Month: September 2022

WEEKLY NEWS FOR FAMILIES 23.9.22

Dear Parents and Carers,
even though we have had a 4 day week this week, we have been extremely busy!
The highlight of the week was the election of the House Captains and the Sports Captains. The whole school met in House Group Community Circles. Each candidate gave a speech about how they would make a difference in that role and uphold that responsibility. Each child had a ”ballot card’ and cast their vote by placing an X in the box next to the picture of their chosen candidate. The vote was therefore democratic and fair. Thank you to all of the prospective candidates who had worked extremely hard to prepare and present their speeches. It was so lovely to see our very youngest children in EYFS being supported by our oldest children, particularly when moving around the school to their designated meeting point. 
CONGRATULATIONS to our new House Captains- Harmony, Toni, Amelia, Alys, Ethan, Maisie, Dylan and Evie.
CONGRATULATIONS to our new Sports Captains- Ryan, Chloe, Joshua, William, Riley, Leon, Evie and Alisha.
 
BOOK SWAP
Please find attached details of our exciting BOOK SWAP that will be held next week here at school.
 
ROCKSTEADY  SIGN UP LETTER
Our new bands have begun to practice! There are still plenty more spaces for children to sign up. This term band practice is in our school hall on a Friday morning. If you have a wannabe rock-star in the family…sign them up!
 
SEASONS OF CHANGE
As we move into Autumn, I have attached some ideas for outdoor activities which may be of interest to you.
 
HOME LEARNING
Following on from last weeks ParentMail where I explained about the new structure for Home Learning, you should have received the optional activities menu linked to a specific theme for each half term We have selected these themes to provide a breadth of experiences across the year. They are a balance of age appropriate activities combined with links to the ‘Wider Learning’ that is happening in the classrooms. This new structure is based on the pupil response in our Community Circles when we asked them and the contributions from the parents who kindly gave us feedback. We hope that you find these both enjoyable and helpful. As always, we welcome your feedback (please send to office2@yaptonschool.org email). Thank you.
AUTUMN TERM 1 – ACTIVE
AUTUMN TERM 2 – COMMUNITY
SPRING TERM 1 – CREATIVE
SPRING TERM 2 – COMMUNICATION
SUMMER TERM 1 – STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
SUMMER TERM 2 – OUTDOORS
 
REPORTING TO PARENTS 
We have listened to feedback from families and have slightly adjusted our timetable for this. We have moved the first Parent-Teacher meeting to just before the October half-term instead of at the very beginning of the term so that the teachers have had a little while longer to get to know your child before meeting with you. This meeting will also be an opportunity to talk about plans for additional support for any children who would benefit from this. We will send out the written report after the February half term holiday. They will be written to the children in ‘child speak’ as we did this year. The children will be involved in writing these reports once again so that their opinions about their learning are recognised and documented. There will be an opportunity for a Parent-Teacher meeting following the reports being sent home if families feel that this is necessary. The final Parent-Teacher meeting will be at the end of the Summer term so that achievements can be celebrated and any concerns for the new school year can be shared and addressed. 
 
CONGRATULATIONS- to our amazing School Business Manager Paula Walbridge who is getting married this weekend. We look forward to seeing the new Mrs May on Monday morning! We held a special Worship yesterday on the theme of ‘love’ and  Mrs May (to be) was presented with gifts from our school family.
CONGRATULATIONS- to Mr Floyd our amazing Premises Officer who has welcomed a new baby daughter to his family. Welcome to Molly, a little sister for Ivy. We also presented Mr Floyd with some lovely gifts from us all yesterday.
 
Have a lovely weekend.
Take care,
Kim Huggett 
ROCKSTEADY September 2022 sign up letter for parents
Book Swap
SEASONS OF CHANGE AUTUMN 2022

Unclaimed clothing from the residential

Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you have had a good weekend and your children managed to recover from our brilliant residential visit.
There were a number of clothing items that didn’t quite make it to the suitcases.  These are on tables outside the hall.  Please check to see if any of the items belong to your children.
The tables will be out this afternoon and then tomorrow morning and afternoon.
Kind regards
Chris Hughes
Deputy Headteacher

WEEKLY NEWS FOR FAMILIES 16.9.22

Dear Parents and Carers,
another week has flown by! The children have quickly settled into the routines of their new classes. They are trying their best with their work and thoroughly enjoy their time for play too.
The children in Arundel, Bodiam and Cowdray classes have returned today from the 3 day Residential visit to the Adur Activity Centre. After a soggy start they enjoyed some lovely sunshine whilst carrying out all of their activities. The children have had an amazing time, some of them away from home for the first time and/or indeed sleeping in a tent! A special ‘thank you’ must be given to Mr Hughes for organising this trip along with Mrs Isaac, Ms Bevan, Mrs Diggens, Miss Hook, Mrs Hazelgrove, Mrs Bayliss and Mrs Dean for accompanying the children. I expect that there will be some ‘early bedtimes’ tonight!
The Novium visits are our next exciting ‘over-night’ events for Portchester, Pevensey and Southsea classes. I’m not sure who is most excited at the moment….the children or the staff! Sleeping the night in a museum will be an amazing experience and a fascinating way to learn.
 
ATTENDANCE
It has been great to start our school year without any ‘bubbles’ or Covid restrictions. I cannot stress enough how important it is that the children are here with us everyday. In our most recent ‘Community Circles’ we asked the children about the importance of coming to school everyday. I have attached an overview of their responses for you to read. I think the most poignant statement is “We build steps towards a good career in the future”. The children also talked about how school is a contributory factor for ‘strong mental health’. Both of these statements reflect the importance of planning for the future and how aspirational our children are.
If on a very rare occasion you need your child to be absent from school, you will need to come to the school office to collect a ‘Request for Absence’ form. This will need to be completed and returned to Mrs Farrell in the school office. Unauthorised absences can potentially result in a fine which is issued by the Local Authority. The school does not receive any money from the fine that is paid. 
If you are struggling to keep up a regular attendance pattern for your child, we will begin an ‘Individual Attendance Plan’ and meet regularly with you as parents to enable the attendance to be at least satisfactory which is over 95%. This plan will be a supportive process whereby we will look at ways to help you. It will also support any referrals that we need to make to outside agencies to become involved.
Our curriculum is exciting! Our school is a happy and fun place to be! Lets look forward to seeing everyone every day! Just let us know if we can help.
 
HOME LEARNING
As a staff teaching team we have looked closely at how we can balance the exciting ‘Hooks’ with the other learning that needs to be re-inforced continually. 
Our ‘Home Learning’ will now involve- 
READING- at least 3 times per week with your child. Each child will have a Reading Journal that you can write in. There will also be a ‘Reading Menu’ in the Journal for you to choose some optional additional reading activities. Please share these in the journal.
SPELLINGS- these will be sent home each week. They will be linked to the current learning in the class and/or the words that they are expected to be able to spell. The children will be able to use the LOOK-COVER-WRITE-CHECK method to learn to spell the words. LOOK at the word-COVER it up and WRITE it-the CHECK it to see if it is correct.
MATHS- TTRS TIMES TABLES ROCK STARS for Y1-Y6 and NUM BOTS for our Early Years children. The children will have log-ins and be able to access this via their personal log-in.
There will also be a Menu of optional activities to choose from that will be based around a theme. The first theme will be ‘ACTIVE’. Watch out for these.
We hope that this will simplify the ‘Home Learning’, make it less of a chore and make sure that our children are concentrating on the right things to advance their learning.
Thank you to all of the families who took part in our meetings about ‘How home and school can work best together to help the children’s learning’.
 
Have a lovely weekend.
Take care
Kim Huggett 
Community Circles Why do we need to co

RESIDENTIAL DAY 2

Dear Parents and Carers,
the children have had a busy day today!
The weather has stayed fine and dry too!!
The tents will be a lot quieter tonight! 
Kim H 
RESIDENTIAL DAY 2

RESIDENTIAL UPDATE

Dear Parents and Carers,
the campsite was wide awake by 6.15am this morning!
There was some sleep overnight ,but the children were still excited!
We think it will be an early night tonight !
The weather is looking good-another exciting day ahead!
Kim Huggett

DAY 1 RESIDENTIAL

Dear Parents and Carers,
you will be pleased to know that after a soggy start, the intrepid explorers have had a sunny afternoon.
Take care
Kim H 
RESIDENTIAL DAY 1

REMEMBERING QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Dear Parents and Carers,
we have had an eventful first week back in school.
We started the week with the younger children being detectives and following a ‘door trail’; there were also ‘Roman Battles’ and ‘Norman Invasions’.
We have ended the week with a time of reflection and an expression of gratitude for Queen Elizabeth II. Each class held their morning meeting with a focus on the magnificent achievements and example set by the Queen.
We then came together in the school hall as our Yapton School Family. Each class had prepared a sentence to express their thanks for the service of the Queen. Children read their thoughts to the rest of the school. We then collated these into a special prayer.
I have attached our prayer to this ParentMail as I am sure that the children would love to share this with you.
We have thought carefully about our approach to this occasion and have concentrated on the legacy that the Queen has left for us.
We are of course here to support any of our school family who may need it.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.
Take care
Kim Huggett
Our Prayer for the Queen
Coming Together

Year 5 and 6 Residential Visit – Final Reminders

Dear Parents and Carers,
As the Year 5 and 6 Residential Visit to the Adur Outdoor Activity Centre is getting very close, here are a few reminders.
Packing
I have attached the kit list just in case you have misplaced the one that was sent out before. The weather forecast looks fairly good. Layers of clothing are still strongly recommended – especially for the evenings where it will turn a little cooler. Please make sure there is an extra pair of trainers – as one pair will probably get wet. One very important addition to the list is sun cream – even after our recent rather wet weather. Please can you make sure your child has their own sun cream which they will be able to apply to themselves. I suggest this is packed in their small rucksack which they will carry other important all day items: a named water bottle, sun hat and a lightweight water proof jacket (just in case!).
The children may bring a small teddy bear to keep them company whilst they are in their sleeping bags.  A large black sack/bin liner will also be very useful so the children can keep their dirty clothes away from their clean ones.
One item on the list which will not be needed is any pocket money to spend. The centre has informed me this will not be necessary. The children will be far too busy to do any shopping!
When the packing is being done, please make sure you do it with your child. This will help them to know where things are in their case. It will be very helpful if as much of what the children need (including the sleeping bag and pillow) can be packed in one bag.  Padlocks on the cases will not be necessary.
Medicines
Thank you for completing and returning the medical form to school. If you have indicated that your child needs to take any medication (including those for travel sickness or hay fever) whilst we are away, please make sure these are given to the Teaching Assistant in your child’s class on the morning of departure. Medication must be in its original packaging which is clearly named and provides clear instructions about dosages. The journey to the Shoreham is relatively short. However, in the case of any travel sickness for this journey, please make sure this is taken before the children come to school on Thursday morning with enough time for the medication to start working, If your child wears anti-travel sickness bands on journeys, please don’t forget to check they are wearing them.
Electronic Items
The children do not need to bring any mobile phones or electronic devices with them whilst we are away. Cameras may be brought, however, these remain the children’s responsibility.
Food and Snacks
The children will need to bring a packed lunch on Wednesday.  For the rest of our stay, the centre will make sure we are well fed at meal times.  As the children are going to be very active, some snack items (such as cereal bars) may be useful. If your child bring any snacks, these need to be stored in a small lidded plastic box which is clearly named. The centre is next to a river, so we do not need to be giving any local rodents the opportunity to come sniffing around and enjoying any bonus treats!  Sharing of food will not be allowed.
Timings
On the morning of Wednesday 14th September, the children will need to come to school with their bags and cases at the normal time wearing their own clothes.  Any goodbyes can be done at this point. They will be able to leave their suitcases in the hall before going to their classrooms.  We will make our way the to the centre by coach during the morning.
We are due to arrive back at school before the end of the school day on the afternoon of Friday 16th September.  They will then be able to be picked up at 3:20pm as normal.  If for any reason, there are any delays, we will let you know through ParentMail.
 
The children have made their tent buddy requests and they will find out who they will be sharing a tent with when we get to the centre. They have been briefed about the visit and expectations of behaviour throughout the time away have been made very clear. We want everyone to have a brilliant time – the children know their ‘Yapton Crowns’ will always be worn!
 
Here’s hoping for the some lovely weather conditions for a fantastic time…!  
 
If you have any other questions, please contact me at school – office2@yatponschool.org or 01243 551246.
 
Happy packing!
 
Chris Hughes
Deputy Headteacher

Residential Visit – Food allergies

Dear Parents and Carers,
Please can you let me know if your child has an intolerance or allergy to any foods.  I would would be very grateful if this could be done by midday tomorrow by emailing me on office2@yaptonschool.org
Thank you very much.
Kind regards
Chris Hughes
Deputy Headteacher

Novium Sleepover Kit List

Dear Parents and Carers,
Please find attached the kit list for the forthcoming sleepovers at the Novium Museum.
You may receive an additional letter through ParentMail over the next couple of days informing you of any outstanding payments.
Kind regards
Chris Hughes
Deputy Headteacher
kit list