INA Primary Newsletter
20 May 2016
Announcements
Dear Parents and Carers, It was great to see lots of you at the Coffee Morning this week. We took time to discuss and celebrate lots of the positive feedback from the parent questionnaires and also time to consider how to address areas that we can further develop going forward. Your comments and ideas were really constructive. I will collate the feedback and send a copy of the notes out to all parents in due course. I look forward to meeting with you all again on Tuesday 12th July. Tam Broadway
Message from the Reception Teachers Please continue to upload and share any great learning moments with your child at home. It is important that your child’s work includes learning steps from home and school to demonstrate their understanding and development. We are especially trying to capture quality independent writing pieces this half term; it would be great if you could upload any great examples on Tapestry and then send the writing piece into school so that we can celebrate the work in our class writing galleries. To gain a better understanding of the Early Learning Goals, they are available for you to view on the school website under the Community Tab and Parents Resources.
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>>> News Composer of the Fortnight
We are currently listening to and learning about Henry Mancini as our Composer of the Fortnight. As a suggested activity to support at home, you could gather some facts about Mancini in preparation for the coming weeks. Information can also be found on the following link. http://www.henrymancini.com/ .
School Council There was an incredible response and interest from the Year 1 pupils regarding the School Council. I received around fifty amazing letters of application. I was so impressed by the level of maturity, presentation and ideas that the children put forward. With the help of Ms West and Mr Marshall-Jones, I have chosen twenty four pupils that I will interview next week. After the interview round, ten pupils will be chosen to introduce themselves formally in an assembly and explain to everyone why they would make a great school council member. The final stage will be down to the rest of the pupils to vote; making their decision as to who should represent them.
Cake Sale – Friday 27th May Don’t forget, the Primary will be hosting a fundraising cake sale on Friday 27th May, the last day of the half term! We invite you all to come along to the dining hall after picking up your child up to purchase some of the delicious cakes that will be on sale. We also welcome any cake donations, but ask of course that any cakes that are donated are clearly labelled with their ingredients and ask that all cakes are nut free please. All funds raised will go towards enhancing the children’s outside learning environment. INA Newsletter 3
Exciting Learning this Week Year 1 Multi-skills Sports Event
This week we held the first ever Isaac Newton Academy Multi-Skills event, hosting four other local primary schools. Ten Year 1 pupils were selected to take part and put into mixed teams with children from the other schools. All of the children took part in several different challenges where they had to use their balance, speed, agility and accuracy. They all showed excellent bravery, self-discipline and emotional intelligence throughout the afternoon and six children were awarded a bronze silver or gold medal! Well done to: J’Shawn Holland, Mariam Chowdhury, Nandini Sharma, Inaaya Ijaz, Gurkirpa Hunjun, Hashim Ali, Hari Virdee, Imani Salim, Naniyah Owusu and Ghiyas Elahi for being such great sporting ambassadors for INA! Thank you to Ms Hutson, Ms Young and the Secondary Sports Leaders for organising some a great event.
African Prints Year 1 was busy this week making African prints, using non-fiction resources to research an animal group.
Reception As part of the ‘Splendid Superheroes’ topic this half term, the Reception children were fortunate to have a paramedic visit them this week. The children had a chance to find out lots of information about his work, have fun role-playing some medical scenarios and ask lots of question.
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Well done to the following children, who have been recognised this week!
Primary Praise and Recognition
very week each teacher chooses two children from their class to receive a certificate E in assembly, one 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.
Curie Class: Maya Kimborowicz – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for asking the visiting paramedic a brilliant question; ‘Why did you choose to become a paramedic?’) Abdullah Shahzad – Scholar of the Week (for writing a descriptive adventure story about ‘Fireman Ben’.) Maxwell Class: Shakira Choudhury – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always being honest and telling the truth.) Mahilan Sathis Kumar – Scholar of the Week (for great story writing.) Newton Class: Zara Daykin – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always being kind.) Jeevan Hunjan – Scholar of the Week (for the great effort she puts into phonics lessons.)
Britten Class: Kuljit Aytan – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for his open and honest approach to life.) Nadia Khan – Scholar of the Week (for her confident and determined approach to subtraction.) Fitzgerald Class: Ali Ullah – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always being honest about his behaviour.) Khadijah Bukhari – Scholar of the Week (for being a leader in maths with her partner.)
Glennie Class: Ceylan Warner – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always showing humility in class.) Mariam Chowdury – Scholar of the Week (for designing and creating an amazing animal printing block.)
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. Hanad Ali Eesa Hussain Milan Richards Kashan Shahzad Yanis Benjamin Hammad Siddique Anum Imran Faheem Ahmedabadi
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 ‘bronze’ certificate will be presented during the Celebration and Awards Assembly. Ibrahim Nasiri Arsal Anjum
Headteacher’s Lunch
Well done to the following pupils who have been nominated for the Headteacher’s Lunch next week on Thursday 19th May. An invitation will be given to the children during our Celebration and Awards Assembly: Maryam Nawaz Mohammad Ahmer Ahmer Abdullah Shahzad Yusuf Mahmud Malaika Hussain Ali Ullah Rhea Thirumal
Newton Newton Curie Maxwell Britten Fitzgerald Glennie
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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. Curie
99.3%
Maxwell
96.3%
Newton
91.6%
Britten
97.8%
Fitzgerald
95.2%
Glennie
98.3%
Overall Attendance: 96.4 Well done Curie class who are the winners for this week and were joint winners last week! As it’s the last week of the half term next week, it would be great to see classes with 100%. National average attendance for primary schools is 96.1%. 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% 6 INA Newsletter
ATTENDANCE
Regular attendance is a crucial factor in students’ educational development and ability to achieve their full potential.
"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 who 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. Week commencing 23rd May – Discovery Discovery comprises seven dispositions: Energy and Enthusiasm, Noticing, Open-Mindedness and Curiosity, Imagining and Creativity
At School: • • • •
We make our lessons fun and interactive every day so that every child loves learning and has a sense of enthusiasm about everything they do. Our lessons are very hands on and we ask the children to share their learning with their ‘talk partner’. We talk to the children about looking out for the details on things around them, to look closely at the bugs and the leaves in the playground and what happens to everything as the seasons change. We encourage the children to check their work and try to spot any errors they may have made. Through our topic approach, we engender a sense of curiosity and wonder in the children, so that they are keen to go home and find out more. We talk about human characteristics and traits and what makes us all the same but also what makes us different and that it is good to have differences and to appreciate them with an open mind. Every area of the curriculum helps the children to become more creative –either through role-play, stories, music and PE – helping the children to use their imaginations.
At Home: Encourage your child to use their imagination by making up stories together, or suggesting ways in which they could change parts of a story they know well. They could either change the gender of the characters, have them go on a different adventure etc. Pupils love to role play different characters and it is often even more fun when the adults join in too. Play along and have fun! Play games with your child like ‘I spy’ where you can see how many things they can notice beginning with a certain sound or letter they may already know or ask your child to think about an object and describe it using powerful adjectives. Ask questions like ‘I wonder what would happen if…?’ or ‘What do you think might happen if?’ or ‘Why do you think…? These types of deeper questions will encourage the children to use their creativity and imagination more fully. Either independently or with help, encourage your child to read or research more information around the topics they are studying in class. Year 1 could be finding out facts about the world, finding out information about different countries – their flag, the capital city etc.
Tam Broadway, Head of Primary
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Key Dates for the SummerTerm 2016: Primary Future Key Dates for Summer Term Year 1 Visit to Colchester Zoo – Monday 23rd May Cake Sale – Friday 27th May 3.45-4.45pm Half Term Break – Friday 27th May Back to School – Monday 6th June Newton Class Assembly (Newton Class Parents Invited) – Friday 17th June 3.00pm Staff Inset Days – School Closed Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th June Reception Visit to Old MacDonald’s Farm – Thursday 30th June Staff Inset Day – Friday 8th July Coffee Morning with the Head of Primary – Tuesday 12th July 9.00-10.00am Reports Sent Home – Friday 15th July Parent Progress Meetings – Tuesday 19th July Celebration and Awards Assembly – Wednesday20th July – Times TBC Last Day of Term – Wednesday 20th July – 12.15pm Finish Selling of School Uniform – Friday 22nd July
Cake Sale – Friday 27th May The Primary will be hosting a fundraising cake sale on Friday 27th May, the last day of the half term. We invite you all to come along to the dining hall after picking up your child up to purchase some of the delicious cakes that will be on sale. We also welcome any cake donations, but ask of course that any cakes that are donated are clearly labelled with their ingredients and ask that all cakes are nut free please. All funds raised will go towards enhancing the children’s outside learning environment. 8 INA Newsletter