09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
Safeguarding Children As part of their curriculum, the children learn how to keep themselves safe. The following website has been set up by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to offer parents and schools advice on how to raise safeguarding awareness with children. There is a notable section called ‘The Underwear Rule’ which is of particular support and guidance to parents. The website also offers advice regarding ‘online safety’ and how to obtain support or advice regarding the safeguarding of children. www.nspcc.org.uk
Uniform Information & School Uniform Purchases The Primary uniform can be purchased through the Khalsa Schoolwear website or can be bought at Khalsa Schoolwear shop in Bethnal Green. To save on the cost of delivery charges, Khalsa Schoolwear does a school delivery once every month. You can find further details of the delivery dates on their website or you can ask the reception office staff. • • • • • • • • •
We expect every child to be in full uniform every day with their top button done up All coats must be plain black Shoes must be plain black – no trainers! If you are not sure about the types of shoes that are part of our uniform policy, please ask. Please label every item of clothing One pair of plain stud earrings can be worn Nail polish is not allowed Jewellery is not permitted Long hair for both boys and girls must be tied back. Hair decorations must be small and plain Please provide your child with a water bottle every day and make sure it is labelled with their name (water only, no fruit juice).
Important reminders •
School starts at 8.45am (8.35am for Year 3). It is important that your child arrives on time every day so that the teachers can start the lesson promptly. The school gate will be open from 8.25am and will close at 8.45am.
•
School finishes at 3.45pm (3.35pm for Year 3) every day other than Tuesday when we finish at 3.00pm (2.50pm for Year 3).
•
If any of your details have changed e.g. your address or phone number – please ensure you contact the office to inform us, so that we can update our records and contact you in case of an emergency.
•
Please ensure your child attends school every day and on time. If your child is sick then you must call the office to let us know by 8.15am. If your child has a medical appointment you must let us know in advance.
2 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
From Tam Broadway – Primary Headteacher After the snowy events of last week, we’ve finally got back into the swing of our routines again and enjoyed a fun-filled week of trips and dressing up. The last weeks of the half term will be busy so please keep checking the newsletter and the weekly updates board in the playground for key dates. Please note that school is closed to pupils on Friday 16th March for staff training.
A Message from the Reception Team As part of the children’s learning and demonstrating a ‘good level of development’ for their age, they must be able to dress and undress themselves. This will also help them as they move up to Year 1 in September. Next term, on Fridays, the children are expected to come to school in their normal school uniform and will need to bring their PE kit with them to change in to for their afternoon lesson. They will remain in their PE kit for the rest of the day, bringing their school uniform home in their bag. Can you please ensure that every item of clothing is clearly labelled with your child’s name. There is a lost property box in the main reception area for any items found around the school, or for you to drop off any items that your child may have taken home by mistake. In preparation for this transition we suggest that you start getting your child to practise getting dressed and undressed more independently, giving lots of practice to undoing buttons etc. 09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
3
World Book Day Celebrations We had a lot of fun dressing up as our favourite characters today and celebrating the amazing books and stories that we know and love. The pupils and staff looked absolutely amazing; thank you parents/carers for supporting the children with their fantastic character costumes and for your £1 donations that will go towards purchasing new books. We managed to raise a whopping £336 – a fantastic effort everyone! Every child has been given a World Book Day voucher to the value £1. The voucher can be used against the cost of a more expensive book at most leading book stores or be directly exchanged for a pre- selected number of books chosen for World Book Day, also available at leading book stores. For further information regarding the use of the vouchers and the books on offer, please visit the following website. http://worldbookday.com/books/
4 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
5
Exciting Learning Year 1 pupils enjoyed the opportunity to visit and explore the Transport Museum as part of their A to B topic. A huge thank you to the parents and carers who were able to help out this time; your support was really appreciated!
6 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
The Explore the Outdoors enrichment group had fun this week using their bravery and risk taking habits on the outdoor equipment in the Secondary adventure playground. The children also supported each other when balancing and encouraged each other to have a go!
Britten class enjoyed having Holly’s mum visit and read to the class this week as part of Literature Week.
Reception children re-enacted ‘The very Hungry Caterpillar’ during their English lesson in the morning and then enjoyed making salt dough fruits, symmetry butterflies and their own book during the afternoon session.
09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
7
Celebration and Awards Assemblies At the end of every term the children enjoy the opportunity to share and celebrate some of their learning and achievements with you. Each teacher chooses two children from their class to receive a certificate in the Celebration and Awards Assembly; one in recognition of a child who has demonstrated the habits of all the seven BRIDGES throughout the term, and the other in recognition of a pupil’s outstanding academic effort and achievement. The assemblies start at the following times and dates in the Primary dining hall: Monday 26th March • 9.15-9.45am – Year 2 (All Year 2 parents are invited to attend) Thursday 29th March • 8.45-9.15am – Year 3 (All Year 3 parents are invited to attend) • 9.30-10.00am – Reception (All Reception parents are invited to attend) • 10.15-10.45am – Year 1 (All Year 1 parents are invited to attend) The spring term Pupil Progress Reports and Parent Progress Meetings will take place after the Easter break. The Pupil Progress Reports will be sent out to you on Friday 20th April and the Parent Progress Meetings will take place on Tuesday 24th April; school will finish at 12.15pm on this day.
Headteacher’s Lunch Well done to the following pupils who have been nominated for the Headteacher’s Lunch on Thursday 15th March. An invitation will be given to the children during our Celebration and Awards Assembly:
Leja Vitkauskaite - Curie Eshaan Malik - Maxwell Ekampreet Malik - Newton Imaan Javed - Britten Alexis Burvill - Fitzgerald Soha Zaidi - Fitzgerald Maidah Hussain Riaz - Glennie
Abdullah Shahzad - Al-Kashi Ravi Jethwa - Fibonacci Mahilan Sathis Kumar - Pythagoras Jasmine Gadhia - Ellington Hammad Sidique - Nicks Rhea Thirumal - Nicks Naniyah Owusu - Shankar
8 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
Merits The following pupils have received 50 merits since September for making good choices and moving up to gold on the class ‘good choice chart’ – this is fantastic achievement. A special ‘silver’ certificate will be presented during the Celebration and Awards Assembly. Nicholas Fetrina Jardiel Araiya Lard Kiana Benjamin Anna Kiseleva Aydin Landi
Arshita Thelapurath Alexandra Bale-Orhorha Aleena Chowdhury Tanush Handa Tariq Hamed
Jawad Imran Ryan Abraham Aliyah Khan Abdullah Shahzad
The following pupils have received 25 merits since September for making good choices and moving up to gold on the class ‘good choice chart’ – this is fantastic achievement. A special ‘bronze’ certificate will be presented during the Celebration and Awards Assembly. Kuljit Aytan Ibrahim Mohamed Priyajanani Kumar Ayaan Aqeel Preeti Caldeira Jashandeep Singh Gurnoor Kalkat
Guillermo Duran Rodrigo Ibraheem Nawaz Simran Islam Leja Vitkauskaite Uzair Ahmed Sheryar Javed
Anam Shah Avneet Chaggar Halima Chand Emaan Haroon Hamza Chand Saminderpreet Kaur
A Message from Ms Chaggar Please let the school know in good time if you are sending someone else to collect your child from school. The staff will not send a child home with an adult that has not been authorised by the parents/carers. This is in the interest of safeguarding your children. Thank you for your cooperation.
09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
9
Praise and Recognition Every week each teacher chooses two children from their class to receive a certificate in assembly; one is in recognition of a child demonstrating our BRIDGES habit of the week, and the other in recognition of a pupil’s academic effort throughout the week. Well done to the following children, who have been recognised this week:
Curie Class: • Ekamjot Singh – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for having courage when standing up in front of the class). • Orpah Haque – Scholar of the Week (for matching different arrangements of a number and asking to complete a challenge). Maxwell Class: • Uzair Ahmed – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for being brave when he had to dress up on World Book Day). • Nidhi Jogia – Scholar of the Week (for writing fruit vocabulary and using adjectives to describe them). Newton Class: • Halima Chand – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for bravery and ‘giving it a go’ and putting actions to her assembly lines). • Musa Syed –Scholar of the Week (for innovating the story to become the ‘Enormous Carrot’). Britten Class: • Laraib Ul-Haq – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for being super brave getting on and off the train during the school trip). • Zainab Khan – Scholar of the Week (for being very sensible on the school trip). Fitzgerald Class: • Zara Khan – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for lots of good sitting and great listening on the carpet). • Ekamjot Pandher – Scholar of the Week (for an excellent recount of our trip to the Transport Museum). Glennie Class: • Nafiu Quddus – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing bravery and courage using the escalators whilst on the school trip). • Rumaysah Bukhari – Scholar of the Week (for independently finding half of a simple shape).
10 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
Al-Kashi Class: • Tanmanjot Sandhu – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing bravery when practising and performing the class assembly in front of others). • Shakira Choudhry – Scholar of the Week (for consistently focussing, working hard and asking questions to further her learning). Fibonacci Class: • Esa Syed – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for being really brave and jumping into the deep end during his swimming lesson). • Mohid Asif – Scholar of the Week (for trying really hard to keep his handwriting neat at all times). Pythagoras Class: • Ibrahim Nasiri – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for his experimentation and finding different ways to make the same amount of money). • Adbul Wahab – Scholar of the Week (for experimenting and finding different ways to use ‘ful’ adjectives in his writing). Ellington Class: • Arissa Isha Butt – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing courage in class by answering questions, even when she is not sure of the answer.). • Raina Islam – Scholar of the Week (for always being a good role model in class and around school by always doing the right thing even when no one is watching). Nicks Class: • Maryam Umarji – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for demonstrating bravery when swimming in the deep end of the pool during her swimming lesson). • Aadam Ali – Scholar of the Week (for persevering with his challenge in mathematics this week). Shankar Class: • Ibrahim Ijaz – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing incredible leadership skills throughout the week particularly in science lessons). • Avneet Chaggar – Scholar of the Week (for putting in a wonderful effort to improve both the quality and the pace of her writing).
09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
11
BRIDGES in the Primary Phase “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.� Isaac Newton BRIDGES are habits of mind or learning characteristics that develop a pupil's character and learning power and enable him/her to grow into a well-rounded individual and resilient learner. There are seven BRIDGES habits that we will be working on, which will rotate on a weekly cycle throughout the year. The BRIDGES habit of the week will always be introduced at the beginning of the week during the Monday assembly and reinforced throughout the week across the curriculum. Each class teacher will award a certificate to a pupil that they feel has demonstrated the BRIDGES focus for the week. Each week we will update you on the BRIDGES habit that will be introduced in the coming week and offer some top tips on how to reinforce the habit at home too. Please also refer to the Primary BRIDGES wheel below.
12 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
Week commencing 12th March 2018
Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness comprises ten dispositions: Questioning Remembering Imitating
Making Connections Transferring Adaptability
Flexibility Reasoning Scavenging Recycling
At School • •
• • •
It is important that the pupils are able to use and remember their vast phonics, spelling and vocabulary knowledge and apply this information when beginning to write independently. The children imitate familiar stories and characters they know and apply these to their own stories. As adults we are acutely aware that we model behaviours for the pupils every day during lunchtime when we eat with our knife and fork and avoid talking when our mouth is full, by washing our hands, how we dress and present ourselves, and how we speak to each other. We know that the children will imitate the behaviour they see. As well as being able to read the sounds and words on pages, the pupils now need to be able to question, reason and comprehend the text they read and explain what is happening and explain their ideas. In Maths the children need to apply and transfer their knowledge to different problems and also give reason for the way they have worked out the answers. Every classroom has a recycling bin which we encourage the children to use and we also look at how we can use materials around us to incorporate them in pieces of art or other areas of our work before we throw things away.
At Home
Encourage your child to use items around the house to create a piece of art or make junk models and re-cycle as many items as possible. Ask questions: What could we use this box for instead of throwing it away? Do you think we could make a car, boat or castle from this large box we have? How can we use some of the things we have around the home and turn them into something more useful? When your child finds reading a word difficult or a maths question challenging, ask them to remember and use the things they do know and apply it to the new word or challenge etc. Ask your child lots of questions when you listening to them read at home – some obvious to find answers but also so more tricky questions e.g. Why do you think …? Why did the character …? How do you know…? Encourage your child to use their spelling and vocabulary knowledge to extend the level of interest in their writing. Get them to use familiar story characters, settings or plots to base their own stories upon. Perhaps they could scavenge interesting words from stories they read and create their own ‘interesting word dictionary’ to use whenever they are writing independently at home. Remind your child that it is important to adapt their behaviour according to the occasion or place, as parents you will of course role-model how to behave and encourage imitation.
09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
13
Composer of the Fortnight Anne Dudley For the next fortnight we will be listening to and learning about Anne Dudley as our Composer of the Fortnight. As a suggested activity to support at home, you could gather some facts about Dudley in preparation for the coming weeks. You can find out some facts and hear some of her music on the following links. http://www.annedudley.co.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Dudley
Breakfast & After School Club Every parent has Wisepay details and a password, which will enable you to book a place for ‘Breakfast Club’ or ‘After School Club’. Payments must be made in advance. If you experience any problems, please contact Ms Chaggar who will be happy to help. Breakfast is available each day from 7.45am and costs just £2.50 per day. The children enjoy a range of cereals, toast and different topping, juice or milk and fruit. Any child attending must be brought to the main reception area by 8.20am at the latest. After School Club runs from 3.45pm – 6.00pm (3.00pm – 6.00pm on Tuesdays) and costs just £5.50 per hour. The children enjoy a range of snacks each evening and a variety of games and activities
14 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018
Attendance Regular attendance is a crucial factor in students’ educational development and ability to achieve their full potential. At Isaac Newton Academy every student is set the target of 100% attendance. The class with the highest attendance at the end of every week is awarded the attendance trophy during Friday’s Award & Recognition assembly.
Lower School Curie
96.7%
Britten
96.7%
Maxwell
96.1%
Fitzgerald
93.3%
Newton
95.3%
Glennie
95.4%
Well done and congratulations to both Curie and Britten who are the joint winners this week with 96.7%.
Upper School Al-Kashi
97.1%
Ellington
97.9%
Fibonacci
95.8%
Nicks
97.5%
Pythagoras
94.8%
Shankar
98.1%
Well done and congratulations to Shankar who are the winners this week with 98.1%.
Overall Attendance: 96.2% The attendance figures across the school are still disappointingly low at the start of this half term. Please be reminded that requests for absence will not be authorised in school term time and may result in a penalty notice or losing your child’s school place. National average attendance for primary schools is 97.1%. It is important that the children attend school every day and do not miss any learning. Thank you for your support in ensuring your child is at school every day. We always strive for 100%. 09 March 2018
Primary Newsletter
15
Key Dates - Spring 2018 Spring Term Dates: 5th January 2018 - 29th March 2018
Friday 16th March
INSET Day – no school for students
Tuesday 20th March
PE Spring Spectacular
Wednesday 21st March
Parent Coffee Evening – 6pm
Wednesday 28th March
Music Spring Concert
Wednesday 28th March
Easter Bonnet Parade
Thursday 29th March
Easter Egg Hunt
Thursday 29th March
End of Term Awards Assemblies – pupils finish at 12.15pm
Summer Term Dates: 16th April 2018 - 20th July 2018 Monday 16th April
Students return to school
Monday 7th May
Bank Holiday
Monday 14th May
Family week commences Half Term (28th May - 1st June)
16 Primary Newsletter
09 March 2018