Maybury News
Believe. Achieve. Succeed.
Issue 4
December 2023
A message from Mrs Merritt
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope this newsletter finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the festive month we've had at Maybury and share some important updates with you.
The Winter Wonderland party was a great success, and seeing the children enjoying themselves in their party clothes, dancing and playing games, was truly heart-warming. The children also had a wonderful time during the pantomime trip to see Peter Pan at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. It was a fantastic experience for the children, and their enthusiasm was a joy to see. The children also thoroughly enjoyed their festive lunch yesterday.
It was a real pleasure to see the children's confidence shine through in their Christmas performance. They did an amazing job sharing songs and poems from around the world. I'm very proud of their talents and growth.
Sea Turtles Class had a very successful Christmas jumper enterprise day raising £349, children were invited to wear a festive jumper to school and the children also organised a playtime cake sale, lots of children made their own cakes to sell. Well done Sea Turtles!
On another note, I'd like to inform you that we will be transitioning to a new paperless club booking system from January. You will receive a letter with further details about this in the new year. This change aims to streamline the process and make it more convenient for you to sign your child up for various clubs which are an integral part of our school's curriculum.
Also, I want to acknowledge the importance of regular reading at home. Our weekly reading award is given to children who have been reading regularly at home or who have made great progress in reading, if they win they are awarded a token to chose a reading book from the vending machine. Thank you for the generous donation from the Woking Lions towards additional reading books which have been invaluable in promoting and rewarding the children's dedication to reading.
Jellyfish won the attendance award for this term with 96.2% attendance. As a reward for winning they attended a wonderful magic show. It is really important to come to school everyday, so well done Jellyfish class! The Spring term award is a bowling trip ,so please help your child and their class win this award by sending your child to school everyday. Here is an overview of the attendance for your child's class for this term. Remember every day counts!
For those of you with children in Years 3-6, please remember the school dinner payments of £14.50 per week and ensure that these are made by Monday mornings to support the smooth running of our catering services.
As we approach the winter break, I urge you to ensure your child has a warm coat in school every day as they will go outside to play every day.
I would like to remind all Nursery parents that the deadline for applying for a reception school place for September 2024 is the 15th January 2024 via Surrey County Council Admissions.
Sadly, our wonderful Premises Manager, Mr. Sullivan, will be retiring at the end of January after almost 8 years of service to our school community. We are immensely grateful for his commitment and hard work in maintaining our school premises to such high standards. We have appointed a new Premises Manager who will ensure a seamless transition when Mr. Sullivan retires. I am pleased to announce that Mr. Lock will be joining us in this role. I am confident that Mr. Lock's expertise will enable him to continue the excellent standards set by Mr. Sullivan. Please join me in thanking Mr. Sullivan for his dedication and hard work over the years, and in wishing him a happy and fulfilling retirement. We are incredibly grateful for everything he has done for our school, and he will be greatly missed by staff and children. Thank you Mr Sullivan!
Finally, I would like to wish you all a restful break and a joyous new year. School will close at 1:30pm on Friday 15th December and reopen at 8:35am on Tuesday 2nd January. When we return, our value will be positivity, and I encourage you to have conversations with your child about developing positive mindsets over the holidays. Remember “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.” - Anthony J. D'Angelo
Thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to another successful term ahead.
Mrs Merritt
Headteacher
Attendance from 4th September to 15th December 2023
Remember it is vital that your child comes to school every day unless they are unwell, there is some useful guidance from the NHS about when you should or shouldn't send your child to school which can be found here https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/ . Please see chart below that shows attendance for this term so far for each class:
Early Years Foundation Stage Update
Rainbow Fish
This month at Rainbow Fish the children have been excited to see the classroom decorated for Christmas and all the continuous provision set out for it!
Rainbow Fish 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 busy practicing a medley of Christmas songs for our Christmas Concert, they were very excited to perform 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 did brilliantly!
Starfish
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.
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 Peter Pan. We enjoyed booing Captain Hook and joining in with the pantomime language and silly games which we found very funny.
Key Stage 1 Update
Seahorses
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 the John Lewis 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 fingers and can use the sound mat to help them if they are unsure of how to spell words.
The children have been making their own moving picture in our design and technology lessons. We have learnt about mechanisms and they have been making sliders, pivots and flaps. They had to concentrate really hard and learn how to use tools safely. We look forward to sharing our completed work with you.
We have been learning to double click to open programmes and to click and drag using a mouse in our computing lessons. It took some time to get used to it as we are now so used to using our fingers to move things around on a screen!
Jellyfish
This month has been very exciting for Jellyfish class—we have visited the church to see how most Christians celebrate Christmas, we walked into Woking town to watch the panto, Let’s read came and gave us all brand new books to read and we also won the attendance award so got to see a magic show too!
In our learning we have been researching, designing and building our own vehicles, focusing on wheels, axles and chassis. We then evaluated our vehicles and discussed what we had to do for our wheels to be able to move.
In maths, we have been looking at multiplying and dividing. We practised drawing to help us work out the answers and have also been working them out by counting in our heads. For dividing, we used resources and drew pictures to show our sharing across groups.
For Literacy, we have been writing instructions and trying to make sure they are clear and in the right order. We then wrote our own instructions for making fruit salad, pizza or an ice cream sundae.
Key Stage 2 Update
Manta Rays
It has been a busy time in Manta Rays this month! We all enjoyed taking part in the Christmas play and singing our songs about how Christmas is celebrated in Australia. 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 mazes using magnets that attract.
We have continued to learn about Fractions in Maths and have been finding out about equivalent fractions and ordering and comparing fractions, as well as adding and subtracting them.
In DT, we have designed and built our own pneumatic monsters. The children have loved this project and each made their own monster which they designed themselves.
In Computing we are continuing with our Scratch unit. The children are becoming confident at programming a sprite to move and make sounds.
The children behaved so well and showed great respect when we visited the church this week. They spotted signs and symbols of Christmas and created some lovely artwork, as well as enjoying a drink and a biscuit!
Angelfish
It has been a month filled with exciting activities and experiences in Year 4.
Our trip to the library was a great success, and the children showed enthusiasm in learning how to rent books. It's fantastic to see them developing an interest in reading and using the library as a valuable resource for learning. Visiting the local church to understand how some Christians celebrate Christmas, was a brilliant opportunity for the students to gain cultural insights and foster respect for different traditions and beliefs.
In maths, we have been focussing on shape. Children are now confident when finding the area and perimeter of 2D shapes. We also learnt about the different types of triangles and how to identify them.
Our PE sessions have been dedicated to hockey skills, and the children have displayed great enthusiasm and teamwork during these sessions. It's wonderful to see them embracing physical activities and learning new skills.
Completing our ancient Greek topic in History provided an excellent opportunity for the children to explore and understand the wonders of ancient civilizations, fostering a love for history and curiosity about the past. The children have loved this topic. Next half term, we will move onto Geography.
In science, the students have been actively involved in investigating states of matter, and they have enjoyed investigations.
The Christmas winter wonderland party was a highlight for the children, and it was heart warming to see so many of them enjoying the festive activities and creating special memories together.
Sea Turtles
In Design and Technology (DT), the children had the opportunity to make autumnal soup using fresh ingredients. They practised essential culinary skills such as chopping, mashing, boiling, and peeling to create the soup. The end result looked absolutely delicious, and the children thoroughly enjoyed the practical aspects of this activity.
In Literacy, we have been exploring the issue of plastic pollution and its impact on the environment. The students have shown a keen interest in finding ways to make positive changes, not only within our school but also in the wider community. They will be writing letters to influential figures such as David Attenborough and the Prime Minister, expressing their concerns and ideas for addressing this pressing issue. It's inspiring to see their passion for making a difference.
This month, we also had our annual Christmas performance. The children sang beautifully. Our part of the performance was all about Christmas traditions in Spain, broadening their cultural knowledge and understanding as well as learning lots of fun facts!
I hope you have a lovely break and I looked forward to welcoming you back in January.
Dolphins
In Year 6, we have had a very busy month. We were rehearsing for our Christmas performance. We decided to focus on Poland and how they celebrate Christmas. We created a class acrostic poem all about what makes Christmas special in Poland. 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 “the little star" or Gwiazdka. The children loved learning the words and making up actions to go with the song.
In DT, we have finished our healthy packed lunch learning journey. We have researched what would make a good healthy packed lunch, looked at the differences between processed, precooked 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.
Finally, we had our last Winter Wonderland party at Maybury! The children looked great in their party outfits and really enjoyed taking part in the games. We even had some winners in our class!
Year 6 Prefect Newsletter
Believe.Achieve.Succeed.
Young Carers
Young carers is a club that is held in the school’s conservatory. This club includes children and an adult (Mrs Sullivan and Mrs Hussain ) having fun all together and showing appreciation to each other. The club is held during lunch break each Friday; At the end of the term, every young carer gets the opportunity to invite a buddy to bring with them.
This club includes board games, special activities, drawing and the best of all is having fun! Both adults ensure that each child that comes to this club has a great time whilst being safe at the same time. On special occasions, the children get the chance to make a cookie and eat ice lollies. There are also a lot of other activities that the children get to experience in this exciting club!
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School Dinners
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, the cost for one week is £14.50 (£2.90 per day). Please also note that it is also possible to pay for more than one week at a time.
Please click here to view the menus via our school website - School Meals
Uniform
A gentle reminder of the uniform policy:
In addition to the above no extreme hairstyles are permitted including overly spiked, sculptured, shaved areas and razor lines/pictures. If in doubt, please ask before a visit to the hairdresser/barbers.
All hair bands/ clips/ bows must be plain and in school colours only which are black, white, navy or sky blue, grey, or matching the school summer dresses.
A gentle reminder earrings are not permitted.
Lastly, a reminder that all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 should only have bookbags not rucksacks in school.
Spare Clothes
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.
Measles
Measles is circulating in the UK and globally, with both adults and children infected this year
Recent figures show that measles is on the rise and not enough people in Surrey are protected against this infection. Parents and adults are urged to check their families Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) records as only 83.1% of residents have had both doses the MMR vaccine by age 5, far below the 95% needed to protect all of us from the disease.
It's never too late to protect adults and children from measles:
Please ensure your children get both their MMR vaccines – just after their first birthday and then before they start school
If you or your children missed the MMR vaccine, please ask for it from your GP practice, particularly before travelling abroad or attending festivals this summer where social mixing gives measles the chance to spread easily.
Having the MMR vaccine benefits everyone. If enough people are vaccinated, the disease cannot spread effectively to those who cannot be vaccinated such as immunosuppressed people and very young babies.
Measles infection
Measles is extremely infectious and is mainly spread by coughs and sneezes. It often starts with cough and cold like symptoms, high fever and red sore eyes. The rash starts a few days later and can be harder to see on brown or black skin than on pale skin. It is infectious to others for several days before rash onset, and very disruptive, as those infected must avoid contact with others for 4 days after the rash begins.
You may not know if someone has measles and even passing contact presents a high risk of spreading the infection.
Most people recover fully but it can make you feel very unwell. For some it causes serious illness requiring hospitalisation and (rarely) can be fatal. Measles in pregnancy increases the risk of complications.
If you think you may have measles, please do not attend your GP surgery or hospital without phoning first, so they can provide advice.
Fixed Term Penalty Notice
We are aware that the pandemic has had an effect on families, but the expectation is still that every child should now be attending school full time. 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 will be used by Surrey County Council in the following circumstances :-
1. Pupils identified by police and Inclusion Officers (formerly Education Welfare Officers) engaged on Truancy Patrols and who have incurred unauthorised absences.
2. 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 1st 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 the Local Authority 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.
3. 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 7 or more unauthorised sessions in the previous 6 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 Inclusion 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
The amount payable for a Penalty Notice issued in any of the above circumstances is currently £60 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the Notice, rising to £120 if paid after 21 days but within 28 days.
If the Penalty Notice is not paid, the local Authority must consider a prosecution in the Magistrates Court for the offence for which the Notice was originally issued.
Please be aware that each parent is liable to receive a Penalty Notice for each child who incurs unauthorised absences, for example, if there are two parents and one child, each parent will receive one Penalty Notice.
If there are two parents, and two children incur unauthorised absences, each parent will receive two Penalty Notices, which in this case would amount to £120 each if paid within 21 days.
Advice and support is available from an Inclusion Officer by contacting your local Education Office as follows :-
North West - Tel: 01483 518130 South West - Tel: 01483 517179
North East - Tel: 01372 833588 South East - Tel: 01737 737777
PE Timetable
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)
Maybury Heroes
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
Online Safety Guides
Useful Dates - Autumn 2023/Spring 2024
Please bear in mind that all of these dates are subject to change
Term Dates 2023/24
Autumn Term 2023
1st September 2023 to 15th December 2023
Half Term 23rd October 2023—3rd November 2023
(Please note October half term will be for 2 weeks)
Spring Term 2024
2nd January 2024 to 28th March 2024
Half Term 12th February 2024—16th February 2024
Summer Term 2024
15th April 2024 to 23rd July 2024
Half Term 27th May 2024 - 31st May 2024
INSET Days (School closed for training)
Friday 1st September 2023
Thursday 28th March 2024
Friday 24th May 2024
Monday 22nd July 2024
Tuesday 23rd July 2024
Our Values - Autumn Term
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 15th 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 2nd January 2024