October 2022

What a wonderful week it has been and a great end to the first half term of the school year!

We were delighted to welcome back Miss Francois this week, who has returned to school from her maternity leave. She has spent the week analysing data from recent tests and met with teachers to discuss outcomes and set ambitious targets’. After half term, she will return to the classroom, working in Year 6 to prepare the children for SATS and supporting teaching and learning across the school.

Parents Evenings

This week, it was lovely to invite parents into school for our first parents’ evenings of the year. This was a fantastic opportunity for parents to meet their child’s teacher

and discuss how they have settled along with the progress they have made so far this year. We had an amazing response to our parent’s voice questionnaire which was overwhelmingly positive. Many parents commented on the excellent provision that teachers provide for their children each and every day here at Lea Forest. Your comments are so important to us in shaping the children’s learning opportunities.

Open Day for Prospective Parents

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding an open day session for new perspective parents (September 2023 intake) on Monday 7th November from 9:00 - 10:00. This will include a tour from our Early Years lead, Mrs Gonzales. Please tell your friends and family, who have children currently in nursery about this opportunity.

Attendance

As you will know, we aim for at least 97% for all of our children and we have made a tremendous start to the school year. This gives the children the best possible opportunity of gaining their entitlement of education. Children that fall below this are at significant risk of falling behind their peers and is one of the most detrimental barriers to learning.

Friends of Lea Forest

We are keen to get started with ‘Friends of Lea Forest’ which will consist of parents, staff and representatives from the community. Many of you have already shown an interest in being part of this group, but If haven’t yet done so and you would like to take a more active role in school life and support our fantastic events such as discos and fayres, please pop along to our meeting on Monday 14th November at 9:00 - 10:00 for a hot drink and chat with Mrs Wakelam and Mrs Gonzales.

Happy half term!

We look forward to seeing you all

back on Monday 31st October.

Mr Clarke-Castello

We have had several requests from parents for holidays in term time this academic year. Please be aware that family holidays in term time are not allowed in law and are highly unlikely to be authorised. Research has shown a clear link between attendance and attainment. Absence from school interrupts teaching and learning and therefore has a negative impact on progress.

Any leave in term time applications must be made through the office and a meeting with the headteacher and attendance lead will be arranged to discuss the request.

Birmingham City Council strongly discourages pupil leave of absence during term time and you may be issued with a Penalty Notice if there are a sufficient number of days of absence.

Family Emergencies

It is not always appropriate or in the best interests for a child to miss school for emergencies which are being dealt with by adult family members. Notifying the school of leave due to a family emergency does not mean it will be authorised. School relationships can provide pupils with stability and care during difficult times.*

We have seen a real increase in children being collected early for various appointments / reasons during the school day. This can be very disruptive for your child, for staff and for their class as a whole. Can we therefore ask that you make appointments for out of school hours. We will always ask to see a copy of the appoint letter / card for our records.

We are mindful that some hospital appointments are difficult to change but these should be the exception.

If you will be late picking up your child because you have an appointment yourself, please try to arrange for someone else to collect your child at the end of the school day rather than disturbing their learning. Staff will always ask for the password you have given to the school.

What should I be aware of?

Chat Facility - Players can chat to each other on Roblox. You can add parental controls to turn this feature off completely or add restrictions.

Virtual Currency - Players can buy Robux (their virtual currency) to buy in-game upgrades or accessories. If you do not want your child to purchase them, then ensure your card details are not saved.

What should I do?

Play the game with your child.

Explore the parental controls within Roblox and set appropriately for your child (for example restrict access to age-appropriate games).

Show your child how to use the Report Abuse system within Roblox to report inappropriate content and how to block other users.

Further information can be found by clicking on the link below:

https://parentzone.org.uk/article/roblox

Early Help

Sometimes we might need that extra support. EARLY HELP locality teams can support. Click on the link for more information: https://www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk/family-support/

If you need anymore information please speak to Mr Wills or Ms Wale.

At Lea Forest we foster positive attitudes, fascination and excitement of discovery through our teaching and learning of mathematical concepts. Through the use of our 5 part mastery flow model we broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of how mathematics is used in real life, enabling our pupils to use and understand mathematical language and recognise its importance as a language for communication and thinking. We aim for our children to develop a ‘can do’ attitude, where they recognise themselves as Mathematicians. Mathematics helps us to understand and change the World, and we want our children from Lea Forest Primary Academy to have the skills and understanding to take an important role

within this.

Maths Intent Statement: To acquire core mathematical facts, an understanding of concepts and strategies which can be

applied successfully and efficiently enabling children to become fluent mathematicians who can demonstrate their

understanding leading to them achieving well.

Maths lessons provide the opportunity for children to use practical resources to represent different mathematical concepts. This is followed by the challenge of different types of questions to practise and consolidate their understanding. The children’s learning is then extended as they carry out reasoning and problem solving tasks. In order for our children to become fluent mathematicians, we provide the children with opportunities to practice and develop their recall of key facts with weekly arithmetic tests and daily starter.

I can’t believe another week has passed and we only have one week left before our half term break. I have been incredibly pleased with the way in which the children are focussing on their learning, right from Nursery and Reception (who have settled into school life brilliantly) all the way through to Year 6. I have also been impressed with our high levels of attendance which ensures that there is no lost learning.

Rights Respecting Schools - Gold Award

I am pleased to confirm that the Accreditation and Standards Committee agreed that sufficient evidence was provided in the report from the recent assessment visit to award Lea Forest the Unicef UK’s Rights Respecting School Award at Gold standard. Our UNICEF assessor reported that “It was evident that children’s rights are embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life.” The report also said that:

• Pupils clearly described their rights and they were passionate about improving the rights of children locally and globally.

• All adults are passionate about the rights respecting work.

• There are strong relationships with parents/ carers.

• Learning about rights is clearly affecting relationships in a positive way.

I want to congratulate our pupils, colleagues and parents for their contribution and commitment to the rights, respecting award.

Mental Health Day

On Monday, we were splashed with yellow throughout the whole school in support of mental health awareness day. This was our hot topic in our votes for schools lessons and other important messages were shared with our children.

F2D Assembly

Year 5 and 6 were joined by the team from F2D this week who held a special assembly on ‘Self & Responsibility’. Dan and Mark shared their success story which inspired our children and left them with the message of: ‘You can achieve whatever you want to in life if you work hard enough.’

Halloween

On Friday 21st October, children can wear halloween outfits if they bring in £1. We will also be having a fun disco with sweets and treats on sale (no more than £2). Remember to book your spooktacular special lunch too!

Harvest Festival

Thank you to everyone that sent in donations for our Harvest Festival collection. We will be bagging up the goodies and donating them to the local community. If you know of anyone in need and would like to make a nomination, please complete our online form here.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Clarke-Castello

It’s great to see everyone working so hard to achieve or beating our 97% target.

We can only do this if we all work together!

Our attendance for

the week is

95.8%

Our attendance for

the year to date is

96.4%

Keep up the great work!

This half term we will be running several initiatives to encourage great attendance from all of our pupils.

The winners of the Attendance Leagues will win a ‘Popcorn and Movie’ party.

We will also shortly be holding an ‘Attendance Focus Fortnight.’ Look out for more information about both of these initiatives on Class Dojo.

We have had several requests from parents for holidays in term time this academic year. Please be aware that family holidays in term time are not allowed in law and are highly unlikely to be authorised. Research has shown a clear link between attendance and attainment. Absence from school interrupts teaching and learning and therefore has a negative impact on progress.

Any leave in term time applications must be made through the office and a meeting with the headteacher will be arranged to discuss the request. Birmingham City Council strongly discourages pupil leave of absence during term time and you may be issued with a Penalty Notice if there are a sufficient number of days of absence.

Family Emergencies

It is not always appropriate or in the best interests for a child to miss school for emergencies which are being dealt with by adult family members. Notifying the school of leave due to a family emergency does not mean it will be authorised. School relationships can provide pupils with stability and care during difficult times.*

We have seen a real increase in children being collected early for various appointments / reasons during the school day. This can be very disruptive for your child, for staff and for their class as a whole. Can we therefore ask that you make appointments for out of school hours. We will always ask to see a copy of the appoint letter / card for our records.

We are mindful that some hospital appointments are difficult to change but these should be the exception.

If you will be late picking up your child because you have an appointment yourself, please try to arrange for someone else to collect your child at the end of the school day rather than disturbing their learning. Staff will always ask for the password you have given to the school.

We have noticed several cars parking in a dangerous manner, blocking our neighbours drives and parking on the zig zags this week.

Please be aware that West Midlands Parking Enforcement team will be operating around the school over the next few weeks and will issue fixed penalty notices for vehicles that are parked dangerously or causing an obstruction.

We have seen a real increase in children being collected early for various appointments / reasons during the school day. This can be very disruptive for your child, for staff and for their class as a whole. Can we therefore ask that you make appointments for out of school hours. We will always ask to see a copy of the appoint letter / card for our records.

We are mindful that some hospital appointments are difficult to change but these should be the exception.

If you will be late picking up your child because you have an appointment yourself, please try to arrange for someone else to collect your child at the end of the school day rather than disrurbing their learning. Staff will always ask for the password you have given to the school.

Parents of children in Year 6 (6MW and 6BP) must now apply for secondary school places via their council portal.

Birmingham Residents must apply via:

https://eadmissions.birmingham.gov.uk/prefs.php

Solihull Residents must apply via:

https://eservices.solihull.gov.uk/Synergy/Live/SynergyWeb/Parents/default.aspx

Mr Croxon will be running parent drop in sessions from 9:00-9:30 (Mon - Thurs) to support parents with completing their applications.

The deadline for all applications is:

October 31st 2022

Further information can be found on the Birmingham City Council website here: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20119/school_admissions/1778/apply_for_a_secondary_school_year_7_place

The benefits of reading are endless…

Sharing a book with a child is fun. It's a time for affection, laughing and talking together. And it can also give children a head start in life and help them become lifelong readers.

Reading for at least 10 minutes every day is great for your child’s happiness, wellbeing and, of course, for improving their reading and writing.

Making time to regularly read with your children can help them to:

• Relax and unwind.

• Escape from the pressures of life.

• Improve memory, concentration and focus.

That's why we want everyone to read for just 10 minutes every day!

Ten tips to help your child take 10 minutes to read every day…

1. Create a routine, set a specific time each day to read that works best for your family. You could set up a cosy reading corner at home or be out and about!

2. If your child is an independent reader, make sure you grab your favourite book to read as well to show them how important reading is to you.

3. Set a timer to help you all hit 10 minutes.

4. Turn off your phone or TV so there are no distractions.

5. You could pop to the library to find the perfect book, magazine or comic for you and your children.

6. Create a Take 10 reward board where everyone gets a star for every 10 minutes they read.

7. Create a bookmark based on your child's favourite book or character.

8. Get creative with technology and set up a Zoom call with loved ones who live far away.

9. Why not go digital and try one of many audio books.

10. Read a book as a family and then find the movie that matches it so you can watch for family movie night.