End of Term Newsletter
21st October 2022
Principal's Message:
It has been a jam-packed Term 1 with so many incredible learning opportunities for the children. Within this end of term newsletter, each year group has shared the journey of their class's learning through this term's units of inquiry. As you know, following the PYP, our learning is transdisciplinary which means it all links together to help our children make sense of the world and all those big concepts that help that understanding. Please do take time to enjoy the children's learning that has been shared, not only in your own child's year group but in others too. This is a great way to see what lies ahead in your child's educational journey.
On Thursday 20th October we held our World Values Day and chose to focus on being open-minded and inquirers into diversity. Take a look at our Diversity and Inclusion page to see some of the incredible outcomes that children achieved as a result of learning and celebrating the many different cultures that our community is made up of. A huge thanks to those parents who came in to share the traditions, artefacts and costumes of their cultures. You were so generous with your time and the children gained so much. We were even spoiled with a traditional Hungarian dance performed in our celebration assembly by one of our families. This couldn't have all been possible without the hard work of Mrs Dunn and Mrs Carter so a huge thanks must go to them too.
As you know, we value good attendance as an academy and we are incredibly keen to work with our families to ensure that our children are at school as much as possible. I would therefore like to signpost you to the attendance page of this end of term newsletter which is full of lots of useful information.
And finally, it often happens that the end of term brings a few farewells. This term we will be saying a sad farewell to Miss Lewis and Mrs Foster who are moving on to pastures new. We are ever so grateful for all they have done for our children in their own individual ways. We very much hope it is only a goodbye for now.
Itj now only remains to say to all of our wonderful families; have a wonderful half term and we will see you all on our return on Monday 7th November.
Miss S Brading
Office Messages:
Scarecrow Festival
Maidstone Borough Council is organising a Scarecrow Festival for the upcoming half term, from 24th to 29th October. Schools and community groups have previously been invited to take part, and this week we submitted our entry into the competition! Members of the public now have the opportunity to vote for their favourite scarecrow and prizes are to be awarded for "Best School Scarecrow" and "Best Community Group Scarecrow".
Scarecrows are going to be on display at various local shops and businesses around the town centre, as well as shopping centres and the Lockmeadow Entertainment Complex. Why not pop into town over half term and see if you can spot our scarecrow! If you do manage to find it, please do snap a photo and send it into the academy and we will publish these in the newsletter when we return to school for Term 2.
Contacting the class teachers:
If you have concerns that you would like to raise with the academy, please do so via the academy office email address on contactus@langleyparkprimaryacademy.org.uk and it will be directed to the relevant members of staff. Please do not email individual teaching staff directly as this is a circumvention of our communication procedures and you therefore risk not receiving any response at all.
Whole School Attendance:
94.28%
Weekly Class Attendance Award:
Melrose
96.10%
Key Dates:
Monday 7th November Return to school for Term 2
Monday 14th November Book Fair visiting the academy (until Thursday)
Monday 14th November Odd Socks Day/Start of Anti-Bullying Week
Tuesday 15th November Parents Evening, 3.45pm-7.30pm (no After School Club running on this day)
Wednesday 16th November Parents Evening, 3.45pm-5.30pm (no After School Club running on this day)
Friday 18th November Children in Need
Tuesday 22nd November Athlete Visit to School, please support your child with gaining sponsorship for this
Thursday 24th November Parent/Carer Phonics Observation Session, 2.30pm
Please note that these are confirmed dates but should we need to change any due to unforeseen circumstances, we will communicate this with you with as much notice as possible.
National Online Safety
Minecraft is a beloved classic of modern gaming. First released in 2011, this open-ended ‘sandbox’ game of building and exploration still has over 140 million players who happily return to play it at least once every month. Minecraft has also been utilised for much more than just entertainment: it’s sometimes used in schools to teach children coding, and it's also employed as a tool for computer-aided design, which is another valuable skill. Encouraging creativity and problem solving, Minecraft has plenty to offer gamers of all ages, and it's available on almost all video game platforms.
In the guide below you will find useful tips on a number of potential risks such as in-game purchases, addiction and chatting with strangers.
