Diary Dates

Term Dates

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a wonderful couple of weeks we have had back in school; even though it has been pretty soggy and wet outside, the children have continued to love their time in the classrooms. Spring term is always a favourite of mine; the days are starting to feel longer and the children return from the Christmas break with a new thirst for learning which is seen in every classroom when I get to pop in and out. The children seem extremely well settled and they are always keen to share what they are learning when I go in to visit.

It was lovely to see so many parents and carers attend the learning review meetings last week - it is always great to see teachers and parents discussing how they can work together to support the children; collaborative working at its best!

Our digital leaders kick started the week with an assembly, following their trip to the BETT show in London last Friday, supported by Mrs White. They shared their expert understanding of how we use technology in school to support our learning in a positive way, but also to encourage everyone to consider how we may use it in unhealthy ways and whether we can change some of our screen habits - some great messages shared.

It was such a lovely way to end the week today, with a fantastic class assembly from Peacocks. These are a great opportunity for you to really see what the children have been getting up to and the children love being able to share their amazing knowledge with you.

Thank you to the parents and carers of children in Key Stage Two who attended the online mathematics, calculation and reasoning session for parents, led by Mrs Francis and Mrs True this week. We hope you found it useful to be able to further support your child at home.

There are lots of lovely things planned for the weeks ahead, with enrichment activities across the school, which we look forward to hearing all about.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing the children on Monday.

Mrs Hannah Hartley

Head of School

Attendopoly

Each week in our whole school assembly we celebrate children's attendance by playing a game of Attendopoly (based on Monopoly). The class with the highest attendance figure is rewarded with a class prize.

The winning class for the last couple of weeks was:

Week of 12th January : Parrots class with 100% attendance

Whole school attendance : 97.1%

Week of 19th January : Red Kites class with 98.7% attendance

Whole school attendance : 96.5%

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

Shine Bright, Wear Bright

As part of our support for the CHUMS charity who are offering support for some children in school, we will be taking part in their 'Shine Bright Wear Bright’ event to raise money for CHUMS. We will be having a non uniform day on Monday 9th February 2026 which is during Children’s Mental Health Week.

There will be a £1 donation towards the charity - please bring money in on the day.

Sports Achievements

We will shortly be holding our half termly sports and house assembly. As well as celebrating the winning house and exploring our sports values, we also like to celebrate children's sporting achievements outside of school. If your child has a sporting success that they would like to share with us, then please email over a photo along with the reason for us to share.

Your emails will need to be with us by 9:00am on Monday 9th February in order to be included in the assembly.

Safer Internet Day Competition

To celebrate UK Safer Internet Day, the Chiltern Learning Trust is launching a digital competition focused on the official 2026 theme: "Smart tech, safe choices - Exploring the safe and responsible use of AI".

Children across all key stages are invited to showcase their creativity and digital citizenship skills by creating a poster, film or presentation which details how to use AI safely and responsibly.

Children will be able to access a Canva template on their Base Class on Google Classroom following our assembly on Monday 9th February. Children in KS1 can also create their designs on paper if they wish to.

A winner in each category will receive an official Canva Swag Bag.

All entries must be submitted by Friday 20th March 2026 via Google Classroom.

Sustainability Update

Our eco-reps presented a fantastic assembly to the school last Friday based on our focus theme: Energy. It was lovely to see so many children across the school confident to answer questions about renewable energy. The assembly linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable and clean energy.

Children looked at different countries' access to electricity and gas around the world and we reflected on the importance that access to energy has to our lives. It is also fantastic to share that Lark Rise has be categorised as 'Exemplar' for our electricity and gas usage for the last 12 months according to Energy Sparks, a platform that analyses our energy consumption data.