Valley Road School

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Headteacher Notes I am sure many of the teaching staff would disagree with me, but this term seems to have flown by. I was recently informed it was one of the longest half terms we have had which makes congratulations really in order for our Reception pupils who have only been with us since the start of September. It can take a while to get used to being in a school and I am sure they are very tired. Mu grateful thanks to Mrs Richens and her team for their hard work. I wish them and the rest of the staff a peaceful break. I always treat the annual pumpkin competition with mixed feelings. I love it because of the amazing creativity our pupils show and this year was certainly no exception. I find it difficult because every year I have to choose “the best” pumpkin. This is clearly both impossible and unfair and so this year I decided to make it a case of drawing a name out of a hat. Congratulations to Adeline Cobb in Year Six for being the first name drawn but an equal amount of congratulations to all the pupils who took the time to enter. You all get five house points from me and your pumpkin in the newsletter. See the pictures at the end as well as the one here. I wish you all a peaceful half-term.

Tim Coulson Headteacher

Valley Road School

Newsletter

25th October 2019 Issue 4

Valley Road School Newsletter

Issue 4 October 2019

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Data Report Attached to this newsletter is a report to you about the school’s data for the last year. I hope you found it useful. I am extremely proud of our pupils, staff and community for their hard work, but I also recognise that no data presentation tells every story. Nonetheless, well done to everyone for their achievement. News from the classes Reception

This week in Meadow has seen us finding out more about similarities and differences between us through playing games using different sorting criteria. We have also discussed our likes and dislikes in small groups. On one day we worked collaboratively to make a giant human skeleton because we all have one of those on the inside no matter how different we are on the outside! We have shared many story books and used them as inspiration when inventing our own using our story dice. It has been fun listening to each other’s ideas and interesting to see how our teacher writes them down so that we can revisit our stories one rainy afternoon soon! As well as this, we have been dressing-up and acting out stories together with much ensuing hilarity! We did really well during our first guided reading session where we worked in pairs to interpret stories from their pictures before regaling the group. We have learnt to provide the bigger picture first, such as where the story is set, before moving on to the details. Developing our emotional literacy in other games and Circle Times this week has helped us to read the expressions on the main character’s faces therefore deepening our understanding of the story. Our mathematical experiences have included weighing and measuring the distance toy vehicles travel using meter rules. We have also worked on ordering numerals and missing number challenges. Your child will be bringing optional homework with them for half-term. Please check your child’s bag for reading, fine-motor and word-making tasks, depending on what we feel would be of benefit to your child. Allow them to take the lead whilst lending a hand. Well done Meadow on coming through your first half-term at Valley Road! Year One What a great first term it's been in Year One! We are so proud of how well the children have settled and adapted to the new routines and more structured environment. Well done Hedgerow Class, you stars! We have been keeping busy during the weeks leading up to half term, bringing our very popular Great Fire of London topic to a close by learning about the plague! Unfortunately, Year One all went down with the plague on Tuesday and are looking a little under the weather in their photos on our window. We also learnt about how London was rebuilt after the fire and worked as a class to 'rebuild London' with junk model houses. In literacy we have been looking at the story Five Minutes’ Peace. We thought about our own families and looked at using capital letters for names of people, sequenced the story, worked in small groups to rehearse and perform the story and made masks and props to accompany the performances.



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We continued using natural objects in art and produced some lovely autumnal collages using natural materials we found on our Autumn woodland walk. Enjoy your half term and we look forward to seeing you next term! Year Two

We had a wonderful time on Wednesday at the Wonder Woods, Stonor Park. We managed to miss the rain, but the hot chocolate was still a welcome refreshment. We took lots of photographs which will be put on the school website under our class page. We would love to win the prize (a real Christmas tree from the Tree Barn) for The Best Scarecrow Competition but after our trip, seeing our Lord and Lady scarecrows in position, on the rolling hills, we couldn’t be happier! As well as making 6ft scarecrows we have also managed to get some other work done this week too! In literacy we have been identifying verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs and finding them within our stories and sentences.

We’ve written expanded noun phrases and added adjectives to improve our sentences. We have also completed two reading assessments. In maths we have completed an arithmetic and a reasoning maths assessment. We use the results to help us see what are teaching focus should be and it’s a great way for us to track the progress of individuals. Everyone did their best and that’s exactly what we had hoped for. Year Three Year Three have been focusing on multiplication and division in maths. We went on an ‘array hunt’ and have been making arrays in order to answer multiplication and related division sums. In literacy we have been writing and editing instructions on how to wash a woolly mammoth. I’m pleased to say that we have finally nailed imperatives and prepositions and that we have all included these in our instructions. In the afternoons we have been learning new song in music called Let Your Spirit Fly. We have also learnt the chords for the song and have been playing along on the glockenspiels. We have finished our work on ball skills in PE and enjoyed a very competitive game of bench ball to round of the unit. Year Four We have had a really busy first term and the children have all worked really hard. Over the past two weeks we have been learning about the gruesome process of mummification. The children have designed and made their own canopic jars, which look fantastic! We have used glue guns, saws, clay and spray paint to achieve the final product. In English we have been learning about image poetry and created our own poems based on clouds, the children have brought their own poems home with them today, so please ask them to share their creative poems with you. In maths we have been consolidating all the skills we have learnt this term; written methods for addition and subtraction, multiplication (grid method) and division (chunking). We have been using these skills to solve problems and using our RUCSAC ditty to help with this!



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The children will be bringing home their amulets today which they have been really looking forward to, I hope they make it home in one piece. We will continue our Egyptian topic after the holiday. I hope you all have a lovely well-earned holiday! Year Five It's almost half term and Mrs Herbert has finally let us finish our first book of the term...and it was a wordless picture book! - however, she has been very impressed with the creative writing we have produced, inspired by it. We have made beautiful stained-glass windows based on the rainbow that resolves the book, and these are now stuck on our windows. You may have spotted them, but sorry, we have the best view - they look nice from outside, but they are awesome from the inside! We've also been solving multiplication problems, using our place value and Mrs Fraser has been encouraging us to 'brave' short multiplication in maths - and we are definitely getting there! As part of our PSHE studies we have been learning about the structure of the UK Parliament and even watched last week's State Opening. We were amazed to discover that the red lines in the House of Common's carpet are exactly two sword widths apart, a legacy from the days when MPs were allowed to carry weapons in the chamber! We have also enjoyed learning the story behind the signing of the Magna Carta - that King John was not a fair man in our opinion! It's been a busy time...we definitely deserve a week's rest! Year Six Year Six have been very busy preparing for their electoral campaigns which will start in earnest after half-term. They met with Kerrie Carpenter from the UK Parliament Education Service who spoke to them about how Parliament works and the important roles the House of Commons, House of Lords and Monarch play in the making of new laws. We have learnt how MPs are chosen and discussed some of the rules which electoral candidates must follow. We have created our own political parties – each championing a different endangered animal – and will be running a vote within VRS to choose just one which we will then adopt. If you see us in the playground, ask us which party we belong to and why we feel our animal should be chosen! We were also incredibly lucky to spend an afternoon with Mrs Gove and her team from Invesco who ran a brilliant Money Aware workshop for us. We each had to manage our own balance sheet and discovered some of the risks behind investments people make. We discussed how banks play a crucial role in the lending of money and why loan sharks or entrepreneurs called ‘Rich Ricky’ sometimes make promises that cannot be kept!

Overall – Year Six are in a very good position to take over the Country – apparently the job might come up soon! Blue the Dog This is a picture of Blue, Mrs Stewart’s new dog. Those of you with long memories may remember Mr Shacklady who used to bring his little dog, Mitzi Gaynor (I think that was the name), into school every day. There is much evidence to suggest that having a dog in school can be a great thing and so we would like it for Blue to come into Year Two every Friday from next term when Mrs Stewart is teaching. We have completed all the relevant paperwork to enable this to happen but if you have any questions please speak to Mrs Stewart or myself. Blue is a French Bulldog and is small and cuddly. In fact, a bit like Mrs Stewart herself, apart from the fact that Blue is small and cuddly. I am sure he will be a big hit with the pupils. He already is with the staff; isn’t that right, Miss McGregor?



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Cygnets Cygnets of Henley are looking for someone to help at the Breakfast club and also the After-School Club. This position is for either qualified or unqualified applicants as they will be working with a qualified person. A child place at club may be available. For more information if they could please give Tania a call on 01491 414434. Collection after School We recognise that there may be the odd occasion when you are running late and may not be on time to collect your child from school. If this is the case, please ring us immediately and let us know if you have made alternative arrangements for their collection or if they should wait in the entrance hall near the office. Please do not email as there may be the outside possibility it will not be seen in time for the end of the day. When you collect your child ensure a member of staff is alerted so we know they have been taken. We cannot let your child leave with any other adult than one who is either named on your contact sheet at school or you have given us verbal agreement for their collection. Medical Needs If your child has an allergy or a dietary requirement, we do need to have evidence from a medical professional that this is the case. This way we can record the information accurately on our system. Otherwise, it will be considered a self-diagnosis and not by a medical professional. Attendance Periodically we analyse the attendance of pupils in the school. If attendance is lower than 90% for the year, then we have a responsibility to contact you to discuss the reasons for this low figure. It may be the case that your child has been ill for a significant period which has resulted in this low attendance. In this case, we look at the previous year’s attendance for comparison. It may be the case that you took holiday in the school year. We strongly recommend you do not do so. We are increasingly concerned that this is happening and, while it is easy to argue the case for travel broadening the mind, it is a legal requirement for your child to be in school when it open unless there are exceptional circumstances. 90% may look like a lot but over a ten-year period of education at 90% a child would have lost one year of education.

Mrs Thatcher’s new dog, Evie!



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DIARY DATES

Academic Year 2019-2020

2019

Friday 25th October PTA Halloween parties Week beginning 28th October Half term. Children off all week Monday 4th November Children return to school after half term Wednesday 6th November Flu immunisation taking place (Reception – Year Six) Week beginning 9th December Christmas play week Thursday 19th December 2pm, school closes for Christmas holiday

2020

Monday 6th January School INSET day – children not in school Tuesday 7th January Children return to school after Christmas holiday Week beginning 17th February Half term. Children off all week Monday 24th February Children return to school after half term Tuesday 10th and Thursday 12th March Parent / teacher consultation sessions Friday 3rd April 2pm: School closes for Easter holiday Monday 20th April Children return to school after Easter holiday Friday 8th May Bank holiday / VE day. School closed (Note: change of date for bank

holiday) Friday 22nd May School INSET day – children not in school Week beginning 25th May Half term. Children off all week Monday 1st June School INSET day – children not in school Tuesday 2nd June Children return to school Thursday 18th June AM: Sports Day Wednesday 8th July Reports go out Tuesday 21st July 2pm: School closes for Summer holiday

Well done, Adeline!



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Year 6 Business!



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Year 4 Poems



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Year 4 meet The Gong Lady! Mrs Neiduszynka (A/K/A The Gong Lady) came into school this week to do some amazing work on musical sound and vibrations. Thank you so much for coming in, everyone had a great time as you can see.



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Running Club Bobbing for Apples and Pumpkin Relay!



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Pumpkin Time!



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Year 4 Clay Models

Valley Road School

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