Headteacher Newsletter Issue 10
FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER ISSUE 10: 14.2.20
Staff changes
Angela Davies will be leaving us at half term to pursue other opportunities. We wish her well and look forward to working with her in a relief capacity.
We are really pleased to welcome Sarah O’Brien to the team. She will be the new kitchen assistant after half term.
Thank you Friends of Clavering and the Clavering Firework Committee!
We would like to say a huge thank you to the Friends of Clavering and the numerous donations to all the events that they organise. We have now been able to buy two more computer screens for the school to replace the old style Interactive Whiteboards. Now every classroom has a screen to teach from and use.
We would also like to thank the Clavering Firework Committee who kindly donated £1500. We are now able to buy a third screen which will replace the interactive whiteboard in the hall. As you are aware, this is used for our Wider Opportunity sessions as well as assemblies and training events.
We are very grateful as this will make such a difference to the children and the school as a whole.
School Council Round Robin
On Monday 10th February School Council organised a ‘Pay to Play’ afternoon to raise money for new playtime equipment. All the classes were divided into their House Groups and had a fun afternoon playing games together. We raised £490! Thank you all for your support and the School Council will soon choose some new equipment for everyone to enjoy.
Paws B Mindfulness
We continue to promote mindfulness throughout the school this term. Early Years and children in Years 1-3 are taking part in cosmic kids yoga, visualisations, Relax Kids, massage and activities such as colouring and play dough. Years 3-6 continue to follow the Paws B curriculum and are learning about how the different parts of the brain work, different breathing techniques and strategies for concentration and focus and to help overcome worries and fears.
Relax Kids Year 1
Sarah Birch kindly came in for a lovely Relax Kids Session with Class One. We learnt the 7 steps to relaxation using our current English story of Little Red Riding Hood. The children really enjoyed themselves, we would like to thank Sarah for coming in.
Friends of Clavering Valentine’s Disco
The children enjoyed the Valentine Disco this week. Thank you to the Friends of Clavering for all their hard work organising this event.
Tag Rugby
On Wednesday 5th February Year 4 took part in a Tag Rugby Tournament at JFAN. We had two teams competing, A and B team against four other local schools. Luckily, it was a beautiful sunny morning. Both Teams played 3 games against the other schools, each team displayed good tag rugby skills and played well as a team. Team A came second in their group and Team B won their group. Well done to everyone who took part and thank you to Mrs Lawless, Mr Heald and Mr Snelling for their help.
Sports Hall Athletics events Years 4 & 6
A team from Year 6 represented Clavering at the family sports hall athletics at JFAN last week. They performed extremely well and were in equal first place all the way to the last race. Unfortunately we lost by the narrowest margin coming a very well fought second place to Great Chesterford. The team do however get to compete again as they have qualified for the Uttlesford finals at Lord Butler this week.
On Wednesday 12th February classes 6 and 4 took part in the Uttlesford Sports Hall Athletics having qualified in the first round. Everyone did really well and worked really hard. Year 4 came 3rd overall and Year 6 came 3rd out of 6 schools, that’s a big achievement we should be proud of. We all took part in field events such as javelin, chest push, long jump, speed bonce and vertical jump. Then we did lots of track events, races and relays. It was all great fun and we really enjoyed going.
Kitty and Olly
Cake Sale
Recently, a close family friend had cancer. I wanted to do something to help and wanted to raise money. So I spoke to my friends and we came up with the idea of Cookies v Cancer which would be a bake sale. I also sold some of my old toys. My Dad did Movember and we had a collection at my Mum’s 50th birthday party. Darragh’s parents held a Murder Mystery evening. Thank you for all your generous donations. We raised a whopping £1365.
The bake sale alone raised £207. All the money will go to Cancer Research and Amazon Wish List for children with cancer.
Parent Forum
We would like to welcome two new representatives to the Parent Forum – Jo to year 6 and Holli to year 2. We would also like to thank Victoria and Lisa, the previous representatives for their support. We still have two vacancies for Reception class. If you are interested please contact the school office.
- Year R vacancy and vacancy
- Year 1 Sam Lawton Katherine Elphick
- Year 2 Holli Thomas and Nienke Van de sande
- Year 3 Davinia Skinner and Elizabeth Warr
- Year 4 Fiona Phillip and Sonja Phipps
- Year 5 Amanda Goane and Laura Donlon
- Year 6 Lucy Hill and Jo Harris
Sharing Assemblies – an invitation!
We would like to invite our parents to attend one of your child’s Sharing Assemblies. The assemblies take place in the hall on a Friday afternoon and start at 2.45pm. Listed below are dates when your child’s class will be taking part in a Sharing Assembly. Please join us on this date:
Spring Term:
Class 6 7th February 2020
Class 4 20th March 2020
Year 3 27th March 2020
Summer Term:
Class Reception date to be arranged
Class 1 date to be arranged
Class 2 date to be arranged
Class 5 date to be arranged
Snow Patrol
It’s that time of year again. If you would like to volunteer your services to help Mr Docking to clear the school grounds in the event of snow, please let the office know so that we can compile a list of names. We are very grateful for any offers of help, so that school can, where possible, remain open.
Bad weather
In the event of severe weather conditions and possible school closure a notice will be placed on the school website.
Parents will be notified via our school website or the Essex County Council on the ‘Emergency School Closures’page: https://www.essex.gov.uk/education-schools/schools/dates/pages/emergency-school-closures.aspx
Please note that when the school is open in bad weather a path will be cleared to enable you to gain access to the school but care does still need to be taken.
Communication Chain
Just as a reminder, in order for the communication chain to be effective it is important that phone calls are made as opposed to emails or texts, in order to ensure contact is made. Normally the chain will be activated the morning of the school closure as the decision is made on the day, unless in exceptional circumstances we know of the need in advance. We will try to open where possible, hence the decision being made at the last minute, once we can assess the school site. We will endeavour to give you as much notice as possible, but as you are aware it takes some time for the communication to pass through.
Facebook can be used as a supplementary means of communication if requested to do so by a member of the leadership team but this is not part of the school process. ParentMail, the Communication Chain, the school website and the Essex link above are the school notifications.
Thank you again for your support with this process.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
17th – 21st February Half Term
2nd – 6th March Professional Week
4th March Parent Consultations 3.30 – 6 pm
5th March Parent Consultations 5 – 7.30pm
20th March Sharing Assembly – an invitation for Class 4 parents 2.45 pm start
27th March Sharing Assembly – an invitation for Class 3 parents 2.45 pm start
30th March School Council Spring Fayre
30th March Tray Day 3.15 – 4pm
31st March Church
3rd April End of term
20th April Summer Term starts
May Day 2020 Bank Holiday Change
Following the announcement by the Government that, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the May Day bank holiday in 2020 will now be Friday 8th May 2020, instead of Monday 4th May 2020.
ACHIEVEMENTS
STAR OF THE WEEK
Week ending January 31st
Year R Zander – putting up his hand to answer questions
Year One Jemima – for a fantastic attitude to learning
Year Two Luke – for a positive attitude to learning and his writing
Year Three Wilf – for a great effort and ideas writing his Magic Box poem
Year Four Harry – for a big improvement in Mental Maths
Year Five Elizabeth – for taking good care with her presentation and work
Year Six Jack – for good leadership skills and for being a team player
Week ending February 7th
Year R Alfie – for excellent and neat writing and colouring
Year One Lenny – for his positive attitude to his work
Year Two Samuel – for continued hard work in Maths
Year Three Aurelia – for a great attitude towards learning in Maths
Year Four Chloe – for a positive attitude towards her learning
Year Five Henry – for this thoughtful contributions in Science
Year Six Rebecca – for an excellent piece of writing about modern day Stonehenge
HEADTEACHER’S AWARD
For children who have achieved their personal best:
Reception:
Evie – for excellent effort and progress in reading and writing
Beebee – for outstanding work in Maths
Year One:
Tristan – for fantastic improvement with his phonics
Tommie – for putting in a lot of effort into his writing
Year Two:
Oscar – for fantastic effort in writing, especially spelling
Luna – for continued improvement in reading, writing and Maths
Year Three:
Aaron – for great effort and improvement in Maths
Hadley – for great progress in reading
Year Four:
Martha – for her improved Mental Maths
Henry – for his imagination and descriptive writing
Year Five:
Max – for pushing his boundaries to be more expressive and creative
Rose – for excellent thoughtful contributions
Year Six:
Ollie – for consistent effort and enthusiasm in all his learning
Mia D – for consistent effort in her approach to all her learning resulting in excellent progress and achievement
Cartoon Attitude Learning Awards
We have our super hero learning behaviours, which the children created in their house groups during friendship week last year. This half term the children worked hard on resilience, championed by “Resileroo”. Two children from each class were nominated for a special award and will enjoy a hot chocolate treat with Miss Allsop.
Reception: Jake and Esmee
Class 1: Milly and Lenny
Class 2: Rosie Ann and Harry
Class 3: Brian and Taylor
Class 4: Olivia and Rory
Class 5: Grace and Ted R
Class 6: Rebecca and Isabelle
THE TIDIEST CLASSROOM OF THE WEEK!
Our cleaners are judging the tidiest classroom each week. The winners are announced in assembly on a Friday. The class that has won the most times at the end of a term will be awarded an afternoon with an activity of their choice or an extra playtime.
Winners:
Week beginning –
13.1.20 – year 3
27.1.20 – year Reception
3.2.20 – year 3
‘IT DIDN’T GO UNNOTICED’ AWARD
Year 3, especially Anna, Aurelia, Amelie, Matilda and Kayleigh – thank you for helping the Midday Assistants and Playleaders
REMINDERS:
- DINNER MONEY – School dinners must be paid for in advance. Now that payment is on-line, please check your KS2 child’s account regularly to ensure it is in credit. Dinners cost £2.20 per day, £11.00 per week, £66 for the first half of Spring Term, £132 for the whole of the Spring Term. If you have registered for an account, to make a payment, log into scopay.com.
- SWIMMING – Year 2 will have a term of swimming instruction in the Spring term. If your child is fit to attend school then they are fit to go swimming, unless a medical note is provided. Swimming will commence Monday 13th January for 11 weeks. A voluntary contribution, which covers the cost of the swimming teaching and transport is £70.00 Please make cheques payable to Clavering Primary School.
If you have any questions at any time then please feel free to make an appointment
Wishing you a happy half term break
Rosalind Allsop
Headteacher
