Newsletter 19.06.26

Diary Dates

Term Dates

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are fast approaching the end of the year! We have been very busy in school and children have been enjoying some lovely events planned by their teachers with many more to look forward to.

I must start by congratulating the children who attended the Chiltern Learning Trust Annual Primary Sports Day. We were thrilled to hear that Ardley Hill were the winners! They won the track and field events; we are so proud of them all for representing the school so well.

Across the school, children have been working very hard. Our Year 1 children recently completed their Phonics Screening Checks; well done children for your excellent work on your reading. The progress that the children have made since beginning our Read Write Inc phonics has been truly remarkable! Our Year 2 children have also been working very hard on their End of Key Stage assessments. Well done all!

We have already begun to prepare the children for transition to new year groups. On Monday, the whole school visited the year group that they will be moving to for a story. This enables children to familiarise themselves with the classroom environments and ask questions about life in the next year group. We have another visit scheduled for them on Monday. Assemblies have also begun to explore transition and change; so that children feel confident and ready to embark on moving to a new class. On 30th June, the whole school will spend the morning with their new class teacher.

Please take note of the session dates and times for our online parent transition sessions (details below) These sessions will provide you with information on what to expect as your children transition to a new class. The class teachers and key stage leaders will present the information to you, we hope you will find this informative. We will shortly be sending out the transition information booklets to you all as well.

We will be saying goodbye to the following members of staff at the end of this term: Miss Bumfrey, Mrs Dupont, Mr Palfi, Mrs Barnett, Miss Fuller and Mr Dupont. These members of staff are moving on to pastures new and are looking forward to new challenges. I am sure you will join me in wishing them the very best of luck and hope that they take all of their learning experiences and positive memories from their time at Ardley Hill with them. We thank them for all that they have done at Ardley Hill Academy.

We will be welcoming some new members of staff and they are all looking forward to meeting the children, parents and getting to know more about life at Ardley Hill! We look forward to welcoming Miss Houghton, Miss Suleman, Mrs Blessing and Miss Dargavel to our teaching team. We are also looking forward to welcoming back Mrs Ball to our team!

We are also thrilled to announce the appointment of our Key Stage Leaders for next year: Mrs Foster (EYFS), Miss Murphy (KS1), Miss Hibbins (LKS2) and Mrs Khan (UKS2)

I hope you all enjoy a lovely sunny weekend with your children; we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday,

Kind regards,

Mrs Katie Waterman

Head of School

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 8th June: Ireland class with 97.41% attendance

Whole school attendance : 93.57%

Week of 15th June: Italy Class class with 97.69% attendance

Whole school attendance : 94.15%

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

Transition dates

We will shortly be sending out transition booklets for your child's new key stage together with links for virtual meetings which will take place as follows:

Monday 22nd June 7.00pm: KS1 (current Year R & Year 1 children)
Tuesday 23rd June 7.00pm : LKS2 (current Year 2 & 3 children)
Wednesday 24th June 7.00pm : UKS2 (current Year 4 & Year 5 children)

The meeting for parents/carers of children starting in the Reception class (current Butterflies class) will take place in school Monday 22nd June on at 5:30pm.

All children will spend the morning in their new classes on Tuesday 30th June when most of the Year 6 children will be visiting their new secondary schools. Annual reports will be sent home on Friday 10th July and there will be an opportunity for parents/carers to visit their child(ren)'s new classroom on Tuesday 30th June between 3.30pm and 3.45pm.

Sports Day Dates

We are delighted to invite you to our upcoming Sports Day on Wednesday 8th July. It promises to be a fantastic day filled with teamwork, athletic talent, and lots of fun.

To help the day run smoothly, the events have been split into three distinct sessions throughout the day. Lower Key Stage 2 (Year 3 and Year 4) will start the morning at 9:00 AM and finish at 10:30 AM. After the LKS2 session finishes at 10:30 AM, all parents must leave the field area so that our staff and children can safely and quickly prepare the field and equipment for the next round of events. Even if you are staying to watch a child in the next session, we kindly ask that you vacate the field during this transition. The gates will then re-open at 11:00 AM for Upper Key Stage 2 (Year 5 and Year 6), with their events running from 11:00 AM until 12:30 PM.

In the afternoon, Key Stage 1 (Year 1, and Year 2) will take to the field, starting at 1:15 PM and finishing at 2:45 PM.

Every child will be competing and showing off their skills in three specific races, which will include a short sprint, hurdles, and a team relay. We will provide a full Sports Day Programme on the day so you can easily see exactly which races your child is running in and when they will be taking to the track.

Finally, Sports Day wouldn't be complete without our traditional Parents' Race, so if you fancy joining in the fun and racing across the finish line, please make sure you wear or bring your running shoes! We look forward to seeing you there to cheer on the children!

Kind regards,

Miss Hibbins

PE Lead

Due to the hot weather next week Pre-schools sports day has been rearranged to Wednesday 1st July (10-11am)

Tuesday 7th July: Reception Sports Day (Wales and Ireland class) 10-11:30am

In the instance of unsuitable weather conditions, the date will be rescheduled.