DALE NEWS
MARCH 2013
Jaroslav from Year 5 taking part in the Cycle Cross at Normanton Park during Healthy Heart Week. It was good to have two governors, Ruth Clark and Hardail Dhamrait in school to look at D’S A E H OT how we manage behaviour in school. See SP Ruth’s comment on the back page. Our behaviour system is simple... Catch the children being good whenever you can, praise them for it publicly and then watch as the other children follow the lead. Look out in the classroom for the tools we use to manage behaviour. •Clear structures with visual prompts so that children know what they should be doing and when – encouraging good listening, good sitting etc. •Rewards including stickers, certificates, head teacher’s award, pebbles in a jar collected by the whole class with class rewards, Golden Time. •Sanctions- time outs and missed playtimes for behaviour not accepted at school. Please look in your child’s learning log to see what their behaviour has been like this term. Have a good Easter, let’s hope the weather improves and we see some sunshine!
Mrs L Sullivan - Head Teacher
Term Dates for 2013 Break up for Easter Thursday 28th March Back to School Monday 15th April Break up for Half Term Friday 24th May Back to School Monday 4th June Break up for Summer Tuesday 23rd July Back to School Wednesday 4th September
Foundation Stage News We have had a fantastic time this half term! We had a bear’s cottage in our classroom and then a giant’s castle! The children have been excellent at retelling the stories we have learnt. We are very excited for our trip after the holiday as we are going to ‘Happy Hens’. In preparation we have recently been discovering the season of spring. We have looked at the weather, baby animals and growing plants. If you get chance over the holidays please talk to your children about spring or better still go for a walk in the park to see what has started to grow! Have a lovely holiday!
Year One News Year 1 has been extremely busy during this half term! We have been learning about the history of toys and we have made our own toys too. We went to ‘Build-a-Bear’ and each class made their own teddy from scratch! As well as these activities we went to Normanton Park to learn about push and pull forces. Next half term we will be learning about
growing plants and vegetables and getting to know our local area.
Year Two News This half term, Year 2 have been reading stories by the author Roald Dahl. We have enjoyed exploring the crazy and strange worlds he creates and used this knowledge to write our own Roald Dahl story. Taking the idea of craziness further, we have also learned about some famous inventors and inventions. Thinking about things in a different way can be a good thing!
Year Three News This half term we have been finding out about weather around the world. We have looked at maps and studied atlases. As part of our work, we created pictures of rainbows using pastels. We have also written our own non-chronological reports about the weather. Our science topic has been magnets and springs. In addition to our work on magnets and springs, we have also discovered why the heart is important as part of Science Week!
Learning Mentors Can all parents be reminded of the PE kit routine suggested by school. Children need to bring their PE kit on a Monday morning and take it back home on Friday afternoon. This kit must be washed during the weekend and brought back to school the following Monday. Class teachers may occasionally decide to have extra gym or PE lessons during the week. This is the sole reason we recommend having a PE kit in school Monday-Friday.
Staff changes We are very sorry to say that we are losing Alison Johnson, our Inclusion Manager at the end of April to a post in Staffordshire LA. This is a senior post and a recognition of her qualities as an Inclusion Manager. Alison will be available until the end of April for parents of any children she works with to speak to. After May 1st, arrangements will be put in to place to manage her workload until her successor joins us in September. We wish her all the best for the future.
Year Four News We have had an amazing half term! Science week was great fun! We learnt all about how to look after our hearts including exercising and measuring our pulse rates. We also used a bike to power a smoothie machine to make some healthy smoothies! We found the rowing challenge VERY tiring and we were very proud of our three finalists. As part of our learning, we have had a visit to St Augustine’s church to find out all about Easter, which was very interesting.
Year Five News This half term we have been learning all about the Tudors. To help us with this, we had a very exciting visit from King Henry VIII and his wife, Katherine Parr. We thoroughly enjoyed finding out all about the Tudor Kings and Queens and about what Tudor life was like. We learned
about the heart and how it works during Science Week, investigating which exercise makes it work the hardest. We also took part in a sponsored skip for the British Heart Foundation.
Sports News •Year 4 – Mini Olympics •Year 5/6 – Girls Indoor Football •Year 5/6 – Basketball – Runners up – City Final •Year 5 – Virgin Active Fitness Sessions •Year 5/6 – Tag Rugby Winners
Year Six News
•Year 5/6 – High 5 Netball Winners
This half term has been an eventful and exciting one for Year 6. Some of us took Mr Iqbal, Mrs Sullivan, Mr Rehman and Miss Baird to London. We enjoyed many sights in London including the Changing of The Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Natural History Museum and hearing Big Ben chime during our night walk. Rolls Royce apprentices came in to work with us. We had competitions to design bridges and egg carriers – we also enjoyed some outdoor team building activities to develop our communication skills. The whole day was really enjoyable, educational and fun!
•Dr Bike Day •Super Hero Day •Healthy Heart Week •Sponsored Skip – raised £1500+ •Dance Festival •Year 5/6 – County Indoor Athletics Finals
Dance Well, what an amazing half term our dancers have had! We worked hard on our ‘Fusion’ routine for the Dance Festival at the Assembly Rooms. This involved lots of dedication from the children involved, but our hard work paid off! The children did an incredible job on the stage remembering the routine, keeping in time with the music and smiling! We had amazing feedback from spectators and had a great time watching other schools. A big well done to everyone involved. We can’t wait to do it again next year!
Hello, my name is Ruth Clark and I am a Community ’S R O Governor at Dale with a particular ERN V O G SPOT responsibility for behaviour and safety issues. I was very pleased that the recent Ofsted Inspection found that the pupils’ behaviour is good. They are keen to learn and work and play well together. Well done Dale! The teachers have worked hard to achieve this and we should celebrate the outcome. Together with another governor, I spent a morning at school observing the children’s behaviour in the classrooms and in the playground. It was impressive! We found that there are many more rewards than sanctions in place and that the children understand the rules and boundaries. All the children are motivated to track and measure their own learning but this becomes more meaningful as they get older. This in itself increasingly leads to good behaviour. Encourage your child to tell you what they have been praised and rewarded for. Happy Easter!
Ruth Clark Governor
HEAL T HEARHY WEEKT
We have just completed a very busy Healthy Heart Week looking at the importance of maintaining a healthy heart and ways that we can do this. Each year group took part in a Circuits Challenge in the upstairs hall and worked hard to develop their stamina and increase their pulse rate. It was lovely to see so many parents at the Open Morning coming in to share their children’s learning – some were even brave enough to attempt the Circuit Challenge! The home/school homework on ‘What is at the Heart of Dale?’ was very successful -a big thank you to those who worked with their children. There were many lovely pieces and it was nice to see what the children believe to be at the heart of Dale.
Karen Ratcliff - Science Coordinator
School Information • School meals continue to cost £2.00 per day / £10.00 per week. Money must be paid on a Monday morning. Please remember if your child brings a packed lunch to school it must be brought to school at 9:00am. We will not accept late lunchboxes. • Please look at the school website: http:// dale.derby.sch.uk for more information and pictures of school life. •Please ensure that your child’s uniform is named correctly. Lost property is kept outside class 1S.
How to contact us: Telephone 01332 760070 Email admin@dale.derby.sch.uk Address Dale Community Primary School Porter Road, Derby. DE23 6NL Head Teacher Mrs L. Sullivan