Dear Parents and Carers,
Another full-on week of learning has flown by! I can’t believe there are only two more weeks until the half term break. Don’t forget that Friday 13th February is an INSET Day, so the children will not need to come to school on this day.
Signs of Hope
Our Whole School Collective Worship on Monday continued to explore the theme of ‘Hope’. You may have noticed the small clump of snowdrops that have appeared near the school gates. The children watched a short film which told the story of a snowdrop being the first flower of the new year. This can be watched at home by following this link. When Paul wrote to the Romans, he said, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:13). With this verse in mind, the children then thought about how Jesus is a sign of hope, alongside considering they could be signs of hope themselves.
Muddy Runners
Many of the members of our Year 5 and 6 Running Club took part in the Inter-Schools Cross-Country Race which was held at Bishop Luffa Secondary School in Chichester on Wednesday afternoon. After the all the rain over the past few weeks, it was a very, very muddy course. Mr Coyle was really proud of the team – both in the way pushed themselves and the way they supported and encouraged each other. Well done to Maisie S, Hanit S, Bani G, Andrea V, Poppy W, Julia W, Charlie S, Oliver L, Alfie H, Leo H, Arlo EW, Alex T and Reegan T.
Junior Parkrun
Last week, we advertised the date for our first Primary Junior Parkrun at Mewsbrook Park as Sunday 1st March. Since then, we have been informed the park is actually being used for a different event on this day, so the Junior Parkrun will not be taking place. So, the new date is Sunday 15th March.
PSHE Relationships Learning
Miss Chuter, our PSHE Lead would like to share this information with you:
As you know, our PSHE curriculum is delivered through a scheme called JIGSAW and we have further developed this by using quality texts to enhance the learning. Every half term, the learning is based around a singular theme. For example, back in September the theme was ‘Being Me’ and are currently learning about ‘Dreams and Goals’.
Next half term, the theme is ‘Changing Me’ which delivers the statutory requirement of the Relationships Education, Health Education and Sex Education (RHSE) objectives within the PSHE curriculum.
After a review of the PSHE curriculum, the order of the PSHE topics has been adapted. Teaching this topic earlier in the school year, rather than waiting until the second half of the summer term will enable children to ask questions with adults they know an feel safe with.
Even though the children in Key Stages 1 and 2 are in mixed-age classes, they will be taught in discrete year groups so that the learning is progressive from last year.
Details of the content of the RHSE curriculum have already been shared with you when we began using JIGSAW. Attached is the guide for parents and carers published by JIGSAW. Please read this carefully.
Although RHSE is a statutory part of the curriculum, parents and carers do have the right to request their child be excused from these sessions (this is commonly referred to as the right to withdraw). Please read the attachment and the information on this link which give you more details regarding this.
After reading the information, if you have any further questions please contact your child’s class teacher.
Have a lovely weekend.
Take care
Kim Huggett