Marden Primary Academy
Newsletter
15.10.21
Principal's Message
It has been great this week digging through the archives; we have a rich history here at Marden and I want to celebrate it. We have been working on collating a number of historical artefacts which belong to the school and are looking to present them in our foyer in the coming months. If we have any historians who would like to get involved, please do contact the office. I particularly have enjoyed reading the Headmaster Log Book 1895-1926, it seems they were having similar issues with attendance back then! I hope to share with you more of our history with our updated website soon.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr N Dosad
National Online Safety
This week's free online safety guide focuses on Apple Guided Access, detailing step-by-step instructions for parents on how to set it up and how to switch it on.
iPhones and iPads don’t offer separate user accounts. So when you hand your Apple device to a child to play a game or watch a video, you’re also handing them access to your email, the web, messaging and other apps through which they could accidentally do something regrettable. Apple Guided Access solves this problem by letting you restrict the iPhone or iPad to one particular app whenever your child uses the device. If they try and leave that app, they will be asked for a password or Face ID, meaning they can’t access anything they shouldn’t. Here, we show you how to find and set up the Guided Access feature, so you can confidently let your child borrow your iPhone or iPad.
In the guide, you'll find step-by-step instructions for parents on how to set it up and how to switch it on.
Curriculum Corner
Reading at home with your child is of great importance. Children who are supported in their reading at home are more likely to enjoy reading and tend to achieve more highly at school. We want our school to be a reading school and want children to be reading at home through choice. We want to extend the culture of reading that is developing in school to be instilled at home.
In the next module, we will be doing more to support parents with reading at home. We will also be sending you a link to a Google Form to gain an understanding of what reading at home is like for your child and how we can best support you in developing a love for reading at home.
4WB Line Of Inquiry
We were thinking about things that have an impact on our health and some of the children wanted to learn about medical equipment. We had fun trying to work out what the items were for (and got a bit scared too.)
1MT & 1/2S Digital Strategy
The children in 1MT and 1/2S have been getting to grips with the new ipads this week. As part of the academy's digital strategy, children are encouraged to use the technology available in conjunction with traditional writing methods as part of a blended learning approach. It enables them to access some fantastic educational resources including Numbots, TT Rockstars, Epic etc and enhances their whole learning experience.
Attendance
The academy has continued to be hit with positive COVID cases this week which has once again affected the attendance figures. However, we are pleased to say that the overall number of cases and the rate of new cases has dropped significantly.
Absence Reporting
Please ensure all absences are reported to the office by 9am every morning.
You can do this quickly and easily via the Studybugs app, email or leaving a message on the absence line.
PTA Messages
Non Uniform Day For Christmas Fair Donations
The PTA committee and santa's elves are busy preparing for this year's Christmas Fair, which we hope will be an amazing celebration for the children. We will be holding a Non Uniform Day on Friday 22nd October in exchange for a donation for our Christmas Fair on Saturday 11th December.
We need: bottles of wine, unwanted gifts, tombola prizes, lucky dip prizes, wrapped sweets and filled jam jars.
PTA Pumpkin Parade Half Term Challenge
We are inviting children to get into the spirit of Halloween by carving some pumpkins over half term. Please carve or decorate a pumpkin, take a picture of yourself with your pumpkin and email your photo to office@mardenprimaryacademy.org.uk
Photos must be submitted by Monday 8th November.
50p per entry. Please bring money in on the first day of term.
Office Messages
School Uniform
Please ensure all uniform is labelled clearly with your child's name. This includes water bottles, book bags, hats etc. We are noticing more and more items appearing in lost property with no names and it makes returning them to their rightful owner much harder.
Harvest Donations
A massive thank you to everyone who donated to the Harvest Festival. A special thanks to Mrs Cale who kindly helped us bag up donations and drop them safely to Marden Food Bank. Supplies were running low there and they were extremely grateful for all items received.
Dinner Money
Please can we remind all parents that dinner money should be paid for in advance every week. The cost is £2.45 per meal and this can be paid via the dinner money module on the MCAS app.
Principal's Awards
RM: Billy has blown me away this week! His motivation and enthusiasm to learn and develop his skills has been an inspiration to many friends.
RMC: Ezra has demonstrated his brilliant manners this week! He always says thank you to anyone who has helped him. Well done Ezra, keep up the excellent manners!
1MT: Tj for an improved enthusiasm to his learning, he is trying his best to give things a go, keep it up Tj!
1/2S: Ivy is thoughtful, considerate and always makes great decisions. She is a perfect example of a 'Thinker'. Great work Ivy!
2D: Josiah is always pushing himself within his learning, taking risks and reaping the rewards as a result. Well done!
3B: Lilly B has worked so hard this week, showing a positive attitude to learning. Lilly constantly challenges herself and has produced some amazing maths and inquiry work! Well done.
3/4D: Adam in consistently taking risks with his work and setting a good example for his peers. Well done Adam.
4WB: We know how important it is to be ready and organised for our learning and James has really demonstrated that this week. Keep it up, James.
5DK: Megan O is always on task and works hard to join in with our lessons. She contributes good ideas and asks interesting questions.
5/6A: Shane has been working really hard in lessons this week to deepen his knowledge and understanding of subjects. He has shown great resilience and perseverance.
6CK: Lucas is inquisitive and knowledgeable and this is demonstrated regularly in the classroom. He asks questions and uses research to improve his understanding of subjects and works extremely hard in lessons.
RM Class ~ Year R
Star Pupils
Lucy
Lucy is an exceptional learning coach. She is always demonstrating excellent learning behaviour and she is always ready to learn! Lucy has been a superb friend this week, supporting others to learn through sharing her knowledge and experience while planting seeds - Thank you Lucy.
Isaac
Isaac has worked incredibly hard this week developing his fine motor skills which will further develop his writing skills. Isaac was so very proud of himself when he successfully formed letters this week and so were we! Keep up the amazing work Isaac.
RM Class Reminders
Well done Team RM for another week of wonderful learning. Miss Sime and I are very proud of you all!
Home learning is uploaded to Google Classroom every Friday - If you need any support in accessing this please do not hesitate to speak to me.
RMC Class ~ Year R
Star Pupils
Darcy
Darcy has shown great enthusiasm during our inquiry learning this week. She has thrown herself into all of the learning available in the classroom and was particularly proud of her alien. Darcy described her alien, in great detail, to the adults and used lots of adjectives such as bumpy and big. Keep it up Darcy, we love seeing you enthusiasm!
Johnnyjames
Johnnyjames has impressed us this week with his attitude towards school and particularly phonics! Johnnyjames has shown that he has knowledge of the sounds taught so far and can recall them with the correct actions. He has worked incredibly hard this week at blending CVC words. Well done Johnnyjames, we love the effort you are giving your learning!
RMC Class Reminders
Don't forget to log onto our Google Classroom. This is where you will find home learning challenges to complete at home. If you need any assistance, or have misplaced the email with the details, please let us know and we can support you.
Well done for another fantastic week of learning! We are constantly amazed with your knowledge and love for learning, especially new sounds, and are so proud of all the learning that has taken place this week. RMC, we are so proud of you!
1MT Class ~ Year 1
Star Pupils
Daisy L
For her science work this week on the human lifecycle. She has worked so hard on her writing and I think her home learning this week was great too! Well done Daisy!
Joel G
Joel has been working very hard to improve his handwriting this week and I think this piece of writing shows it off!
1MT Class Reminders
We still have a number of children who have not joined our google classroom Mr Townsend and Mrs Melville are around after school next week - please don't hesitate to ask us for help.
In the reading books that the children bring home, they always start with a page of key words. Please allow your child as much practise as possible to get them reading these words confidently. Perhaps they could do them whilst brushing their teeth or eating their breakfast or sitting in the car? It only takes around 5 minutes and it will be invaluable to their learning.
Thank you
1/2S Class ~ Year 1/2
Star Pupils
Jocelyn
Jocelyn has put lots of effort into learning this week. He has demonstrated excellent levels of determination and concentration. It is great to see your successes Jocelyn, I hope you are feeling proud of your efforts. Well done
Sophie
Sophie is a wonderful role model for her class friends. She listens well, works independently and demonstrates excellent learning behaviours. You are a star Sophie, Well done!
1/2S Class Reminders:
We still have a number of children who have not joined our google classroom. I am around after school next week - please don't hesitate to ask us for help.
Can we please ask that you ensure jumpers, water bottles, bags etc are all labelled with your child's name. Too often we are encountering cases of unnamed jumpers and it therefore makes returning them to their owner much trickier.
2D Class ~ Year 2
Star Pupils
Alexandra H
Wow! To say you have blown me away this week Alexandra is an understatement. In both our bigger pieces of writing, you have shown a maturity beyond Year 2 with effective language choices and clever sentence structures. Both pieces were a pleasure to read and it has been wonderful to see you build on all we are learning in class- I can't wait to see what you do next!
Mia L
I have been so impressed by your attitude and positivity to your work this week Mia. Everything that has been thrown your way you have tackled head on and tried your hardest with. Most importantly, you should be proud of yourself, especially for those independent steps you have begun taking in your writing. Very well done!
2D Class Reminders:
Children are bringing home their Numbots/TT Rockstars logins today so it would be lovely to see children spending time at home on this to work on their number fluency and skills!
With only a week to go to reach our reading target, the children are slowly creeping towards their goal but still are 270 reads short. One final push (10 recordings per child as an average) will see us achieve it!
Can we please ask that you ensure jumpers, water bottles, bags etc are all labelled with your child's name. Too often we are encountering cases of unnamed jumpers and it therefore makes returning them to their owner much trickier.
3B Class ~ Year 3
Star Pupils
Oliver
I have been so impressed with Oliver's maths work this week. His confidence and enthusiasm has been great! He has challenged himself and I am super proud of you for all your hard work this week. Well done, keep it up!
Aoife-Lilly
Aoife has been a incredible inquirer this week, exploring personal choices and lifestyle. She has been fantastic at using the chromebooks in order to complete her research project. Well done Aoife!
3B Class Reminders
Can we please ask that you ensure jumpers are labelled with your child's name. Too often we are encountering cases of unnamed jumpers and it therefore makes returning them to their owner much trickier.
Can we please make sure we are using TTrockstars at home to help with our times tables.
Remember to have a look at the activities on the 3B Home learning classroom to see the termly homework, which is due on the first day back after half term (8th Nov). This can be handed in online, via google classroom or physically brought in. I am happy for either depending on how the children wish to complete it.
3/4D Class ~ Year 3/4
Star Pupils
Paige
Paige has been a reflective writer this week. She carefully drafted and edited a letter to ensure that she has included all the necessary elements. She produced a well presented final version. Well done Paige. Keep up the hard work.
Amalie
Amalie has worked confidently in maths this week. She has been able to correctly and independently used the column method to solve addition and subtraction problems with up to 3 digit numbers. Well done Amalie. Keep up the hard work.
3/4D Class Reminders
Please continue to read and go onto TTR regularly.
Remember to have a look at the activities on the 3 /4 D - Home learning classroom to see what you could be doing at home.
4WB Class ~ Year 4
Star Pupils
Maria
Maria always beautifully presents her maths work which really helps her accuracy. Well done, Maria.
Harry & Elena
It was too hard to choose between Harry and Elena as they both worked extremely hard on their sketching skills to draw the old medical equipment that we looked at. Well done you two.
4WB Class Reminders
It is really important that you are reading as regularly as possible at home. We know that sometimes we are a bit busy, but you should aim to try and read for at least 10 minutes per day. Remember, we can only get better if we practise.
Each week we update who has made the best effort on TTRockstars - you've got to be in it to win it.
5DK Class ~ Year 5
Star Pupils
Isaiah
Isaiah has worked hard this week to grasp exchanging when subtracting. He has persevered throughout the week and used manipulatives to support his understanding. Today he pushed himself to complete the problem solving and reasoning. Well done Isaiah.
Alex
I have been incredibly impressed with Alex's attitude to learning this week and in particular how he has engaged with our inquiry. He has listened carefully to what modern slavery looks like around the world and completed excellent research on Ahmet's life in Syria. Well done Alex.
5DK Class Reminders
Please continue to read - we will be collecting in reading bookmarks on Monday to total the number of readings we have completed as a class.
Also, a big thank you to all the children in Year 5. You have coped incredibly well with all the changes that have happened and have been a pleasure to teach. Well done.
5/6A Class ~ Year 5/6
Star Pupils
Isabella
Isabella is always engaged with every lesson and pushes herself to achieve. Her writing is neatly presented and she has excellent ideas. In maths, she has worked hard to challenge herself, completing reasoning and problem solving with accuracy. Well done Isabella.
Adam
Adam has produced some excellent work this week, particularly in maths. He has shown a fantastic understanding of the maths concepts taught and produced work that reflects this.
5/6A Class Reminders
A big thank you to all the children in Year 5. You have coped incredibly well with all the changes that have happened and have been a pleasure to teach. Well done. Mr De-Keyzer
Next week, we will begin to prepare for House Captaincy for our year six pupils. Please begin to think about whether or not you would like to run for house captaincy and the reasons for this. We will go into more details about this and the process next week.
6CK Class ~ Year 6
Star Pupils
Valentino
I have been incredibly impressed with Vale's attitude towards his learning this week. He has made some mature contributions to our reading discussions and has demonstrated a unique and clever approach to his writing. Keep it up, Vale!
Harry
Harry has really enjoyed the challenge of maths recently. He has applied his knowledge and understanding of some tricky concepts very well, showing perseverance and resilience where necessary. Harry has demonstrated a great desire to learn and it is a pleasure to see.
6CK Class Reminders
Next week, we will begin to prepare for House Captaincy for our year six pupils. Please begin to think about whether or not you would like to run for house captaincy and the reasons for this. We will go into more details about this and the process next week.