Dear Parents & Carers This week sees the last of the year group parents’ evenings. Many thanks to those of you who completed the parent questionnaire after your appointment. Feedback and comments is being analysed and we will be responding to you with results very shortly. A special congratulations this week goes to Alfie Read (6HR) and Lexie Williams (4G). Alfie was chosen by the Heads of Y5 and Y6 to receive the “Respect Award” and Lexie was chosen by the Heads of Y3 and Y4 for the “Co-operation Award”. We are so proud of them for their hard work, dedication, manners and general attitude in school. This is a fantastic achievement for you both. As you will be aware, we are holding a Sponsored Jubilee Spelling Challenge with the PTA. This will be held during the first week back at school after the Easter holidays and will replace the children’s usual spellings. Your child will by now have received their list of spellings and it is up to them to decide how many of the words they learn. Please find further information inside this newsletter. Good luck! Please note that school finishes today at 1.30pm and pupils return to school on Monday 11th April. I wish you all a happy and relaxing Easter break. Yours sincerely Mrs Dando Academy Head

W E E K C O M M E N C I N G 2 1 S T M A R C H 2 0 1 6

PICKHURST POST

Pickhurst Lane, West Wickham, Kent, BR4 0HL

Tel: 020 8462 5867 Fax: 020 8462 9394 Email: office@pickhurst.com

Web: www.pickhurst.com

Pickhurst Junior Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Message from the Academy Head

Inside this Issue: Message from the Academy Head School Council News Instrumental Concert PTA News Message from Head Boy & Head Girl Diner of the Week Sew Cool Sewing Club Easter Holiday Competition Forest School Attendance & Punctuality New Library—Name & Logo Clubs Dates for your Diary

School Council News

P A G E 2

Mrs Lynch from Pickhurst Infants and Mrs Marsh from Pickhurst Juniors arranged a joint school council meeting this term with a focus on the pupils' understanding around the topic “Anti-Bullying”. The children worked together discussing their ideas and creating posters to raise awareness of who to tell if they are worried about bullying. The posters will be displayed in both schools and on our playground pod.

Instrumental Concert

It was a real pleasure to enjoy our Pickhurst Junior Academy spring concert on Friday 18th March.

It was a great opportunity to recognise the range of musical talents our children have and

appreciate their dedication and commitment.

Thank you to all of the children (listed below) and our music specialists, in particular to Mr Castle and Ms Thurlow, for organising such a wonderful concert.

Elliott Dodds, Maydelia Bellew, Jack Jefford, John Wycherley, Isla Winch-Bullen, Lillian Counsell, Kaya Tumkaya,

Oliver Molsher, Henry Keegan-Day, Lyla Chandler, Finn Evans, Katie Thomas, Anton Kozlov, Connie Weston, Susannah Hammond, Katie Sowter, Charlotte Molsher, Emma Shears, Alex Ahkuit, Buster Guy, Pavlo Kanevskiy,

Aram Amang, Luc White and Alex Salama.

PTA News

Hampton Court We hope that all the year 4 children enjoyed their recent trip to Hampton Court. Thanks to recent fundraising, the PTA were really pleased to be able to contribute £500 towards the cost of the trip. Jubilee Spelling Challenge The PTA, together with the school, are holding a Sponsored Jubilee Spelling Challenge. This will be held at the beginning of next term during lesson time and will replace the children’s usual spellings. Years 3 & 4 will share the same words, as will Years 5 & 6. It is entirely up to your child how many of the words they learn. They may choose the amount they wish to learn and then ask for sponsorship to complete the challenge. It could be 10, or they might want to go for 50! Please encourage your child to not only learn their spellings, but also to try to get as much sponsorship as possible! SAVE THE DATE - FRIDAY 1ST JULY Our Jubilee celebrations will be taking place on this day so please keep the day free. There will be lots going on in the school, plus we will be holding a celebration fair from 3-7pm on the playing fields with lots of attractions, live bands, food and beverages! We would like to collect some stories and photos of past pupils, or anyone who has worked at the school. It can be a parent, grandparent, sibling, anyone who has an interesting story to tell! Did you go onto University? Do you now have a successful business? Interesting job? What is your favourite memory of being at Pickhurst? Can you remember your teachers? If you have anything you'd like to share with us, please contact us at pickhurstpta@outlook.com. Thank you again for your continued support, which is greatly appreciated. Enjoy the Easter holidays! PTA Committee

P A G E 3

Diner of the Week:

w/c 14th March: Isabelle Mason (4G) - well done Isabelle!

Message from the Head Boy & Head Girl

We hope that you have all had a great week. Well done to 3L, 4R, 5A and 6HR for winning the Sports Relief run. We know you are all pumped for Easter and so are we—just don’t eat too much chocolate! Have a great Easter! Youssef Maher Atwa (Head Boy) & Thea Van Den Belt (Head Girl)

Sew Cool Sewing Club

The ‘Sew Cool for Kids’ young designers have been having fun designing and making their Bunny Ears Treat Bags. Children combined their own choice of happy Spring prints, fabrics, colours and haberdashery and what wonderful colour combinations they created! Sewing the bunny face onto their hand cut egg shape and carefully stitching their decorative pattern around the edges wasn’t easy but the finished bags look absolutely fantastic. Enjoy collecting your Easter treats!

Happy Easter to everyone at Pickhurst Junior Academy

Mrs Byfield

Sew Cool for Kids

Easter Holiday Competition

P A G E 4

Miss Walsh and Mrs Lockwood would like you to take part in designing a healthy Easter egg!

Healthy Ideas: What would the outer shell be made with? What tasty treats would be inside?

Design: How would you design the wrapper to tempt people to buy one? How would yours be more eye-catching than the rest?

Bringing it to life: Could you make it? Make sure you take a photo to show us! Could you make a model of it using paper, string, paper mache...?

DEADLINE: Thursday, 14th April 2015 ... How creative are you?

Forest School

The class of 3L had a wonderful time on their last forest school session. To mark

the event, the children roasted marshmallows and helped collect fire wood from

the forest floor.

P A G E 5

Attendance & Punctuality

Here are the attendance figures for each class for w/e Friday 18th March. The overall attendance figure for Pickhurst Junior Academy for this period was 95.5%. Congratulations this week go to Class 6HR who achieved the best possible attendance at 99.5%. Every minute really does count so don’t be late! 18 children were recorded as being late this week. Please note that each child’s attendance and punctuality rate is monitored on a regular basis. If it is seen that a child’s attendance or punctuality is below our expected requirement, then parents will be contacted either by letter or a mutually convenient appointment will be arranged to discuss the situation in order for us to offer support.

Class Attendance %

Late children

3B 90 0

3CL 98.8 0

3D 95 0

3L 96.4 1

4G 99.4 1

4P 93 1

4R 96.4 2

4T 95.5 0

5A 96.3 1

5B 92.6 0

5E 93.5 0

5S 94.1 5

5W 92.9 1

6HR 99.5 3

6MS 96.1 0

6C 97.3 1

6S 99.1 0

6SN 92.6 1

6W 98.3 1

New Library—Name and Logo!

We are running a competition to name and design a logo for our new Pickhurst library. If your child wishes to enter, please ask them to design their logo on a plain piece of paper and hand it to Mrs Dando, ensuring their name and class is on the back of their entry.

The closing date is Friday 15th April. We look forward to receiving lots of fabulous designs to choose from!

A reminder that if your child has long hair, it should be tied up for

PE and games lessons for health and safety reasons.

P A G E 6

Dates for your Diary

Monday 11th April Pupils return to school

Wednesday 27th April Y3 Scootsure scooter training

Tuesday 3rd to Friday 6th May Y4 to PGL

Thursday 5th May Elections—school closed to pupils

w/c Monday 9th May SATs week

Monday 23rd to Friday 26th May Walk to School Week

Monday 6th to Friday 10th June 2016 Y6 to France

Thursday 23rd June European Union Referendum—school closed to pupils

Friday 1st July Diamond Jubilee Day

DAY TIME CLUB VENUE

MONDAY 12-12.45PM DWX GYMNASTICS HALL

12NOON CHESS CLUB MRS DANDO’S OFFICE

3.20-4.30PM FOOTBALL KRAZEE Y3/4 FIELD

3.20-4.20PM SPANISH CLUB Y3 & Y4 4T

3.30-4.30PM JU-JITSU HALL

3.30-4.30/4.45PM SEW COOL SEWING CLUB SCIENCE BAY

TUESDAY LUNCHTIME DWX BALLET HALL

12.30PM CHOIR 4T

3.20-4.30PM FOOTBALL KRAZEE Y5/6 FIELD

3.30-4.30PM JU-JITSU HALL

WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME CODE CLUB Y6

LUNCHTIME NETBALL CLUB PLAYGROUND

THURSDAY 8-8.45AM ART CLUB TBC

LUNCHTIME LEGO CLUB Y5 INTERVENTION ROOM

3.20-4.20PM SPANISH CLUB Y5 & Y6 4T

3.20-4.30PM CRICKET KRAZEE Y4, 5 & 6 FIELD/PLAYGROUND

FRIDAY 8.15AM WIND BAND HALL

LUNCHTIME DWX TAP DANCING HALL

3.20-4.30PM ART CLUB Y5 LIBRARY

3.30-4.30PM STEPHANEEZ PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE CLUB HALL

3.30-5PM POTTERY CLUB SCIENCE BAY

Clubs