Childline - not just a 'line'
Childline isn’t just about making a phone call!
The Childline website has lots of valuable information, but one area we like is their Calm Zone. The activities aim to help children feel better when they’re feeling anxious, scared or sad. Although children could be encouraged to visit the website themselves, these are good techniques for you to use with your child. Ideas include breathing exercises, a ‘let it go’ box and creating a ‘sense drawer’.
School Savings Club
The next School Savings Club paying in date is 03 February 2020 at 3.15-3.45pm.
The account is open to all children and it is free to set up. As there is not minimum deposit requirement, it is a great way for your child/children to begin to manage their own money and understand the importance of saving. We offer paying in sessions every half term where you can bring along any savings to be paid into your child’s account.
As an extra incentive, Year 3 pupils who open an account, or who currently have an account, will be credited with £10.
If you’re unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be deposited to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Mrs Tiffany.
Here are the remaining paying in dates for this year (the penultimate Monday of each half term).
- 23 March
- 11 May
- 06 July
To find out more about the accounts or if your child would like to open account, please enquire at the office.
Period products
You might have read that the Department for Education has launched a scheme which will provide access to free period products in schools in England. Alongside this, Leeds Council launched a similar scheme a few months ago.
This scheme will ensure that period products are available to young people if they need them, when they need them. This will include supporting those who have started their period unexpectedly, forgotten to bring products with them and those who can’t afford to buy them.
Although there are some restrictions around how many products we can order, we’d like to assure you that the products are in school if your child needs to use them unexpectedly, or has forgotten them, or can’t afford them.
Fantastic feedback
Thanks to those of you who visited us this morning for another one of our popular Watch us while we work sessions. We hold these so you can come into school and get a flavour of what we do, which will hopefully help you to support your child at home, too.
- ‘Excellent teaching and learning – Year 6 were really focused.’
- ‘Teaching was clear and constant checking that children were on task.’
- ‘All abilities were catered for – learning and behaviour expectations were evident.’
- ‘Great to see my own child learning and how she is feeling, reacting, behaving and managing.’
- ‘Great to see the high quality of teaching going on in the school.’
- ‘Picked up some good ideas to support learning of times tables.’
Spring term after-school clubs
Our spring term after-school clubs will be starting next week and while many of the clubs are full, we do have some spaces available for the following clubs.
Attendance matters
Our whole-school attendance figure so far this year is 96.5% – that’s a little lower than it was this time last year.
However, a big well done to Year 2 children (and mums, dads and carers at home) for their amazing attendance: it’s just short of 98%!
Well done to Year 3, with a figure of 96.8%. Also well done to our Reception class – their attendance matches the school average, which is really good because it’s quite often the case that Reception classes have a lower figure (because they may be more susceptible to bugs going around).
All the attendance figures are here:
- Reception – 96.5%
- Year 1 – 96.2%
- Year 2 – 97.9%
- Year 3 – 96.8%
- Year 4 – 96%
- Year 5 – 95.9%
- Year 6 – 96.1%
Is your child in Year 2 or Year 6?
If your child is in Year 2 or Year 6, they’re in the final year of Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) or Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6). This means that towards the end of the year, they’ll be doing end of key stage assessments, often called the SATs.
These short videos help to explain more – just be aware the videos are a couple of years old so some details like dates won’t be accurate.
In the past, parents have said they’ve found the videos helpful. Nevertheless, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, speak with your child’s class teacher or Mrs Weekes.
Does your child use TikTok?
If you’re child uses TikTok, read this guide for parents.
TikTok is a video-sharing social media app available on iOS and Android which lets users create, share, and view user created videos much in a similar manner to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. It’s main draw, however, is that users can record and upload bite-sized looping videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing to popular music or soundbites, often for comedic effect, which can then be further enhanced with filters, emojis and stickers. TikTok has been designed with the young user in mind and has a very addictive appeal. At the beginning of 2019 it skyrocketed in popularity to become the iOS store’s most downloaded app with over 33 million downloads. Estimates suggest that it now has anything between 500 million and over 1billion monthly active users worldwide.
Living and learning: d:side visits
This half term, our Living and Learning focus includes staying safe. We have arranged for visitors to come into school to help to deliver this key aspect of education.
We have been working with d:side for many years and they will be visiting school to deliver sessions based around drug education and e-safey sessions to coincide with Safer Internet Day (11 February).
d:side is a comprehensive drug & alcohol education programme that encourages children to make positive & healthy life-choices whilst promoting a pro-active attitude to life. They focus on developing the children’s knowledge, skills & attitude, whilst equipping them with the appropriate life skills to successfully manage sensitive situations with peers & encourage a positive approach to life.
As part of these visits, there are two specific parent/carer information sessions.
Tuesday 21 January 3.05-3.30pm d:side drug education informal information session (open to all parents)
A d:side representative will be available to provide information about your child’s drug education learning with d:side and answer any other related enquiries.
Tuesday 04 February 2:50-3.30pm d:side e-safety informal information session (open to all parents)
A d:side representative will be available to provide information about your child’s e-safety learning with d:side and answer any other related enquiries.
Please contact school if you would like to attend.
Tennis opportunities
Today, Year 2 – Year 6 pupils have taken part in tennis sessions to give children a taster of tennis and to promote sessions starting locally at Chapel Allerton Tennis and Squash Club.
