Marden Primary Academy monitors the attendance of every child in the school in partnership with Kent County Council's School Liaison Officer, we will work with and support those children and their families who are not attending school regularly without sufficient reason.

Whilst 95% attendance may sound OK, here at Marden Primary Academy we expect at least 97% attendance from all of our pupils across the school. Please refer to the table below - it is surprising how a day off here and there throughout the school year can impact on your child's learning, and there are strong links between attendance and success.

If your child is absent, please call the school office on 01622 831393 by 08.30am. You need to call each and every day that your child is absent, even if the reason is the same.

We recognise and reward good attendance at our school. We do this through certificates being awarded to children with 100% attendance, but also to those pupils who have put recognised effort into significantly improving their attendance from one term to the next, regardless of how good or bad their attendance is.

Please support the school in ensuring that your child receives the very best chance in life through consistently high attendance. To help you understand and keep track of what your child’s attendance is, we are going to start sending out weekly updates to those parents of children who are shown to be 95% or under. Please remember that if your child’s attendance is under 95% we will be monitoring this closely and if improvements are not seen we will be left with no choice but to contact KCC for further support or advice. This could then lead to home visits, a penalty fine and/or court proceedings.

Central Idea: Shelters, for humans and animals, is a basic need.

After deep discussions about what shelters are we discussed why they are important to us.

Emma said: " If we don't have shelters we will get cold."

Gabrielle said: "You need food to stay alive and you cook your dinner in your house."

This week, routines within our family homes has been particularly important to our Team. Using the text The Three Little Pigs, we explored what the pigs were cooking in their pot towards the end of the story. The children in Team RM lead their own learning.

On Tuesday morning, we received a letter from the three little pigs, inviting Team RM to follow their favourite recipe to make vegetable pasta. Writing, drawing and role play naturally followed.

Central Idea: Shelter, for humans and animals, is a basic need.

It has been a busy week in RMC. We hit the ground running by talking about our own shelters, our homes. We drew pictures of our homes and told each other some facts about them. The writing produced about our houses was amazing, all children really applied their phonic knowledge to their writing, well done!

RMC were very excited about pancake day! We had a go at making some pancakes but, despite Mrs Smith's very best efforts, it didn't go to plan. The theme of pancakes played a very part in the children's learning though, they created their own in the role play area and wrote recipes for pancakes and more!

Central Idea: Where we are in place and time

We have had a fantastic week inquiring about objects from the past. We learned about how we would not have the technology that we have today if we did not have the fantastic inventions of the past! We had a great time learning about pancake day, we even got to eat some too! We learned about why it is celebrated and what it means.

Central Idea: Finding out about the past helps us to understand our place in time.

We have had a great week inquiring about the interesting history of Maidstone. We found out about the Iguanodon fossil that was discovered in the Queens Road area of Maidstone. We then discovered that the Maidstone Coat of Arms includes a dinosaur. We have been so excited by this that we are producing our own newspaper reports to let you know all about it. Watch this space...

Please ensure the children have a full PE kit in school every week. We are having an increasing number of children without the appropriate kit. Children should have a PE top in their house colours, shorts or dark tracksuit bottoms and PE shoes.

Central Idea: Our lives and histories are journeys.

We have been delving deep into our British history this week by exploring the journey of development which castles have undergone in the last 1000 years. We begun by looking at the different features of a castle, which included the battlements, portcullis, keep, bailey and moat, considering each features importance. We then discussed why castles changed over time, from their humble beginnings as wooden structures all the way through to the impressive stone castles we associate with today- do ask us why they changed!

We've also carried on with our fraction learning- this week we have learnt to recognise and find quarters, and begun to do the same for thirds! We also had a wonderful time with all our World Book Day learning- and of course dressing up as a word as part of our vocabulary parade!

Central Idea: Evidence of past civilizations can be used to make connections to present day societies.

We have had a great week this week exploring what civilizations are and beginning to focus on specific ancient civilizations. We looked at the key traits of civilizations and how they are formed. We were then able to apply this knowledge to ancient civilizations where the children selected one they were interested in and independently researched this. We discussed their understanding on particular civilizations and from this the children were able to write a descriptive piece based on an image from an ancient civilization.

In maths we have focused on dividing 2 digits by 1 digit and have used lots of resources and practical activities to help us. The children have shown their understanding of division and have then applied this to word problems!

Magnets is our focus in science this term and we have carried out investigations involving magnets, looking at how they attract and repel. The children completed a set of challenges with a range of magnets. They absolutely loved this and are keen to continue learning about magnets.

We had an amazing turn out for World Book Day! Everyone looked great and had really thought about the words they were coming dressed as! The children had a great day and enjoyed sharing their costumes.

Central Idea: Exploration can lead to discoveries, opportunities and new understandings.

This week we have continued our learning about the Ancient Chinese civilisation of the Shang Dynasty. We learnt that the basic principles behind Chinese writing, that were developed by the Shang Dynasty, have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Thousands of bones from the Shang dynasty have been unearthed with writing on them. We used clay to form our own oxen shoulder bone and wrote messages on them.

In science we have continued our study of plants through completing an observational drawing of a plant. We looked carefully at all the features of the plants and drew them using chalk pencils.

In maths we have continued our unit of work focusing on fractions. We have developed our understanding of equivalent fractions and applied this knowledge to solve a range of problems.

It has been a busy week in the garden. We have planted potatoes and spinach.

Central Idea: The legacies of ancient civilisations may influence modern Britain.

The ancient civilisation that we have been focusing on this week is Ancient Greece. The children have created timelines placing key events into the time periods of Ancient Greece. We have had very interesting discussions about what the children want to find out and they asked lots of questions. There is a real buzz around their learning and they are excited to find out more.

In maths, we have been adding and subtracting fractions. The children have learnt how to change an improper fraction into a mixed fraction and to also do this in reverse.

States of Matter is our new science topic for this term, which we began on Wednesday afternoon. We discussed what was meant by the terminology 'solid', 'liquid' and 'gas' by showing this in the forms of frozen water balloons, water-filled balloons and blown-up balloons. They then created the movements of solid, liquid and gas in drama groups.

In RE we are looking at Hinduism, the children created really fantastic and informative slides based on their initial fact finding about the religion.

We are continuing with learning to play handbells this term and we are going to be having a go at writing and composing our own music. This week we had a go at adding vocals to our rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle and had made an interesting attempt at the Harry Potter theme (need to work on the timing of this one.)

We enjoyed World Book Day and the fantastic vocabulary costumes that the children came into school in. They put a lot of effort into their choices and enjoyed sharing their costumes and why they chose to come as their word.

Central Idea: Migrants both influence, and are influenced by, the world around us.

This week we have continued looking at migration, thinking about what it is and why it happens - the class discussed how this was particularly pertinent given the issues Europe is facing this week. With this new information, we were then able to produce non-chronological reports.

Following on from this, and with a continued link to migration, we have unpicked the origins of the Anglo-Saxons, discovering where they came from and how they divided up Britain.

In maths, we have continued with fractions, converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa. We also looked at number sequences involving fractions and began to compare the sizes of fractions using bar models.

The children have also come to the end of their time learning the violin. I know they have really enjoyed this and it has been a pleasure to see them getting better each week. Check out the videos above to see our budding musicians in action. A special thanks to Rosie for leading these lessons.

Central Idea: Migrants both influence, and are influenced by, the world around us.

This week, we have continued our inquiry on migration. We have been able to identify the different types of migration and the reasons as to why people migrate. The contemporary issues the world is facing has been a contributor to our understanding of migration. The collection of our knowledge and ideas have allowed us to create a non-chronological report that presents our learning over the weeks. We have now moved on to identify the different settlers on Britain, such as the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons.

In maths, we have continued to look at fractions and how we can turn a mixed fraction into an improper fraction and vice versa. We have also started to look at ordering fractions from the smallest to largest. We have identified how to display them using a number sequence and how we can use a number sequence to support us.

Our guided reading book 'Viking Boy' is a great contributor to our inquiry as it tells us the story of a boy named Gunnar (who is a Viking boy). The book is hugely enjoyed by the children and they all take pride in answering questions related to the story and predictions for what is yet to happen.

Central Idea: Exploration leads to discoveries, opportunities and new understandings.

We began the week by using our research about one of the pioneering explorers (Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain James Cook) to create a biographic fact file - this helped us to understand the historical context of exploration as well as how these men gained fame and fortune. We then collaborated to unpick the fascinating story of Cook's mysterious death in preparation for a news report which we have begun writing.

In maths this week, we have been delving into the different ways of reading and interpreting statistics: tables, bar charts, line graphs, pie charts and finding mean values. Children have analysed a wide range of data and also applied it to real-life contexts. Why not continue this interest in how we gather data at home by studying bus timetables, sports league tables, and even line graphs that appear in the news.

During science, we have incorporated our learning about the circulatory system and used our scientific research skills to now look in much greater depth about the structure and functions of blood vessels.

We have challenged ourselves in PE this week; the class are on a 3 week rotation so that by the end of term, they will have had three weeks of gymnastics with Mrs Williams and three weeks of fast-moving handball with Mr Clark. It has been a particular joy to have the large gym equipment out to improve our strength and coordination, as well as using the springboard to gain speed and flight.

It may not be decided which school your child will be attending in September due to various appeals etc. but it is highly recommended that you look through our weekly tips that will soon be starting as the activities and advice will be relevant for all schools.

• If you haven’t already done so, think about how you can help your child to be more independent: at home, do they put clothes away/ complete simple jobs like making their own bed or sandwiches/ make hot drinks etc.?

• Ask who else is going to the same school and encourage friendships. These may not be the children your child usually socialises with but it is always good to have a familiar face in the first few weeks. Remind your child that they will make new friends when they start their new school.