13th January

Dear families,

Welcome back to another new term at Shacklewell. It has been great to hear all of the fantastic things that the children have experienced over the holidays.

This term we have three key foci which will underpin all of the work that we are doing. The first focus remains our drive and promotion of reading for pleasure. Reading fluently, enjoying different texts and sharing stories with others is vital to success in the future. We have already created and shared our reading resolutions for 2020 - my own is to read more non-fiction texts and this week the children will be asked to share their favourite texts, in the hopes they inspire their classmates to read different books.

Our second focus area this half term is history. The children will be thinking very carefully about how different events link across time. The children will also be exploring different ways of learning about the past including how to interpret artefacts and different sources. Children will also be able to explore a wider range of places as we develop our curriculum trips and visits this half term. Below are the curriculum maker mats which where shared last week. I love seeing the creative pieces you all make and am looking forward to this term's creations.

Our final focus this half term is to increase the opportunities to work in partnership with you. We passionately believe that a strong and purposeful working relationship with you as parents, will only bring success for the children. We have a range of parent and family events to look forward to this half term, as you will be able to see from the key dates section. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at these events.

As you will be aware the government have recently updated its guidance on how schools should teach relationships and sex education. As these changes come into place in September 2020 it is vital for us as a school community to work together to create a shared approach. There will be two parent sessions to discuss these changes on Wednesday 29th January at 8.30am and 3.40pm.

May I take this opportunity to remind families that bicycles and scooters are not to be taken into the playground at the start or the end of the day. Please also refrain from propping bicycles against the wall near the bike sheds as it narrows the main route to the playground at a very busy time of day. If you do ride a bike to school then please use the bike racks beside the office.

Finally, our mental health partnership with WAHMS continues this half term with the children working alongside the well-being ambassadors to think carefully about how we approach mental health. If you have 5 spare minutes may I ask you to complete this quick survey about the WAMHS project.

I hope you have a great week, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming family events,

Rory

Key Dates