Parents' Area

Updates

My Job as an Engineer Webinar

KS2 joined in with a live lesson on Wednesday this week, exploring what it was like to be an engineer. Exposing children to ambitious careers is crucial, and we hope all our children grow up to be ambitious and aspirational. Highlighting careers in STEM subjects is a focus for all schools and we hope our children learnt some of the highlights of being an engineer during the webinar

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Story Time with Local Author Sarah Corkill

Pupils in KS1 had story time with a difference today! Local author Sarah Corkill visited them and read her amazing story Maggie Magazine Gets Recycled.

This story enabled the children to make predictions about what Maggie Magazine would be turned into next. We know that learners need to recap on ideas in order to store knowledge into their long term memory and Sarah’s book was all about materials so they were able to draw on their scientific knowledge in this area, while also learning about recycling and how we can take care of our world.

The children listened and made thoughtful comments and asked questions about where Sarah’s inspiration had come from in writing the book. It left the children feeling enthused about stories, junk modelling and recycling!

Welcoming our New Parents

We know that starting school is such an important time in the lives of our children and their families.  Transitions and change can be tricky and therefore we have an important and robust system for supporting children’s smooth transition into our school, in order to give them the best possible start.

Today we met many parents of children due to start Reception in September.

They found out about our school philosophy, curriculum and practical details such as the routines and uniform.

Lyndsey joined us from the Health Visiting and School Nurse team in order to support parents with ‘school readiness’. She chatted to parents about eating and sleeping and was able to signpost them to other health departments. We work closely with this team of professionals to support children’s development and learning, especially in the EYFS.

We are looking forward to sharing lunch with our new families, playing with the children during Stay and Play sessions and visiting them at home in the coming weeks.

A Little Seed for Me to Sow . . . .

As part of our ‘A is for Alive’ project we have been exploring plants and their features.

The children have read a range of books such as The Tiny Seed, recited poems from the Poetry Basket and sang songs about key concepts of growth.

The practitioners have planned first hand experiences to deepen children’s understanding and knowledge. Here is Mrs Matthews planting pumpkin seeds that we have grown.

“That’s the shoot! It’s grown.”

“Look at the leaves. They are green.”

“Water it.”

By caring for plants and our environment children are learning key life skills. The Nursery children look forward to harvesting the pumpkins in September when they are in Reception.

This is crucial knowledge to support children’s later learning in science throughout school; In year 1 they will be describing the structure of plants in detail.

A Visit from the RSPCA

Nursery and Reception learnt about Louise’s job role and how she cares for pets that have not been looked after by their owners.

The children learnt five key things that animals need to thrive. Honey helped demonstrate some of these!

This knowledge will help their understanding about living things, animals and jobs. It builds on the learning they have already done and they have already started to use it in the role-play and small world area.

This is also linked to our school value of respect.

The Huge Benefits of Snack Time!

Snack time in nursery is an opportunity for lots of amazing learning!

It is a nurturing and social daily event in which children develop their self-regulation and executive function skills by sharing out the china plates and cups and working together to ensure everyone’s needs and wants are met.

This week, during our learning about plants that we can eat, the children noticed seeds in the watermelon! This is crucial scientific knowledge, needed to understand the structure of plants later in year 1. The children used their knowledge of subitising to recognise groups of seeds. They explored different representations of quantities by lining up the seeds. Adults were able to develop children’s reasoning skills through word problems and the use of stem sentences.

“I can see you have eaten a seed because there is two left and one and two make three altogether.”

“I have given her two seeds, how can I make two into three?”

The children also enjoyed poppy seed biscuits that they had made during their play.

Google Drawing Creations!

Year 5 are loving their Computing unit on Vector Graphics this term. We have been using Google Drawings to create pictures using smaller shapes. We have used tools such as copy, paste, resize, fill, line weight, alignment and zoom to make them as good as they can be! Check some of them out below:

Safeguarding at SAF

Additional Safeguarding Measures at SAF    

 

We have introduced some new safeguarding measures in the main entrance as you come into school. We have installed a set of lockers where we will ask visitors / parents to lock their phones securely away if they are attending a meeting so that they are unable to be used when inside the school. You will be responsible for the key for your locker and must keep hold of this during your time in school.

 

 

Parents who are attending reading morning or a class assembly must make sure that their phones are away in a pocket or a bag and not being used to record – if you are witnessed doing this you may be asked to leave.

 

We have also added some concern slips so that if any visitors or parents see or hear anything that might be a  safeguarding concern whilst inside the school, you can record this down. These can be completed and handed into the main office where a DSL will action them. These cannot be anonymous.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Safeguarding and Inclusion Team