Newsletter #17

Dear Parents, pupils, staff and governors,

SATs Week

I would like to begin this newsletter by saying a huge ‘well done’ to pupils in Year 6 who have sat through their SATs this week. Despite the hysteria that seems to be gripping the nation there were no tears or tantrums at Appleshaw. The tests were administered in a calm and orderly manner as I would expect and the children went about the business of tackling them with confidence. However, in my 17 years of teaching I haven’t seen such a challenging set of tests and the children should be very proud of their efforts; I know that Mrs Dabill is.

Civic Award

Could pupils is Years 2, 4 and 6 please return their scrapbooks after half term? We will be completing some work in school over the next few weeks to complete some other elements of the award but the core element of the award is now finished and I look forward to looking at what they have been up to.

New Caretaker

We were sad to see Mr Gerald Finch leave us at the end of April after being with us for just over two years. Thankfully we have been able to recruit a new caretaker quite swiftly; Mr Tom Davies will hopefully be starting with us before half term.

Worship theme

This half term we have been working on the theme of RESPECT and REVERENCE through our whole school worship. We have discussed reverence as having ‘deep respect’ for something and have referenced the natural world, animals and sacred objects and have thought about how we can show reverence at school.

Shakespeare Schools Festival

We have had confirmation that our play for 2016 will be Macbeth. Children currently in years 4 and 5 will be working with Mrs Dabill in the autumn term to rehearse ‘the Scottish play’ to be performed at The Lights theatre in Andover. More details will follow in September.

Walk to School Week

Next week is Walk to School Week. It’s an opportunity to encourage children to walk to school each day, rather than using the car and I hope that as many of you as possible are able to support this annual initiative. I realise that many of you have no choice but to drive each day but perhaps next week you could leave a bit earlier and park up at Randall Parker and walk down the hill? Of course, riding bikes or scooters is also an excellent way to take part. Tilly-May in Year 5 (our Junior Road Safety Officer), with help from Summer M and Grace have put together a PowerPoint all about road safety which they have presented to all the classes: see link below.

Jrso walk to school week

Boys

I was shocked to hear on the news yesterday that a baby girl born in 2016 will be 75% more likely to go to university than a boy, if current trends continue (source: BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36266753). This is an incredible, but worrying statistic. The report includes OECD data, gathered alongside international Pisa tests, that shows on average that boys are less likely to work hard at school, less likely to read for pleasure and more likely to be negative towards school and to dodge their homework. I do hope that the boys at this school are going to buck that trend and compete on an even keel with the girls!

Osmington Bay residential visit

I’m sure that Years 5 and 6 are looking forward to the week-long stay at Osmington Bay in June. There will be a meeting for parents to find out about the visit on Monday 23rd May at 3.45pm. This is an important meeting so please make every effort to attend.

Breakfast Club

We are still looking to recruit someone to help run our Breakfast Club. If you are interested or know someone who is then please enquire at the school office.

Music

I had very few expressions of interest in ukulele club for next year so unfortunately this means it is financially unviable.

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