Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome back. We are delighted to have started the term on campus and indeed, we have a busy second term ahead of us. It's been lovely to see the learners return rested and ready to tackle new challenges. A very warm welcome to all the new families that have joined us too (and those starting soon), I hope you are settling in well.

As a reminder to all our families, there are a few key communication tools we use in school to share what is happening in our Nexus community. Please ensure you have connected to these tools:

Facebook Page (click here) - a space where we celebrate all that is happening in the Nexus community.

Parent Zone (click here) - a one-stop source to find all the key information you need about life at Nexus. For example, you can view the school calendar and find out more about our CCA, Music and Sport programmes.

SeeSaw App - we offer a ‘window into the classroom’ via the SeeSaw App. This is the regular ongoing communication method we will use to share news and home learning from your child's class. If you need some help to set up the app, please email our IT team.

Every class in our Primary School has a WhatsApp Group. These groups will allow you to build friendships between families in each class. For further information on the WhatsApp Groups, please go to the Important Notices section.

And of course, our fortnightly Newsletters will also be full of exciting news. In addition to this front page that has our 'live' calendar displayed below, we also have a range of other sections to look out for. These sections can be accessed from the menu across the top of the screen (on large screens such as laptops and iPads) or the 'triple bar' icon on the top left (on small screens, e.g. phones).

One of the aspects of the PYP framework we are often asked to explain is in relation to the transdisciplinary nature of it. I like to think of this approach to learning - like a team working together to achieve a goal. Each team member has different strengths but they are all working towards the same goal. The team members are our different curriculum areas all working together with a holistic view of understanding the Unit of Inquiry.

The team members (or curriculum areas) all have their individual responsibilities to make sure their area is represented well and understood, and they use the lens or vehicle of the Unit of Inquiry to facilitate this. The result is authentic, meaningful learning where ideas and understanding is applied and reworked across different areas of learning as our learners learn how to 'learn, relearn and unlearn'.

In our Year Group News this week, the teams have outlined the transdisciplinary links for their current Unit of Inquiry. Please take a look to see how our learning is connected. We call these individual subject area documents our 'Scope & Sequence'. Essentially, these are the curriculum documents that articulate the sequence of coverage for any curriculum area - they contain the 'What?' when we think about our learning.

On Tuesday, 2 November (next week), Paul Rimmer, our PYP coordinator will be running an online Parent Workshop to unpick these Scope & Sequence documents, to further support our shared understanding of the PYP framework. I strongly encourage you to come along if it's something you want to learn more about. The sign-up link is here.

With the start of a new term, please remember to label all your child's belongings... hats, water bottles, lunch boxes, bags, uniform and HPE/swim kits. Many children have the same or similar items and it is easy for them to lose things. If everything is labelled, it makes it much easier for items to be returned to their owners. Please may I also ask families to regularly check at home to see if anything has been taken home in error. If so, please send the items back to school and we will return them to the rightful owners.

A big thank you to the parents that came together to decorate our walkway and Eco-cafe for Halloween. To those families taking part in Halloween, have a fabulous time! To our Christian families, I wish you a happy All Saints' Day - wishing for the blessings of All Saints' Day to touch your life and make it wonderful. And to our families celebrating Deepavali next week - May this Deepavali come with a beautiful beginning, fresh hope, bright days and new dreams. I wish you immense happiness and prosperity. Happy Deepavali.

With warm regards,

Fiona Lewis

Head of Primary School