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together Everyone Achieves More

Walter Evans CE Primary School

www.walterevans.derby.sch.uk email us at - admin@walterevans.derby.sch.uk

Tel. 01332 557139

Newsletter – September 2016

Welcome back to school everyone, and to all our new parents, a very warm welcome to you and your children as they begin their school career at Walter Evans. We hope you will find lots of ways to engage with the school – there will be plenty of opportunities to come and visit, especially in the run up to Christmas! As well as this monthly Newsletter, our school website is a great place to find out what is going on – it’s updated frequently, and is full of information about what your child is learning this term, term dates, PTFA news, holiday clubs – the list goes on!

Dates for your Diary

9th October – Harvest Festival at Church.

12th October – Harvest for FS Stage – see below.

14th October – PTFA Cauliflower cards must be returned by this date.

18th and 20th October 16 – Parent’s Evenings – see info below

Monday 31st October - INSET DAY

9th November – Individual photos

30th November – Christmas Carol Concert – see below

The INSET days for the coming year have now been finalised, and are as follows.

Monday 31st October 2016

Friday 10th February 2017

Monday 24th April 2017

Wednesday 26th July 2017

Parent’s Evenings – 18th and 20th October Sign-up sheets for Parent’s Evenings will be available in the school foyer from Monday 10th October. This is a great opportunity to meet your child’s teacher, to raise any queries, and to see the fabulous work the children are producing in class.

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This year the Harvest Festival will take place at St Matthews on Sunday 9th October at 10am and everybody is very welcome!

Sara Gration, who runs Kids Church at St Matthews, will be helping to decorate the Church for this special occasion and would love some of the children at Walter Evans

to help her. She will be running a craft session at St Matthews on Sunday 2nd October from 10:00 - 11:00 to make posters and various decorations

which will be displayed in Church the following week. If anyone would like to come along or has any further

questions then please email sara@saylavy.co.uk - all help will be greatly appreciated and it will be great

fun for the children (and any parents!) involved.

Want to help out in school but also get paid too? We currently have relief midday supervisor roles available with days to suit you. We would love to hear from any Parents, Carers, Grandparents, Aunties or indeed Uncles! If you think you would be interested in finding out more then please telephone the school office or drop a quick email to admin@walterevans.derby.sch.uk.

As you may already know, we have a long term project underway to re-stock the school library. The Friday book shop, commission from the Travelling Book Fair, £1000 from the PTFA and school funds are going a long way towards this, but now we would love your help if you’re able. From now until World Book Day in March next year, we would like to ask every family to donate a book to the library – our target is to collect one new book for

every country in the world – 196!

Participation is entirely voluntary, but if you choose to donate, your book will feature a special book plate inside the front cover bearing your child’s/family name. Books may be fiction or non-fiction, and should be suitable for the age of your child – perhaps their favourite read (or yours!), or a new book they’d like to try. You’ll be able to see how close we’re getting to our target by keeping an eye on our Blue Peter style ‘accumulator’ in the school foyer! Thank you to parents from the PTFA for suggesting this project – we’re very excited to see what books your children will choose!

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We’ve been busy in Foundation Stage 1 settling in our new Nursery children. They’ve had a lovely time exploring all of our areas, water play has been a particular hit! Our theme this half term is "Why do you love me so much?" and we will be sharing family photos and

making heart shaped biscuits amongst many other things. The Reception children have settled in really well, and are getting used to their new learning environment. We’re busy looking for signs of Autumn, and have been exploring changing leaf colours and sweeping up falling leaves in our garden. We’ve also been singing Autumn and Harvest songs ready for our celebration at Church.

Dates for your FS1 and Reception diary: 12th October, Harvest Service for Foundation Stage

2nd December, Santa's Grotto – further info to follow. 6th and 8th December, Nursery Nativity (all Nursery parents

invited to one of these dates) 14th December Christmas songs at the Church

We shall look forward to seeing you!

KS1 have really got to grips with our Castles Topic! We had a great time building castles out of cardboard boxes before knocking them down with battering rams and a sling shot. All the children enjoyed drawing the castles using their sketch books. We have also been reading and writing about Rapunzel. We are looking forward to our trip to Tutbury Castle on 19th October, you

should have received a letter about this – please contact the office if not. We have noticed that some of the children in Year 1 this year are finding getting dressed and undressed for PE challenging. Please could you help your child by encouraging them to move towards independent dressing, and make sure their uniform is easy for them to put on. Practice with buttons, zips, tights and shoes would be particularly useful, both for their continued development and to ensure they don’t miss out on valuable PE time. Putting on a piece of music and setting a challenge to get changed into pyjama’s by the end of the tune might be a fun way to practice at bedtime – and might save you time too!

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Finding out which is more effective – a battering ram, or a slingshot!

Who had more fun, the staff or the children?

Year 3/4 had a great time at the Sealife Centre in Birmingham this half term. We have used our knowledge of the oceans to create a 3D representation of the ocean zones in a shoebox. The year 4’s are

beginning to develop their musical knowledge ready for receiving their instruments in a couple of weeks! Meanwhile, the Year 3’s are making excellent progress with their handbells.

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Year 5 & 6 kicked off the new term in style with a trip to Alton Towers! The pupils attended a workshop on the science of rollercoasters, before spending the rest of the day experiencing them for real! This visit really engaged them in our topic, which focuses on forces and mechanical processes. So far, we have learned about gravity and air resistance, by investigating why a parachute with a larger surface area descends more slowly

than one with a small surface area. We have also been enjoying the David Almond novel "The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas", and the children have written some fantastic dialogue based upon the characters from this wonderful book!

Flu Immunisations All children in current Year 1, 2 and 3 should have received a letter before the summer holidays, with a form to return to school. Immunisations will take place on Thursday 8th December in school, and your child will not be immunised unless you have returned the form. If you’ve lost your copy and would like your child to be immunised, we do have a few spares.

Chicken Pox Please may we ask for your co-operation in an important matter. Several of our pupils are receiving medical treatment for cancer which puts them at risk of becoming very unwell if they are exposed to chicken pox, measles or shingles. If they are exposed to chicken pox they will need to be given treatment as soon as possible, so if your child is suspected of having chicken pox you should let us know immediately. Please also let us know immediately if your child is suspected of having measles or if there is shingles in your household. Your child is not at any risk whatsoever from this situation. However, the health and wellbeing of our pupils who are at risk, does depend on the co-operation of all other parents and carers. Thank you.

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Christmas Carol Concert at the Cathedral On the evening of 30th November, all children from Year 1 to 6 will have the opportunity to take part in a carol concert at the Cathedral as this

year’s special celebration, and we hope that all the children will be able to take part. They will need to arrive at the Cathedral by 5.45, ready for their performance to start at 6.30. The concert will last around 45 minutes. Tickets will be available to purchase from the school in advance of the event, and the PTFA will be selling refreshments on the night. We hope you’ll agree that performing to parents and grandparents in such an impressive venue will make for a memorable start to the season!

Uniform

Thank you for your support in helping to ‘tighten up’ school uniform, the children have returned to school looking very smart, which has a knock on impact in their general behaviour and respect for school. Just a reminder – school t-shirts should be white or royal blue only please.

As we move into Autumn, please continue to make sure your child has appropriate clothing for the weather – we always try to get some fresh air, regardless of the weather, so a warm coat and sturdy shoes are essential.

Please, if you value it, name it - returning unnamed uniform is practically impossible!

Hello from Sandra Hinds, school chaplain

Autumn emerges and brings with it freshness; spectacular colour

changes; harvest, and an eye towards Christmas! Though seasons

change, God the designer never changes – as confirmed from Genesis

8 v22: “For as long as the Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and

heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop”

It has been my privilege to engage with staff, parents and children

over the last academic year. I have particularly appreciated

opportunities spent with different folk, providing a listening ear and

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encouragement.

The prayer request box was well used last year, and remains in

reception. Offering these prayers to the Lord has been a real

privilege. Also in reception there are chaplaincy cards with my

details should you have a need to contact me.

Having 3 grandchildren in the school means I am regularly at the

school gate – should you want a chat.

May the Lord bless you and keep you safe through this changing of

the seasons,

Sandra

October Half Term Holiday Activity Club

The YMCA Derbyshire Holiday Activity Club will again be taking place at Markeaton

Primary School, Bromley Street, Derby DE22 1HL over the October half term

holiday. Your child will join our highly qualified and experienced YMCA Derbyshire staff in a wide range of sports, games, arts and crafts and other fun and engaging activities.

Choose from two daily options:

Short Day: 9.00am – 3.30pm - £15.00

Packed lunch and drink required

Full Day: 8.00am – 6.00pm

Includes Breakfast & Hot Evening Meal. Packed lunch and drink required - £27.00

Dates:

October Half Term Holiday Monday 24th – Friday 28th October and INSET day on Monday 31st October 2016.

To book please visit the website www.ymcaderbyshire.org.uk

The Club is open to all primary school children from reception to Year 6; older

children/siblings’ bookings can be taken on request. Please don’t hesitate to call Hazel Finch on 07590 452827 with any queries.

We look forward to welcoming your child!

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