The Ambler Chronicle

Edition 1. published 25 October 2023

www.ambler.islington.sch.uk

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Ambler families,

It’s been a FABULOUS start to the academic year and actually September feels like a distant memory! Thank you to parents and carers who were able to attend the  ‘drop in and meet the teacher’ event. I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to come into the classroom, see the set up and say hello to the teachers and support staff. 


It’s wonderful to see the children happy and engaged in learning - the classrooms are literally buzzing with creativity! Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening: 


Don't forget that you can see a weekly snapshot of learning on Google classroom


I’m delighted to announce my new Yr 6 School Captains - welcome on board Joseph, Mansoora, Emma and Maya. They have already got to work supporting me with jobs, sharing ideas and creating a school survey on school dinners - soon to be shared on google classroom. 


Also a huge welcome to the new Chair of Friends of Ambler Lucy Carraz, Tom Edwards as Treasurer and Siobhan McKenna as Secretary. Every child at Ambler benefits from the fundraising efforts and we are grateful for all that is done to ensure the children get the best possible experiences. 


And a final thank you to our amazing community who came along to listen to the children sing their hearts out and show their dance moves as part of our Black History Month celebrations - it was truly amazing!


There is so much more to come, so rest up and enjoy the half term and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday 30th October. 


Best wishes,

Sandy McNicholl

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Mon 30 Oct - First day of autumn term 2. Gates close at 8:55am and lessons start at 9am sharp.

Mon 30 Oct - Flu vaccination (nasal spray) Reception - Year 6 

Tue 31 Oct - Secondary school application deadline

Wed 1 Nov- School Photography (solo and siblings) 📸

Tue 7 Nov - Y2 and Y6 IntoFilm trips 🎬

Wed 8 Nov - Y5 IntoFilm trip 🎥

Thu 9 Nov - Y4 IntoFilm trip 🎞️

Thu 9 Nov - Full Governing Board (FGB) meeting

Mon 14 Nov - Y5 Swimming (2 week intensive)🏊

Wed 15 Nov - FOA Disco - Years 1-4 💃

Thu 16 Nov - FOA Disco - Reception, Y5 and Y6 🕺

Thu 23 Nov - Y3 IntoFilm trip 🎬

Fri 15 Dec - FOA Winter Day of Fun ☃️Christmas lunch 🎄 Christmas Jumper Day 🎅🏼

Fri 15 Dec - Children's Centre closes at 4pm for Twilight Session

Thu 21 Dec - Last day of term. School closes at 2pm

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

Monday 15 January 2024 - Reception 2024 application deadline

COFFEE MORNINGS

Thursday 2nd November, 9-10am - Special Educational Needs (SEN) coffee morning with The Bridge outreach team.

Thursday 16th November, 9-10am - Family Group Conference Coffee Morning (Free service to families which can give you the help you need)

Friday 17th November, 9-10am - Headteacher Questions Coffee Morning 

BRIGHT FUTURES DROP-INS

Bright Futures Drop-in Support at Ambler: 

Drop in service or arrange an appointment (contact Chloe Casey - Child and Family Support Worker). 


HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES

Holiday childcare playschemes operate each holiday, apart from Christmas. 

If you need information and advice about support with childcare costs, including tax-free childcare or childcare through Universal Credit, contact Islington's Family Information Service, 020 7527 5959; fis@islington.gov.uk or visit www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

Holiday playschemes are running at the following providers during October half-term 2023. See below for more information:

Holidays - childcare and things to do

Access to Sports run free activities throughout the holidays. Find out more at:

https://accesstosports.org.uk/bookings/

MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF CHILDREN'S CENTRE

The first half term has flown by! The children in babies, toddlers and nursery have settled into their new or existing rooms and routines. It has been a pleasure to see them all returning with such energy and positivity, and all looking just a little bit taller!

 

Our Reception children have settled into school life extremely well. It is a joy to see them bounce into school each day with real enthusiasm and already displaying the DREAMS qualities in abundance. All the children are developing friendships and a true love of learning!


The children put on a wonderful concert to celebrate Black History Month. It was great to be joined by so many parents and carers. I hope everyone enjoyed the performance, the delicious food and the chance to socialise with other families.

We are pleased to announce that Learning Journals is up and running and staff have been adding some lovely stories. All parents will receive a permission form in the next few days and once completed and sent back to us, each parent will receive a log in so that you can see what your child has been learning and enjoying in the early years.

DROP OFF & COLLECTION REMINDER

Reception Class drop off is from 8:45-8:55am. Please make sure that your child arrives on time so that they do not miss the whole class teaching session. Please allow time for children to settle independently after hanging up their bags and coats. Reception finishes promptly at 3:30pm and extended day finishes at 6pm.

 

For children from babies to nursery, the core day is 9:00am-3:15pm and extended day is 8am-6pm. Please ensure that you collect your child promptly by the end of their session time. 

STAFF UPDATE

We are delighted to introduce the newest member of the Ambler family, who arrived last Thursday. 

Congratulations to Miss Leeds on the arrival of Sophie ♥️ We can't wait to meet her! Mum and baby are both doing well.

And a very warm welcome back from maternity leave to Mrs Sawyer. She will be working three days a week as an intervention teacher and Early Career Teacher (ECT) mentor.

EARLY YEARS INCLUSION LEAD

It's been a wonderful first half term for me here at Ambler. In my new role as Early Years Inclusion Lead, I have had the privilege of getting to know and working with children and parents from babies to Reception. 

The support network in school and the local community is organised to give each child the best start. I have been working closely with Mrs Hradsky to identify and plan interventions that ensure every child makes progress. I have attended some 'spotlight meetings' where the input of parents and carers is highly valued. We believe that a collaborative approach reflects a more rounded view of an individual child's needs. 

The Early Years team is dedicated, nurturing and passionate about learning. I feel very lucky to be part of the team. I'm really excited to meet more families in Autumn 2. 

Rachael O'Sullivan

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING LEAD

Hello! For those of you who are yet to meet me, I am Sophie Smith-Tong (Class Teacher for Reception Blue). I am really excited to be taking on the role of Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead for Ambler, both in the children's centre and primary school. 

I plan to continue all of the amazing work already in place at Ambler alongside developing fresh strategies to better the wellbeing of our school community even further. I will be spending this term reflecting on current approaches such as our Zones of Regulation and Daily Breathing and hope to develop new initiatives that can support children, staff and families, such as Staff Wellbeing Drop-Ins and wellbeing focused School Council discussions. I am really looking forward to working with you all across the school and wish you a restful half term. 

FOOTBALL TOURNAMENTS

A huge congratulations to all the children who took part in the recent Islington PESSPA football tournaments! The standard throughout was very high - as always. 

On the last day of the half term, our year 3/4 girls triumphed in bringing home the Islington Cup! 

We are very proud of both our boys and girls for their exceptional contributions.  Ambler Rocks! 

ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Year 5 visited Royal Albert Hall for the Future Makers concert. It is a showcase for talented young musicians  inspire younger pupils to engage with music.

BACK TO THE STONE AGE

What a fearsome bunch we have in year 3! Our Stone Age workshop certainly brought learning to life!! 

We learned a lot about surviving in the Stone Age, including what people wore to keep warm and what they ate. Children became hunter-gatherers and recorded their lives in cave paintings!

BHM CONCERTS

Our Black History Month celebrations culminated in three performances for parents/carers!

The early years team kicked off the celebrations with a joyous gathering and singalong in the toddler garden. The enthusiasm of staff and children was contagious, and Kim's drumming amazing! 

Then it was over to key stage 2. Year 5 and 6 sang a rousing version of 'Feeling Good' by Nina Simone, while year 3 and 4's Des'ree's 'Gotta Be' was beautifully uplifting.

Year 1 and 2 sang Search for the 'Search for the Hero' by M People - complete with choreography!

All children years 1 to 6, learned a simplified version of the Candy dance/electric slide. After practicing for weeks, they smashed it in front families. What a moment to remember!

Thank you to all of the families who were able to join us, to staff who poured their energy into the making the events fabulous and our children who really shone with their performances. 

It was wonderful to bring the Ambler community together for such a joyous celebration of diversity and Black history and culture.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

What a fun-packed Black history season we've had this half term! We danced, we drummed, we sang, we cooked and we acted out stories. We read, we researched and we wrote about Black history heroes, including Black women with this year's "Saluting our Sisters" theme. 

We enjoyed performances from the fabulous Iroko Theatre Company and class visits from our wonderful Black parents and carers. We made art and we made accessories for our playground performance. We worked hard at home to create some fabulous Black History month projects, which our teachers loved! 

Iroko Theatre Company performance

Iroko workshops with pupils

One of our parents sharing his family's contribution to black history and the music industry in Britain with year 6.

African drumming sessions with George

Thank you so much to all our committed staff who put in many extra hours to make all of this happen and to our generous and talented parents, who helped us every step of the way. Well done to our children too, who stepped up to every challenge in true Ambler style. What a brilliant way to start our new school year!

But it's not just about October! We're working on making sure Black history is included and celebrated throughout the year. So we're starting next half term by studying Black poets in literacy and of course we'll still be celebrating our Black history, cultures, writers and heroes in all of our school subjects, for example Mae Jemison and John Blanke and in history, an Egypt study in geography and Vanessa Emeka-Okafor in science. So much to look forward to! 

Muyeya & Mary serving up jollof rice and plantain

BHM COOKING

As part of Black History Month, Year 4 put their chef's hats on and rustled up some beautiful Afro-Caribbean inspired food. The children produced a delicious jambalaya and even make sure everything was cleaned up ready for the next class. 

Other year groups turned their hand to other dishes, learning about their origins along the way. Thank you to the parent helpers who baked Kwanzaa Benne cakes with year 2.

Year 2 were also shown how to make the Somali dish, Anjero Suqaar, by one of our parents, Alia. They absolutely loved it!

Showing Racism the Red Card

TODDLER ROOM 

This term, the Toddler room has been very busy. We have lots of new friends that have joined us over the term and we have been helping to make them feel welcome and happy. We have been talking about our feelings with the help of Pip and his Buddies. 

Through exploring the books, we are starting to understand the different feelings that we might have. We even did some Buddy printing using our new Buddy stamps. 

We have been very busy celebrating Black History Month with the whole centre. We enjoyed performing for our families and friends all the different songs that we had been learning. 

We were looking at the story 'Baby goes to Market' and explored our local markets and bought products that related to the story.

NURSERY

This half term has whizzed by as we have settled new children into nursery and welcomed our existing children who are proving to be excellent role models for our new children. The children are learning to share, take turns and wait; important skills as they learn to play and interact with their peers. The children are learning about their senses and how they use them to explore and learn about the environment. Our trip to Colourscape was a visual feast of colour and sound. The children were immersed in rooms of vivid colour and sound as they travelled through the different colour zones. 

The children continued their exploration of their senses as they gathered herbs from the school gardens. The children were intrigued and delighted to discover that by rubbing the herbs between their fingers the scent became strong and long lasting on their skin. This led to conversations about smell and how it could mean danger and Amelia said: “Cake smell makes me happy..” 

Our second outing to Tall Stories Studios to see the Gruffalo's Child was another visual and musical event as the children were immersed in music, dance and storytelling. 

Next half term we begin our library trips. In preparation for this we are talking together about how we look after books, how we handle them and how we turn the pages at the corner. Well done everyone and enjoy a well-deserved rest; we look forward to welcoming new friends to the setting after the break so happy half- term to you all!

RECEPTION 

Wow! Where did that half term go!? The children are well and truly settled into life in Reception. They have made strong friendships, learned to look after their classrooms and are on their way to independently zipping up their coats as the colder weather kicks in. 

We have explored our families and homes through drawing, discussed feelings through the introduction of classroom buddies (soft toys) and explored boundaries and consent through story. 

Expressing our feelings!

We have developed an understanding of Black History Month through song, dance and art and have even started to learn how to read! 

We are excited about our first upcoming trip to the local library on our first week back and cannot wait to get started with drawing club (our literacy approach). 

Enjoy your well deserved break and well done for making it through their first half term! 

YEAR 6 PGL RESIDENTIAL

Year 6 kicked off the year off with our annual residential trip to PGL! The whole Year 6 team was so impressed with how they showed their DREAMS qualities and worked together to overcome all the challenges they faced. It was hard to pick a favourite activity as they seemed to enjoy them all! 

The climbing wall and trapeze tested their nerve with heights, tunnelling trails was a challenge for the claustrophobic and archery was a real challenge of skill. Without a doubt, the most hype came when it was time for the giant swing. All the children loved it and the screams of joy (or terror) could be heard for miles! 

Children and staff alike had a fantastic weekend and it was a great bonding experience for everyone as the Year 6s start their final year at Ambler. 

See the galleries below for more photos from the trip.

BABY ROOM

We’ve had a really busy half term in baby room. We have participated in lots of collaborative art activities, exploring the texture of paint and becoming fully emerged in the sensory experience.

We went on a trip to explore the immersive ‘Look Up!’ exhibition at Discover Children's Story Centre.

Black History Month was a huge success, where we took part in lots of amazing activities. We cooked and tasted new foods, tie-dyed T-shirts, had singing and drumming sessions and a really exciting dance class! 

'Look Up!' exhibition at Discover Children's Story Centre

Congratulations to our new Digital Leaders for this year and well done to everyone who applied for showing ambition! Don't worry - I will be choosing 10 new Digital Leaders in Spring term to give more children the opportunity to do this role. You won't need to apply again if you already did and missed out this time. 

As well as running the Computing Hub at lunch times, the new Digital Leaders will get a tech-based trip and can get straight to work testing the new generation of Microbits that have just arrived.

This term look out for our Year 6 parent and child information morning on online safety and phone safety with expert Katy Potts in the coming week email. We will also be organising some launch workshops in UKS2 for our new Microbits with a computing expert.

In wider digital news: 

If you're looking for help to break bad digital habits, take a look at: 

Lastly, for some inspiring, constructive tech-use think about encouraging your child to enter the ChildNet film competition.

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

It is well documented that poor attendance is likely to have a negative impact on a child’s education. If children are not in school, they are missing education, need to catch up and are at a disadvantage. 

We do not expect parents/carers to take children out of school for a holiday or other term-time leave. There are 175 non-school days for holidays, family time etc. Absence can 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. 

The law requires parents/carers to ensure their child’s regular attendance at school. Please:

KS2 have been loving TT Rockstars this half term and working together as classes to score as many points as possible. 

This term, our winning class were 4 Blue, who enjoyed a non-uniform day in the last week of term. 

All points have been reset for Autumn 2. Can 4 Blue hold onto their title or will another class knock them off the top spot...

FLASH TOY SALE!!

Thank you to The Toy Project for donating A mountain of toys for the school to sell. Items were sold at a fraction of their RRP, saving our families hundreds of pounds. 

£990 was made, which will all go to the school. Thanks again to the Toy Project and to Friends of Ambler who helped to organise the sale. A shout out to our new school captains who also helped to set up the stalls.

FRIENDS OF AMBLER

Friends of Ambler is a charity set up to fundraise, apply for grants and put on events with the sole aim of making Ambler even more wonderful than it already is. 

They run “just for fun” events for pupils, such as school discos, and fundraising events like the silent auction and summer fair. 

Found out more, including how you can help in their latest newsletter: FOA Autumn 1 Newsletter 2023

BRIGHT START SOCIAL COMMUNICATION TEAM- WINTER UPDATE