Valley Road School 4 - 20...Valley Road School Newsletter Issue 4 October 2017 5 PTA Thank you all...

Headteacher Notes

Thank you to the PTA for organising such a wonderful Halloween party. It is always lovely to see the

creativity of the outfits and particularly the range of ideas for the pumpkins. Photographs can be found

at the end of the newsletter. The winners of the pumpkin competition were as follows: Family Prize –

Emanuel family; Child created: Zara Barnett; Homegrown: Alexandra Sampson.

I must say it is incredibly hard choosing a winner as so many showed staggering creativity. Therefore

I have told the pupils that everyone who entered deserves two house points.

You will also see that we have a new logo on the newsletter header. This was created by Alexandra

Sampson (a double winner this week!). We had six entries all of which were excellent and the winner

was chosen by the staff looking at unnamed photocopies of the entries and making their choice.

Finally, the children have been out and about in the community quite a bit recently with both boys and

girls football and a hockey competition. You will also know from my recent email about their very

enjoyable time listening to authors at the Henley Literary Festival. Thank you to all who have made

donations towards these visits. Also, a big thank you to those of you who paid above and beyond what

we were expecting. You will know that many schools are asking parents for donations towards school

on a termly basis. We are trying hard to resist this way forward as I believe education is a right not a

privilege but no contribution is refused! Nonetheless your support for these extra events does mean

we are able to run them. If you have not yet made a donation, we’d be very grateful if you could

please do so.

We hope you all have a lovely week next week. Remember if you need childcare, Cygnets will be

running their holiday club

Tim Coulson

Headteacher

Valley Road School

Newsletter

20th October 2017 Issue 4

Valley Road School Newsletter

Issue 4 October 2017

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News from the classes

Nursery

We can't believe how quickly this term has flown by in

Orchard class, probably because we've been having lots

of fun making new friends, learning new songs,

exploring new activities, games and toys and learning

about our topics of houses and homes and Autumn.

We've enjoyed going on Autumn walks around the

school, collecting and playing in the colourful autumn

leaves, listening to and talking about the different

sounds we hear in the environment as part of our phase 1

phonics.

On Friday, some children went on a trip to Peppard

Church to sing some of our Autumn songs at the

Bishopswood Harvest festival. They gave a fantastic

performance and enjoyed the excitement of travelling on

the minibus. Well done!

Reception

Meadow class have had a fun-packed end to this

half-term, carrying lots of creative autumn-themed activities using fallen natural materials

and different paint techniques (printing, for example). We have been singing along to a

collection of seasonal songs and tapping along to the rhythm on claves.

We are motoring forward with our phonics with an emphasis on blending sounds for

Reading. Our Maths table has a selection of resources on it to target learning in Weight,

Capacity, Size and Position and the children are enjoying exploring these concepts.

We hope you have opportunity to share the book we have sent home over the half-term break.

It will soon be time for your children to read to you when we start sending home Reading

Scheme books early next half-term.

We have really enjoyed getting to know your children over the last few weeks and meeting

you at Parents Evening.

Have a good ‘break’ and we’ll see you soon!

We would be grateful if you could collect some interesting pieces of junk for modelling over

the break and provide us with a family photograph when you return.

The Reception Team

Year One

This week we have been enjoying t [Grab your reader’s attention with a great quote from the

document or use this space to emphasize a key point. To place this text box anywhere on the

page, just drag it.] he story ‘Not a Stick’ and we have been ordering the events in the plot, writing labels for all the uses

for the stick and imagining make believe games with the stick.

Girls’ Football Team with their Fair Play Award



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In Maths, we have been working on coin recognition and used money to work on addition. We

ordered the days of the week and have been learning about the seasons.

We have completed our history of London topic and made books with lots of fun and interesting facts. (Thanks for that, Kath- Mr C)

Year Two

We have had a fantastic week finishing our plague movie. It will be ready for viewing after half term

and you will be invited to the premier!

We have completed our topic on time and will be really grateful if could practice over the holidays:

clocks, half past, quarter pasts and quarter tos.

Have a lovely half term.

Year Three

Valley class have had a week full of Stone Age fun! We had a great time at Stonehenge learning about

Neolithic life - how to make rope from rush, weaving a wall from birch and hazel sticks and even

grinding wheat using a stone tool!

At school, we have been using Stonehenge as inspiration for writing a recount and for creating a

Stonehenge scene in Art.

During Maths, Valley class have been investigating 3D shapes, their names and properties. We have

also been learning how to subtract by counting on.

The children have had a brilliant first term in the juniors. They all deserve a well-earned rest this half

term!

Year Four

Many thanks to Dr Colam for coming in to see Year 4 on

Thursday. The class really enjoyed learning more about

sound and doing some fun experiments. It is always a

real treat when we can welcome a an expert into our

class!

Year Five

Did any of you spot the aliens that have recently visited

our school? If not, look out for the newspaper reports

that Year Five will shortly be displaying as they will let

you know all the details - including picture evidence!

In other matters, we are currently concluding our unit of

work on space by looking at gravitational pull and

undertaking Moon diaries, so there will be plenty of

gazing upwards at the night sky. In topic we have been

making coil bowls, similar to the ones decorated with

Runes - as the Anglo-Saxons would have made, as well

as investigating some of their many Gods. It's been a

busy half term and we are looking forward to a restful

half term before winter hits!



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Year Six

Year Six have quickly taken on board their new responsibilities as playleaders, librarians and running

the tuck shop. We have held our first Play Leader training session where Year Four put them through

their paces, providing constructive advice on how they can further develop their ideas for games to

play with the infant children. Chiltern Class really are rising to the challenges of entertaining and

managing our youngest pupils and it has been a pleasure to watch the children enjoying playing

together.

Back in the classroom, we have been focusing on writing powerful short narratives based on Michael

Morpurgo’s short story: The Giant’s Necklace.

We have had to plan our writing carefully to

ensure that our readers slowly gather subtle

clues which leads them to draw conclusions before the ending is revealed. It is no exaggeration to say

that a few tears have been shed in class as some of our stories are

incredibly poignant.

To brighten us up again, we have also been putting the finishing

touches to some beautiful batiks inspired by our marine topic,

examples of which will be proudly displayed around the school

very soon.

Fundraising

Ottilie and Anna in Year 6 have been fundraising again! This

time with the aid of their massive Fortune Teller they raised over

£12. Please note we don’t ask them to do this they choose to!

Thanks girls!

Cycling

The Cycling Team are very proud and delighted to report that

the Baker’s dozen: Ben, Lara, Anjali, Daniel, Evie, Lucy,

Nicole, Viggo, Zahra, Lola-Rose, Louisa, Vibhu and Lydia from

Year Six all passed their cycling proficiency test and the examiner was very complimentary on their

safe cycling. With a special mention for Zahra who refused to be upstaged by a pine cone in the road

when it knocked her off her bike. She got up, moved to a safe place and carried on, fantastic.

A special thanks to Sarah who has continued with

cycle training although her children have left Valley

Road and thank you to all the parents who have

given up their time over the last six weeks to help

during the training sessions, it has been very much

appreciated. Finally thank you to Mrs Lock for

being so accommodating while we fitted the cycling

in and around the busy Year Six activities.

We will be having a rest now but look forward to

the course next year with Year Five, until then keep

up the safe cycling, smile and enjoy!

Best wishes,

The Cycling Team

Pick a number; any number

Year 6 helping the Small People



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PTA

Thank you all so much for your Bags2School donations. We made £110.40 for the School. If you

missed the collection, please try and hold on to your donations as there will be another collection

early in the New Year! Thank you to our Year Two

helpers on the day!

The children looked amazing at the Halloween parties

last week! We really hope everyone enjoyed

themselves! The pumpkins were great and were a real

highlight again! Congratulations to Otilie Emanuel

(Year Five) and Zara Barnett (Year Four) who won the

Family and Individual Best carved/designed Pumpkin

Competitions! Thank you so much to those of you who

helped decorate the hall or help staff the parties in the

evening.

Everyone today will be bringing home a tube of

Smarties to enjoy over half term. In return, the PTA are

asking if the children can fill the tubes up with as many

20p coins as they can by asking family, friends and

parents’ work colleagues. Or maybe they can help with

an odd job or two during the break?! The tubes also fit

the old £1 coins which are now out of circulation so

you’re very welcome to put those in to boost your grand

total!! All the money raised by each class will go directly back to them to spruce up their class

stationery supplies - pencils, pens, felt tips, whatever the teachers feel they are in need of

replenishing.

Please return the Smartie tubes to your child’s class during the week after half term, last day of

collection will be Friday 3rd November.

And finally, congratulations to the following Mini Bus Lottery winners who each win £25 Cheques

can be collected from the office after the break;

Niki Ludanyi (Y1) - September

Simon Emanuel (Y5) – October



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Football Heroes



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DIARY DATES

Monday 23rd

October Half term week

w/c Monday 4th

December Christmas play performance week

Tuesday 19th

December

2pm School closes for Christmas holiday

Monday 8th

January 2018 First day back after Christmas

Monday 12th

February

2018 Half term week

w/c 12th

March 2018 Parent / teacher consultations this week

Thursday 29th

March 2pm School closes for Easter holiday

Monday 16th

April 2018 Pupils back into school for Summer term

Monday 7th

May 2018 Bank holiday

Tuesday 22nd

May 2018 Grandparents’ Tea Party

Friday 25th

May 2018 Inset day – pupils not in

Monday 28th

May 2018 Half term week

Thursday 21st June 2018 AM: Sports Day

Wednesday 11th

July 2018 Reports go out

Thursday 26th

July 2018 First day of Summer holiday

Pumpkin Winners!



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Pumpkins!



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Halloween!



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Valley Road School 4 - 20...Valley Road School Newsletter Issue 4 October 2017 5 PTA Thank you all...

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