Week Ahead 27th January 2020

As you may know we had our last Ofsted Inspection in June 2016, we are likely to be re-inspected this academic year so by July 2020.  This will be a two-day inspection when the inspector will judge the school provision and see that we have continued to improve the school.  We will be delighted to share with the inspector all the changes since the last inspection and all of the wonderful things we do for the children and community of Ash Grange. 

We get to find out when the inspection will take place one day before, so it is important we are ready.  Due to it being only two days the inspectors have to use a range of strategies to find out everyone’s views. For parents and carers this is in the form of a questionnaire, which has 14 questions. It is short multichoice, no comments questionnaire and takes a few minutes to complete.  Here are the questions:

• My child is happy at this school.
• My child feels safe at this school.
• The school makes sure its pupils are well behaved.
• My child has been bullied and the school dealt with the bullying quickly and effectively.
• The school makes me aware of what my child will learn during the year.
• When I have raised concerns with the school they have been dealt with properly.
• Does your child have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)?
• My child has SEND, and the school gives them the support they need to succeed.
• The school has high expectations for my child.
• My child does well at this school.
• The school lets me know how my child is doing.
• There is a good range of subjects available to my child at this school.
• My child can take part in clubs and activities at this school.
• The school supports my child’s wider personal development.
• I would recommend this school to another parent

I know that you share your views at different points in the school year and we value all you share with us. To this end we are running this questionnaire now so we can see the views you hold.  Please complete the questionnaire in the next week in the inspection parents complete it online via the Ofsted Parent View.  Please look out for the invite to complete our questionnaire.

Relationships (all pupils) and Sex(Secondary Pupils) Education Policy

Thank you to those who have fed back regarding the policy, I am so pleased that you have found it clear and straightforward.  As I said in the last newsletter I would feedback any issues raised:

1. FGM what is this? 

This is an abbreviation of Female Genital Mutilation, I have added the full term to the policy

2. A parent questioned about when children find out information.

It is always at the age and stage of their development.  We want children to enjoy their childhood and not to be over informed but also not under informed.  We do not share things that will cause a curiosity, we want them to know simple facts.

3. A parent asked for reassurance that children would be informed about the variety of families

over the years of education, e.g. single parents, foster/adoptive, step families, homosexual, in an unbiased, non-judgemental way and that anyone who shows a disrespect towards any group would be challenged.

This is absolutely how these will be shared, every form of family is respected and staff model that always.  We expect children and staff to respect the rights of all people and we would never tolerate any disrespect to any persons or relationships.  If a child displayed a curiosity about a type of relationship, we would not enter into discussion as we share facts.  We would inform the parent/carer so that this could be discussed more fully at home.

4. A parent asked for confirmation that Year 3 would not be told about puberty.

Absolutely not, this is a Year 5 and 6 topic only.  See the Teachers additional comment below.

New additional notes will now be added to the policy:

Teachers

If a child has a question about any of the content of the Relationship (Sex) Education policy, then:

Check the content against the age and stages set out in the document, if it is for their age group inform them of the facts.  If it is not, inform them that they will find out about this when they are a little bit older and then inform the parents/carers so that they can discuss this earlier if they choose to do so.

Respecting Differences.

In all aspects of this policy, staff and children will demonstrate respect for one another and no disrespect will be tolerated.  If anyone shows an intolerance or disrespect this will be addressed through the implementation of the behaviour/staff capability policies.

New Support Group for Children

Does your child help to care for someone in your home? If you, another adult or child in your home has an illness, disability or learning need which means that your child has more on their plate than other children, then they may benefit from some extra support at school.

We are setting up a group for young carers from Year 1 upwards. We will be running fortnightly sessions within school time led by our School Counsellor. The sessions will be fun and informal, centred around games which will give children an opportunity to relax and chat to other children in similar situations.  We will have 2 groups, one for Key Stage 1 aged children and one for Key Stage 2.

If you think that your child would benefit from these sessions, then please contact your child’s class teacher or speak to me.

Homework

I hope everyone has received the email with the details of passwords, remember if you want a paper copy come to the office where it will be printed to avoid lost papers containing private information.

In response to children and parent/ carer feedback, we have made some changes to homework.

Spelling: From today, children in years 1-6 will practise their weekly spellings online at Readiwriter, web address: https://login.readiwriter.com . From today, children will no longer write out their sentences as their homework but of course can practise writing their sentences at home and play games as you decide..

Spelling Results

As spelling homework is completed via Readiwriter, you will receive a Marvellous Me each week with your child’s score from the weekly assessment. 

Reading: In addition, weekly reading homework will also be set via the  Reading Eggs website, (you may remember we conducted a trial recently), web address: https://readingeggs.co.uk/login1 .  Of course you will continue to read books with and to them for pleasure and to see how they are progessing with their reading certificate targets, this is in addition to that.

Children in Reception, Year 1&2 will access Reading Eggs,

Year 3-6 will access Reading Express.

Weekly homework expectations are that every child will spend a minimum of ten minutes, 3 times per week on Mathletics, Readiwriter and Reading Eggs, making a total of 3 x 30 minutes of homework = 1 ½ hours per week.

If children do not have reliable access to online facilities, they have access every day at break and lunchtimes to the computer room and could complete their homework and have time to play every day. 

If you have any questions, please talk to your class teacher, Mrs Rumsby or me.

Did you know?

The 3 core strategic functions of a Governing Body are:

The minutes of the latest Governing Body meeting can be found by clicking this link which will redirect you to the section of our website.

Active Points

Points are being awarded this week for trackers, any child who achieves 5,000 earns 100 points for their team, 10,000 = 300 points and there is an extra 100 points for every additional 1,000 steps.  Get walking!

Eco Points

Next is a “container” week, Eco points are awarded for every repurposed container used.

Week beginning 27th January 2020

School Dinners - Week 2

Check the calendar for full details and future dates.