The Year of Reading
I don’t know if you’ve noticed that we are really trying to push reading this year. I hope you have.
Out of the many things that you could do to help your child flourish at school and beyond, promoting their enjoyment and fluency in reading is the most effective and, as a bonus, maybe the most enjoyable!
If a child leaves primary school reading confidently, with good fluency and comprehension, then they will be in a good place to access the whole curriculum as they progress through secondary school, to cope with important aspects of the adult world and – hopefully – to derive a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from their reading life – whatever they like to read whether it’s car maintenance manuals, poetry, true crime magazines, political blogs, fiction or whatever. If schools can get just one thing rtight for their pupils (after keeping them safe and happy) then it should be ensuring that every child is able to read.
Thanks to the hard work of a lot of people and the generosity of the KSPA and all the parents, our library is now an attractive and cosy place to read and it’s much more full of books which are attractive to a wider range of children. Our improved use of data from Accelerated Reader is helping to support and challenge children more eff3ectively. The Reading Parties are incentivise some children who have been a bit more reluctant to read to really get stuck in.
The impact is that I am seeing more children excited about their reading, seeing rapid progress for a good number of children, seeing teachers more empowered in their teaching of reading and seeing the school starting to really hum. It feels good, which is why it felt extra special to celebrate World Book Day today.
World Book Day
World \Book Day is always a pleasure. I love standing on the gate in the morning and welcoming the children in their costumes – always a few princesses of various provenance, a handful of Harry Potter characters (I think those are going down year by year), a clutch of superheroes, a whole coven of witches and more. Today’s stand outs for me were an amazing Aslan in full regalia, some very nicely done Beast Quest costumes and a lovely collection of coloured pencils.
The children spent a very happy day celebrating the love of books in lots of different ways – making book themed hats, parading the costumes in the playground, figuring out who our masked ‘Mystery Readers’ were, participating in a choice of workshops and – most importantly – reading and sharing beautiful books. What a great way to spend the day.
Reading Targets
After the great success of last term’s Reading Party most of the children have hit the ground running this half term – the classroom displays are showing me children who, after just two weeks, are already on forty and fifty percent of their targets. I was particularly proud to see a pupil who did not make enormous progress on their target last term makign massive progress already. I have said a big well done to that child already and I need to make sure I say it to their parents as well as I’m sure encouragement at home will have played a big part.
If you’re not sure what your child’s reading target is, have a look in the front of their reading record or drop a message to the class teacher via Seesaw – they will be more than happy to help.
Reading with Your Child Workshop
It’s not always easy to find time to read with your child and not knowing quite what to do with that reading time can put parents and carers off. Come along to our reading with your child workshop on Tuesday 24th March at 9:10 a.m. then again at 3:00 p.m. We will also make and share a video version of this workshop so that you’re able to take part even if you can’t make it at drop off or pick up.
We’ll look at what works and what doesn’t work, finding a time to make sure it happens, how to encourage reluctant readers, tips for getting the best out of reading time and what we DON’T need you to do. IT will be quite fast paced and won’t take longer than half an hour. Yes – there will be cake. Yes – we are happy for little children to come along and join us.
Attendance
I don’t know if it’s something I said or whether we’ve just been lucky with the coughs and colds but this week’s attendance has been OUTSTANDING. We managed an average of 98.82%.
I can’t wait to see the whole trust data which will come through on Monday morning – I will be very surprised if we aren’t the best in the trust. I feel like I should throw a party – and if we keep this up for another few weeks I definitely will – you will all be invited.
Thanks to people who responded to the biscuit questionnaire, I have some good ideas to spark a bit of interest in attendance and encourage people to feel positive about getting to school every day. I love the idea of a whole school camp out when the weather warms up a bit, that would be lots of fun. Some people thought that attendance certificates would be a good idea; I would never do rewards for 100% as it’s not reasonable or kind to ‘punish’ a child because they had a cold for a couple of days or couldn’t attend for some other reason but I am very happy indeed to give certificates for children who have attendance of 95% or greater – that would include more than half the school by the way! I am looking at the other ideas – a special thank you to the parent who write us a long and thoughtful email full of helpful ideas.
I do feel that I need to say that I really don’t need or want your child to come to school if they are too poorly to be here or if there’s a worry that they are still contagious. My thought and care for your child’s wellbeing easily and entirely outstrips my worry for my attendance figures. I also want you to know that I trust you as parents and carers and believe you are in the best position to make the judgement over whether your child is well enough to come into school. ON the other hand though, having worked in primary schools for nearly thirty years, I do know that most of the time if a child is on the edge of ‘shall I take them to school or not’ they perk up once they are in school with something to do and friends around them. A child who seems pretty glum and down at home often turns into a cheery little person once they’ve got stuck in and forgotten to be poorly. You know that we will let you know if the judgement turns out to have been not quite right.
RSHE Survey
At Kenton Primary we use the SCARF scheme to teach our programme for Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PHSCE). That’s the part of the curriculum that looks at keeping ourselves healthy, thinking about risks and dangers, learning the very basics of looking after our money, thinking about relationships, learning how out body changes as we grow up and so forth. Our resource ‘SCARF’ is made by Coram Life Education who are very well respected across the country.
The team at SCARF have sent me a questionnaire that they would like parents and carers to fill in. It will help to inform our teaching and improve the information we share with parents. A copy was attached to the email when I sent the link to this newsletter out to the community. I have also printed off a stack of questionnaires and put them in the leaflet rack at the front office in the school reception so you can simply pick one up and drop it back. I would be very grateful for as many returns as possible so do fill in per adult, not per child if that makes sense!
Community Welcome Morning
A last reminder that we are hosting our community welcome morning on Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30. We’d love to see people who used to attend the school, people who have moved into the area, people who remember the old school and would like to check out the new location. We’d just love to show off this lovely setting and encourage as many people as possible to have a little nosey around and have the chance to celebrate this lovely school community.
I imagine most people who might be interested have already hear about the event and will be coming if they are available, but there is certainly no harm in us all giving it another boost in our various networks and on our various platforms. I would love your help and support with this.
Great Potheridge House Residential
Parents of children in Years Four and Five will have received a letter with details of the Residential Trip to Great Potheridge House coming in September when their children will be in Chestnut Class together. Payment has been set up on Arbor so first payments can be made. It looks like a great trip and I’m delighted it is happening in September – not later in the year – so that relationships can be built and a class culture of trust and responsibility can be built that will carry the pupils through the year. If you have any questions about the residential, Mr Keirle is the person with the answers.
Changes to Forest School Programme
Due to some complex scheduling issues, next week’s trip to Forest School will be for the Oak Class pupils who are owed a session from earlier in the week. Some Oak parents are yet to pay for the forest school sessions that children have had already, the payment is set up on arbor and we would be very grateful if this could be done. Willow will be having the rest of their sessions on Wednesday 25th instead of the Thursday so pop that in diaries with a picture of a set of welly boots.