Aston Lodge Primary School

Headteacher Round Up

Welcome to this week's Round-Up and Happy Friday!

It was lovely to see all the children back from the half term break, this week, with batteries recharged and after spending quality time with family and friends. Our week began with a very productive staff training day where we spent a long time thinking about our curriculum and how we can adapt it more to suit the needs of our children as well as provide more stimulating and exciting activities. We look forward to seeing this come to fruition over the next few weeks.

We introduced our new 'Fitness Friday' as part of this, on Friday this week. We anticipted some 'teething problems' but overall, it was a great start to our new approach. A reminder that, with the exception of EYFS, all pupils will now wear their correct PE kit to school each Friday, which is the PE day for everyone. There were a few multi-coloured shirts and jumpers on displays, so we hope we can see everyone looking 'uniform' this Friday!

We were very excited to see Roary on Friday, giving out his raffle tickets. He enjoyed himself so much, that he's coming back this week, with another raffle prize! Make sure you come and say hello and collect your raffle ticket!

Congratulations to Amelia who was this week's winner!

Some of our children once again had the opportunity to visit church this week for 'Experience Remembrance'. They were great ambassadors for the school with their great listening and considered questions about Remembrance. We will continue to think about those who have served and continue to serve our country, this week, culminating in our special assembly on Wednesday.

We are planning a number of visits to school this week: The Trust will be conduciting an annual 'Medicines Audit' on Monday, St. Wilfred's will be joining us on Tuesday for a literacy review in EYFS and we will be having a Trust Behaviour Review on Friday. We look forward to these as great opportunities to showcase all the improvements we have been making, our rigorous protocols and procedures and your wonderful children!

Thank you for your continued support. We hope you have a great week!

Attendance

As we continue into the school year and are having to begin to deal with some nasty viruses and seasonal ailments, we want to take this opportunity to highlight the vital role of consistently good attendance at school.

We know deciding whether to keep a child home when they’re under the weather can be tricky! If your child feels well enough after taking medicine, we encourage you to send them in. Our staff keep a very close eye on all the children throughout the day, and if your child isn't up to participating, we will always call you right away. We just want to make sure they don't miss out on important learning and fun with their friends unless it's truly necessary

Being in school means your child stays connected with their peers, is engaged in their learning and on track to reach their full potential. The table below shows the impact thatmissing school can have on your child’s education:

This week

We're delighted that we're back up to 94.1% this week. We're going to be doing everything we can to make sure children don't want to miss a minute of their learning and hope we can continue to work in partnership to ensure that the children don't miss out on the exciting opportunities we have planned.

The final figures this week are as follows:

FS2: 100% - this is a 25% increase from last time Year1: 95.5% Year 2: 94.4% Year 3: 99.1% Year 4: 94.9% Year 5: 84.1%

Year 6: 90.2%

Well done to all those 'green' classes who have continued to show improvements from last week.

Winter Fair

Plans for our Winter fair are now in full swing and we hope you are able to join us on Friday 27th Novemer, 1:30-4:00.

We would like to kindly request donations of the following items - anything that you can spare would be very much appreciated:

bottled goods (sauce, juice, wine, cooking oil - absolutely anything that comes in a bottle) for our 'bottle stall'
items for a hamper (raffle)
bottle gift bags

Please let us know if you'd like to have a stall.

This promises to be a wonderful community event as usual and we look forward to you joining us for the afternoon.

Pledges

We are looking forward to several up-coming events that are opportunities for the children to achieve their pledge badges:

Supporting Children in Need
Being involved in the School Fair
Knowing about different religion and beliefs
Take part in parliament week
Show case a hidden talent (each Wednesday)

We would also love to help the children celebrate these achievements that they may have earned at home, so please do keep us updated.

Children in Need

We will be inviting children to come in non-uniform on Friday for a £1 donation for Children in Need.

Please consider that it is a PE day, so they will need to wear something appropriate for taking part in PE.

The theme this year is 'Challenge yourself' and our Ambassadors will be coming up with a selection of ideas and activities for everyone to participate in!

100 word challenge

If we hear the children using these words, see them in their writing or spotting them in their reading books, they will receive Dojos!

Next weeks words are:

KS1: brief

KS2: despite, diversity, distribute

Dates for your Diary - Autumn 2

Interfaith Week

Week of 9th November

Armistice Assembly

11:00am Wednesday 11th November

Y4,5,6 Climbing wall visit

Friday 13th November

Children in Need

Friday 13th November

Anti-Bullying Week

Week of 16th November

Phonics Rapid Catch up Workshop for parents

15:30, Monday 16th November

TT Rockstars Day

Tuesday 17th November

Y6 Anne Frank Workshop

Thursday 19th November

Art Exhibition

2:30, Thursday 19th November and from 8:30 Friday 20th November

Y6 Cake Sale

3:15 Thursday 19th November

Parents' Anti-bullying workshop/coffee morning

9:00, Friday 20th November

SEND Pupils' Parents Evening

15:30-17:30, Wednesday 25th November

Touring Pantomime - Aladdin

9:30-11:00, Thursday 26th November

Autumn Term School Debate

Thursday 26th November

EYFS Stay and Play

14:15-15:15, Thursday 26th November

Winter Fair

Friday 27th November

Bluebell Wood Elf Dash

Tuesday 1st December

Experience Christmas (in church)

EYFS, Y1 am, Wednesday 2nd December

Y3,4,5,6 am Thursday 3rd December

Parents 'Open Book' and Headteacher 'drop in'

15:15-17:00, Wednesday 2nd December

Rocksteady end of term concert

14:30, Friday 4th December

Y5 Bikeability

7th and 8th December

FS2, Y1, Y2 Nativity

9:45-10:45,

1:15-2:15 on Tuesday 8th December

EYFS Open Day

16:00-17:00, Tuesday 8th December

Y2 Trip to Conisborough Castle

Thursday 10th December

KS2 Christmas Performance

9:30-10:30

2:00-3:00 Friday 11th December

Polar Express Day

Tuesday 15th December

End of Term Awards and Carols

14:00, Wednesday 16th December

Christmas Church Service (Pupils only)

9:30am, Thursday 17th December

Early Finish for Christmas