Diary Dates

Term Dates

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Ardley Hill for the start of the spring term. Soon we will be looking forward to longer and hopefully brighter days. The children have all returned from their Christmas break settled and ready to learn. Thank your for supporting your children in coming into school each day on time with everything they need to learn. This week our Year 6 children have completed some mock SATs tests and we are already really proud of their focus and independence when completing these and their progress from the start of the year. Amazing work from all of the children; well done! Thank you to the staff in school for supporting the children with their confidence to thrive during assessments and their overall learning to ensure they leave Ardley Hill Secondary school ready.

I hoping to see lots of you next week during our Leadership coffee morning next Wednesday where you will have the chance to meet the team and hear all about our school development areas for this year. Please fill out the form below in the newsletter to confirm your attendance if you have not already done so.

See you all next week where hopefully it will be a bit of a warmer one!

Mrs Romina Lang

Headteacher

Attendance-Paddington Bear

Each week in our whole school assembly we celebrate children's attendance by the winning class for that week receiving Paddington Bear to sit pride of place in their classroom. The class with the highest attendance figure is rewarded with a class prize.

The winning class for the last week was:

Week of 12th January: China Class with 99.14% attendance

Whole school attendance : 95%

Week of 5th January : Kenya class with 99.44% attendance

Whole school attendance : 95 %

Our whole school target attendance for this academic year across all classes is 97%.

Leadership Coffee Morning

We are looking forward to seeing lots of you for our leadership coffee morning. This is an opportunity for you to pop into school and meet the team and find out more about whole developments that have been taking place and our school development plan for the rest of the year.

Please complete the form below to confirm your attendance:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe06KLJX1-AktBevYj657opPU5VJcpTNJvDEF0kGJfrUHQamQ/viewform?usp=header

Learning Review Meetings

Our learning review meetings will be held on Wednesday 28th January.

Keep an eye on your emails as we will be sending out the appointments some time next week.

NSPCC number day

NSPCC number day is Friday 6th February. Children will be invited to dress up if they wish with inventive or simple ideas on how to represent numbers. Last year we had children dress as calculators, dart boards and uno cards! There will be a variety of fun activities and all proceeds will go to the NSPCC.

If you wish to make a donation then you can do so on our just giving page below:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/ardley-hill-academy-17?newPage=true

NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. Programme

As part of our PSHE lessons we are participating in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. Programme this term. Speak out. Stay safe. is a programme for children aged 5-11 which aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a safe adult or Childline.

This child friendly programme is aligned with the curriculum and consists of age appropriate virtual assemblies and supporting classroom based activities which we have reviewed, alongside NSPCC volunteer led face to face workshops for children aged 6-7 and 9-11.The content is delivered in an engaging and interactive way with the help of the NSPCC mascot Buddy. Please look out for an email with more details about this programme.

Chair of Governors

We are delighted to welcome Mr Adam Kohlbeck as Chair of Governors of the joint Ardley Hill/Lark Rise Governing Body. Mr Kohlbeck is the Director of Teacher Quality at the Chiltern Learning Trust and is a best selling educational author, who brings a wealth of knowledge and educational experience to the governing body.

Scooters & Bikes

Reminder if your child is coming to school on a bike or scooter they need to dismount before entering the school property. This helps us ensure a safe environment for everyone.

Additionally, a reminder that electric scooters are not allowed at all on the school site.

Lateness

Taken from our school attendance Policy:

Our pupils must arrive by 8:45am to each school day.

• Pupils arriving after 8:45 am will be marked as late (L) – which still counts as present. See DfE Attendance Codes – Appendix One.

• If a pupil arrives after the close of registration after 9:15 am, they will be marked with the unauthorised absence code ‘Late after registers close’ (U) for the morning session. (See ‘Unauthorised Absence’ section for more information on unauthorised absences.) If a pupil arrives late after the registers close due to a valid reason, such as an unavoidable medical appointment, their absence will be marked with the appropriate authorised absence code.

Notifying Absence

Please ensure that you notify the school via the absence line on the school phone or by email if your child is absent from school for any reason. If we are not notified of the reason for a child's absence, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and will count against overall school absences for the year, culminating in a fine if a child misses 10 or more sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence.

Parking around school site

We are writing to kindly remind everyone of the importance of parking considerately and safely around the school during drop-off and pick-up times.

Recently, we have received a number of complaints from local residents regarding cars blocking driveways, parking on pavements, and creating congestion near the school gates. We fully understand how busy these times of day can be, but we ask for your continued cooperation in helping to maintain a safe and respectful environment for everyone in our community.

Please be mindful not to obstruct residents’ access to their homes, and avoid stopping in no-parking zones or on yellow lines. If possible, consider parking a little further away and walking the short distance to school.

Thank you for your understanding and support in keeping our school and local neighbourhood safe and welcoming for all.