HEADTEACHER'S MESSAGE
Welcome to the second part of the autumn 2. We hope that you all had a enjoyable break.
This half term is a firm favourite at Archibald - full of autumnal spirit closely followed by Christmas festivities. This week we have hosted parents' evenings and had our Art and DT week across school. Please do keep an eye on the calendar and letters pages for the upcoming events as there are visits and visitors in the diary for each year group and we have all of our Christmas events scheduled in.
This is in addition to the learning that we will undertake in our new topics starting on Monday which means it certainly will be a busy half term...
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Governor Update - Impact Statement 2024-2025
- Our School Values
- Caring
- Pumpkin Winners
- Our New Gates
- #AFSCaring - Switch Off Fortnight
- Safeguarding - Antibullying
- New Ways November
- #AFSCaring - Cut Your Carbon
- Dates and Letters
- Digital Safeguarding - What families need to know about Grand Theft Auto
GOVERNOR IMPACT STATEMENT 2024-2025
Please read the statement from our governing body reflecting on their impact at Archibald across last academic year. Being a governor is a voluntary role. Our governors are a fabulous asset to our school community; they provide support and challenge to work to ensure that Archibald is the best it can be for our children, staff and community.
OUR SCHOOL VALUES
OUR AUTUMN 2 VALUE FOCUS - CARING
This half term we will be focusing on the value 'Caring'. In school we will be thinking about what 'caring' means and how we can be caring to ourselves and others, to animals and living things, to the environment around us and the wider world, and to our belongings and resources.
We are sure that the children will be caring at home too. If you have any images or examples of the children being caring, please do share these on Tapestry and Seesaw. We would love to hear about what they have been up to and how they have shown this value. We will be adding photos and messages of caring on our display board in school as a celebration of our school value.
Caring Homework Challenge: Uploaded onto the school website and sent home via Tapestry & Seesaw, we have shared a Caring Challenge Sheet for your to complete too.
CARING
Caring is green to show how we are all Planet Protectors.
Caring’s big smile and bright heart is for everyone. Its heart is the colour of the rainbow as a sign of inclusion. ‘Everyone is Welcome’ at Archibald and this is part of our No Outsider’s core values.
We are respectful and responsible. The globe, animals and paper chain of people represent who and what we care about at Archibald. The people are the same size as we are all equal.
PUMPKIN WINNERS!!!
Tom, Annie and Oliver are our winners of our Pumpkin Competition this year! Well done to each of them.
ENTRIES
OUR NEW GATE(S)
To enter the school site during the school day, please use the new intercome located on the external pillar / post.
Please press the button for who you require and then wait in front of the camera so that staff can see you. If we do not know who it is, the gates will NOT be opened.
Please ensure the gates are firmly closed behind you. Please pull shut so the magnet connects then pull the latch across. This helps to keep our children safe.
DO NOT let other families / people into school when you are leaving. They must use the intercom and be seen to by staff.
How do you know who they are? Do you know why they want to come on to the school site? Could you be putting someone else's child or our children and staff at risk?
#AFSCaring - SWITCH OFF FORTNIGHT
Switch Off Fortnight 2025 will run from November 10th to November 23rd. This is an annual campaign organized by The Pod (in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust) to encourage schools and young people to save energy by turning off lights and appliances when not in use.
Key Information:
- What it is: An energy-saving campaign for schools.
- When it is: Every November; specifically November 10th-23rd in 2025.
- Who organizes it: The Pod, with support from the Energy Saving Trust.
Goals: To help schools save energy, monitor the impact of user behavior on energy use, and educate children about energy conservation.
What will we be doing: Each day the classes will try to teach for an hour with no computers or devices. We will keep our blinds open and keep the lights off. We will ensure that empty rooms are not left with lights on and ensure unused devices are al turned off. We will also be turning down the thermostat a couple of degrees whenever possible...
SAFEGUARDING
Anti-Bullying Information What do we do to prevent bullying? At Archibald First School, we work hard to prevent bullying occurring in the first place. Our school rules place respect, responsibility and safety at the heart of our school environment. We take part annually in the Anti-Bullying programme and have embedded behaviour, friendship and antibullying into our year-round curriculum provision. We are a listening school, in which children are encouraged to express their feelings, fears and concerns. This is facilitated through PSHE Curriculum, Assemblies, class discussion time and role play. We include everybody and celebrate difference through our assemblies, No Outsiders curriculum, RE curriculum, specific religious celebration ‘days’ and through the wider curriculum enhancement. We promote and reward positive behaviour, celebrate achievements and develop whole school and class rules – as highlighted in our Behaviour Policy – and challenge negative language or behaviours in response to an incident. We respond as a whole school to negative behaviours through assemblies, or whole-school focused topics, to enable our school to continually evolve. We provide a positive learning environment and educate children, parents and staff so that all members of the school community are hopefully confident enough to report bullying and know how to do so. All staff members are trained and the pupils are regularly briefed on what bullying is, in order that the whole school community understands what bullying is and what it isn’t. We encourage the feeling of ‘belonging’ to a community and use peer group pressure to actively discourage bullying, especially through our work on the role of the ‘Defender’. We respect each other with careful consideration of how adults in school talk to children and children know that they will be believed by staff, should they need to report a bullying incident. We take action and respond to all incidents quickly. We use CPOMS (electronic recording system) to record incidents, to ensure that all relevant staff members are aware and can take appropriate action. We have a clear policy in place that is shared annually with children, but reinforced termly. We have a school council to encourage children to have a voice. We use Tweet Boxes in classrooms and key adults for children who are particularly vulnerable We run Anti-Bullying Week annually and follow this up with throughout the year. Anti-Bullying Alliance Bullying | Parents Guide to Support | YoungMinds Helping Children Deal with Bullying & Cyberbullying | NSPCC