17th November, we continue to support Children in Need by adding spotty accessories to our uniform. You can make your donation via your child’s ParentPay account.

Information from National Online Safety

National Online Safety have issued information for parents about the awareness of microtransactions linked to apps and games that our children may play online. Please take a look and if you have any further questions, you may be interested in attending our Tea and Talk around Online Safety with Mrs Bermon on Wednesday, 15th November at 8.50am. Please email mrsalexander@darlinghurstacademy.org.uk to confirm your place.

Tea & Talk

We continue with our popular Tea & Talks this half term, please ensure you book your place by emailing mrsalexander@darlinghurstacademy.org.uk

School Photographs

Individual and sibling photographs will be taken on Friday 24th November throughout the school day. Please ensure that your child comes to school that day wearing their full school uniform.

Attendance

EYFS

Starfish – 96.5%

Jellyfish – 94.5%

KS1

Puffin – 96.5%

KS2

Seashell – 98.8%

Mayflower – 97.7%

Proud to be me

Save the Date

Thursdays: Tiny Tiddlers: 9am

Tuesday 14th November – Reception phonics Tea & Talk: 8.50am

Tuesday 14th November – School nurses – Flu spray for Reception – Year 6

Wednesday 15th November – Online Safety Tea & Talk: 8.50am

Friday 17th November – Children in Need and Anti Bullying Day

Thursday 23rd November – Key Stage 2 French Tea & Talk: 8.50am

Friday 24th November – Individual and Sibling photographs

Friday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 19th December – PTA Christmas Fayre

Wednesday 20th December – last day of term – 1.30pm finish