03.03.23 Principal's Message

I am sure you are all well aware that this week we had the call from OFSTED. They conducted a full graded inspection with three inspectors on day 1 and two inspectors on day 2. You can be proud of your tremendous children who demonstrated how excellent they are on a day to day basis. I would also like to thank all of you who spoke to inspectors and completed the survey. I am unable to tell you the outcome at this stage but what I can say, is that I am smiling and I can't wait to share the report with you.

What a way to mark the end of the inspection - World Book Day! It was amazing to see all the children dressed in their favourite characters from Rosa Parks, Suffragettes, Spiderman to Gangster Granny! I particularly enjoyed reading to every class yesterday. Much has been done to foster a love of reading here at Marden and yesterday really encapsulated our ethos of Learn to Read, Read to Learn. Love to Read!

Mr N Dosad

Monday 6th March 2023 - Kent Music Bach to the Future Roadshow

Monday 6th March 2023 3.30-4.30pm - KS2 Girls Football Marden v Tiger (Home)

Tuesday 7th March 2023 - 3BEECH British Museum Trip

Friday 10th March 2023 - Year 6 Leavers Photos & Class Photos

Friday 10th March 2023 3.15-4.00pm - World Book Day Showcase

Monday 13th March - Friday 17th March 2023 British Science Week

Tuesday 21st March 2023 - Year 2 Tower of London Trip (more information to follow)

Tuesday 28th March 2023 - Fire Safety Talks

Thursday 30th March 2023 - Easter Egg Hunt TBC

Thursday 30th March 2023 - Easter Bonnet Parade EYFS/KS1

Thursday 30th March 2023 - KS2 Easter Competition

Friday 31st March 2023 - Last Day of Term 4

Office Messages

Easter HAF Vouchers

The Easter break is the next Holiday Activities and Food Programme delivery point. This will enable children receiving benefits-related free school meals to access free holiday provision for 16 hours a week, for one week.

Vouchers will be issued to parents from Friday 10th March via the usual online EVoucher system.

World Book Day £1 Books

As part of our mission to promote reading for pleasure, we have been working in partnership with Waterstones Maidstone and are pleased to inform you that every single child will be bringing home one of the 2023 £1 books with them this week. These are for you to keep at home and we hope you enjoy them!

Upcoming Events

Times Tables Rock Stars & Numbots

A big congratulations goes to this week's winners of the class Rockstars competition who are 4 Chestnut. They win Ringo the Rockstar Teddy for the week!

The individual class winners are:

3 Beech: Damian D

3/4 Cedar: Max B

4 Chestnut: Stanley M

5 Aspen: Rowan T

6 Elm: Moseylee D

6 MonkeyPuzzle: Megan C

A big congratulations goes to this week's winners of the class Numbots competition who are 1 Spruce. They win Rusty the Robot for the week!

The individual class winners are:

1 Spruce: Theodore S

1 Willow: Ronnie G

2 Maple: Daisy C

2 Sequoia: George H

National Online Safety

A free online safety guide on Not Gonna Lie (NGL).

NGL is another of those ‘bolt-on’ apps which is designed to work alongside a major social media network. In this instance, the ‘host’ platforms are Instagram and Twitter – with NGL (meaning, as you may have surmised, ‘Not Gonna Lie’) inviting a user’s friends and followers to ask them questions anonymously. An intriguing novelty, perhaps – but also not without risk.

Human nature being what it is, some people take the smokescreen of online anonymity as an excuse to behave in ways that they certainly wouldn’t if their identity were visible. The idea of exposing young social media users to anonymous messages is one which understandably concerns many parents: our #WakeUpWednesday guide brings you the facts about NGL. This free online safety guide looks at NGL – an anonymous messaging app.

This guide will highlight a number of potential risks including oversharing, cyber-bullying and potentially costly subscription fees.