006 Newsletter 21st November 2015

ST. MARY’S NEWS!
Issue 5
Friday 6th November 2015
Headteacher’s Message
Thank you for all supporting our parents’ consultation evening so well. I always look
forward to the opportunity to speak to many of you and in particular seeing you enjoy
looking through your children’s work with many a smile and occasional chuckle. This
was the first time we shared your child’s progress and attainment against the new assessment criteria and curriculum. As I shared at the beginning of the year in the meeting for parents, the expectations have shifted upwards. This means that children may
have green ticks where they once had pink ticks and green dots where they once had
green ticks. This purely highlights the changes in assessment criteria, please be assured that if we have any concerns over your child’s progress, we will talk to you before
the next parents evening in the Spring term. Should you wish to discuss this further, I
would be more than happy to do so.
Out of parents evening came a lot of positive comments about the use of the home
learning books, the classroom environments, the quality of the information shared
about children and the amount of time you had with the staff. There are a few things
that we are going to be looking at as a staff too:

Sessions for parents - one on reading and another on our new maths calculations
policy

Looking at how we are getting the most out of the home learning books

Homework for class 3, in particular Year 6
Many thanks for your continued support at this busy time of year.
Mrs. Stephanie Redgate
“Inspiring
children to
reach their full potential,
within a caring Christian
community”
Respect
Caring
Honesty
Forgiveness
Perseverance
In This Issue:
 Headteacher Message
 School Meals
 PTA Update
 Children in Need
 Crossing Patrol
 Home Fire Safety Visit
 Tubs4Tablets
 Flu Immunisations
 Clubs and Tournament
Update
 Dates for the diary
 Golden House Points
 Class Pages
Home
Fire
Safety Visit
Earlier this week, class 1 had a
visit from Essex Fire Service as art
of their topic on London’s Burning.
PTA Update - Quiz Night, Christmas Bazaar and
Easy Fundraising
What a great night was had at the PTA quiz night. The Great British Gameshow Quiz night
received lots of fantastic feedback and an enjoyable night was had by all. Not only that but it
raised £450 for the PTA, a really positive start to the fundraising for the year. We have already
had requests for another quiz night. Watch this space, as we are currently checking the diary
to see when this may be possible.
As you are all aware the PTA are holding the annual Christmas Bazaar on Saturday 28th November 2015 from 12 - 2pm. In order to run a successful event they urgently need donations
of Teddy Bears, Small gifts, Raffle Prizes, Wine and sweets. Please can you bring your donations in as soon as possible. We would also like to advise that the PTA will be selling Northbrook wrapping paper on the day this year.
Remember one other way you can all help support the PTA is
from the comfort of your own home and with Christmas fast
approaching, there is no better time. For all your online shopping, visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk. It takes a minute to
set up and then every time you shop online you can visit
easyfundraising and click the shop you would like to shop at.
If you shop at any of the shops below (plus many, many,
many more), you can raise money for the school. This week
we received a cheque for £15.08—every penny counts! Many thanks for your continued support of the PTA
Children in Need
With the non-uniform day and the tuck shop we raised over £120, so well done to all. Jesters
Kids Club also joined in the opportunity to raise money by taking the children on a 3 mile walk.
Mia and Grace Haliday took part in this, completing the 3 mile walk in 55 minutes! Well done
girls for your efforts and helping to raise even more money for this great cause.
Crossing Patrol
An email was sent out earlier this week informing parents that Mrs Greenfield would no longer
be manning our crossing patrol. I am sure you would like to join me in thanking Mrs Greenfield
for keeping everyone safe over a number of years. Mrs Greenfield will still be our Catering
Assistant and we are pleased to still have her as part of our school community.
However, from next week there will be NO CROSSING PATROL. The Local Authority are advertising for the post, but have informed us that this could take at least 6 weeks. Please take
extra care when crossing, particularly as the colder and darker weather draws in.
As part of this visit, they Fire Service left some leaflets offering a
FREE service to visit your home to
give fire safety advice and provide
fire alarms. Should you wish to
take up this opportunity please call
03003030088 or email from the
link on their website: www.essexfire.gov.uk
Tubs4Tablets
A massive well done and thank
you to all those who helped us
collect the foil lids of the Flora butter last week. We are so close to
getting 2 free tablets now. Mrs
Keene is doing one more push in
school, so if you would like to purchase some Flora through school,
please see the office for a letter.
However, if you don’t use Flora,
but would like to make a £2 donation, we will purchase the butter
and use in the school kitchen.
Perhaps you are a member of a
social group and can rustle up
some more lids? Miss Galbally did
this, taking preorders from a group
she belongs to and collected 20
more lids for the school. I wonder if
anyone can beat this?
Flu Immunisations
The date for Flu Immunisations
has been booked for Friday 11th
December, from 9:30am. Please
note that Reception aged children
will be offered the vaccination from
their GP. Please complete the
form and return to school ASAP
Clubs and Fixtures Update:
Running Club
Unfortunately running club
will no longer be taking
place on a Tuesday morning
before school. Apologies fir
the late notice of cancelling
this club.
Tag Rugby Tournament
If you are taking part in the
tag rugby tournament on
Thursday, please ensure
your permission slip has
been returned to the school
office.
Netball Tournament
The second round of the
netball tournament takes
place a week on Thursday, please keep an eye
out for squad letters coming home.
School Meals:
This week we have been
informed that we are no
longer able to get bagels
from our suppliers. This is
being addressed and we
hope to be able to order
these ASAP. In the meantime, bagels will be replaced
with freshly made bread
rolls. You will be informed
when the bagels become
back available. Sorry the
inconvenience.
Upcoming dates for your diaries:
Monday 23rd November
Road Safety Week
Thursday 26th November
Tag Rugby Y5/6 @WdeF
Friday 27th November
Class 2 Celebration Assembly
Saturday 28th November
PTA Christmas Bazaar
Monday 30th November
Bicknacre Christmas light switch on
Thursday 3rd December
Netball Tournament Y5/6 @WdF
Friday 11th December
Flu Immunisations
Monday 14th December
KS1 Production @6pm
Tuesday 15th December
KS1 Production @2pm
Class 3 singing carols at Easthams (afternoon)
Wednesday 16th December
Christmas Party Day - Christmas jumper/t-shirt day
Friday 18th December
Christingle Service at St. Mary’s @9:30am, followed by
refreshments in the school hall
Christmas Lunch for children, staff and Governors
2:30pm - Carols on the playground for all with band
Golden House Points
Hyde
Champions
Edwins
Birkett
21
17
23
14
What’s going on in ...
Class 1 have gone back to 1666...
Reception, year 1 and 2 children had a special visitor in this week, to tell us about
how the fire got put out during the Great Fire of London. The children were able to
use a stirrup pump to pump the water through a squirter and they also made a
bucket chain. Ask your children to find out more...
Class 2
On Monday Class 2 had a Diwali Day. We were very fortunate that Mrs Hotston was able to come into school and
talk to us about Diwali and how her family celebrates this
special time of year. We made Diva lamps, paper lanterns and coconut sweets. We also found out about Rangoli patterns - which are special symmetrical decorations
created for Diwali – and we had a go at creating our own.
A very busy day!
Class 3 have been busy calculating the mean, mode, median and
range of different sets of data this week. We practised a little riddle
to help us – using the tune of the ‘Hey Diddle, Diddle’ nursery rhyme.
This has really helped us to remember the calculations needed for
each of the different types of average!
In Science we have been focusing on the function of
the Circulatory system, including how it works in conjunction with the other systems within our body. We
have just completed Microsoft PowerPoint presentations in small groups, which we showed to each other
in class on Wednesday afternoon.