Kindness, books & progress!

1. ISSUE 18|March 2014 Kindness, books & progress! Upcoming events Thurs 3rd AprilY4 Class Assembly Thurs 3rd April | 3.30pmFOPHS Easter Bake Fri 4th April | 2pmEnd of term Mon 21st AprilBANK HOLIDAY Tues 22nd AprilINSET Day Wed 23rd AprilChildren start back Thurs 24th AprilY5 and Y6 out – Sulgrave Manor Value of the month Many apologies for the lateness of this newsletter – we have had a new server installed and it is causing lots of access and printing problems! Our value of the month is Kindness. We talked about random acts of kindness, that they are choices and how small things can make a big difference. We thought about how we can show kindness to each other in school and the children reflected personally on something they were going to do in school that would be kind. Many shared what they had done in the subsequent assembly. Martin Smith, Headteacher Books to inspire boys There is a strong link between reading and writing. One of the activities on our school improvement plan has been to encourage boys to read more which in turn will help inspire them with their writing. Several weeks ago, the School Council set about exploring what kinds of books boys in their year groups like to read. You might be able to see from the picture on the left that the Year 1s were particularly interested in pirate and lego stories! We ordered the books on the internet and they have finally all arrived. Sport Relief Well done everyone on making Sport Relief a success. The children came dressed to impress, did a run/walk on the school grounds and bought wrist bands. We managed to raise an impressive £380.15! Boys in Year 1 looking extremely pleased withtheir new books Over the coming week, I hope to get round all the classes to introduce them to their new books. The girls have not been left out and they are entitled to read the books too. We’ve also ordered a large amount of fact books for the library area on a whole range of topics with attention grabbing titles, themes and front covers! Pupil Progress Meetings We have just held our pupil progress meeting for this half term. In pupil progress meetings, I meet with class teachers, teaching assistants and class link governors. We talk about the progress of every child and correlate this to evidence. For any children who are not making expected progress, we plan interventions which will help them to achieve their potential and review the impact of strategies at the next meeting. We have pupil progress meetings every half term and we are delighted to report that the large majority of children are doing really well thanks to everyone’s efforts.

2. Stars ofthe week New School Council We welcome in the new School Council following class elections. Over the coming weeks, we will be exploring new clubs for the next academic year and I hope to hear from the children which new sports clubs they would like, as well as whether they would like to have an astronomy club. Miss Best and I are also exploring further options for Olympic Legacy money, now that this funding has been extended by a further year and will present some options to the children in the near future. • Week of 07/03/14 • Reception: Mia Okander • Year 1: Dorian Scamardella • Year 2: Amelie Driver • Year 3: Sam Chemweno • Year 4: Matthew Humphreys • Year 5: Holly Prosser • Year 6: Sadie Symonds • Week of 14/03/14 • Reception: Ellena Curtain • Year 1: Callum Chrisite • Year 2: Sam Brinklow • Year 3: Aron Belson • Year 4: Chloe Christie • Year 5: Kirsty Chemweno • Year 6: Harry Kingsbury • Week of 21/03/14 • Reception: Alfie Powell • Year 1: Francesca Goates-Smith • Year 2: Chloe Stewart • Year 3: Connie Rafferty • Year 4: Nicole Johnson • Year 5: Elise Eaton • Year 6: Harry Clements • Week of 28/03/14 • Reception: Zoe Eveson • Year 1: Felix Rafferty • Year 2: KesemGrosman • Year 3: Adam Steel • Year 4: Jack Barnes • Year 5: Kiara Collopy-Madigan • Year 6:JanuliLiyanwela Date for your diary The governors are planning to hold a breakfast in the dining room at 9am on Friday 2nd May. There will be an opportunity to meet parent, community and local authority governors and talk about the things that matter to you in school life. The governors will also speak to you about the roles they have, the work they do and why they give their spare time to be a governor. Breakfast, tea and coffee will be provided free of charge! Reports Thank you for the many kind comments and the reassuring words you have written on the report reply slips. If you have not signed to say you have received your child’s report, then please do so. The office staff will collate for our records and follow up any queries or concerns. Recruitment for September Plans are already underway to find high quality teachers for positions in September. We are not expecting any teachers to leave, though Mrs Fitzgerald will be working part-time next academic year to focus on the SENCo side of her role and Mrs Edwards will also be reducing her teaching time to 3 days a week. Mr Gower will of course be leaving at the conclusion of his contract in the summer term. As recruitment in the area is becoming progressively more difficult, we have decided to advertise early to attract the most promising people. A number of other schools have had a similar idea and competition remains fierce. However, I am pleased to say we have had a steady stream of promising candidates and interviews are due to take place before the Easter holidays. I hope to have some exciting news to announce soon. In the meantime, the local authority has launched a recruitment campaign in the Times Educational Supplement and I am in proactive discussions with the Teaching School Partnership at Hammond Academy which may result in student teachers being placed into Pixies school next year. This will allow us to grow our own teachers and potentially recruit people in the future who have had positive experiences whilst on placement. Astronomy Evening Year 4 and Parents had a wonderful evening looking at the stars. A big thank you to Wycombe Astronomy Society who persevered through cloud to show us constellations, nebula and stars. Neil and Paul led the evening which was enjoyed by all and we are now considering launching an astronomy club in the autumn term! In the meantime, pop down to Tring Astronomy to see Neil and his fantastic range of telescopes. Well done to everyone!