Happy New Year!
I hope that all our families managed to have a great Christmas and New Year break!
Parent Workshop: The importance of reading
We had a very productive and well received parent workshop last Thursday in which Mrs Ridley and Mrs Preece explained the process of teaching and learning in phonics, Mrs Dabill presented strategies for learning spellings and I talked about the critical skill of reading. For those of you who were unable to attend (and as a reminder for those who were) there is a copy of the presentation we used included in the email you received this newsletter in and copies of it via the link below and on the school website. What I can’t do is replicate the discussion that was had alongside the presentation, but I hope you get a good flavour of the evening.
Reading is the single most important thing that children can do at home to improve their academic performance. It has benefits across the curriculum and studies have shown that children who read regularly and widely achieve more highly at GCSE, A-Level and beyond. 15/20 minutes per day just before bedtime is a perfect time to read.
Worship Theme
This half term we will be thinking about ‘Courage’. It fits nicely with the broader school improvement themes of ‘resilience’, ‘self-regulation’, ‘challenge’ and ‘success’, which we will be focusing on at school over the next 12-18 months.
Behaviour
The School Council have been looking at how we can improve behaviour at school even further and have created the following statement to supplement our existing rules (Be Caring, Have Respect, Try Your Best):
“Children at Appleshaw St Peter’s will always try their best. They will show care for other people and property and will show respect for everyone and everything around them. They will act with self-discipline and aim to set a good example to others.”
School Governors
The Governors at school are always looking at ways in which they can better support and challenge the school. They have recently decided to appoint class-link governors, which means that each class will get its dedicated class governor who will get to know the children and the parents a little better. One of the forums for enabling Governors to interact with parents and governors will be through termly learning presentations which each class will put on to celebrate the work they have been doing. I will confirm these dates as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Ian Hickman
| 9.2.18 | PTA Valentines Disco, 6:00pm |
| 12.2.18 | Spring Half Term |
| 19.2.18 | Day Closure for Staff Training |
| 20.2.18 | Pupils return to school after the half term break |
| 27.2.18 | Maple Class Swimming for 6 weeks |
| 2.3.18 | Brain Tumour Charity ‘Bandana Bake’ Coffee Morning and cake Sale |
| 29.3.18 | Last Day of the Spring Term |
| 16.4.18 | Pupils return after the Easter break |
| 7.5.18 | May Day Bank Holiday |
| 14.5.18 | SATs week for Year 6 pupils |
| 28.5.18 | Summer Half Term |
| 4.6.18 | Day Closure for Staff training |
| 20.7.18 | Last day of the school year for pupils |
| 23.7.18 | School Closed: Day Closure for staff training |