Diary Dates

Term Dates

Dear Parents and Carers,

The festive season is now in full swing and we are really looking forward to showing all of you, our parents and carers, our Christmas performances next week. This is such a magical time of year and the children and staff are working so hard on rehearsals as well as continuing their day to day learning; impressive work from everyone. On Monday we will have our dress rehearsals which will give the rest of the school a chance to watch each other's performance; I look forward to this day each year, it's very special.

Last week we were delighted to showcase our excellent practice to another Multi-Academy Trust, Pioneer Learning Trust, through a programme titled 'Insights into Excellence'. We opened our doors to 10 Bedford schools who were keen to hear about our strategic work to support children's outcomes in English and Maths and how we deliver our curriculum. We received so many lovely comments from these visitors about our teaching practice and of course our wonderful children. The children demonstrated their usual exemplary behaviours for learning which was commented on by the visitors as well the positive welcoming atmosphere which is built into the ethos of the whole school. The visitors left with lots of ideas and strategies to trial and implement in their own schools which is fantastic. We are very lucky to have such passionate and reflective practitioners at Lark Rise who enjoy the excitement of school improvement, subject leadership and are totally focussed on a child centred approach.

I am looking forward to seeing lots of you next week; these moments with the children are so precious and we hope to create some fond memories for you.

Mrs Romina Lang

Headteacher

Christmas Lunch

We are looking forward to enjoying Christmas lunch together on Tuesday 19th December. Children are welcome to wear Christmas clothing and headwear if they wish for this special day (no school uniform needs to be worn). If your child is due to do PE on this day, please ensure they are wearing something suitable for PE activities.

Christmas Movie Night

Christmas movie night will take place on Monday 11th December immediately after school until 5:00pm. All children from Reception to Upper Key Stage Two are invited to stay in exchange for a book from one of our Amazon wish lists. If you have booked for your child and have not yet purchased a book, please do so from the links sent out by email last week.

After school clubs will NOT be running on Monday evening so if your child is not attending the Movie Night they will need to be collected at 3.30pm.

Children will need to be collected at 5.00pm from the following points :

Reception : from the usual Reception door

KS1 : from the usual KS1 doors

LKS2 : from the main entrance

UKS2 : from the UKS2 block (ALL children in UKS2 will need to be collected).

My Child's Art

A huge "Thank you" to you all for your fantastic support with our fundraising efforts by buying your child's artwork. So far, we have received an amazing £238.28 in commission from the orders that you have placed.

The feedback from parents who have placed orders is so positive and many have received their products already.

There is still time to place an order for delivery before Christmas. The deadline for orders is 14th December.

Please use this link to take you straight to our ordering portal and grab yourself some wonderful, personalised gifts for Christmas.

https://mychildsart.co.uk/find-artwork?username=LarkRise&access-code=eHlDg4a6

Poppy Appeal

Thank you for supporting this year’s Poppy Appeal. Lark Rise Academy raised the grand total of £369.69 towards the appeal.

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 :

KS1

27/11/23 : Karlok, Theodore, Jemima, Noah, Lucas, Kaylan

4/12/23 : Theo P, Jemima, Theodore, Karlok, Daisy, George

LKS2

27/11/23 : Most minutes played : Gracjan, Kornel, Sonny, Kostek, Rosalie, Abigail

4/12/23: Biggest improvement in accuracy : Daniel, Thomas, Precious, Riley, Eva, Charlie

UKS2

4/12/23 : Akshaya, Rose, Antony, Anson

Parking

You may have noticed that the Highways Agency has refreshed the yellow zig zags and the white lines and Keep Clear markings along Cartmel Drive. Unfortunately we have yet again had complaints from our neighbours that cars are blocking their drives, and parking on the pavements over the Keep Clear signs. PLEASE can we ask for your cooperation in respecting the lines around the school entrance area and being more considerate to our neighbours' properties.

After School Clubs

A reminder that there will be no after school clubs running in the last 3 days of the Autumn term (week of 18th December) so all children will need to be collected at the end of the school day (3.30pm).

If you have absolutely no alternative childcare until 4.30pm on Monday 18th & Tuesday 19th December, please contact the school office and we will try and assist. There will be NO childcare available on Wednesday 20th December.

From January, the cost of after school clubs will be increasing slightly from £2.50 to £3.00 per session. This is to cover the increased cost of providing facilitators for the clubs.

Refreshments at Christmas Performances

We will be selling tea, coffee and a biscuit at the Nursery, EYFS and KS1 performances next week. These will be available at a cost of £1 per drink and biscuit and will be served under the canopy at the front of the school for parents/carers to purchase before entering the building. It would be helpful if you could bring loose change with you for this.

Christmas Performances

Just a reminder of the dates and times for the Christmas performances next week :

Afternoon Nursery (Ducklings):

Tuesday 12th December 2.30pm

Morning Nursery (Ducks) & Reception (Owls & Robins):

Tuesday 12th December 9.00am

Wednesday 13th December 10.30am

Key Stage One (Hummingbirds, Parrots & Penguins):

Tuesday 12th December 10.30am

Wednesday 13th December 9.00am

Key Stage Two (Macaws, Peacocks, Red Kites, Eagles, Falcons & Hawks): Wednesday 13th December 6.30pm. The Key Stage Two Christmas performance will take place at Dunstable Conference Centre (opposite Peacocks on High Street South).

Please remember to bring your tickets with you as admission is by ticket only.

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 classes for the last two weeks were:

Week of 20th November : Macaws Class with 99.4% attendance.

Week of 27th November : Parrots Class with 99.3% attendance.

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

Writing to be proud of (Year 1)