Friday 12th November

Dear families,

What a great we have had at Shacklewell. The teachers and pupils have been working incredibly hard in all of their subjects. We have also hosted several important visitors who were very impressed with the quality of provision on offer at the school.

Today started with a beautiful sharing assembly from 1S. It was a truly delightful moment and I am so pleased that we are able to offer these experiences to the children and families. It is hard to believe that the last time we held a sharing assembly the children presenting today hadn't even started school! The day ended with another great parent council meeting. A big thank you to our outgoing chair, Rachel, for all your hard work and commitment to Shacklewell. I am also looking forward to working closely with Gemma this year to continue to promote the parent council as a hugely valuable part of how we communicate as a community.

As we head further into autumn and winter we are making changes to the arrangements for drop off and collection.

Starting on the morning of Monday 15th October:

• • the KS2 gate will be locked at 8.55am. Any child who is later than this will need to enter school via the office and then head to their classrooms.

  • children in Years 3 - 6, who use the bike and scooter racks must not then leave the school gate once they have come in. They will walk, via the KS1 playground to meet their class line

  • the main school gate will be closed at 9.00am sharp so any family arriving after this point will be required to use the intercom to access the school

Starting in the afternoon of Monday 15th October:

• all families must have left the school premises by 3.45pm because the KS2 gate will be locked at 3.40pm and the main gate will locked at 3.45pm

• children in clubs will be dismissed in club order and Miss Mahoney will be coordinating a clearer system of reuniting you with your child

I appreciate that some of these changes may be slightly inconvenient but it is important that all of our children are safe arriving to school and going home.

Don't forget to send the children in to school in their odd socks on Monday to start Anti-Bullying off in style!

Have a great weekend,

Rory

Key Dates

Throughout schools in England next week there will be a whole host of events to mark the annual 'Anti-Bullying' week initiative. This begins with 'Odd Sock Day' on Monday as a way to show that we’re all unique and different, and that we should respect each other’s individuality. The theme of the week is 'One Kind Word' which ties in fantastically with our whole school focus on kindness. On Wednesday Konflux theatre will be working with a group of children to produce a 'Play in a Day' all about kindness. This will be performed to the whole school in an end of day assembly. Throughout the week, classes will be using a range of activities to discuss the positive and kind things we can do to halt any mean or hurtful behaviour.

Year five and year six are off to The British Museum next week for workshops and tours that relate to their history topics on The Vikings and The Benin Empire respectively. Year four came back from their workshops last week full of excitement and buzz all about The Romans so we are sure the same will happen for these year groups too.

It is the turn of our preschool families to join a reading breakfast next Thursday, we can't wait to welcome the very youngest learners in to enjoy a story in the top hall before they begin their day in Caterpillars or Butterflies class.

We would like to welcome all key stage one parents to a phonics workshop next Wednesday morning. Children in year one across England and Wales take part in a statutory Phonics Screening Check but this year, due to the pandemic, we are also required to administer this to year two pupils. Year two will undertake their check before Christmas and year one will do theirs in June. Come along to the workshop to find out more about what is involved and our approach to teaching children how to read using phonics.