The Ambler Chronicle

Edition 6. published 25 July 2024

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Ambler families,

It is the end of another epic year! I am so proud of all the children who have truly shown their DREAMS qualities to ACHIEVE MORE. The end of year reports highlight their success and targets to work on for next year. 

This is also the time we say goodbye to our amazing Year 6 children. They have been INSPIRATIONAL in their attitude and behaviour for learning - the SATS results speak for themselves with 98% of children achieving the expected standard or above for reading! They are going to secondary school with the foundations to continue to succeed. I wish them all the best of luck. 

How wonderful it was to turn the school into an art gallery for our Summer Art Exhibition! Thank you to all the efforts of children, support staff, teachers and parent volunteers who made it happen. I was told that it was better than the Tate gallery, and I’d agree!

We’ve managed to squeeze in some fun this half term, which you’ll read all about in the Chronicle. Some highlights were KS1 Ambler's Got Talent and Year 2 trip to the seaside.

We already have some fantastic things lined up for next year:

We wish all our families a happy, healthy and fun-filled break and look forward to welcoming the children on Wednesday 4th September.

Best wishes from the Ambler Team.

Sandy McNicholl

REMINDERS

Although school is closed from 24 July until 3 September, our Designated Safeguarding Leads are still available to support children and families with safeguarding concerns. 

The DSL team can be contacted by email over the summer break via dsl@ambler.islington.sch.uk. Also, the children's centre remains open for the majority of the school holiday and members of the DSL team will be on duty on-site to support families in need.

We are very happy to support you in anyway we can, so please do not feel that you need to wait until September to raise concerns. 

SUMMER ART EXHIBITION

What a triumph our second annual Art Exhibition was! Thank you to all the families who joined us for the event. 

Congratulations to Ms Miller and Ms Gilbert for putting together the fabulous exhibition, and thank you to all the staff and volunteers who helped. 

Children's artwork was displayed across the school and children's centre. Here are pieces by year 1, inspired by Dutch artist, Van Gogh, and the Gee's Bend quilts.

Baby room's large mark-making installation.

Screen printed banners made during Arts Weeks with resident artist Sarah Pimenta.

Nursery's sewing banners spelling 'Ambler'.

Reception's Mermaid Tail inspired by the text "Julian is a Mermaid". Made with the help of Miss Smith-Tong's mum!

Year 5's Black History Month project - African passport masks

MULTI-FAMILY GROUP

We completed our Summer Term Multi-Family Group!

This group of parents/ carers and children met once a week for 8 weeks with Katy (school psychotherapist) and Chloe (child & family Support worker) to do a range of paired and team-building activities together.

We made Spaghetti & Marshmallow towers which proved that “Teamwork Is the Dream Work!!!”

Families made special moments together out of clay, and we made a Tree of Life. This celebrated the group’s rich cultural heritage and roots, our strengths as a group, and our hopes and dreams for the future.

Lots of other activities were completed as well as time to set targets with teachers and families, reflect on any achievements and plan for next steps…

If you would like to join our Autumn Term Multi-Family Group, please come to our coffee afternoon in September.

Your child is invited to sign up for FREE for this year’s Summer Reading Challenge - you can do it online or at your local library.

What is the Summer Reading Challenge?

The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to keep reading during the school summer holidays – and to enjoy reading anything they like! Children aged 4-11 are invited to set a reading goal and collect rewards for their reading.

Why should my child sign up?

How can my child take part? (Library OR online)

1.  In the library: Visit your local library and sign up. Your child will:


2. Online: Take part online at summerreadingchallenge.org.uk


When?

The Challenge has already started and will run through summer.

Visit summerreadingchallenge.org.uk for free activities, videos, book recommendations and more. 

🐝📖 SPELLING BEE 📖🐝

This term, the children challenged themselves in our Summer Spelling Bee. It was an exciting competiton and the children all proved themselves to be excellent spellers! 

As well as competiting in our compeition, we also celebrated our most improved spellers for the term. They have all done so well. Our Year 3/4 Spelling Bee Summer Winner was Ayaan in 3 Blue and our Year 5/6 summer winner was Mansoora in 6 Blue. 

Make sure you get practising your spellings ready for Autumn term! 

TIMES TABLE COMPETITION

This has been another great term for times tables at Ambler. A big well done to all the Year 4s who took part in the Multiplication Check - you should all be really proud of yourselves. 

This term saw the return of the Times Tables Competition. A champion from every class battled it out to see who was the ultimate KS2 times tables superstar. It was a close race but in the end, our reigning champion, Dan from 5G, managed to retain his title! A big congratulations also goes to 6G who won the TT rockstars competition!

Keep practising your times tables over the summer. 

YEAR 6 LEAVERS

It is that time of the year where we find ourselves having to say a sad farewell to our wonderful year 6 children. Their jam-packed year began with an unforgettable residential trip to PGL where they took part in a host of fun outdoor activities, bonded with each other, and indulged in the most delicious food. 

As the year progressed, they worked incredibly hard to prepare themselves for SATs. All the boosters and homework paid off as they produced some fantastic results - we are all very proud of them. 

After SATs, they completed a sponsored 5K in Clissold Park to raise money for their end of year trip to Chessington World of Adventures. Thankfully, the sun showed itself and everyone could hardly contain their excitement. The children went on lots of different rides which saw them screaming and laughing until their sides hurt. Everyone agreed that they had the best time and that it even rivalled PGL in the amount of fun they had!

Back at school, the year 6's worked hard on their end of year performance, ‘Pirates of the Curry Bean’. Hours of endless practice culminated in spectacular performances to parents, staff and other pupils. Everybody commented on how professional the production was and how talented the cast and crew are. Their final term at Ambler has been full of fun! 

In the last few weeks, they also had their leavers' assemblies where all the children were given their certificates and end-of-year bags, with their families in attendance. The Year 6’s also had their prom, which had a glam-disco theme. 

All the children were dressed to impress and walked the red-carpet (check out the gallery on the following below!) There was music, dancing, tasty food and drinks. They partied hard and wowed us with some brilliant moves on the dance floor. It was definitely an evening to remember and a great way for the Year 6’s to have one last hurrah before they left Ambler. 

Finally, in the last week of school, all of them were treated to a delicious Nando's meal courtesy of Ryan's dad, Ly Voong. Ly even got them ice cream for dessert - the children were thrilled! 

Thank you to our fabulous staff and parents who have worked so hard to make this year as memorable as possible for the Year 6's. 

Overall, we had a brilliant year with all our Year 6's. We will truly miss them next year and wish them the best of luck in secondary school! 

FAREWELLS & WELCOMES

In addition to our year 6 pupils, it is the time of year when we also say farewell to a number of staff:

Thank you so much for your dedication to our children and families. We wish them all the best for their next chapters.

Best wishes also to the following colleagues now on maternity leave:

We are delighted to welcome the following staff from September:

FAMILY SUPPORT WORKER

As many of you will know, our Child and Family Support Worker, Chloe Casey, is on maternity leave. We are delighted to share that Baby Jax was born, weighing 8 pound, on Monday! We wish Chloe all the best for a lovely year with her family. 

We are very excited to welcome Latoya Maynard, a very experienced pastoral care and safeguarding practitioner, to support our school community as Child and Family Support Worker from September. 

A coffee morning will be organised early in the term for Latoya to introduce herself. She will also be at the gate to greet children and parents on 5 September. 

To all the Ambler Families we wanted to say a big thank you from Friends of Ambler for all the great support this summer term with the Summer Fair, 80’s night, our second Grow Ambler Day and the Car Boot Sale,! 

FoA will be sharing information before the end of term on the fantastic fundraising which has been done in 2023/24 and the workshops, events and school led activities which have been supported thanks to the generous contributions of time as well as funds from our community. 

Have a wonderful summer everyone and see you in September! For those leaving we are wishing you all a super time on your next adventure! 

Friends of Ambler

On behalf of the staff and governors at Ambler, I want to say an ENORMOUS thank you to Friends of Ambler and all our parents and carers for enthusiastically supporting all the fundraising activities.

The money raised helps to enrich children's experiences at Ambler, for example by covering the cost of trips, specialist workshops and events such as the art exhibition. THANK YOU!

Mrs McNicholl

BLACK HISTORY SEASON

When we come back after summer we’ll be launching straight into our celebrations of Black history and cultures. A month is never long enough to fit in all our fantastic Black history activities, so we decided to make it a season!  

We work hard on weaving our learning about Black history and cultures through all of our subjects all year round. But having a special ‘season’ means we can give an extra boost to our learning and fill some of the knowledge gaps lots of us have.  We’ve got loads of exciting things planned, including:

As usual, we’ll be inviting Black parents and carers to come and do class visits or assemblies. Whether you’d like to share your family history, culture, work, achievements or struggles, we’d love to hear from you! It’s so important for our children to have Black role models from our own community as well as heroes from history. Speak to or email Miss Daniels, Senior Leadership Team or class teacher if you’d like to get involved. 

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Happy summer everyone, it has been a rainy half term but that hasn’t stopped us! Here is a summary of our Mental Health and Wellbeing achievements for Summer 2:  

We wish You all a wonderful summer and we look forward to continuing our wellbeing journey with you in the autumn term! 

Come and join Bright Futures for free family activities this summer! 

Bright Futures offers a full programme over the summer period, running activities, trips and advice drop-ins across the borough in community venues and outdoor spaces, in partnership with Bright Start.

Activities are available to all families living in Islington, with families who have children from 5-19 years. View the full timetable here.

🏅 SPORTS DAY 🏅

Years 1-6 enjoyed a wonderful day of sporting activity in the sun during our annual Sports Day at Highbury Fields. It was great to see all the children taking part and using their DREAMS qualities to compete and win points for their houses. The final scores were nail bitingly close but this year's winners were...Attenborough! Well done to all the children, staff and parents for making it such a fun and special day. 

⚽ BRILLIANT SEASON! ⚽

As a reward for coming joint top of the Arsenal Foundation League South this year, our Year 5 & 6 girls were given the opportunity to compete against the other 3 winners and runners-up in Islington in an epic finals competition at Whittington Park. 

The girls played well, but unfortunately came out second best in both games. Regardless, they really enjoyed the day and demonstrated their DREAMS qualities throughout. Well done girls, you did an amazing job to go unbeaten right to the very end. What a fantastic season! 

JUNIOR PARK RUN 

Every Sunday morning at 9am ParkRun hold a junior 2km park run around Caledonian Park (N7 9PL) and Highbury Fields (N5 1BA). It is completely FREE and you can take it at your own pace.

5k Adult Park Run also takes place in both parks at Saturday mornings at 9am. If this is your first junior or adult ParkRun you will need to register first www.parkrun.org.uk/register/ 

STEM WEEK 2024

This term saw the return of STEM week. This year’s theme was Space and Time. 

All the children had a fantastic time exploring Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in and outside of the classroom. Every class from nursery to year 6 had an engineering workshop with Inventors and Makers focusing on mankind’s engineering journey into space over time.

EYFS made balloon rocket launches, KS1 recreated launches and splash downs, while KS2 built rovers using motors and circuits. These fantastic workshops were funded by Friends of Ambler. 

Children also took part in Enterprise Day where they had to work in teams to design a new game and build a 3D model of their game pitch.

GO APE TRIP

This term we joined up with our partner schools in Islington for an exciting trip to Go Ape! The children showed their DREAMS qualities as they challenged themselves on the high ropes and the zip line. We also got a opportunity to spend time with children from all the other schools and I was very proud to see how friendly, helpful and sociable all the children were. We played football, enjoyed a yummy pizza for lunch and had lots of group games! What a fun filled day it was! 

AMBLER UPSTANDERS

We were delighted to welcome Mpula Lawton from the Arise Project in June. Miss Lawton visited in June and inspired Year 6 to think about what is means to be an anti-racist and an 'upstander'. 

She explained that an upstander is someone who speaks up when they see or hear something racist, rather than a 'bystander' who just stands by and doesn't do anything about it. Following that, our brilliant Year 6 School Captains delivered Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 assemblies, sharing what they'd learnt with the whole school. Thank you and well done to Mansoora, Joseph and Rosa! 

HAMPSTEAD HEATH TRIP

Year 1 had a wonderful time at Hampstead Heath paddling pool and adventure playground. This trip is part of the ‘Ambler Passport’ experience, which enable the children to build resilience and independence as they progress through the school. 

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF CHILDREN'S CENTRE

As we approach the end of another successful academic year, I am delighted to share with you some of the exciting early years developments and achievements that have taken place this year. It has been a year filled with lots of wonderful learning, growth, success, and memorable moments.

The last few weeks have been very busy. Each room had an end of year party, children met their new teachers and the children transitioning to Reception had a lovely Graduation Ceremony. We also hosted a stunning Art Exhibition which truly felt like I was in the Tate!

We have worked very hard this year to create our curriculum for early years rooted in a love of books and reading. We wanted to ensure our core books included minority ethnic main characters, celebrated difference and represented cultural diversity, different types of families, and different disabilities, not only in the stories themselves but also with the authors and illustrators. The children have been thoroughly enjoying the new stories and experiences.

As part of the council’s monitoring, we had our annual review of the EYFS statutory requirements in the under 3 provision. The feedback report was very positive. Areas of strength included our sequenced curriculum; practitioners’ ability to support language and learning; our vibrant and welcoming environment showcasing children’s work; and a diverse and inclusive range of books. 

Good luck to those children who will be starting Reception at new schools in September! For those children who will be attending Reception here at Ambler, this is not a goodbye, only a see you later! Lastly, those children who will be returning across the centre, we will see you in September!

I feel very lucky to be in a job I love with an amazing staff team and families supporting the work we do. The achievements we've celebrated, the challenges we've overcome, and the improvements we continue to make all contribute to the vibrant and nurturing learning environment we strive to create.  Thank you for your continued support.

I would like to wish all of our children, families, and staff a wonderful summer break. I look forward to welcoming you back for another exciting year in September.

Best wishes

Cíara

Forest School with The Garden Classroom

We are teaming up with The Garden Classroom to offer every child weekly forest school sessions from September! Babies and Toddlers will take part in ‘Little Seedlings’ onsite and Nursery and Reception will take part in Urban Forest School offsite at Highbury Fields. Thank you to Friends of Ambler and the Richard Reeves Foundation for grants to make this happen!  

 

Summer works

I'm excited to let you know that the Nursery and Reception garden will be getting a makeover during the summer. ‘The Nest’ will also be finished ready for the opening in September. The Nest will provide additional and targeted support for early years children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The project been fully funded with Community Infrastructure Levy funding allocated by Finsbury Park, Arsenal and Highbury ward councillors.

Tea and Talk

Ahead of introducing our monthly tea and talk sessions, we would like to get your feedback about what topics would be most useful to cover. The sessions can include strategies to support your child's learning, parenting advice, and information about a wide range of things from safety to mindfulness and more! If you would like a session to focus on a particular topic, please let us know by commenting here

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepvgHTXJKr5m53sbCNiBBeQjoXZB-UyUgnte9FL3awA_PLiA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Parent Survey

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who took the time to complete our recent parent survey. We received responses from 70 families, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. 73% of respondents said the quality of the setting is excellent and a further 25% said good. It is encouraging to see that the vast majority of parents believe we are doing a great job. However, we always want to develop and we have taken note of the areas where we can improve. We will be focusing on improving communication regarding your child's progress, providing more information about what your child is learning and introducing monthly Tea and Talk sessions to address different topics.

BABY ROOM 

Wow, what an amazing year we’ve had in baby room! 

Some children have been with us for the whole year, others have joined us more recently and some have moved on already. Each and every child has been a huge part of baby room and made great progress from their starting points. It’s been an honour to be trusted with your babies as they start their journey of care and education. 

This year we’ve had so much excitement from theatre trips, author and illustrator visitors, dance sessions, music sessions to hatching our very own duckling eggs and watching caterpillars transform into butterflies. 

We’ve had an array of immersive art experiences where the babies have been able to explore paint and other sensory materials using their whole bodies. 

The babies confidence in water has also grown and they’ve loved being in the paddling pools- when the weather has allowed!

As a team, we have become more knowledgeable on schemas and so in turn been better equipped at identifying and supporting your children with their schemas.

We also had a two-week transformation of baby room!! We love our newly developed space, children have responded so positively and we are really pleased. 

TODDLER ROOM

Toddler Room has had a very exciting half term. It all started with the arrival of the ducklings. The children watched the ducklings hatch and grow over 10 days. They got to hold them and even took them for their first swim. The children read some stories such as 'What's That Noise' and 'A Busy Day For Birds' and talked about the noises ducklings made and where they live. 

The children have also been observing the life cycle of caterpillars. They are waiting for the butterflies to emerge from the chrysalis before they set them free in the garden. The children have been reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and learning some new very tricky words such as chrysalis and metamorphosis. 

The children took part in a printing workshop with Sarah Primenta. They used everyday objects such as spoons, forks, knives and pencils to make their own marks in poly boards and used paint to print their marks onto material. The children really enjoyed using their bodies to create their print. 

It has come to the time in the year where we celebrate and say goodbye to lots of the children moving into Nursery. We have all had a lot of fun together this year and we know you will enjoy the new experiences in Nursery. 

NURSERY

This half term the children have been thinking about how we look after our world. We have been talking about how important it is to recycle paper instead of just throwing it away. We decided to be creative in the way we reuse and recycle paper by tearing it up and adding water to make pulp. The children pushed and pressed the pulp into a mould, sprinkled in some wildflower seeds and covered this with another layer of pulp. Zakaria said: “It’s gonna be a seed cake made of paper and seeds..”. When it dried, the result was a seed bomb that can be planted anywhere! 

The children particularly enjoy outdoor learning in the summer term when the weather is good and, in their explorations, noticed the forest floor is teeming with life. The children devised their own scavenger hunt noticing and drawing the mini beasts they discovered. Nyla said: “There’s a worm and another one with lots of legs…” 

The happy ending to a fantastic half term was the Nursery Graduation. The children showed us just how ready they are for their next challenge by the composure and confidence they showed during the ceremony. The children have worked so hard and we wish you all a restful summer. We are looking forward to welcoming our returning children and new children to nursery class in September. 

RECEPTION 

This term, our Reception class got a surprise message in a bottle from Rocket, the character from Clean Up. She asked for ideas on keeping the beach clean, and the children were super excited to help! They decorated our bins to make them look fun, made posters to show where rubbish should go, and even held a protest in the playground, shouting, “Put rubbish in the bin” and “CLEAN UP!” Rocket’s message really made a difference, and the children learned a lot about keeping our environment clean. We’re so proud of their enthusiasm and hard work! 

For our final trip of the year, we took the underground train to explore the Science Museum. The children got to experience how astronauts live and work in space and, most importantly, how to use a space toilet! Everyone, including our grown-up helpers, loved pretending to be astronauts. A big thank you to all of the volunteers who helped us create a special experience for all the children. 

As a final note, we hope you all have a wonderful and well-deserved summer break. The adults have had such an exciting and fun-filled year, and we are all so proud of how much you have grown. We wish you all the best in Year 1!

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:

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:  

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.