VPS Newsletter

Welcome to Vauxhall's Newsletter:

Spring 2 , Week 3: Friday 13th March

2026

Remember- All newsletters can be found on our school website, which includes links to archived newsletters.

In this issue...

Headteacher's Comment
World Book Day 2026
Reading Challenge
A Town Explores A Book
Art Club
Computing
Children's learning
#WakeUpWednesday - Streaming Services
Weekly Awards
Attendance and Punctuality
Safeguarding

+ our regularly updated Diary Dates, Term Dates, our weekly Headteacher Awards, Weekly Attendance & Punctuality figures and TT Rockstars.

Headteacher's Comment

Exciting news about our leadership team

We are delighted to announce that Mrs Coombs has been appointed to the role of Assistant Head/SENCO, moving from her previous position as Inclusion Lead / SENCO.

This promotion recognises the outstanding contribution Mrs Coombs makes here at Vauxhall Primary School and across the Federation. Her expertise, dedication and leadership in supporting our pupils with special educational needs have been exceptional.

What this means for our school:

This appointment strengthens our senior leadership team and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring excellent provision for all our pupils. Rebecca's enhanced role will enable us to further develop our inclusive practice and ensure that every child receives the support they need to thrive. Please join us in congratulating Mrs Coombs on this well-deserved appointment.

Thank you for a wonderful community Iftar

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our community Iftar this week. It was truly heartwarming to see so many parents, families and guests come together to share this special occasion.

A special mention must go to our parent volunteers who made the evening such a success. Your dedication and generosity were incredible – from organising the working party, to cooking and serving the delicious food, and helping to tidy up afterwards. The effort you put in created a warm and welcoming atmosphere that brought our whole community together.

Events like these remind us of the strength of our school community and the wonderful spirit of collaboration that makes Vauxhall Primary School so special. Thank you for sharing your time, skills and kindness with us all.

World Book Day 2026

Our school proudly celebrated World Book Day 2026 with a day full of imagination, creativity, and a shared love of reading! Children and staff came dressed as their favorite characters, bringing beloved stories to life throughout the classrooms.

Throughout the day, children took part in The Great Big World Book Day Footy and Booky Quiz, celebrating both books and sport in a fun and engaging way. They also enjoyed a Reading for Pleasure session, class swaps where children shared stories with different year groups, creative bookmark making, and special story times across the school.

This year’s theme, Reading for Pleasure, highlights the importance of choosing to read for enjoyment and developing a lifelong love of books. We encourage families to continue supporting this at home. Please take a moment to read the attached PDF for parents, which shares helpful ideas and guidance on encouraging reading and fostering positive reading habits

A big shoutout to everyone who dressed up – it was brilliant to see so many! It was hard to choose, but our winners were…

WBD Family-Handout.pdf

LKS2 - The Wicked Witch

EYFS - Rainbow Fish

UKS2 - Miles Morales

KS1- Pippi Longstocking

Reading Challenge

Copy of Template: WBD poster

We’re excited to share that our Ready, Steady, Read sponsored reading challenge is now underway and runs until 26 March!

Children are encouraged to read a little every day — books, comics, magazines and more all count. Please support your child by helping them gain sponsors from friends and family using the QR code provided.

Every minute read makes a difference, and the class with the most minutes will be crowned our Class Champions! 📚✨

Thank you for supporting a love of reading at home!

A Town Explores A Book

As part of our work with the A Town Explores A Book, children have been inspired by John Agard’s “My Name is Book” and were challenged to invent a book that has never been created before!

They came up with some wonderfully imaginative ideas and now have the opportunity to enter a short writing competition based on their invention.

Please see the flyer for full details. Entries can be returned on paper to Ms Coombs or submitted online by 20th March. We can’t wait to see their creative ideas brought to life!

ATEAB26-writing-competition-flyer-A5_colour_2.pdf

Art Club

Art Club were working on landscape paintings using acrylic paints . They are carefully working on the details of their paintings, adding elements like the moon, birds, trees, mountains, and water to create a nighttime scene. Children explore mixing paint using palettes with different acrylic colors, brushes, and water cups used for cleaning the brushes. The children appear to be getting familiar using different types of brushes for specific purposes—for example, smaller brushes to paint fine details like birds or tree branches, and larger brushes to fill in bigger areas like the sky or mountains. Overall, the picture captures a creative classroom moment where students are practicing painting techniques with acrylic paints while developing their artistic skills.

Computing

Year 2 pupils explored the bold, colourful world of Piet Mondrian and used his style as inspiration to create their own digital artworks. They learned how Mondrian used simple lines, squares, and primary colours to make striking compositions, then applied these ideas using digital tools. The children experimented with shape, balance, and colour on their devices, producing vibrant pieces that showed both creativity and an understanding of Mondrian’s unique artistic style.

Online Safety Drop-in Centre

Online safety is an important part of keeping children safe and confident when using the internet. At our Parent / Carer Evening next Thursday, parents are welcome to speak with Mr. Sime, who will be set up on the first floor opposite the staff room. He will be available to offer advice and guidance on popular apps, devices, and how to support children in using technology safely at home.

EYFS- Caterpillars & Butterflies

Learning Through Play in Our Early Years

This week, our children have been developing their creativity and problem-solving skills through construction activities both indoors and outdoors. Using blocks, natural materials and large-scale equipment, they've been designing and building structures while working collaboratively with their peers. Through these activities, children are also developing their oracy skills, using spoken language to explain their ideas, negotiate with others, and describe what they're building.

Year 1 - Cheetahs

As part of British Science Week, Year 1 took part in an exciting Farming Live lesson to learn more about life on a farm. The children discovered how cow manure helps fertilise the soil and supports plant growth, learning about recycling in nature and what plants need to stay healthy. They also explored how modern tractors and technology help farmers grow crops, care for animals and look after the environment.

The pupils enjoyed learning how farmers train sheepdogs to work with their flocks and how these dogs use their senses to help guide sheep. They also found out how farmers protect wildlife by creating habitats such as hedgerows and wildflower areas, and even learned how scientists use technology like artificial intelligence to monitor bird populations on farms.

Year 2 - Lions

It has been a busy and productive time in class over the past couple of weeks. The children have been completing a range of assessments, which help us see the progress they have made since the beginning of the school year and support us in planning the next steps in their learning.

In Maths, we have begun an exciting new unit on geometry and shape. The children will be exploring the properties of 2D and 3D shapes and looking for examples of them in the world around them.

In Literacy, we have started reading our new class book, Lizzy and the Cloud. The story has already sparked lots of curiosity and discussion, and we are looking forward to exploring it further through our reading and writing activities.

We also enjoyed a special steel pans practice session with Mr Facey. The children had a wonderful time learning new rhythms and playing together.

Year 3 - Eagles

Eagle Class visits the ‘The Oval Cricket Ground’ every Wednesday afternoon as part of their learning programme. During these visits, the children spend time in the Ben Hollioake Centre (Computer Suite) where they practise coding and improve their touch-typing skills. Additionally, they take part in practical cricket activities, learning how to play different cricket games and developing important ball-handling skills such as catching, throwing, and hand-eye coordination. These sessions help the children build both their digital skills and physical confidence while enjoying a unique learning environment at the cricket ground.

Year 4 - Leopards

Year 4 launched into their new class book, The Baker by the Sea, by putting their reading skills into action. Following a set of instructions to bake delicious hot coconut buns, the children carefully identified imperative verbs along the way. Their hard work paid off with a wonderful (and very tasty!) treat at the end.

Year 5 - Ravens

Year 5 have had a very productive couple of weeks! After working so hard during their assessments, we learnt about the Moon and how it does not emit light. We conducted an experiment that showed how the Sun’s rays shine on the Moon and reflect back to then Earth, causing it to seem like the Moon is emitting light. We have also been learning about the concept of death and life after death and what different religions believe about this concept, in R.E. The children have engaged with this brilliantly and produced some excellent posters describing the details of different religions funerals. We looked at Jewish, Muslim and Christian funerals. Well done!

Year 6- Tigers

This half term, Year 6 have been exploring the Suffragette movement, learning about the fight for women’s right to vote and the historical context surrounding this important period in history. As part of their English learning, they have been developing a range of writing skills linked to this topic. They have written balanced arguments, newspaper reports and explanation texts, while also deepening their understanding of the language and perspectives of the time. Using this knowledge, the children are working hard to produce thoughtful and well-crafted pieces of writing.

To conclude the unit, they will create their own campaign about an issue they care about. They are looking forward to sharing their ideas and messages with the wider school community.

Year 6 also recently took part in a Girls United workshop, where pupils focused on teamwork, communication and supporting one another. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to build confidence and collaborate in new ways.

#WakeUpWednesday

The 'WakeUpWednesday' guides empower and equip parents, carers and educators with the confidence and practical skills to be able to have informed and age-appropriate conversations with children about online safety, mental health and well-being, and climate change.

Each week we will post a relevant guide to support our school community's knowledge and understanding of how to keep safe online and new things to be aware of.

This week's online safety focus is ''Streaming Services". Please click on the PDF to enlarge it.

Archived #WakeUpWednesday guides

streaming-services.pdf

Weekly Awards

Rights Respecting Award

A big congratulations to this week’s Rights Respecting Award winners!

Your kindness, fairness and respect shine through every day. Thank you for making our school a safe and welcoming place for everyone. Keep up the brilliant work – we're incredibly proud!

Right Respecting Award Recipients 6.3.26

Right Respecting Award Recipients 13.3.26

Going for Gold Champion

Let’s give a huge cheer for this week’s ‘Going for Gold’ superstars!

What a week for our Wall of Fame! Congratulations to everyone who's reached Gold – your determination and hard work have really paid off. We couldn't be prouder!

Going for Gold Champions - 6.3.26

Going for Gold Champions - 13.3.26

Most Valuable Players - 6.3.26

Most Valuable Players - 13.3.26

Times Table Triumphs!

Brilliant work from our Times Table Rock Stars this week! A huge well done to our MVPs – your hard work and determination are really paying off. Keep practising at home and watch your confidence soar!

TIMESTABLES ROCKSTARS

Attendance & Punctuality

Whole School Target 95% 🎯🥳

This week's punctuality award goes to 🥁🥁 ... Lions (Year 5) 🥳

Every Day Counts: Supporting Your Child's Attendance 📚

We achieved our school target this week! Thank you for making this happen. 🥳

Children being absent from school, particularly repeatedly and/or for prolonged periods, can impact their learning, wellbeing and development. Even small amounts of absence can add up quickly:

90% attendance = missing half a day every week = 4 weeks of learning lost per year
85% attendance = missing 1 day every week = 6 weeks of learning lost per year
80% attendance = missing 1 day every week = 8 weeks of learning lost per year

Our attendance expectations

We expect all pupils to attend school every day, on time, unless they are genuinely too unwell to attend.

If your child is absent, please:

Contact the school office before 9:00am on the first day of absence
Provide a clear reason for the absence
Keep us updated if the absence continues

We're here to help!
If you're finding mornings difficult, please speak to us. We're here to help and can offer practical support and strategies to make mornings smoother.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility!

Your child's safety is our priority. If you have any concerns about a child's wellbeing, please contact our safeguarding team via the school office : office@vauxhallprimary.org.uk

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL):

Miss Bennett

Deputy DSLs:

Mrs Henry,
Mrs Coombs
Ms Darteh

Key information and resources:

📋 Our Child Protection Policy: Click here

💻 Online safety curriculum: View our SMART online safety overview

If you need support or have concerns outside school hours:

NSPCC: 0808 800 5000
Childline: 0800 1111

Dates for the Diary

🚌EYFS Trip - Wednesday 18th March 2026

💬Parent/carer evening - Thursday 19th March 2026

🔴Red Nose Day - Thursday 19th March 2026

❌INSET DAY- School Closed - Friday 20th March 2026

🎭Year 4 Performance - Wednesday 25th March 2026

☪️Eid Enterprise Fair- Thursday 26thh March 2026

✨Last Day of Term - Friday 27th March 2026

🏫Back to School - Monday 13th April 2026

Oval Learning supports as many people as they can within their school communities including children, young people, parents and carers. Click here to find out more and for low cost no cost family activities this weekend

Article 31 (leisure, play and culture) Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

2025 / 26 -Term Dates

Contact Us

Vauxhall Primary School, Vauxhall Street , London, SE11 5LG

Call us: 020 7735 4535

Email us: office@vauxhallprimary.org.uk

Website: https://www.vauxhallprimary.org.uk/

Any queries should be directed to the School Administrator

Any queries related to SEND please contact Mrs Coombs, school SENCO.

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