Autumn Term Newsletter #9

8th November 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the new half term! We have hit the ground running in school with an action-packed Maths Week. Mr Bristow will share more with you in next week's newsletter, so all I will say is there has been fitness circuits, escape rooms, bank-led sessions and a lot of cookies and flapjacks!

Behind the scenes, we have been busy on our improvement journey: Jane Ralph, a Talk for Writing advisor, was in school reviewing our provision on Monday; I was with other headteachers on Wednesday reviewing the SEN provision across the trust; and yesterday we had Chris Marks, Director of Education, ensuring our safeguarding procedures were strong.

Values: We have focused on 'ready' this week, making sure we are organised and in the right mindset to learn. I challenged the teachers and children to get back to the classroom from break and lunch as quickly as possible. I am pleased to say we had some rapid progress and have increased the amount of learning minutes available each day. Next week, we revisit the value of 'respect' as we mark Remembrance Day on Monday and work together through Anti-Bullying Week.

Votes for Schools: This week we have explored 'Do you know how to help someone with a food allergy?' - particularly useful with lots of classes cooking this week. The children clarified the differences between allergies and intolerances and learned about reacting FAST (Face, Airways, Stomach, Total body) if someone needs help. Next week, we will explore 'Can you disagree with someone respectfully?' as part of our Anti-Bullying Week provision.

Anti-Bullying Week: Next week we will be shining a light on anti-bullying using resources provided by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA). The theme this year is 'Choose Respect' and links strongly to our school values. The ABA also provide an informative Parent Pack which provides some excellent resources for parents as well as some tips and activities for talking about bullying concerns with your children.

Junior Leadership Team: Our JLT have been busy this week canvassing the ideas and opinions of the younger children. Each member of the JLT is linked to another class and meets with them to collect their thoughts. Currently, we are looking to further improve our lunchtime activities with some great ideas from younger children including a construction zone and a friendship space.

Coats: It is getting colder as we move into winter. Please make sure your child has a coat with them to keep warm at break and lunchtime.

I know for many the weekend has already started with our School Disco (thank you to the PTA for organising!). Whatever else you choose to do, have a relaxing and enjoyable time.

Best wishes,

Mr Matt Morey - Headteacher

Upcoming Dates...

Mon 11th - Fri 15th Nov - Anti-Bullying Week

Assemblies and activities will take place throughout the week educating all children about approaches to anti-bullying. The theme this year is 'Choose Respect'.

Mon 11th Nov - Individual & Sibling Photos

All children must be in uniform for their photos. If they have PE, please bring kit into school to change into after the photos.

Mon 11th Nov - Remembrance Day

We will observe the 2 minute silence before coming together in the afternoon for an assembly and some artistic work to represent remembrance.

Tues 12th Nov - Odd Socks Day

As part of Anti-Bullying Week, we will celebrate difference and diversity by wearing odd and unusual socks. It is free of charge - staff and parents are encouraged to join in too!

Fri 22nd Nov - Flu Vaccinations

School will host the vaccinations. You will be contacted directly by the NHS to arrange the vaccine for your child.

School calendar

Attendance

We have hit our school target with 95% attendance this week! It is so important to see everyone in school everyday so that we can build our learning sequences and strengthen our relationships together. Congratulations to Barcelona who took the attendance trophy with 98.4%, just beating Delhi with 97.5%

Barcelona & Delhi 98%
London, Sydney, Rome, Kampala, Rio & Cairo 97%
Cusco & Kingston 96%
Beijing 94%
New York 91%
Wellington 85%

Values Champions

This week, in our celebration assembly, we said well done to the following children for their excellent attitudes to learning. All of these children have been ready to learn, respectful of their teachers and resilient in a range of ways. Congratulations to them all!

Year 1:

Rome - Amos

Barcelona - Catelaya

Year 2:

Dehli - Isabelle

Beijing - Jaxon

Year 3:

Wellington - Zoya

Sydney - Layla

Year 4:

Cairo - Caleb

Kampala - Skye

Year 5:

Rio - Ania

Cusco - Ayansh

Year 6:

New York - Eesher

Kingston - Kira

House Points

All week, children's attitude to learning is recognised through the collection of Dojo points. These become house points which are totalled across the school each week. Every child is allocated a place in one of our four houses: Alhazen, Carver, Curie and Sharman. Congratulations to Sharman who have jumped to the top in the first week of this new half term. It is all to play for as we continue to collect points by being Ready, Respectful and Resilient.

1st Sharman with 261 points

2nd Carver with 253 points

3rd Curie with 251 points

4th Alhazen with 222 points

Class News

This week in Reception

This week in Reception, the children have enjoyed exploring our new story all about baby mouse who has gone missing. The children chose the details needed for his description on the missing poster. They also engaged in a range of activities linked to the baby mouse.

This week in Year 1

The children have enjoyed making biscuits in 'memorable maths' using their counting skills for maths lessons next week. Eating the outcomes was a great incentive!

This week in Year 2

This week in Literacy, Year 2 has been learning how to write instructions based on the text "How to trap the dragon". To hook children's imagination, we carefully followed steps to make dragon eggs out of clay.

The rest of the week we enjoyed playing Maths games and attended HSBC workshop where we learnt where money comes from.

This week in Year 3

This week, Year 3 found that maths is everywhere! They practised creating shapes and patterns using tangrams, consolidated coordinates by playing Battleships and learnt important skills such as how to save money and set a budget.

This week in Year 4

In English, we started our topic based on a recount of a visit to Narnia. We are really excited to learn more about the story and Aslan the lion. We have also really enjoyed all of our activities for Maths week! We kicked off the week with TTRS battles, an escape room codebreaker and a great talk from Ms Turk, who showed us all the features of credit and debit cards. On Friday, we baked flapjacks which required lots of mathematical skills including measuring and fractions when we sliced them up to share.

This week in Year 5

In Year 5 this week, the children have enjoyed their Maths week activities including a HSBC workshop as well as designing their own Maths themed escape rooms. They also enjoyed an exercise circuit which involved them completing sums on the move. The children enjoyed using Kahoot to complete a vocabulary quiz using technology to engage the children.

This week in Year 6

This week, Year 6 have loved participating in 'Maths Week'. Through collaborating with one-another, we have made maths memorable by baking some delicious cookies & by participating in a HSBC workshop. This workshop, ran by one of our parent volunteers, enabled us to learn all about interest rates and different types of accounts.

This week in Staff Meetings

We had a productive staff meeting on Wednesday evening exploring the next element of our professional development: prior knowledge determines what students learn. We considered how this impacts planning, teaching and assessment of each lesson.

Friends of Lanchester

Christmas cards

Thank you to everyone who has already ordered items from Class Fundraising. The closing date for ordering Christmas cards (and other items) with the children’s designs, is now Monday 11th November.

If anyone has lost their template, they can email Class Fundraising to get a copy of their child’s picture and the code to be able to order. You need to include the organisation number 698F97), and the child’s name and class, and send this to lostcodes@classfundraising.co.uk

Christmas Fair

Our PTA elves are busily getting ready for the Christmas Fair on Saturday 7th December. The Christmas Fair is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year but we can’t do it without your help. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be asking for donations of the following:

W/C 11th November- Colour hamper donations.

Class colours:

Reception - Red

Year 1 - Yellow

Year 2 - Green

Year 3 - Purple

Year 4 - Orange

Year 5 - Blue

Year 6 - Silver, Gold, Black or White.

Please no nuts or perishables.

W/C 18th November - Second hand books

W/C 25th November - Christmas jumpers and chocolate for our very popular chocolate tombola

Friday 6th December - Baked goods - cakes, biscuits and any other tasty treats! No nuts please.

If you’d like to get involved, please drop us a line. All help welcome!

Estate agent boards

We’re currently on 18 estate agent boards to advertise our Christmas Fair, thank you to everyone who has signed up. We’d really like to get a few more as we get more money and hopefully encourage more people to come to the fair!

If you are willing to place a board outside your house, please could you fill out this form with your name, address, contact details and placement preferences for the board. Please could volunteers sign up by Monday 11th November. Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfK5epMADHUpJWcIn1k_cgIRqR4oOny3eGieT062BPkMUb9OA/viewform?usp=pp_url

Lanchester Autumn disco

It was amazing to see so many children at the Lanchester Autumn disco today. They all seemed to have a brilliant time and we certainly learnt some new dance moves from them!

It looks like it’s been a huge success and we’ll let you know how much we’ve raised once we have the total.

Thank you

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the Halloween bake sale and non-uniform day. We raised a total of £427 which is brilliant for our first fundraiser of the school year.

Supermarket Grants

If you shop in either Tesco or Asda, you can help us get a grant for the school at absolutely no cost to you.

Asda Cashpot for Schools donates a proportion of your shopping to us every time you swipe your reward app. Even if you don’t shop there, you can download the reward app and we’ll get £1 for everyone who chooses our school. There are only 22 days left and we'd love to make as much as we can!

We’ve also been selected for Tesco Stronger Starts where we can receive up to £1,500. Every time you shop in store, you should receive a blue token. Simply put your blue token in the Friends of Lanchester box and the cause with the most blue tokens in January will win the most money.

Dates for your diary

Monday 25 November - Christmas Crafternoon (more info coming soon)

Thursday 28 November - Christmas Crafternoon (more info coming soon)

Saturday 7th December - Christmas Fair

Don’t forget to follow us on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friendsoflanchester or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friendsoflanchester/ or contact us by email: friendsoflanchester@gmail.com

Thanks for your support!

Friends of Lanchester committee - Sally Bownes, Helen Gibson, Tracey Bravo, Laura Robson, Michaella Simpson and Chloé Harper

Lanchester Primary School, Hempstead Road, Watford, WD17 3HD

Tel: 01923 224160 Email: office@lanchester.herts.sch.uk

Website: www.lanchester.herts.sch.uk

Headteacher: Mr Matt Morey

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