The Ambler Chronicle

Edition 2. published 28th December 2023

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Ambler families,


I cannot believe that we reached the end of the Autumn term! The last few weeks of term have been full of many great achievements that I wish to mention.


Another year and another AMAZING FRIENDS OF AMBLER SILENT AUCTION! Thank you to all the families who  bid on some of the following: Irish dance classes, learning Korean/Italian, cakes and curries, meals out, yoga classes and art... just to name a few! Over £9,000 was raised for Ambler. The money will go towards additional workshops and trips for children, re-designing the lodge to create a 'Calm Club' for children to use, investing in quality outdoor play resources and plans to create a sensory nature trail in the playground. None of this is possible without our amazing Ambler community, so I thank you for your kindness and generosity. 


The Winter Day of Fun  was a huge success and this year we made sure that we planned creative activities for the whole day! All children took part in the fun, from face painting to biscuit decorating and even a Christmas karaoke in the shed! We ended the day with KS2 singing in the playground - it was wonderful to have the community together to listen to the children and then have biscuits and hot chocolate kindly donated by Caterlink, our lunch caterers - and huge thank you to them.


Our amazing KS1 team put on a fantastic nativity: Whoopsy Daisy Angel - it was one of the cutest shows I’ve ever seen, with wonderful performances, singing and dancing. Thank you to the children, teachers and support staff for their hard work in pulling together the show. 


So now it’s time to enjoy the festive break - spend time with the people you love and look after each other. I look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 9th January 2024.


Happy holidays from all the Ambler staff.


Best wishes,

Sandy McNicholl

DATES FOR THE DIARY

Wed 3 Jan - Children's Centre reopens for AYR children  

Mon 8 Jan - INSET day - School and Children's Centre closed

Tue 9 Jan - First day of Spring term

Mon 15 Jan 2024 - Reception 2024 application deadline

Fri 12 Jan - Y6 trip to Bletchley Park

Tue 16 Jan - Year 2 St Paul's Cathedral trip

Thu 18 Jan - Wellbeing Coffee Morning, 9am

Tue 23 & Thu 25 Jan - Reception Postal Museum

Mon 29 Jan - Y3 & Y4 Mental Health Workshops

Tue 30 Jan - Little People, Big Feelings workshop 

Mon 5 Feb - Children's Mental Health Week

Wed 7 Feb - Y1 Cape Adventure Playground trip

Fri 9 Feb - Dress to Express day

Fri 9 Feb - Last day of Spring 1 half term

10-18 Feb - Half term holidays - School closed

Mon 19 Feb - First day of Spring 2 half term

Mon 19 Feb - Poetry Week

Thu 7 Mar - WORLD BOOK DAY 

Thu 28 Mar - Last day of Spring term

Mon 15 Apr - INSET day - School and Children's Centre closed

Tue 16 Apr - First day of Summer term

SPRING TERM CLUBS

Apologies for the delay in allocating club spaces for spring term. These will be allocated shortly and parents notified.

As previously advertised, from January, Stay and Play capacity will increase and there will be three timetabled activities each day. Sessions will also have 15 minutes allocated for homework or reading.

If your household income is up to £34,999, you may be eligible for the subsidised after-school childcare rate of £2.50 per hour. Please complete an income assessment form and return it to the office with evidence of household income.

THE TOY PROJECT

A massive thank you to The Toy Project for the amazing donations for our children. Toy Project is a charity working to ensure play is accessible for all and that every child receives a present at Christmas, or just to have during hard times.

They have supported Ambler children and families for many years and we are extremely grateful! Find out more about The Toy Project by clicking their logo below.

FELIX PROJECT

An enormous thank you to The Felix Project for the generous donation to our school community. The Felix Project shares surplus food from supermarkets, farms and restaurants to support local communities and also to reduce food waste.

There was lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, powdered milk and more!

CHRISTMAS LUNCH

Thank you to Ruth and her amazing team at Caterlink for a delicious Christmas lunch! Children and staff alike loved the meal and enjoyed the festive atmosphere with hats, crackers and Christmas songs.

Thanks also to Paulette and the Caterlink team for providing biscuits and hot chocolate for our school community at the end of the Winter Day of Fun 😋

WINTER DAY OF FUN!!

Thank you, Friends of Ambler, for organising another wonderful Winter Day of Fun for Ambler's children. It was a full day of fun, 'off-curriculum' activities, including time spent in the winter wonderland that sprung up in the playground.

See the galleries above and below for a small snapshot of day's festivities. 

KEY STAGE 1 NATIVITY

Bravo to our sensational year 1 and 2 pupils on their nativity performances! Despite a full house for both shows, they performed with confidence and enthusiasm.

A recording on the performance is now available to view on year 1 and 2 Google Classrooms for anyone who missed it, or just wants to enjoy it again!

Booking for the Lunch Bunch Winter Programme is now open. The Programme is running from 2 to 5 January 2024 and will include activities that you can attend and some you can do at home. Each young person can book up to four sessions and a food hamper. Check if you are eligible and register here.

A whole variety of free activities will be running over the Christmas holidays, for ages 4- 16 years. To book visit here.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS

The Mayor of London has introduced universal free school meals for all primary school children across London. This was already local policy in Islington Council.

However, we still need you to apply for free meals if you are receiving tax credits, universal credits or other benefits. This will allow the school to claim important extra funding that will benefit your child.

If your child is registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM), you will also be entitled to holiday supermarket vouchers and also FREE clubs and playschemes in the holidays, so apply today! 

As Ambler is an Islington school, you must apply via Islington's Citizen's Portal here.

FSM vouchers for the holidays, with a value of £30 per eligible child,  were ordered before Christmas. If your child is registered as eligible for FSM, check for an email from Edenred with a code that you can redeem at a supermarket of your choice.

Free-of-charge Sports & physical activities for children & young people during term-time and school holidays.

Open to children and young people living in Islington, Hackney or Haringey. Book here.

"Sparkles, Santa, Snowman and Snowflakes" - The Skipz Xmas and New Year Experience

Part of the Hackney Winter Holiday Activities and Food Programme 2023. Come and Join for a programme of Xmas and New Years Themed Activities. For Hackney residents. Visit here to find out more

MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF CHILDREN'S CENTRE

The end of term is once again here! It has been another action-packed term and some of the highlights have included Black History Month celebrations; the Winter Day of Fun (FOA); visits from authors Trish Cooke and Angela Brooksbank; our annual Christmas Sing-A-Long and lots of trips and outings.

During the last few weeks, the children have been getting into the Christmas spirit by making decorations and cards, wearing Christmas jumpers, enjoying a festive lunch, and a number of outings to watch theatre productions.

The end of this term also marks the start of Ruby’s maternity leave. We will miss Ruby’s kindness and positivity! Ruby will be a fantastic parent and I wish her a wonderful maternity leave with her new baby!  

I am delighted to welcome our new nursery teacher, Shanel. Shanel will be covering Ruby and has already been getting to know the children and families during the last week of term.

From all of us in the EYFS team, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you all have a restful and enjoyable break with family and friends.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Best wishes,

Cíara Rush 

Reception children and parents enjoying activities during the Winter Workshop

We are pleased to announce that Learning Journals is now up and running! Staff have been adding some lovely stories. Please do use the platform to comment, upload and share your own updates from home. 

If you have not already completed the consent form please collect one from the children's centre office. Once we have your completed form you will receive your log-in details.  

IMPORTANT REMINDER

CHILDREN'S CENTRE DROP-OFF AND COLLECTION TIMES


A polite reminder to keep to the contracted drop-off and collection times. 

The latest drop off in the morning is 10am for all children, other than for medical appointments. You will be asked to provide evidence of these appointments moving forward.

We fully understand that from time to time a child may be collected late due to circumstances beyond anyone's control and we will of course support you fully in these circumstances.   

However, being persistently late to collect your child does impact on both your child and the setting, as staff often have to work additional time to accommodate legal ratio requirements or be taken away from training or essential tasks to provide care. 

Should your child be collected late 3 times or more and punctuality is not improving, you will be asked to attend a meeting with the Head of Centre to talk about the available support to improve punctuality. 

Thank you for your support in this matter.


RECEPTION

This half term we launched our new literacy approach and we are super excited about it! Drawing Club was created by Greg Bottrill, an experienced Early Years practitioner and consultant. Greg says that he created Drawing Club “…to be accountable only to the world of story” and it really does bring joy and excitement to early reading, writing and storytelling. 

We have had so much fun (Miss Smith-Tong and Miss Ewin included!) attempting to draw characters, props and settings from our weekly stories, including monsters, wizard shops and mascots! The children have learned vocabulary way beyond their years including ‘despair’, ‘accelerate’ and ‘passenger’ and are using it in their everyday interactions and responses. 

Whenever Drawing Club is on the timetable for the day, the children cheer. They are loving their new literacy approach and are demonstrating high levels of focus, determination and joy in their creations. 

We have enjoyed another library trip, singing with Harriette and learning about firework night, Diwali and Christmas! 

We wish you all a wonderful break and look forward to welcoming you back in January when we have plenty more fun learning experiences lined up, including a trip to the postal museum! 

Watching a theatre show at the library 

CALM CORNERS

We support children, from babies through to year 6 in regulating their feelings. Every room has a Calm Corner with mindfulness techniques, resources and story books.

Children learn from a young age that they can openly feel any emotion and develop strategies to manage them.

Find out more about our approach and some of the strategies we teach children to help regulate unwanted or unpleasant feelings, including the Zones of Regulation and mindful breathing, on our website: www.ambler.islington.sch.uk/wellbeing 

FREE ESOL CLASSES

In January, we will be starting Family Learning classes. This is a 6-week course, of two hour weekly sessions focusing on practical language for use everyday such as shopping, making doctors appointments, talking to teachers and asking for help.

These sessions are at an introductory ESOL level and perfect for those new to English or with low level English with the hopes of starting a formal ESOL class after. You are welcome to bring along a family relative or a friend to also join our classes if you wish to do so. 

If you would like to start this course please speak to Chloe Casey, our Child and Family Support Worker, who can share more information with you.

The course starts Tuesday 16th January 9.00am - 11.00am in the Lodge and will be on every Tuesday for 6 weeks, we look forward to seeing you! 

Well done to our children and parents that have attended Multi Family Group this Autumn term. We were amazed at how reflective and supportive the group were each week, we then finished off the group with some celebrations at our graduation party! If you are interested in joining Multi family group in the Spring Term please join us for a coffee afternoon Tuesday 16th January 2.45pm to find out more information.  

In January, CAMHS will be running The Incredible Years Parenting Group for parents of primary school children age 6-10 years on Tuesdays 9.30am -12.15am (9.45am start) from 23 January until 14 May 2024 (14 weeks with breaks for school holidays).  

For further information, please contact Bright Futures on 020 7527 4343 sonia.kadi@islington.gov.uk, or Islington CAMHS on 020 3316 1824, michal.ruzansky@nhs.net

BOOK STAIRS - A NEW CHAPTER

The Ambler Book Stairs were refreshed over the October half-term holidays and they are absolutely stunning! Not only are they visually pleasing, the books and authors represented reflect and celebrate the diversity of our Ambler community.

Children and adults alike enjoy 'browsing' the titles on each step. The bottom steps start with books accessible to our younger readers and as you climb to the upper floors, the books grow in difficulty and range to suit our more advanced readers.

Come take a look at the Book Stairs when you are next in school! There are 60 titles in total - how many have you read and what will you be inspired to read next?

FAMILY PHONICS AND READING

Well done to our Year 1 families who took part in Family Phonics and Reading this term. We had four sessions and learned all about how to say the sounds, blending for reading, sounding out for spelling and how to help with reading books. We learned new phonics skills, then practised them with our children. It was fun!

Helping your child with phonics and reading regularly at home makes a really big difference to how well they do at school. Thank you and well done to our carers, mums, dads and grandparents for encouraging children to read every day. 

At Ambler, we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. Click on the image below for useful resources to help support your child with saying their sounds, writing their letters and reading at home. 

READING ROAD MAP

This year's Reading Road Map Challenge has been off to a flying start! A massive congratulations is in order for Ambler's two short story competition winners whose pieces have been published in a short story compilation book that is now in every UKS2 Road Map book corner in Islington. Well done to Joshua in 4B and Mansoora in 6B.

All children from Years 1 to 6 have been excitedly borrowing and reading the books on offer. In the penultimate week, we picked the Golden Ticket winners who will receive their prizes in the new year! We also acknowledged the children who received the exceptional achievement certificate in this challenge. 

Finally, we'd like to say a huge thank you to Friends of Ambler for once again funding this amazing challenge.  

NURSERY

As the winter holiday is almost here it’s a chance for us to reflect on the wonderful learning experiences the children have engaged in this half term.  The children’s enjoyment of cooking, in particular making chapatti with raita dip was a favourite.  The children were immersed in weighing, rolling, cutting, grating, and best of all eating together.  

children making chapatti

The children are learning the value of friendship and what it is to be a friend and how we show we are a good friend.  Eating together and sharing food is one of the ways the children do this.  Ayana explained to her friends at the dining table, “I’m cutting my pizza in half like I did with my chapatti.”  


The children enjoyed celebrating Diwali and creating their own Rangoli.  The children are learning about symmetry and noticed that Rangoli patterns are symmetrical and very colourful.  The large scale Rangoli the children created was an opportunity to experiment with symmetry and pattern and the artwork they made was beautiful.  The children’s interest in the night sky, the moon in particular, and the planets has really captured their imagination. 

Our trip to the Little Angel Theatre to see Wow! It’s Night time linked nicely with their interests, and inspired the children to investigate the habits of nocturnal animals.  During the performance the puppeteer created atmosphere using light and shadow to bring the shadow puppets to life.  The children were fascinated with our torches - using them to create lights effects in the dark den.  

The learning continued as the children have created their own shadow puppets – remembering the animals that are nocturnal and how they live in their night time world.  The children have worked so hard and now it is time for them to enjoy a well-deserved break.  We wish you all a happy and restful holiday and look forward to seeing you in the New Year. 

SWIMMING GALA

A huge congratulations to all our swimmers who competed at this year's annual Year 5 & 6 Islington Swimming Gala at Ironmonger Row Baths! As always, the standard of competition was very high and we are extremely proud to have come away with decent haul of medals. A special mention also, to those children who competed in the preliminary competition at Cally Pool, who were unfortunate to make the finals. Well done to you all! 

Our Digital Leaders our now set-up and running the Computing Hub at lunch times. With their expertise they are helping children who have earnt computing passes to access educational platforms. 

Remember, if you are unsure how to access these platforms (Mirodo, TTRockStars, Busy Things, Scratch etc.) at home then ask your child's class teacher. If children are having screen time at home as a reward, it may as well be these constructive platforms instead of ones like YouTube, where harmful, inappropriate content can be pushed to them.

One of our Digital Leaders, Hudson, won an afternoon of Micro:bit coding in the Silent Auction and invited three friends to have a go making a 'duck teleportation' game with these devices. Next half-term Years 5 and 6 will be having their own Micro:bit workshops to spread the learning.

ANTI-BULLYING WEEK 

Anti-Bullying week was kicked off with an 'Odd Socks day'. Our children wore their socks, loud and proud, to celebrate the fact that we are all different and unique! 

Years 1-4 took part in a positive and interactive show, where they learnt that they all have the power to reach out and help to stop bullying from happening.

Years 5-6 took part in workshops, where they were provided with specific skills for responding to conflict and bullying situations. They learnt how they can positively resolve conflicts using appropriate tone of voice, language and body language. 

When we think bullying, remember: STOP (Several Times On Purpose) 

ONLINE SAFETY

⚠️ For guidance on how to keep children safe online and set up appropriate filters and blocks, check: 


Enjoy the break and remind children of our Digital Charter over the holidays in order to stay safe online!

If children have been gifted devices at Christmas, below are ideas for constructive use of them try:

BABY ROOM 

Angela Brooksbank reading to the children

We have had such a busy half term and cannot believe how quickly it has gone! There have been so many exciting events which helped to further develop children’s learning. 

We had Trish Cooke, the author of ‘So Much!’, visit us for a story session and Angela Brooksbank, illustrator of 'B is for Baby' and 'Baby Goes to Market' to do some really in depth and exciting sessions. We even managed to go on a special trip to the theatre to see a ‘Winter Tales’ show.

Dance is still a big thing- we have music and dancing from all different cultures. If your child has any particular favourites, please do let us know.


Lastly, but certainly not least, we will say goodbye to some of our current babies who are now two and moving up to the Toddler Room!  


Have a happy, healthy and restful holiday and we look forward to seeing you in the new year for lots more fun!

TODDLER ROOM

What a fantastic half term we have had in the Toddler room with lots of fun and exciting things happening. The Toddler room had an amazing theatre trip to see 'Dear Santa' which is one of the books that we have been looking at for this half term. The children had such an amazing time and really enjoyed talking about their experience. 


We met Angela Brooksbank, the illustrator from our core book from last term, "Baby Goes to Market". Angela re-read the story with us and we shared our experiences of our trips to the market. 

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING UPDATE

Thank you to everyone for giving me such a warm welcome to my new role as Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead this half term. I have had a great start and lots to get on with! -  Sophie Smith-Tong

School wellbeing summary:

FUTURE WELLBEING DATES 

Wellbeing Coffee Morning - Thursday 18th January - 9-10am. A chance to come and meet me, learn about what we are doing at Ambler to support mental health and wellbeing and ask your questions. I look forward to seeing you all there! 

Children’s Mental Health Week - 5-9th February. The whole school will be taking part in a variety of activities aimed at exploring this year's theme -  ‘My Voice Matters’. To find out more you can go to www.place2be.org.uk. 

Dress to Express Day - Friday 9th February. The whole school and children’s centre will be taking part in wearing their favourite colour to school. This will be part of our Children’s Mental Health Week. More information to come soon!

ATTENDANCE ASSEMBLY 

We had the most exciting attendance assembly at the end of term!! Certificates and raffle tickets given for high attendance, plus a special raffle for those with 100% attendance!! 

A huge shout out to Aquinas Education and GSL Education who provided Kindles for the 100% prizes!! 

LAUNCH OF AMBLER'S SPELLING BEE 🐝

This term, we launched our new and exciting Spelling Bee! We had class winners from year 3 to year 6 who competed against one another. Our ultimate winner for year 3 and 4 was Rafael (3B) and for year 5 and 6 was Clayton (6B). 

We were all so impressed with their spelling abilities. We also had certificates for our most improved spellers over the term. We can't wait for our next competition at the end of Spring term! 

TIMES TABLE COMPETITION

A big well done to all the children in KS2 for putting in their best effort with learning their times tables. This term, the class who scored the most points on TT Rockstars was 4B - well done for working together as a team! 


In the final week of term, we also had our first head-to-head competition of the year to see who the ultimate Times Tables Champion would be. Each class champion battled it out before taking on Clayton, our reigning KS2 champion. This term our winner is Dan (5G) - congratulations! 


Well done to all our class champions, Rafael, Zion, Greta, Abraham, Ash, Maya and Basma - you showed all your DREAMS qualities and should be very proud of yourselves.

OFFICE HELPER

Well done to Ellie, our Silent Auction winner for Office Helper. She was wonderful and truly helpful!! 

She worked so hard, we decided she needed a little treat during her tea break with Claire, Laura and Ori! 

Thank you for being a delightful addition to the team! 

❄❄❄WARM SPACES AND FOOD SUPPORT ❄❄❄