Headteacher Newsletter Issue 19
FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER ISSUE 19: 14.7.23
This is the final letter of the term and once again I would like to thank all members of the school community for their support and hard work, which has resulted in another successful year for Clavering Primary School.
The Year 6 are to be congratulated on their SATs results (details below). After reading all the reports, it would appear that all the children have progressed well across the school and have enjoyed their learning. We are very proud of them all.
We wish Year 6 well as they leave to attend their secondary schools in September. We wish them all every success for the future. A special thank you to our Heads of School and Sport Ambassadors. They have been an asset to the school.
Staff Structure
We are sad to announce that Mrs Hall will be leaving us at the end of the academic year. She has been at the school for 19 years. During this time she has taught almost all the year groups and a variety of subjects. She has been a Senior Leader including Deputy Head. We would like to thank her for all her hard work and the support she has given to the school over the years and we wish her well for the future. We are pleased to welcome two new members of teaching staff Amy Battrick and Nikki Gates. Nikki has worked with us before in a relief capacity. We are looking forward to working with her in a more permanent role.
Gail Broadbent will be leaving her booster teacher role after 9 years. We would like to thank her for all her support over the years. Lynn Lipscomb will be taking over this role.
Rachel Betts will be ending her Parent Governor role at the end of the academic year. We would like to thank her for all the support she has given the school over the years as a parent, parent governor and previous Chair of Friends of Clavering.
| Year group | Class teacher | Learning Support Assistant |
| Reception | Mrs Course | Mrs Berrett |
| Class One (Year One)
|
Miss Battrick and Mrs Camp | Mrs Abrahams
Mrs Skinner, Mrs Neal and Mrs Pellew PPA Ms Crosby and Mr Snelling |
| Class Two (Year Two)
|
Mrs Tokeley | Mrs Neal
Mrs Abrahams PPA Ms Crosby and Mr Snelling |
| Class Three (Year Three)
|
Miss Hagger | Mrs Bond
Mr Snelling PPA Ms Crosby and Mr Snelling |
| Class Four (Year Four)
|
Mrs Ullmann | Mrs Elliston
PPA Ms Crosby and Mr Snelling |
| Class Five (Year Five)
|
Mrs Rudkin and Mrs Gates | Mrs Elliston
Mrs Martin Mrs Abrahams PPA Ms Crosby and Mr Snelling |
| Class Six (Year Six)
|
Miss Morton | Mrs Neal
Mr Snelling Mrs Martin PPA Ms Crosby and Mr Snelling |
The children will be spending time with their new teacher on Monday 17th July 11 – 12pm.
Clavering Primary School Art Work displayed at The National Gallery
| Miss Morton and Mrs Rudkin attended the opening ceremony to launch the exhibition of the winning art work following the Take One Picture competition last night.
The prestigious competition, open to primary schools nationally, showcases responses to a chosen painting from the National Gallery’s collection. Clavering’s two winning submissions will be displayed in the Gallery from TODAY to 8th October this summer.
This year’s painting, A Shipwreck on Stormy Seas by Claude-Joseph Vernet, inspired the children at Clavering School to explore the experience of sailors on board a shipwrecked ship through writing, drama, collaborative paintings, wire sculpture and digital recreations of the painting featuring the children themselves. They also made links to their science, looking at the refraction of light in water, and to their history learning about trade, in particular the spice trade with reference to Saffron Walden’s spice heritage, and to consider the possible cargo on board such a sailing ship. The children’s research led them to experiment with tie dye, using dyes made from spices from the spice trade and other natural pigments. Their tie-dyed squares were used to make sails for sailing ships in a large-scale collaborative work. This project, as well as a dance and drama project by Year 3, will feature in the National Gallery’s exhibition in the Sunley Room this summer.
We hope you can all get to see it. This is an amazing achievement.
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Lunch for parents – year 6
The Heads of School organised a very successful lunch for year 6 parents last week. This is a system we can now use for the parents of other year groups. Thank you Heads of School for all your hard work on this.
FOC Summer Fayre
Thank you to Anna, Jenny and their Friends of Clavering team for an excellent Summer Fayre last Friday. Everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time working around all the stalls and activities. We are in the process of calculating how much we have raised.
Tray Day
Thank you to all the parents who attended Tray Day recently. We hope you found the event informative and that you enjoyed looking at the work your child has produced this year.
Reports
Your child’s annual school report will be shared with you today. This is in addition to the new Interim Report that was circulated earlier in the year. I hope you find them useful and an informative summary of your child’s progress during the current academic year, as well as information as to how they are performing against the national expectations.
2023 KS2 SATs Results
We would like to congratulate Year 6 for their SATs results. We are pleased with the results. In most areas, we have exceeded national and Essex expectations for another year.
Progress measures are to be released in due course, by the government, and we are yet to hear what the higher achievement threshold is. Outlined below are the test results taken during SATs week and the Teacher Assessment grade for the whole year.
In summary (1 child equates to approximately 3.5%.) –
Reading: Test 86 % (2022 national 72%). Teacher Assessment 93%
Grammar Punctuation and Spelling: GPS test 89% (2022 national 78%).
Writing (teacher assessment) 89% (2022 national 69%) There isn’t a test for writing.
Mathematics: Test 71% (71% 2022 national). Teacher Assessment 82%
We are particularly pleased with our potential Greater Depth scores. Greater Depth is a much higher level than the National Expected. If the Threshold is the same as previous years, we attained: Reading 46%, GPS 46 % and Mathematics 32%. These are excellent results.
Congratulations to the Kitchen Team
The kitchen had their unannounced external food safety inspection last week and once again achieved a 5 star rating.
Dinner money
From September we will be increasing the cost of the school dinners from £2.35 to £2.85 per day. We appreciate the challenge of managing household budgets and have kept the increase to the lowest possible rate, but due to the rising costs around us we are finding it difficult to balance our catering budget. The increase in costs is around 23% and our increase in dinner money is 17.5%. If we don’t increase the daily amount, we will not be able to provide the depth and quality of our wonderful menu.
Dinner money reminder – Please ensure you have settled your accounts up to the end of the summer term, in particular those parents of children in Year 6. Thank you.
Important information – Term time holidays – Essex update
Improving school attendance is a key priority for all schools across Essex. Where families choose to take a family holiday during term time, this can detrimentally impact a pupil’s progress and can prevent them from fulfilling their true academic potential. Our school attendance policy, available via our school website, clearly sets out the process that parents should follow if they wish to apply for leave during term time. Please note that applications should only be made, if you feel that there are exceptional circumstances which mean that the leave cannot be taken during the school holidays. We would ask all parents to note that, where families choose to go on holiday during term time and the absences are coded as unauthorised, Essex County Council may not issue penalty notices and may instead proceed to prosecution and place the case directly before the Magistrates for their consideration in court.
Lateness
School starts at 8.50 a.m. We have noticed several children are consistently arriving late for school – ‘late’ is defined by not being within the school gates by 8.50 a.m. Please make every effort to be at school on time and if you know that your journey will be disrupted by road works, do allow time for this.
Please note that lateness is recorded on a per pupil basis.
Thank you.
Cost of Living Support
We know that there are families across Essex who are currently struggling with the rise in the cost of living. Colleagues have pulled together a special newsletter which gives information on some of the support they may be eligible for. Please share onwards with parents and carers. You can also find out more about cost of living support on the Cost of Living web hub.
Free School Meals Funding
You can register for Free Schools Meals Funding if you meet the criteria below.
If you have a child in Key Stage One and are receiving the free meal, which is part of the universal offer, you could be missing out on this additional funding for the school, which will support your child with their learning, if you meet the criteria below. You have to apply for this funding. If you think you meet the criteria below then please follow the guidance below and contact the school office.
Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:
- Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guarantee element of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
How to apply –
https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals
Mobile Phones
This is a gentle reminder not to use mobile phones whilst on the school site.
This is part of our safe-guarding policy for all our children.
Ooo000ooO
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
14th July Fun Run
17th July Class Swap
17th July Parent evening
18th July Parent evening
19th July Year 1 and 2 school trip
19th July Leavers assembly – 1.45pm
21st July Last day of term
4th September INSET Day – school closed to pupils
5th September First day of term
ACHIEVEMENTS
STAR OF THE WEEK
Week ending 30th June
Reception Michaela – for writing a brilliant riddle about a snail.
Year One Frankie-Mae – for great understanding and enthusiasm writing poetry in English
Year Two Willa – for asking questions to expand her learning of Queen Elizabeth I
Year Three Elise – for excellent effort when writing her diary this week particularly for using super similes
Year Four Alexa – for being such a supportive learning partner and for making so much progress in all her
learning
Year Five Theo – for always being such an enthusiastic reader
Year Six Away on residential
Week ending 7th July
Reception Peter – for his great effort in writing fantastic sentences with week
Year One Scarlett – for great engagement in her learning, sharing super answers
Year Two Fraser B – for excellent effort in DT this week, demonstrating great sewing and resilience
Year Three Lottie – for always being kind, considerate and polite
Year Four Joseph – for working so well with his peers and for producing an excellent line graph in Maths
Year Five Max H – for working hard at becoming an independent learner
Year Six Emmie – for her 100% attendance in year 6
HEADTEACHER’S AWARD
For children who have achieved their personal best:
Reception
Griff – outstanding progress in Maths, phonics and writing
Daisy – excellent progress in writing
Year One
Thea – fantastic effort and consideration in her writing.
Alice – for great effort and improvement in her phonics and reading.
Year Two
Willa – excellent attitude to learning and making brilliant progress in reading, writing and maths.
Archie – fantastic effort in all subjects and making brilliant progress in reading, writing and maths.
Year Three
Dylan – for a fantastic time at Clavering School.
Isabella – for a huge improvement to her attitude to learning.
Year Four
Mollie – for always putting so much care and thought into her work.
Rory – for writing at a high standard and using more adventurous language in his work especially in his poetry.
Year Five
Camden – for working so hard to give his best all year
Maddy – for bringing a ray of sunshine to our class and for giving 100% to all her work
Year Six
Brian – for his great focus and effort in all his lessons.
Joshua B – for always being kind and considerate and for improving his handwriting
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 term the children worked hard on creativity, championed by “Cre-elephant”. Two children from each class were nominated for a special award and will enjoy a hot chocolate treat with Miss Allsop.
Reception: Michaela and Juliet
Class 1: Cruz and Laura
Class 2: Astrid and Fraser C
Class 3: Christopher and Kitty
Class 4: Danny and Tilly
Class 5: Ernie and Oscar
Class 6: Anna and Lacey
Clubs Autumn Term 2023
| Monday | |
| Football Club | Year 4,5 & 6 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Tennis Club | Year 1-6 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Drama Club STING | Year 1-6 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Tuesday | |
| Dodgeball Club | Year 4,5 & 6 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Fitness Club | Year 1 & 2 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Board Game Club | Year 1-3 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Wednesday | |
| Football club | Year 3 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Fitness club | Year 4 – 6 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Choir | Year 2 – 6 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Thursday | |
| Football club | Year 1 & 2 3.20 – 4.20 |
| Relax Kids | Year TBC 3.20 – 4.20 |
All clubs will start the week beginning 11th September 2022
Music Lessons
Mrs Thomas will continue with piano lessons, starting the week commencing 11th September.
Swimming
Swimming lessons will commence on Monday 11th for Year 2.
Healthy and Safety notice regarding the wearing of earrings during PE
Just as a reminder, The Primary Code states that all jewellery is to be removed for PE lessons and taping over earrings is not allowed. This means that if pupils cannot take their earrings out they will have to sit out of PE until a time that they can be removed. Schools have to comply with this guidance.
If your child is about to have their ears pierced it is advisable for it to take place over the summer so that the earrings can be removed for PE ready for the start of the Autumn term.
If you have any questions at any time, please feel free to make an appointment.
Thank you for all your support this year and we wish you a happy and healthy Summer.
Rosalind Allsop
Headteacher
