Welcome to issue 148 of our school newsletter. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram for regular updates on achievements, class news and school updates.
Coming up in this issue:
Meet the team
Learning updates
Attendance
This Week's Instagram Posts
Upcoming events
Gift of a book
Notices
Little Leaders
Reading for pleasure
Author Visit
Parent information and support
Parental engagement sessions
Vision Screening
Harvest
Reading at home
Hello Everyone,
As we begin another exciting chapter together, I am once again reminded of what makes our school such a special place. Metheringham is a community built on kindness, ambition and belonging. Every day, I see children eager to learn, staff who go above and beyond, and families who work alongside us to ensure every child flourishes. Together, we create an environment where children feel safe, valued and inspired to achieve their very best. Team Green's positivity, resilience and determination continue to make me incredibly proud and I am excited to see all that we can achieve together in the year ahead.
You'll often see me, Mrs Freeman (Deputy Headteacher) or Mrs Jones (Assistant Headteacher) at the front of school during our morning "meet and greet". If we haven't met yet, please do come and say hello. We value strong relationships with our families and always enjoy taking the time to chat.
Away from school, life remains wonderfully busy! I love spending time with my family, whether that's playing football with my son, who is now in Year 3 (how did that happen?!), or heading out for long walks with our energetic beagle pup.
As we embark on this new school year together, I want you to know how privileged I feel to be Headteacher of such an incredible school. I am committed to ensuring that every child feels happy, confident and successful, and I will continue to be your child's biggest cheerleader every step of the way.
Here's to a fantastic year ahead at Metheringham Primary School.
Warm wishes,
Mrs Duggin
Headteacher
Foundation Stage This week, Early Years have been exploring colour mixing. The children have enjoyed experimenting with different colours and discovering what happens when they are mixed together. They have been encouraged to make predictions, observe the changes and talk about the new colours they have created. This hands-on activity has supported their creativity, curiosity and understanding of colour.
Key Stage One This week, Key Stage 1 have begun exploring their Whole Class Reading texts. The children have been developing their reading skills through engaging with a range of carefully selected texts, with a particular focus on developing their reading fluency. They have been practising reading with greater accuracy, expression and confidence. The children have enjoyed discussing what they have read, sharing their ideas and making connections with the text. Through these sessions, they are beginning to develop greater confidence in expressing their thoughts and responding to questions about their reading.
Lower Key Stage Two We have been busy squirrelling away in LKS2! In English, we have been creating our own poetry stanzas and experimenting with alliteration to add effect and make our writing more engaging. We have also been developing our editing skills, carefully reviewing and improving our work.
In Maths, we have been exploring flexible partitioning and discovering the many different ways we can partition and represent a number. It has been wonderful to see the children developing their mathematical thinking and explaining their ideas!
In PE, we have been developing our skills in finding space and intercepting passes between players. We have enjoyed some fantastic team games and competitions, with everyone demonstrating great teamwork and enthusiasm.
We have also been thinking carefully about what makes us feel safe, both at home and at school. The children have taken part in some thoughtful and insightful discussions, sharing specific things that help them to feel safe and recognising that these can be different for each individual. It has been wonderful to hear their mature ideas and reflections throughout these conversations.
Upper Key Stage Two Our UKS2 children are really starting to settle into UKS2 life, and it has been wonderful to see their confidence and enthusiasm growing throughout the week. We kickstarted our Whole Class Reading (WCR) sessions with The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, and the children have made a fantastic start! There has been some great discussion, thoughtful responses and plenty of enthusiasm as we have begun exploring this famous narrative poem together. During our wellbeing lesson, the Woodpeckers put their teamwork skills to the test in a game of ‘The Floor is Lava!’ Working together to ‘connect’ as a team and make their way safely across the floor, they showed some amazing communication, cooperation and problem-solving skills – fantastic teamwork, Woodpeckers! Our Year 6 children have also completed their start-of-year assessments, and we are incredibly proud of the mature, positive and determined approach they have shown. In History, we have begun our exciting new topic, Crime and Punishment, starting by exploring exactly what we mean by the terms ‘crime’ and ‘punishment’ before we begin our journey through different periods of history to discover how attitudes and punishments have changed over time. It has been a busy but brilliant start to the year!
Last years whole school attendance figure was 96.3%
Our aim for the academic year is 97% or above
Current whole school attendance is 98.4%
Our class attendance for this week is:
Wow, another brilliant week for excellent attendance. Well done everyone.
22nd and 23rd September- Wellbeing Connect Workshops
25th September- Pop up 0-5 session
25th September- FOMS Uniform Shop 3-4
Advanced Notice
1st October- LKS2 trip to Creswell Crags
1st October- National Poetry Day
If you would like to gift a book to school for a special occasion or 'just because', please see our Amazon Wishlist for some ideas. All books donated are marked with a special 'gifted by...' message and added to our library or class libaries.
We are delighted to introduce our new Digital Leaders! These enthusiastic pupils will play an important role in supporting digital learning across our school, sharing their knowledge and helping others to use technology safely, creatively and confidently. We are excited to see the positive impact they will make and look forward to celebrating their achievements throughout the year.
Watch this space for the announcements of our new mini leaders in other roles across the school.
📚 Reading for Pleasure Padlet! 📚
This year, we’re trying something a little different in Year 5 and 6! Instead of traditional reading diaries, we’re trialing a Reading for Pleasure Padlet.
The aim is simple: to inspire a love of reading and get children excited about sharing the books they’re enjoying with their friends. Children can post book recommendations, reading challenges, ideas and even discover what their classmates are reading.
We’ve already had some fantastic engagement from the children – it’s brilliant to see them getting involved and sharing their reading!
🔗 The Padlet link is available on Seesaw and Google Classroom, so get involved and let’s get reading! 📖✨
📚 We’re Going Matt Goodfellow Mad! ✍️
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that award-winning author and poet Matt Goodfellow will be joining us at Metheringham Primary School on Tuesday 13th October!
We’re huge believers in the power of reading for pleasure, and we can’t wait for our children to spend the day immersed in stories, poetry and writing. Our KS2 children will enjoy fun, interactive workshops exploring Matt’s books, what inspires him and what makes a great writer, while our KS1 children will enjoy a special poetry reading.
And there’s more… Matt has kindly agreed to do a book signing at lunchtime! KS2 children can bring along a copy of one of his books to be signed.
Please note that a letter with further information about Matt’s visit has been sent out via Parent Comms.
We’re counting down the days until we can welcome Matt into school and get inspired by his brilliant words, stories and poems!
Let the reading adventures begin! 📖✨
You can access support from multiple Lincolnshire services via the information on our school website. Click Here
This year, we will be inviting parents into school for parental engagement sessions across the academic year. These sessions will be curriculum focused and will give you the opportunity to see your child's learning in action or even take part in some curriculum based activities with your child.
The following sessions are planned for Term 1 and Term 2:
Chicks & Robins – 8th December @2:45
Puffins – 10th November @2:45
Kingfishers –18th November @2:45
Penguins - 22nd October @2:45
Toucans - 22nd October @2:45
Eagles - 7th December @2:45
Woodpeckers - 7th December @2:45
Owls - 19th November @2:45
Please don't worry if you can't make the first session, there will be more opportunities across the year. All children will still take part.
Our friends at the Lions Charity will be back on 4th November to offer free vision screening to all children again. Please check your emails for more details and information on how to consent.
Our Harvest Festival will take place on Thursday 8th October.
We would like to invite the Parents and Carers of our new Reception pupils to join us for this event in school. Unfortunately, due to limited space, we cannot open this to all parents.
We are asking pupils to bring in food donations for our school community larder. Any donations are welcome over the next few weeks. Please send them into school with your child if you are able to help.
It was lovely to see families at our Early Years Reading and Phonics Meeting. We value the support, time and effort that our parents and carers put in to reading. Together we can foster a love of reading in our little ones. Thank you to Miss Storr and Mrs Jones for a fantastic session.
Please Remember
Home reading books are checked and changed on a Tuesday and Friday
Sign your child's diary
Read a little every night
Phonics books are independent home reading books
Reading for pleasure books are for enjoyment and can be read by an adult, read together or read independently