Newsletter 03/11/23

Y5 London Eye 

On Tuesday 17th October, year 5 had a fantastic trip to the South Bank to ride the London Eye.  Our class novel last half term was 'The London Eye Mystery' which is about a teenage boy (Salim) who boards one of the London Eye's capsules and seemingly disappears mid-flight!  We put ourselves in the shoes of Salim's cousin, Ted, and acted as detectives to see if we could work out how Salim could have vanished.  

Everyone had a wonderful time and we now have some new theories about what might have happened.  We will continue to read the book this term and look forward to finding out if any of our predictions turn out to be correct.

Shawley Fundraisers

We would like to say a very big Thank You to our Shawley Fundraisers for all their efforts in 2022-23. They raised an amazing £8,656.13 which will hugely benefit all the children at Shawley. 

Please find attached the minutes from the AGM and Chair's Report

At the recent AGM, unfortunately no-one put themselves forward to take on chair, vice chair or secretary, so Rachel Lees has offered to take things forward, on a smaller scale, for the next academic year.  We know she will carry on all the excellent work our Fundraisers have done for Shawley over the past few years and we look forward to working with her. Please click on the link for a little introduction from Rachel. 

letter from Chair

We look forward to another year of working with the Fundraisers and seeing our children enjoy and benefit from all the different fundraising activities and events!

Harvest Collection thank you

Huge thanks to our parents for your very generous donations to our Harvest Festival appeal this year as well as to our permanent food donation hamper in school.

The food that you donate makes a real difference to the lives of people in our community who are struggling at this time. 

We are delighted to have received a certificate from Epsom Food bank in recognition of all the Harvest donations they received.

LEO Academy Trust Conference - The Digital Future

 On Monday 30th October LEO Academy Trust hosted an inspiring conference for all its staff discussing the digital future. The conference brought together educators, industry leaders and inspirational speakers to explore the latest trends and developments in digital technology, and to discuss how we can best prepare our pupils for the digital world ahead.

The conference was a huge success. Here are just some of the key takeaways:

It was exciting to see the presentation  and launch of Dr Fiona Aubrey Smith’s  findings on the role of technology in raising standards based on her year-long in-depth research into the use of technology across all schools in the LEO Academy Trust.

 Please do take a look at her Pedtech Presentation.

The conference also featured a number of practical workshops and sessions, where attendees learned how to use digital technology to support teaching and learning. For example, attendees learned how to use augmented reality to bring lessons to life and how to create engaging digital content. Overall, the LEO Academy Trust's conference was a valuable event that provided attendees with a wealth of information and resources to support the use of digital technology in education. It is undoubted that LEO Academy Trust schools prepare their children for the digital future.

School Fund

We pride ourselves on offering our children varied and exciting experiences and activities that help to support their learning across the curriculum.

The School Fund will allow us to provide additional activities across all year groups. 

We have a voluntary school fund donation of £15 per child or a maximum of £30 for a family if there are siblings at the school.  

Payments can be made online via Arbor. Many thanks for your support.

Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium

Pupil premium is additional funding allocated to all schools in England to support disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers.  This budget includes pupils who are currently entitled to free school meals, have been free schools meals in the past six years (FSM ‘Ever 6’), children that are cared for or adopted from care and children whose parents are in the armed forces.

We would like to remind all parents who are eligible, to apply for the Pupil Premium Grant.  This grant enables the school to provide additional support to our children where needed.  Examples of this are, access to extra-curricular clubs and additional support with specific areas of the curriculum.

For more information and how to apply, please see below:

Applying for this grant is very simple, it can be done online 

gov.uk - Find out more about Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium Eligibility Checker

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement

 If you feel you would like support in applying for this grant please contact the school office who will be happy to go through this process with you.  All applications are confidential within the school. 

Community News, Events & Information

Sports News

In School We Have Been Learning...

Reception Please click here to find out what Polar Bears have been learning over the past couple of weeks

Year 1   Please click here to find out what Year 1 have been learning over the past couple of weeks

Year 2        Please click here to find out what Year 2  have been learning over the past couple of weeks

Year 3  Please click here to find out what Year 3 have been learning over the past couple of weeks

Year 4/5             Please click here to find out what Year 4/5 have been learning over the past couple of weeks

Year 6          Please click here to find out what Year 6  have been learning over the past couple of weeks

Shawley's Superstars

On Friday every week we award 2 children per class a 'Star of The Week' certificate. This is given to children who have impressed their teachers throughout the course of the week with their work, behaviour and attitude in school.  Winners for the last 2 weeks are...

Achievements Outside School

Gymnastics

Huge congratulations to Leah, Zozan and Bella who, along with 11 other girls from their gymnastics club, competed in a competition in Disneyland Paris called Gymnastique Magique. 

There were 12 clubs competing in total.

They were entered into the whole group routine, primary and secondary routine, duo routine. Leah also completed a solo performance.

The girls won Gold in their whole group and primary routine and Silver in their junior routine!

They were all amazing and hope to have the chance of entering again in a few years.

Blue Peter Badge

Many congratulations to Savannah for being awarded a Blue Peter badge for writing an excellent review of a book she has recently read! A huge number of children enter book reviews to the Blue Peter Book Club and only the best ones are awarded with a badge! Savannah also received a very well-deserved letter of congratulations from the Blue Peter programme editor. We are delighted that you are a real ambassador for the Love of Reading at Shawley Savannah!

Staff Spotlight

Meet  Mr Craske


A little bit about me:   Hello, my name is Lewis Craske. I joined Shawley this September to start my teaching career. I am currently working as a Sports Apprentice. I previously worked in holiday sports camps coaching children in a variety of different sports. I am thoroughly enjoying being at Shawley this year.

My Favourites 

Hobbies - 1) football 2) listening to music 3) cooking food

Food - spaghetti bolognese

Drink - Dr Pepper

Colour - blue

Animal - dog

Book -  Billy the Kid

School Lottery

Shawley's school lottery has been set up specifically to raise money and make a difference for our children! It's a fantastic way to bring parents, carers, staff and the wider community together, in partnership with our school, and at the same time give something back. We hope to raise funds that can support and enrich the education of our children - we aim to provide extra resources for the children, improve the school environment as well as run extracurricular activities such as music, art and sport.

Join today!  Click here to access the Your School Lottery website to learn more about how it works and how to join.

Your support is greatly appreciated and we wish you good luck!

Information & Resources

Community Events Please click here to access our Community Events page.

School Tours

We are currently running prospective parent tours up until Christmas. If you know of anyone who might be interested in looking around Shawley for their child/children to join us please do let them know they can book a school tour via our school website: www.shawleyprimaryacademy.co.uk/ 

LEO Catering

School Meals

Our school catering provision is offered to all children across the Trust by LEO Catering, our in house catering supplier.  The menus are created and refreshed three times a year, catering for children with allergies and are available to view below.  Our menus follow government food standard guidelines and offer excellent value at £2.70 a day for a main meal, dessert, choice of salad bar, fresh bread daily and vegetarian and Halal options. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive a free meal funded by the government's Universal Infant Free School Meal grant and we encourage anyone in any year group who thinks they may be eligible to apply for free school meal funding to apply. 

Menus are available here: www.leoacademytrust.co.uk/647/school-meals.

Children in Years 3-6 will need to pay for their meals via Arbor.  Cost of a school meal is £2.70 per day, £13.50 per week.  Please ensure there are sufficient funds in your child's account in advance, otherwise no school dinner can be ordered and you will need to provide your child with a packed lunch.

For those children who do still bring in a packed lunch, you may have noticed that your child brings home some of their lunch as we encourage the children to take home uneaten food.  This enables you to see exactly what your child is eating at lunchtimes and adapt their lunch accordingly.  We ask that packed lunches include healthy options in line with our Healthy School status.  Children should not bring fizzy drinks or chocolate bars to school.

We have a number of children with nut allergies in school which means that all staff and parents must be vigilant about ingredients we use in school and items put into lunch boxes.  No nuts should be put into packed lunches. 

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