Maybury News
Believe. Achieve. Succeed.
Believe. Achieve. Succeed.
Issue 4
December 2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we approach the end of the autumn term, I want to take a moment to thank you for your continued support throughout this term. It has indeed been a busy month filled with wonderful experiences for our children.
At the end of November, I had the pleasure of attending a special workshop at the Lightbox, where ten of our children took part in a Tudor workshop alongside a very special guest, Prince Edward. The children thoroughly enjoyed speaking with him and are incredibly proud to have met a member of the royal family! Our prefects will be sharing more about this exciting event in their article.
It was truly heart-warming to see the children perform their Christmas songs during our Christmas performances last week. Their singing was beautiful, and it was a joy to see them showcasing their talents. I would like to extend my thanks to all the parents who supported and encouraged their children by attending the performances. Additionally, our annual Winter Wonderland party brought the children immense joy as they sang and danced to music. They also enjoyed a festive Christmas dinner in the hall this week.
A special mention goes to the Sea Turtles class, who organised a Christmas mufti and cake sale that the children thoroughly enjoyed. It was a delightful event that brought our school community together and helped to raise money to buy additional library books.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the parents who completed our recent parent questionnaire. We were thrilled to receive such positive feedback. Remarkably, 100% of parents reported that their children are happy at school, which is a testament to our relentless efforts in creating a welcoming environment where every child feels a sense of belonging. In addition, all parents agreed or strongly agreed that the school curriculum engages their child in learning and their child experiences a wide variety of learning opportunities. We are so pleased to hear this feedback.
We are pleased to note that many parents have welcomed face-to-face parent consultation and welcome meetings rather than online. Your involvement is greatly appreciated, and it’s encouraging to hear the positive comments regarding the behaviour of our children and the approachability of our staff.
We also received feedback regarding the range of clubs we offer. We have noticed a decline in attendance at clubs and an increase in the number of children signing up but not attending. We firmly believe that these clubs are valuable experiences, so we kindly ask you to ensure that your child not only signs up but also attends regularly.
In other news I am delighted to announce that Mrs Melling is expecting twins! She will be commencing her maternity leave at February half term. Miss Frew will be the full-time teacher in year 4 from February half term until the Easter holidays, then Miss Moore will return to teaching Year 4 Mondays and Tuesdays. Miss Moore will return as Mrs Gregory as she is getting married in February.
We kindly ask all parents and carers to park considerately during drop-off and collection times. We have received several complaints regarding parking that is both inconsiderate and hazardous. With 240 children departing from the site at the end of the day, we are particularly concerned about their safety if parking practices do not improve. Please refrain from parking on the pavements surrounding the school, as this obstructs safe passage for children, pushchairs, and parents and carers. In particular we would remind you not to park blocking the entrance of Tudor Lodge as there are a number of residents who may require medical assistance and need to access the road. It is our collective responsibility to ensure the safety of our community. Thank you for your cooperation.
As we strive for every child to attend school on time every day, please ensure your child arrives at school by 8:35 via the pupil gate. This term, Manta Rays class won the attendance award and enjoyed the reward of watching a magic show in school! Well done to Manta Rays class! In the Spring term, children will have the chance to win a trip to Pizza Express, so we appreciate your support in ensuring school attendance every day.
As temperatures drop, please remember to ensure that your child has a warm, waterproof coat for school. Children may wear boots for their journey to school but are required to change into their school shoes upon arrival.
Lastly, I wish you all a peaceful Christmas break and look forward to welcoming the children back in the new year. School reopens on Tuesday 7th January at 8:35am.
Mrs Merritt
This month at Rainbow Fish, the children were excited to see the classroom being decorated for Christmas and all the continuous provision being set out for it! The children even helped put the Christmas baubles on the tree!
Rainbow Fish had the opportunity to visit the Life Space tent. The children learnt all about how to take care of their bodies with help from Harold the Giraffe. The children were so excited to join in and they really enjoyed it! We were so proud of how well-behaved and how well the children sat whilst in the Life Space tent!
Rainbow Fish also received an exciting visit from Hannah at Christ Church in Woking. She re-told the story of the Nativity and even got the children to dress up in costumes and act out the story. They had so much fun and really enjoyed it.
Rainbow Fish were also very busy practising a medley of Christmas songs for our Christmas Concert. They were very excited about performing in front of their parents. They sang with big loud voices and even did actions to match the song. We were so proud of Rainbow Fish, they were brilliant!
December started with a visit from The Life Space. Harold the giraffe came to school to teach us how we can keep healthy. He told us we need to eat healthy food, get lots of exercise (an hour a day) and lots of sleep (12 hours a night). Did you know we grow when we are asleep? Harold reminded us about the importance of brushing our teeth after breakfast and before we go to bed and washing our hands before eating and after going to the toilet.
There was much excitement in Starfish Class when Santa sent us one of his Christmas elves to check that we were being good and installed a ’Santa Cam’. Every morning the elf is found somewhere in our classroom doing something different, and the children have enjoyed finding him.
Starfish Class have been comparing Christmas to other celebrations. They had fun decorating Christmas trees, playing Christmas games, wrapping presents and writing labels. They even helped Santa to deliver presents to the correct houses and designed and wrote their own Christmas cards. The children enjoyed their visit to the church to find out more about Christmas. They found the Christmas symbols around church and acted out the Christmas story.
Starfish enjoyed learning different Christmas poems and performing them in front of all our school families. The children were very brave, used their loud voices and entertained everyone with their different personalities.
We all had a great time at the Pantomime in town. This year it was Sleeping Beauty. We enjoyed booing the bad characters and joining in with the pantomime language and silly games which we found very funny.
We have been working really hard with our writing this half term and are becoming more independent. The children are working hard to remember their capital letters, full stops and finger spaces and have started to use adjectives to describe nouns. They watched a John Lewis Christmas advert about give a little love and wrote about the things they saw independently. The children are now starting to write words using their Fred gingers and can use the sound mats to help them if they are unsure of how to spell words.
At the start of December, Seahorses got to visit the life space where they met Harold the Giraffe. They learnt all about different food groups and how much you should eat of each group. They also learnt about how to take care of themselves, including the importance of a healthy diet and good sleep.
In our Maths lessons we have been starting to learn about capacity. The children loved filling containers and using the vocabulary full, empty and half full. We have also been carrying on learning how to write addition and subtraction number sentences and have started to solve simple word problems involving adding and taking away.
This month, we have been doing some nice Christmas activities. We have been very lucky because we were able to visit the local church and look at their beautiful nativity scene. We also looked for different Christmas symbols around the church and their tree.
We also went to see the panto in Woking theatre and all had an amazing time!
In Science, we have been learning about materials and their properties and sorted different materials into how we could dispose of them. We talked about recycling and what happens to the things we recycle.
In DT, we finished our vehicles projects by designing, building and evaluating our own vehicles. We focused on using moving wheels and axles and thought carefully about how to attach them to the chassis.
In Literacy, we are writing sets of instructions. We found out that we need to make sure our instructions are very clear otherwise they might not go right! We wrote our own set of instructions about making a pizza, an ice cream sundae or a fruit salad.
It has been a busy time in Year 3 this month! We all enjoyed taking part in the Christmas Concert and singing our songs to our friends and families. The children did so well and we are really proud of them.
In Science, we have been learning about magnetic poles. The children had fun exploring the poles and finding out that like poles repel and opposite poles attract. They then created their own magnetic games using magnets that attract. We had fishing games, race tracks and mazes
We have continued to learn about Fractions in Maths and have been finding out about equivalent fractions and ordering and comparing fractions. We have started our new topic learning about Money. We have looked at pounds and pence and added coins together to make different amounts.
In DT, we loved designing and making our own pneumatic monsters. The children used a piece of plastic tubing and two syringes to make their monster open and close its mouth. They all looked so different and unique with different teeth, horns, eyes and colours!
In Computing we have been learning to program and add sounds in Scratch. The children are becoming confident at programming a sprite to move and make sounds and love their Computing lessons.
In Literacy we have been looking at instruction texts and have written our own instructions about ‘How to Mummify a Tomato’. The children included key features such as a title, sub-headings, numbered instructions and imperative (bossy) verbs.
As we approach the end of another exciting term, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful experiences our children have had over the past few weeks.
Firstly, I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas performances as much as we did! The children displayed tremendous talent and enthusiasm, truly bringing some festive cheer to our school. It was heartwarming to see their hard work pay off and to share those joyful moments with you.
We also had the chance to enjoy the Woking pantomime of Sleeping Beauty. The children were exceptionally well-behaved, making the outing all the more enjoyable. It’s always a delight when we can enrich our curriculum with such engaging experiences.
In our design technology lessons, the children tackled their marble runs with great creativity and skill. They practised important techniques such as cutting, joining, and shaping, culminating in a fantastic project that they proudly took to our friends in Starfish class. It was wonderful to see them share their hard work and see others enjoying their creations.
As we complete our unit on Ancient Greece, I want to commend the children for their enthusiasm and interest in learning about the incredible legacy left by the ancient Greeks. Their curiosity has made for some lively discussions! Looking forward, next term we will be exploring the topic of Natural Disasters in geography, which I am sure will captivate their imaginations.
In maths, we have been focusing on position and direction, and I am pleased to report that the children have excelled in their work with coordinates. Their progress has been impressive!
As we head into the Christmas break, I encourage you all to take some time to relax and enjoy the festive season. Please remember to keep reading with your child and practising those all-important times tables. These consistent activities will help them maintain their skills while having a bit of fun at home.
Wishing you all a lovely Christmas break and a Happy New Year!
Sea Turtles have had a busy December thus far! The children worked hard on both of their Christmas concert songs and performed them beautifully to all of the Maybury family and friends who came to watch. As they all did such a brilliant job, they also had the opportunity to perform to their fellow peers in last Friday’s assembly. The children also enjoyed an informative and fun Life Space Workshop where they learnt about effective ways to deal with peer pressure, took a virtual tour inside the human body learning about how our organs worked and their vital roles in keeping us alive, as well as breathing techniques we can use to help us feel calm and focused.
In Literacy, the class have been researching plastic pollution and climate change in order to help them to write a formal letter to Mrs Merritt and Sir Keir Starmer about their concerns regarding these two global issues. The children outlined their concerns for our planet and future generations to come, as well as the causes of these two issues and the small changes we can all make to help reduce the negative impact we are making as humans. The whole class discussions that resulted from researching these two issues were very insightful, and it was great to see how passionate the children were about making small changes and passing the message on!
In Maths, we started our ‘Multiplication and Division’ unit and also consolidated certain areas of our ‘Place Value’ and ‘Fractions’ units. It is very important that the children continue to practise their times tables up to the 12 x tables over the Christmas holidays, as this is necessary for them to be able to confidently apply them when using the formal long multiplication method and division methods that we will be learning in Spring 1.
In Science, we have conducted a few practical investigations which have all been based around our current unit ‘Materials and their Properties’. The children have conducted or watched experiments involving dissolving, melting, filtering and sieving of materials, as well as learning about thermal and electrical conductivity. In Computing, the children have been using the programme ‘Scratch’ which they have loved – they continued to build on past skills- and by the end of the unit were able to create individual quizzes based on a topic of their choice.
In PE, the children have continued to enjoy their football and hockey lessons – in Spring we will be moving on to our Dance and Tennis units which I’m sure will be equally as fun! In DT the children thoroughly enjoyed making their vegetable soup, throughout the unit we focused on key practical skills, such as: slicing, cutting, grating and peeling. The children also revisited the Eatwell Guide and analysed soup recipes to see which category individual ingredients fit into- as when they made their soups we wanted to ensure the children were selecting ingredients that were nutritious, healthy and cost effective.
As the Autumn term is now coming to an end and the children will soon be on their Christmas break, just as a reminder, please continue to read with your child and have them practising their times tables. The class page on the website will also be updated with the Spring 1 timetable and any changes made for PE days. I hope you all have a safe and relaxing holiday, and I look forward to welcoming the children back in the new year!
In Year 6, we have had a very busy month. We were rehearsing for our Christmas performance. We created a class acrostic poem all about what makes Christmas special to us. We voted for our favourite ideas for each letter and put them together for the show. We also chose a lovely song to sing all about Christmas- Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’. The children loved learning the words and making up actions to go with the song.
We began this month with our much-loved Life Space workshop. It was our last visit with Mark and we even got to say goodbye to Harold the giraffe. We learnt about legal and illegal drugs and their effects on the body. We also talked about peer pressure and watched a video about a young boy being pressured by his friends.
In DT, we have finished our healthy packed lunch learning journey. We have researched what would make a good healthy packed lunch, and looked at the differences between processed, pre-cooked and fresh foods. We then created a questionnaire for a friend to find out what they would want in a healthy packed lunch. We then used that information to plan what we wanted to include and created shopping lists to take home. We also constructed nets to hold our packed lunch items.
This week, it was finally time to make our healthy packed lunches. The children did so well sharing ingredients and working together! It was a great day.
In computing, we have wrapped up our spreadsheet lessons with a big event! The children needed to plan and budget for a big party. They had a pricelist of items to choose from and they worked with a partner to create their spreadsheet using the function inputs we had learnt about. They then created and inserted pie charts to show their spending.
On Tuesday, the 26th of November, ten children from Maybury including the year 6 prefects were invited to a prestigious event held at the Lightbox. At this event , we also met children from Goldsworth primary school who accompanied us at our Tudor workshop. We all had lots of fun learning about ancient pieces that remained intact.
Everyone remembered lots of facts about the Tudors, which we learned about in year 5. We recapped everything we knew and learnt some more. We got to hold some artefacts that were over 500 years old! We even got to dress up as different Tudors they were gentlemen, kings and queens and many more!
Then unexpectedly, Prince Edward (Duke of Edinburgh) paid us a surprise visit where he chatted with us and asked questions about the different Tudor roles that we were dressed up as. After that we took photographs with the prince. We were very honoured to meet a member of the Royal family!
Finally, we visited the Islamic room, where it showed us the history of Shah Jahan mosque. We also learnt about the different sections of Brookwood cemetery.
The wellbeing of our teachers is a top priority, and we believe it is crucial to provide them with the opportunity to relax and recharge outside of their working hours. Therefore, we kindly request that you refrain from emailing the class email between 6:30pm and 6:30am or over the weekend .
We understand that communication between parents and teachers is essential, and we value your involvement and engagement in your child's education. However, by respecting these boundaries, we can collectively create a healthy work-life balance for our educators, enabling them to continue providing the high-quality education our school.
We encourage you to plan your communications accordingly, aiming to send any non-urgent emails during the school day, ideally between 8:30am and 6:30pm from Monday to Friday. By doing so, we can ensure that our teaching staff have the necessary time to respond to your queries and concerns effectively, while also striking a balance between their personal and professional lives.
We sincerely thank you for your understanding, cooperation, and ongoing support in implementing this policy. It is through our collaborative efforts that we can safeguard the wellbeing of our entire school community. If you have any urgent matters that require immediate attention outside the designated email hours, please do not hesitate to contact the school office directly.
A reminder to all nursery parents to register your child's Reception school placement. Deadline is 15th January 2025 via Surrey County Council's website. Please also see information below:
We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that lunches are currently free for Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 students under the government's Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme. For children in Years 3 to 6, the cost of a school lunch is £2.95 per day / £14.75 per week. We would appreciate it if you could ensure that your child has sufficient funds in their lunch account. Please can we remind parents that school dinners should be paid for in advance. Please ensure that payment for the week ahead is made by the Monday morning.
Please click here to view the menus via our school website - School Meals
If your child would like to change from a packed lunch to a school dinner or vice versa, please contact the school office to advise of the change. Please note changes can only be made at the beginning of a term.
Please be reminded that we are a nut free school. Please do not send your child to school with any food containing nuts, for example Nutella / nut chocolate spread, Peanut butter, Peanut chocolate bars (Snickers) or nut cereal bars etc. If you are unsure please visit the school office to pick up a healthy lunch leaflet.
If your child has recently borrowed spare clothing from school, in particular children in Reception class, year 1 and year 2 please can we ask that these are returned. We have a washing machine onsite so you can be assured that any items returned are washed as needed.
We are also looking for donations of spare clothing such as underwear, leggings, jogging bottoms in small sizes such as ages 4 - 8. Please either hand into the office or to the class teacher. Thank you for your support.
Please see below for PE days for the Spring Term
The children will need to wear their correct PE kit on their PE day. Correct PE kit consists of:
· Sky blue Maybury t-shirt
· Navy blue or black hooded jacket
· Navy blue or black jogging bottoms
Trainers (only lace up if your child can tie their own laces please)
If you consider that there are exceptional circumstances relating to your request, please let the school have full details. Each application for a leave of absence will be considered on a case by case basis.
Penalty Notices to Address Poor Attendance at School
A Penalty Notice may be issued as an alternative to the prosecution of a parent/carer for their child’s unauthorised absence from school (absence without the agreement of the school or not covered by a medical note) and willbe used by Surrey County Council in the following circumstances :-
Pupils identified by police and Attendance Advice Officers (formerly Education Welfare Officers) engaged on Truancy Patrols and who have incurred unauthorised absences.
Leave of absence in term time (5 days or 10 sessions or more).
Please be aware that The Education (Pupil Registration)(England)(Amendment) Regulations 2013, which became law on 01 September 2013 state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The Headteacher is also required to determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if leave is granted.
In such cases the Headteacher/Governing Body must decide whether there are exceptional circumstances. They may request that Surrey County Council issue Penalty Notices when the absence is not authorised.
Warnings will not be given where it can be shown that parents have been notified that such absences will not be authorised.
Finally, the issuing of a Penalty Notice will also be considered where it is judged that a parent is failing to ensure their child's regular school attendance.
This will be considered when a pupil has incurred 10 or more unauthorised sessions in the previous 10 school weeks, which may include a pupil arriving late after close of registration.
If you believe at any stage that your child’s absence from school may leave you liable to receive a Penalty Notice, it is extremely important that you act without delay to secure their regular attendance.
If you have any questions or require further support to achieve an improvement in your child’s attendance, please contact your child’s school or the Attendance Advice Officer.
Penalty Notice relating to Exclusions
If a child is excluded from school, Section 103 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 places a duty on parents/carers to ensure that their child is not in a public place without justifiable cause during school hours.
This duty applies to the first five days of each exclusion. Failure to do so will render the parent/carer liable to a Penalty Notice. (Alternative education provision will be made available from the sixth day of any exclusion.)
Amount Payable for a Penalty Notice and Consequences for repeat uauthorised absences
If you have not incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/children in a rolling 3 year period since 19 August 2024, then the penalty notice will be charged at the rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80.00 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.
If you have incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/children since 19 August 2024, the rolling 3 year period will be activated from the date of the first penalty notice and the second penalty notice will be charged at the flat rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. There will be no reduction for payment within 21 days. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.
If you have incurred 2 penalty notices relating to this child/children in the rolling 3 year period since the first penalty notice was issued, then you will NOT receive a third penalty notice – Surrey County Council will have no option but to consider a prosecution, per parent/carer per child, in the Magistrates Court under s 444 Education Act 1996.
Surrey County Council is not responsible for authorising pupil absence and therefore cannot withdraw any Penalty Notice requests without the written permission of the Headteacher.
Advice and support is available from an Attendance Advice Officer by contacting Surrey Attendance Service as follows:-
North West - Tel: 01483 518130 South West - Tel: 01483 517179
North East - Tel: 01372 833588 South East - Tel: 01737 737777
Swimming is a very important skill for your child to learn. Please read this fascinating article from the Swim England website on why your child should learn to swim.
You can find local swimming lessons by visiting the poolfinder website
It's nice to be nice and if a member of Maybury Primary staff made you smile then let us know and we will pass on your comments to them. It can be for absolutely anyone in school and for any reason - we'd just like to know! Maybe someone in the office was super helpful, someone made your child smile, your class teacher or support staff went the extra mile, or you were helped by the Home school Link Worker, Inclusion Leader or Senior Leadership Team or you just want to say thankyou. Please click on the link and fill out the form it will take you to, then just add in the information about the Maybury Hero. We will share these nominations with staff each week in our staff meeting!
The form can be found here: Maybury Heroes Form
Please bear in mind that all of these dates are subject to change
Autumn Term 2024
2nd September 2024 to 20th December 2024
Half Term 28th October 2024—1st November 2024
Spring Term 2025
6th January 2025 to 4th April 2025
Half Term 17th - 21st February 2025
Summer Term 2025
22nd April 2025 to 22nd July 2025
Half Term 26th May 2025 to 6th June 2025
(Please note May half term will be for 2 weeks)
INSET Days (School closed for training)
Monday 2nd September 2024
Monday 6th January 2025
Friday 4th April 2025
Monday 21st July 2025
Tuesday 22nd July 2025
Equality
This half term’s value is Equality. Through this value children explore their own and others individual needs and identifies. Children will talk about how everyone should have an equal chance to reach their potential regardless of characteristics such as gender, race, religion or disability. At home you can:
Talk about your child's unique qualities and those that they share with other family members and friends.
Encourage an environment where they can celebrate their differences.
Research the lives of famous civil rights activities such as Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens or Malala Yousafzai.
Books you could share at home
Early Years
Key Stage 1
Key Stage 2
Resilience
This half term’s value is Resilience, the ability to bounce back after hard times or disappointment. Resilience develops when children experience challenges and learn to deal with them positively. You can support children to become resilient by:
Sharing stories of your own setbacks and how you overcame them.
Praising children’s efforts when they keep trying.
Encourage them to try new activities.
As a parent, it can be difficult to watch your child struggle, but it important that they solve problems themselves. You are their greatest cheerleader!
Books you could share at home
Early Years
Key Stage 1
Key Stage 2
Please remember that school will close on
Friday 20th December at 1:30pm
We wish all our families a restful and safe break.
We look forward to welcoming the children back to school on
Tuesday 7th January 2025