Dear Parents, Pupils, Staff and Governors,

Parents’ Evenings

Thank you for your support at our recent Parents’ Evenings, where we saw 70/72 or 97% of our families. In addition, thank you for your generous support at our Book Fair! Your purchases helped us make over £300 in commission which will enable us to buy further resources to support reading in school.

Wreath Workshop

By all accounts a great time was had at the wreath making workshop on Tuesday. Thank you to Rosie Wilson and her team of organisers for making the event such a success and to those who helped to tidy up afterwards, including Mr Davies whose help was much appreciated.

Christmas

A reminder of our Christmas events:

• UKULELE CONCERT: Years 1 & 2, Monday 11th at 2:45pm (Please note the change of time, requested by the ukulele teacher)
• MILLWAY HOUSE: Oak Class, Tuesday 12th, leaving at 1:30pm. A separate letter has gone home about this to Oak Class.
• ‘BORN IN A BARN’: Willow Class, Beech Class and Maple Class, Wednesday 13th December at 10am and on Thursday 14th December at 2:30pm.
• CHRISTMAS CONCERT: Friday 15th December, 5:30pm for a 6:30pm start, singing and musical presentations from Maple and Beech Classes, performances by the choir, communal singing, photo booth, hot dogs and other refreshments. I appreciate that some families already have other commitments, but I would hope that as many of you attend this event as possible. #AppleFest was great and I hope this will be similar; a chance to get together, provide the children with an opportunity to perform and for adults to have a nice social evening. Please return your slip indicating how many of you are attending as soon as possible. (There’s a spare at the foot of this newsletter if you have lost the original letter).
• CAROL SERVICE: Monday 18^th, 6pm at Appleshaw Church. We’d love as many of you to attend as possible to help us celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Key Stage 1 children (Willow and Beech Classes) should come dressed in their Nativity outfits.
• CHRISTMAS LUNCH: Wednesday 20th December
• CHRISTMAS JUMPERS: Children (and staff!) are encouraged to wear Christmas jumpers on the last two days of term, although there will be a fine for the privilege (I suggest £1 for each day). Money raised will be split between Save the Children and CLIC Sargent.
• LAST DAY: School will finish on 21st December at the usual time and will start again for pupils on Thursday 4th January, when we will be treated to a pantomime performance of Dick Whittington, kindly paid for by the PTA.

Indoor Athletics and singing at Harrow Way

Representatives from Years 5 and 6 have spent time at Harrow Way this week in different pursuits. One group spent Monday afternoon and Thursday evening there, first practising and then performing to a large audience as part of Harrow Way’s Winter Concert. Another group of children attended the Indoor Athletics competition on Thursday afternoon, competing against other schools in various different ‘field’ and ‘track’ events. Both groups represented the school superbly and were a credit to themselves, their families and the school. Well done Violet, Logan, William, Oliver, Jonty, Cleo, Lydia, Ruby, Louis, Bella, Sophie, Pamela, Alicia, Sienna and Aaron.

Egyptian Day

Well done to Miss Yelland and the children of Maple Class who put on a super Egyptian Day on Tuesday, culminating with their presentation to parents at the end of the day.

I was really impressed with the quality of their homework and the enthusiasm which they have displayed towards their learning.

Times Tables

As you know we have a significant focus on learning and embedding times tables facts at Appleshaw. The expectations are as follows:

• By the end of Year 2: children should know x2, x5 and x5 facts
• By the end of Year 4: children should know all facts (x and ÷) to 12 x 12

Tables facts are practised regularly at school, but additional practise at home really makes a difference and those that are making the effort at home (through having a positive attitude, perseverance and self-discipline) are making better progress as a result. I regularly tell the children that there is no easy way round learning table facts and that regular practice (as with anything we want to improve in life) results in improvement. Well done to all those children who have worked extra hard at home to meet the challenges set!

Day Closures

We have three further planned day closures for staff training this academic year; they are listed on the dates below. Please note that the last of these will be on Monday 23^rd July 2018, which means that the last day of term for pupils will be Friday 20^th July.