Dear Parents & Carers,
It has been another busy week here at Yapton C of E Primary School! Our youngest children in Lewes class have been in the wild garden fire lighting and climbing. Staff from Chichester Festival Theatre have been in school with our Y3/4 classes performing and reflecting on the topic of ‘well-being’.
Looking further afield, our children in Y5 and Y6 had the exciting opportunity of camping overnight last night whilst on their residential at the Adur Outdoor Activity Centre in Shoreham. A huge thank you to you the parents for supporting us in this venture and ensuring that the children had the correct equipment etc to be able to take part in this adventure. When I visited them this morning, they were a little damp but full of energy, throwing themselves into the activities and supporting each other as they did so. They were an absolute credit to you: the centre told the children that they were the ‘best behaved children that they have had visiting this season.’ It is important to thank our own school staff for accompanying the children and giving up their time to stay overnight with them. A special thank you to Mr Hughes for organising the trip. I expect that the children will be quite quiet tonight as they will be exhausted!
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE WEEK
As you know, the last 15 months have been unusual in many different ways. For schools, one aspect has been the removal of statutory assessment, ie SATS and the Phonics Check. However, as a school we need to continue our assessment of the knowledge and skills of our learners in a variety of ways. Next week will be a ‘Test Your Knowledge’ week, when we will be doing exactly that and carrying out SATS for Y2 and Y6, the Phonics Check for Y1, the Multiplication Check for Y4 and we will use past paper to do this. For the other year groups, we will use relevant assessments for their age. These will be carried out in a relaxed way so there is nothing for the children to worry about. It is important as a school that we continue to check and measure the progress of our learners. It is an opportunity for our children to demonstrate their knowledge in a different way. Any trends will be picked up and incorporated into our planning for future learning.
TRANSITION DAY 2021
Originally this day was planned for 7th July 2021, however due the restrictions remaining in place, this has been moved to Wednesday 21st July 2021. We will move the ‘Stay & Play’ sessions for our new Early Years children to this date as well as the internal transition arrangements for the other year groups (our current Early Years to Y5). I have attached a letter from Paul Wagstaff, the Director for Education and Skills for West Sussex explaining this further.
SUMMER HOLIDAY HAMPERS
Our Christmas Hampers were really successful (thank you) and as we find ourselves still following restrictions, but needing to raise money for our school, we are going to create Summer Holiday Hampers. We would like to raise money to improve the Reading Areas in the classrooms. We will divide the proceeds between each class equally and the classes can decide how to spend their money. Reading will be a focus for our school in the Autumn Term. We will start collecting hamper donations on Monday 28th June… with a summer holiday theme. Thinking of summer holiday activities for the family, perhaps buckets and spades, crab nets, story books, picnic bits and bobs (no fresh food), cocktails, hula-hula hoops, games, bubbles, balls, inflatables, balloons, etc – just a few ideas to help you. We will be selling raffle tickets for these hampers from Monday 12th July and are hoping to hold the ‘Grand Draw’ at the Country Dancing Festival on 22nd July providing we are allowed to go ahead with inviting parents into school to watch the dancing. Thank you for your continued support for our school.
ONLINE SAFETY
Please follow the link to free webinars which give guidance about children and their online gaming habits. We thought that you might find this useful.
Have a fabulous weekend.
Kim Huggett