6 Jun 2008 - Newsletter 33

 

Newsletter No. 33
Friday 6th June 2008
 
Dear Parents, Carers and Governors,

Ofsted Inspection
As you will all know, we have our Ofsted inspection next Monday and Tuesday. We will have two inspectors for both days - Mr John Earish, who is the lead inspector and Mr Daniel Kilborn who will be assisting him. There will also be another inspector on Monday, Mrs Lorna Brackstone who will be monitoring the inspectors. I have spoken to the children about the inspection so they know we will have visitors in school, watching lessons, asking the questions and looking at their work.
Thank you for the parent questionnaires already returned. You have until Monday at 3.00pm to return any outstanding forms. As always we appreciate your support!

Click here to download copies of the forms.

Year Two Buddy Dates
This exciting programme is about to start! Dates have been arranged, buddies are being allocated and the Year 3 teachers have been warned! ?
Let me explain our plans. We want our pupils to have a smooth and easy transition to their new school. So our year two pupils get to know the older pupils at in a positive, friendly way - each Yr2 child is matched with a Yr5 “Buddy”. This makes the oldest children our friends – someone to go to if we need a friendly face. The Yr5 children come down to the infant school, make friends and generally have a fun time getting to know each other. Then we visit the Junior School and our buddies give us a tour.
I know the Yr 5 children are very excited at the prospect of being a buddy – they remember being buddies themselves when they were in Yr2 and really look forward to being the older responsible ones now.
We also have a transition at staff level. The two teachers who will be in Yr3 next year visited yesterday to meet the pupils and we have arranged a staff meeting so the academic records can be handed over through discussion.
This system has been in place now for a number of years and alongside our many joint events with the Junior School, we find that our pupils have a very successful transfer to their next, “big” school!

So, the dates are…
Thursday 5th June – Yr3 teachers visit the Infants and meet the Yr2s
Thursday 19th June – Yr5 buddies visit the Infants
Wednesday 25th June – Yr2 visit their Yr5 buddies at the Juniors
Thursday 10th July – Yr2 to meet their new teachers

A letter is also coming home today to year two parents from Mrs Montie explaining about houses and a parents meeting. Click here for a copy of the letter.
 

An Award for Miss Wilberforce and the school
We have just received some very good news. Miss Wilberforce has been working very hard in developing the school’s learning platform and received an award in recognition of her achievements.
The learning platform is a fabulous on-line resource that supports children’s learning and enables them to share their ideas and work. We have been trialling it in Green Class, where many of the children have been working with it at home and school.
This will be rolled out to all classes from September and we will be informing parents about this at our curriculum meetings and offering workshops in the Autumn term. The Junior School are also involved in this project.
Uniservity is the Education Development organisation which Wokingham and many local authorities in the UK and abroad are working with to develop this project.
Well done, Miss Wilberforce, for all your hard work and commitment to this important project!!

 

Congratulations!
 We are delighted to announce that MARIANNE WILBERFORCE at POLEHAMPTON INFANT SCHOOL is a UniServity Learning Platform Award for Excellence 2008 winner!
 We had a very large number of award nominations in our first year of Learning Platform Awards for Excellence, and we're particularly impressed with the impact of your innovation and creativity upon the learners that you work with.
Fiona Aubrey-Smith, Education Development Consultant, UniServity

Orange Class assembly
Well done to Orange Class for your wonderful assembly about fairy tales!! I was so impressed with your maturity and confidence. You really entertained us and I can see how much you know about those fantastic stories.

Polehampton Day – Friday 13th June
Next Friday we have our exciting annual joint event with the Junior School. This is a wonderful day when the two schools can celebrate the life of our founder Edward Polehampton. We share song, dance and drama with our year one and five children taking the lead each year.
We would like everyone to dress up in colourful clothes – no contributions needed. We will be making hats and streamers to decorate ourselves for the parade.
Everyone is invited! We would appreciate volunteers to walk us there and back, but do come along at anytime to join in with the celebrations. We hope to picnic at the Junior School so everyone will need a packed lunch on that day – if it’s wet, we will picnic back here. If you are entitled to a free school meal, do let us know if you’d like the school to provide a packed lunch on that day.
Do think about what your child might need in terms of weather on the day. For example, hats, plenty to drink and additional sun cream if it’s sunny; a waterproof and sensible shoes if it’s not!
We have a dry and a wet timetable, as we’ve had to deal with both in previous years! 
Click here to see the timetable from Mrs Montie for approximate agenda and timings.

 

Cash for Schools Tokens
Just a reminder that the closing date for this scheme is Friday 19th June 2008.  Please can you bring in any tokens you still have at home before this date – thank you

Judo After School Club
There are still a few places available should your child/children wish to join on Friday after school.

 

PTA News
Just a reminder of PTA AGM will be held at 7.30pm followed by meeting at 8.00pm on Tuesday 17th June 2008.  We look forward to seeing you there.

Fun Mats
Fun Mats should be with us at the beginning of next week – we will try to send home on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Claire Lawrence
Vice-Chair

 

Lost
We have a lost key (locker?) found at the front of the school and a boys wallet.  If you think these could be yours please collect from the school office.

 

Local Weather Forecast
Sunny all weekend!

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Helen Ball
Headteacher