6 weeks have already flown by since coming back from Christmas, and there have been many learning highlights around school. I have always felt like this half term is a ‘moving’ time in terms of progress, and this is borne out in the amount of my new Mr G golden stickers I have given out, this half term, and how many books have visited my room for discussion and praise!
Handwriting, sentence structure and the consistent quality across subjects have all been in our focus, this year. I have been delighted to watch the development across the classes, as well as maintaining strong standards on attitudes to each other in and around the school. Thankfulness, Hope, Friendship, Wisdom and Trust have been seen around school in many examples of children’s actions, with staff routinely praising pupils for their acts of kindness, maturity and manners.
A huge thanks to Mr Taylor for his work around the site, tidying areas and allowing us to envisage better usage of our school environment. I am very much hoping to share more news with families before Easter on our next steps to THRIVE IN ’25.
INSET DAYS 25/26 Our INSET Days for 2025 / 2026 are as follows:
Tuesday September 2nd.
Thursday October 23rd.
Friday October 24th.
Friday June 26th.
Monday 29th.
This follows a similar approach to this academic year, which we have been told by families has helped with longer chunks of family time in the right places. On Monday, I will post an image of these dates on the usual Somerset Council holiday sheet, so families can keep it as a reminder.
Parent Consultation slips should be out to all families. As always, staff will confer and try and give you the most sensible, coordinated dates if you have siblings in different classes.
SAFEGAURDING
Staff have been discussing the challenges of online safety for families, as well as what trusted mechanisms are out there to help grown ups make informed choices regarding their child’s reading and online presence. We would recommend https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ as a good starting point for age-related books, films and gaming choices. It really is a common sense site that reviews items fairly and honestly with parents in mind. My son is going to the cinema for the first time to watch Dogman, and I can see a fair and helpful review of this on the site. It certainly helps our older pupils in Years 5 and 6 when it comes to book choices, especially with older fiction including adult themes that you may not be aware of by just looking at the cover!
PTA News:
PTA have kindly made a useful poster of dates, so thanks to them:
We are celebrating World Book Day 2025 on Thursday 6 March. “This year, we are asking you to Read Your Way, celebrating the reading that your child chooses to do in their free time without judgement. We’re inviting everyone to Read Your Way, to give children and young people the opportunity to discover reading on their own terms. Read Your Way encourages everyone to let go of reading pressures and expectations, and lets children find fun in reading.” This also falls on our next TT@T date, so we thought we could coordinate this by asking you to:
– Bring a grown-up book you love reading to TT@T as well as a family-favourite book!
– For children, ‘a hint of a book’, where they bring 1/2/3 items that gives clues to the book of their choice.
Hopefully, this approach means families do not spend money on whole costumes, and pupils can really have fun giving clues to teachers and friends. More details to follow!
