Newsletter 11.11.22
Dear Parents and Carers,
This week we were delighted to welcome the High Sheriff of Bedfordshire to our school. After taking her on a tour of the school, she spoke to the School Council about her role and they had the opportunity to ask her some questions. Our School Council were then able to share this learning with their classes when they returned. Well done everyone!
It was also lovely to receive some visitors of the furry, feathery and scaly kind this week! Key Stage One enjoyed a 'magic moment' this week when some animals came to school to support their Science learning about how we care for different animals. Thank you to Miss Slough for organising this.
Today we paid our respects with a two minute silence as part of Remembrance Day and had the chance to reflect in a whole school assembly. We listened to some poems read by some of our Upper Key Stage Two children and Miss Hazell read us all a story about why we remember on this day. Thank you to the children and Miss Hazell for putting this together.
Thank you to those of you who completed our parents and carers survey this week. I'm delighted with the overall outcome which I will share with you soon once I have analysed each question. In total there were 136 responses; thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback, it's really important to us.
Next week we are looking forward to lots of different events which will make it another busy week. Please find details of these below. There has been a bit of a stir already around the school at break times today when children have read on some posters that we will be 'advertising' for some 'jobs' next week as part of our maths week learning; children will have the opportunity to carry out some work in exchange for some Lark Rise money. I can't wait to see them getting stuck into some of these roles next week!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing some of you in school next week for our parents and carers phonics workshops in Reception and Key Stage One.
Mrs Romina Lang
Headteacher
Staff News
We will be welcoming a new member of staff to the Reception team next week. Miss East, a trainee teacher from Lancot Academy, will be working alongside Miss Hazell in Owls Class for six weeks to gain experience in a different setting as part of her training.
Parking
We are continually being contacted by our neighbours about their driveways being blocked by parents/carers' cars. PLEASE can we yet again urge you to be more considerate when dropping off and collecting your child(ren) from school. The road outside the school is a cul-de-sac and there is very little room for cars to turn without causing either an obstruction or inconvenience to the neighbours. Please also respect the white lines outside neighbours' houses as these should always be kept clear.
The Road Safety Team from CBC and police will be patrolling over the next few weeks due to complaints from neighbours.
Children in Need
Next Friday (18th November) we will be supporting Children in Need. Children are invited to come into school in their own clothes with a spotty theme. They are also invited to enter our whole school Art and Design Technology competition where they are asked to design and create their own piece of SPOTacular clothing or accessory that they could wear next Friday There will be an opportunity for all designs to be shown off during a whole school assembly and there will be prizes awarded for the winning designs in each key stage.
There will be a £1 donation towards Children In Need which should be brought into school on the day.
Change to Menu
Children In Need
Friday 18th November 2022
Fish Fingers
Or
Fish Cake
Served with chips, peas and baked beans
Pudsey Bear Chocolate Cake
(No Sandwiches or Jacket Potatoes today)
Times Table Rockstars
In LKS2 we have a weekly hall of fame, where we celebrate different aspects of times table recall. This includes effort, speed and accuracy.
Well done to the following children who have logged on regularly at home and achieved a place in our hall of fame in the following categories :
Week 1: Most correct answers : Sonny, Isabelle, Gracjan, Anson, Luke, Ieesha
Week 2 : Effort : Jolie, Sonny, Gracjan, Beau, Annabel, Aaron
Anti-Bullying Week
Across school we will be supporting national Anti Bullying week from 14th - 18th November 2022, providing many opportunities for children to participate in activities linked to this year's theme 'Reach Out'. We would also like to take part in 'Odd Socks Day' on Monday 14th November. There will be no charge for this event.
Odd Socks Day is designed to be fun! It is an opportunity to encourage people to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique! Children are invited to wear their odd socks with their normal school uniform for the day.
Christmas Performances
We are delighted to be able to hold our Christmas performances again this year and welcome parents/carers to attend them. Dates for your diaries are as follows:
Afternoon Nursery (Ducklings): Tuesday 6th December 2.30pm
Morning Nursery (Ducks) & Reception (Owls & Robins):
Tuesday 6th December 9.00am
Wednesday 7th December 10.30am
Key Stage One (Hummingbirds, Parrots & Penguins): Tuesday 6th December 10.30am
Wednesday 7th December 9.00am
Key Stage Two (Macaws, Peacocks, Red Kites, Eagles, Falcons & Hawks): Wednesday 7th December 6.30pm. The Key Stage Two Christmas performance will take place at Dunstable Conference Centre (opposite Peacocks on High Street South).
Information about tickets for the performances will be sent out in due course.
Book Look
There will be an opportunity for parents/carers to come into school to look at the childrens' books on Thursday 24th November from 3.30 - 4.30pm.
Maths Week
Next week (14th – 18th November) we will be joining with schools from across the country to celebrate Maths Week. We have many exciting events that will be taking place in school during this week. To finish the event off we would like to invite the children to come to school on Monday 21st November dressed as a rock star.
Safety Squad
To ensure we gain pupil voice on the area of safeguarding and to further develop the children’s understanding of being safe and what this looks like, in school we have set up a children's safeguarding board. This is known as the ‘Safety Squad’.
Each year, members of the board leave after Year 6 and we now need to appoint new children. If your child would be interested in applying to be part of this squad, they will need to write a letter to Mrs Waterman explaining why they think they would be an excellent member of the squad!
Children who are appointed to this role will stay in this role throughout their time at Lark Rise; the board is designed to develop over the years and this will be an important feature of the work.
For your information, I have also included terms of reference for members of the ‘Safety Squad’;
Terms of reference:
● Having a clear understanding of what constitutes abuse; in an age appropriate way
● Supporting pupils of all ages on how to keep themselves safe and identify unsafe behaviour in others
● Ensuring that pupils have the vocabulary and voice to talk about their concerns and safety
● Taking on the role of peer mentors within the school setting
● Leading projects across the school which highlight the ways in which abuse can be detected and where to go for help
● Leading and supporting on national campaigns for keeping children safe
● Having an opportunity to work with school staff on the safeguarding curriculum within the school
Letters will need to be handed in by Friday 18th November.
Author visit
We are delighted to have the author Guy Bass visit the children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6) in school on Wednesday 23rd November. He will be talking to the children about all aspects of his work and in particular discussing his popular "Stitch Head" series of books. If you wish to purchase any of Guy Bass's books in preparation for the visit, they can be found on Amazon and his own website via the links below.
There will be an opportunity for all children to have any of their own Guy Bass books signed by the author himself on the day but please ensure their own copies are clearly named and they bring them in on that day (not before).
TA Vacancies
We are currently advising for a part-time (15 hours) and full-time (30 hours) Teaching Assistant to join the Lark Rise team. Applications should be made via MyNewTerm using the following links.
Tissues
Now that we are fully into "runny nose season", we are desperately in need of tissues to have available in school. If you are able to donate a box of tissues, we would be extremely grateful.
FALLS News
This year the FALLS team will be organising Christmas cards decorated with your child(ren)’s design. Please keep an eye out for the sample coming home offering you an exciting opportunity to purchase these Christmas cards to send to loved ones. (We will not be offering tea towels, mugs, etc this time).
Please see the fliers below with further details of other events we are organising over the next few weeks.
Games Donations
We would be delighted to receive any donations of board games, specifically those games which encourage turn taking such as Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Junior Scrabble, Uno, Guess Who etc. If you have any games lurking in your lofts or spare rooms that you are happy to donate to school we would be very grateful.
Football Trial Outcomes
Miss Klausner held football trials for the Year 5&6 boys on 13th October. A total of 26 boys signed up for the trial, we are delighted to announce that all of the boys who took part in the tryouts, got into a team.
The girls football trial was held on 20th October with 16 girls taking part. Again, all 16 girls got into the team. This is such a big confidence boost for all of these children and there will be many opportunities for them to develop as players.
Year 3&4 Boys Futsal Tournament
Some children from Year 3 and 4 had the opportunity to compete in a futsal (indoor football) tournament recently. All 8 players played absolutely amazingly, lots of goals were scored and some amazing skills were shown. Throughout the whole tournament we scored a total of 22 goals across 6 games. Our Lark Rise team got through to the quarter finals and came third in the quarter final. Congratulations boys!
Year 3&4 Girls Futsal Tournament
Miss Klausner chose 12 girls to compete in the girls futsal competition. Unfortunately, some schools pulled out so the event was cancelled. We decided it would be a great idea to take the girls out and do some football practice. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the match they played. Lots of goals were scored and the girls were super excited. Well done girls!
