The Ambler Chronicle
Edition 3. published 13th February 2024
MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER
Dear Ambler families,
This has felt like a very short half term and the time has flown by!
Thank you to parents/carers who attended our Open classroom Safer Internet Days. Mr Field did a great job of highlighting the importance of keeping children safe online and the differences between good technology and bad technology. This is something that affects all children and we need to know what we can do to keep children safe. There’s been great feedback from parents and all information has been shared on google classrooms.
This half term there has been a focus on Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing with the theme ‘My Voice Matters’. Children have taken part in story telling sessions, drama workshops and classroom lessons. We also hosted a coffee morning sharing how we support children with mental health and well being at Ambler. Parents and carers said they had no idea we did so much to support our children and staff. This continues to be a priority at Ambler.
We are very lucky to have Artis, a charity that works with schools using performing arts, including music, drama and dance, to bring learning to life. Each class gets a weekly session for 10 weeks. The children love these sessions and were able to demonstrate their skills to a group of teachers visiting from Korea! They were very impressed with the talent!
The annual Friend of Ambler Movie Nights are taking place in the first week back after half term - free for all children (R-6) and includes popcorn! Make sure you give consent on Arbor for your child to attend and watch the PG movies.
We’re already looking forward to next half term - see key events coming up:
World Book Day on Thursday 7th March - start thinking about your costumes!
Parents’ Evenings will take place on Tuesday 19th and Thursday 21st March
3B trip to the London Symphony Orchestra
Year 2 trip to Kew Gardens
Concerts by our Music in The Morning musicians
I wish all our school community a great half term. Look forward to seeing you on Monday 19th February 2024. Have a happy, healthy break from all the Ambler staff.
Best wishes,
Sandy McNicholl
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Mon 19 Feb - First day of Spring term 2
Mon 19 Feb - Poetry Week
Mon 19 Feb - Reception FOA Movie Night
Tue 20 Feb - Y4 Cardfields parents' meeting, 9am
Tue 20 Feb - Y1 & Y2 FOA Movie Night
Wed 21 Feb - Y3 & Y4 FOA Movie Night
Thu 22 Feb - Y5 & Y6 FOA Movie Night
Fri 23 Feb - 3B London Symphony Orchestra
Thu 7 Mar - WORLD BOOK DAY
Fri 8 Mar - Twilight session - Children's Centre closes at 4pm
Tue 12 Mar - 2G Kew Gardens trip
Thu 14 Mar - 2B Kew Gardens trip
Tue 19 Mar - Parents' evening (Y1-6)
Thu 21 Mar - Parents' evening (Y1-6)
Sun 24 Mar - Grow Ambler Gardening Day
Tue 26 Mar - Music in the Morning concert (1-3)
Wed 27 Mar - Music in the Morning concert (4-6)
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
Fri 24 May - Last day of Summer term 1
Mon 3 Jun - INSET day - School and Children's Centre closed
Tue 4 Jun - First day of Summer term 2
Sat 6 Jul - SUMMER FAIR
COFFEE MORNINGS
SEN SUPPORT GROUP
Thursday 7th March, 9.00-10.00am
SENDIAS will be attending to support parents with impartial support, advice and information on special educational needs and disability.
'RESPONDING TO BEHAVIOUR'
Thursday 14th March 9.00-10.00am
With Mental Health & Wellbeing Lead, Sophie Smith-Tong, and Family Support Worker, Chloe Casey .
This annual celebration of authors, illustrators, books and the joy of reading is happening on Thursday 7 March.
World Book Day provides a fantastic opportunity to focus on reading for pleasure and embedding a habit of reading that brings a wide range of benefits. We are inviting children to dress up as a book character as an exciting way to talk about books and get recommendations.
Here are some tips for putting together a costume:
Choose a book your child is happy to talk about.
Start with things you might already have – tracksuits, t-shirts (inside out to make them plain) and pyjamas make a good base for a costume.
Focus on the parts of the character that make them stand out - use face paint or simple props to show these.
But what if my child…
Doesn’t have a book to share? Try a costume that invites recommendations – a t-shirt with post-it notes or one you don’t mind being written on.
Doesn’t like dressing up? Keep it simple with a character who wears everyday clothes, by focusing on a prop, or by using a badge instead.
Likes non-fiction? Focus on what they like – could they share a fact, or the subject matter, or do they want to focus on the author?
Isn’t interested in crafting? Stick to everyday clothes and add small details to focus on key elements of the character – hats, ears, sticking things on t-shirts etc.
On the day, we’ll also be hosting a special book swap. Drop off any unwanted books in the box by the school office by Monday 4th March. Then on Thursday, 7th March, come to the Lodge playground after school to browse and take something you would like to read!
All children will be receiving a free book – simply take your £1 book token to your nearest bookseller and swap it for a World Book Day £1 book OR use it to get £1 off any ANY book or audiobook costing £2.99 or more. You can find your nearest bookseller at www.worldbookday.com/participating-retailers.
We’re very much looking forward to celebrating World Book Day, which could not happen without the support of parents and carers – thank you.
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
Sophie Smith-Tong
It has been super busy this half term in terms of Mental Health and Wellbeing, below are a few of our fantastic achievements:
We held a wellbeing coffee morning for parents/carers where we discussed what Ambler is doing well and where we can make improvements.
We introduced Mindful Mo to both Year 1 classes - Mo will be part of daily life in Year one from the first week back after half term.
I delivered Mental Health and Wellbeing training to all Children’s Centre staff.
The Little People Big Feelings parent workshop was a huge success in the Children’s Centre.
I began the 8 week mindfulness course with 5 members of staff - we are halfway through and they are all benefiting massively from pausing and reflecting.
We had Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week where we invited Eastside and Magic Box’s Lottie into our school to explore the theme ‘My Voice Matters’
We took part in the Place2Be fundraiser - Dress to Express day where everyone came in dressed in their favourite colour (staff included!) and we raised a fantastic £381 so far. If you would still like to donate, go to Just Giving page.
Thank you for all your continued support.
In February, we have a focus on online safety to mark Safer Internet Day. This year we invited parents and carers to see children learning about online safety in 'open classroom' events. Thank you to those who were able to make it. It was great to present to you and hopefully align the school's messaging with your own. The materials have been shared in Google Classrooms.
The main message I asked parents/carers to leave with was to be involved with what your children do online and set firm boundaries. Remember, apps we use and often trust as adults, like TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat are designed to be addictive and can often push inappropriate content at children or expose them to it through the comments. They are all 13+ or 16+ and no primary age children should use them.
Bear in mind, even games like Roblox need to be monitored as they have chat functions that can be misused and put children in contact with strangers.
We strongly encourage that primary age children do not have a mobile phone. If older children need one for walking home, please make sure it is not a smart phone that would make them a target for having it stolen. Ensure you always know the password and/or pin for any device your child may use.
If you want to know more about specific apps and games and how to set up controls for your TV/computer/broadband then please have a look at: https://parentsafe.lgfl.net/ and https://www.internetmatters.org/ for easy to understand guides.
Lastly, one use of 'good tech' that we spoke about on the open classroom mornings was the 'Now Press Play' resources we use in school. These are bluetooth headphones that can be used for all sorts of purposes. Primarily, children use the audio experiences in a hall space to learn about their History, Science or Geography topic. The story they hear asks them to move around and play along with the story.
The children absolutely love it and from this half-term onwards teachers will be posting their current Now Press Play audio adventure as a link into Google Classrooms. This will allow you to listen at home, as well as use the accompanying resources, like quizzes and comprehensions. All of this really helps with your child's knowledge and understanding of these topics.
NURSERY
Another busy and very enjoyable half term is at an end. Our children have amazed us with their resilience and determination as they learn to work together; building and making with materials, waiting and taking turns, and watching and listening to their friends.
Learning to tear and cut masking tape with scissors is a skill the nursery children have persevered with - experimenting with tin foil, parchment paper, and large boxes to make castles and houses. Arthur explained: “This is my bed for my new house… I live in… it’s shiny..”
The children have enjoyed spending time in the forest this half term, it’s a tranquil and calming place where they have enjoyed exploring clay; learning to shape and mould the clay using just their hands.
Their creativity has continued to flourish as they enjoy listening to stories - retelling some of their favourites and beginning to make up new ones. A visit from Lottie (the storyteller) who asked the children what they had found inside their ears that morning led to wonderful conversations, August said: “This morning a dolphin that was pink came out and it said, hello August..”
Well done children – see you after the break and thank you to our parents and carers who work with us to make it possible.
TODDLERS
In the toddler room this half term we have been exploring Goldilocks and the Three Bears story. We have made collage houses for the Three Bears using natural materials. We have explored oats in lots of different ways. We even made flap jacks and they were delicious.
We have welcomed some new friends from Baby room and from the local community. We have also said goodbye to some friends that have moved on to Nursery and other settings.
Toddler room have been talking about how amazing it is to be us and how special we are. We have been celebrating ourselves as part of Children's Mental Health week, drawing self portraits and looking at books celebrating how good it is to be me.
RECEPTION
What a fun packed and very short half term! We have achieved so much over the past 5 weeks including our exciting visit to The Postal Museum in Farringdon. It was here that we got to ride the Mail Rail, become posties in the Sorted! play area and explore some mathematical concepts such as space, shape, measure, ordering and subitising with the amazing Postie, Rosie.
We were so proud of our Ambler children as we navigated the space carefully and sensibly whilst showing our creativity and imagination when interacting with the museum and staff.
We finished up the term with Children’s Mental Health Week where the children took part in a week long Show and Tell. The theme for this year's Place2Be week was ‘My Voice Matters’. We explored this theme through stories such as Grrrr! by Rob Biddulph, using our voices to talk about our special objects from home and with our visitor Lottie from Magic Box. Lottie helped us to tell the story of “Rhinos Don’t Eat Pancakes” using our voices and bodies.
BABY ROOM
In Baby Room the children have loved mark marking with a variety of resources and in different ways. We’ve dyed fabric by splashing and squirting, used our hands to make marks in flour and dried pulses, and used squashed berries for painting.
The children have also been very interested in their reflections and shiny things recently. Please take a moment to look at the display outside our room to see all of the exciting things we got up to and some examples of shiny materials.
Ambler is proud it be an anti-racist school. Every year we take part in the Show Racism the Red Card competition. It's a great opportunity to talk about what racism is, why we're against it and why we love diversity.
This year, there's the usual poster competition, but lots more ways to take part too, like composing a song or designing a football boot for an EA Sports game.
You'll find all the information on Google Classroom and more information will be coming at the beginning of next half term. Deadline is Thursday 29th February.
We've had two national competition winners in the last three years, so let's get creative and see what we can come up with this year.
FAMILY LANGUAGE CLASS
Well done to all the parents and carers who joined Ambler's Family Language class this term. It has been lovely having you and seeing all the progress you have made so far with your English skills!
A big thank you to our lovely tutor, Lauren, from Adult Community Learning who will be delivering lots of other short workshops and courses in the year!
For families with children in years 1 to 6, a reminder that the class teacher posts a weekly 'snapshot' to share what children have been learning in school. This includes pictures from recent trips and workshops.
Login details for Google Classroom and other 'good tech' are on the inside cover of your child's reading log.
ATTENDANCE MATTERS
If children are not in school, they are missing education, need to catch up and are at a disadvantage. It is well documented that poor attendance is likely to have a negative impact on a child’s education.
The law requires parents/carers to ensure their child’s regular attendance at school. Please:
Notify the school if your child cannot attend for any reason (every day of absence)
Explain the reasons for your child’s absence
Ensure your child is not absent where this can be avoided (e.g. minor illnesses).
There are 175 non-school days for holidays, family time etc. We do not expect parents/carers to take children out of school for a holiday or other term-time leave. Absence may be granted by the headteacher in exceptional circumstances - a holiday is not usually considered as an exceptional circumstance.
If after these considerations, you feel it is absolutely unavoidable to request term-time leave:
You must apply for leave in advance (request forms are available from the school office)
Submit your application at least 4 weeks in advance of the proposed leave dates
Apply before booking your travel
If you withdraw your child during term time and the absence has not been agreed by the Headteacher, it is unauthorised leave, which may lead to a fine of up to £120 and/or court proceedings.
We understand that every family’s circumstances are different and subject to change. Please email the school office to arrange a meeting with Mrs McNicholl if you have any concerns you would like to discuss.