Dear Parents and Carers,
What a busy week – again!
The year 6 children have been doing their end of key Stage assessments (SATs) this week. They have been pretty full on, but I have been so impressed with how they have all taken them in their stride and remained incredibly positive – well done Year 6. The rest of the school have also been brilliant with supporting them by being extra quiet and on certain days waiting until the test is over to have break time.
Last night Nicola and Dennis held the Zones of Regulation parent workshop. Thank you to all those who were able to attend, I do hope you found it useful. We are looking at ways we can help make our workshops more accessible to all as often the slides do not help with getting a full understanding of what was shared and discussed.
Today we said goodbye to Ketty. Ketty has been working as Teaching Assistant across all year 3 classes. She is leaving to join the police, which has been a long term ambition of hers and am sure you will be joining me in wishing her luck in her new role.
School Council children met this week. We held two meetings; Philippa met with Early Phase and Year 2, then Dennis met Key Stage 2. Many of the (Early Phase) children were very enthusiastic about reporting back on their class discussions at our second meeting. Classes were allocated specific areas to work on, there were 3 main topics; many aspects of lunchtime, the playground environment and supporting friendship. Year 2 classes will have overview of the younger classes' tasks, but all children will make notes (with support) and report back each fortnight to inform peers of their job to progress towards shared goals. Children in Key Stage 2 came to the meeting with many ideas on how to develop the school further. These ideas can be grouped into three main areas: developing emotional support both in the curriculum and in the playground, developing play and lunch times and ensuring that our school is more environmentally friendly. Very excitingly, all children were given their very special badges to indicate their important role as a member of the School Council. These need to be kept safe and worn all the time.
Attendance at school is important not just for children’s leaning but also for their social and emotional development. Being absent or even late can cause children stress and impact on their day. To help improve attendance and keep parents informed, letters will now be sent out when a child’s attendance reaches 92%. When attendance reaches 90% it is classed as persistent absence. Children’s attendance is marked in sessions (a.m session and p.m session), if your child wakes up not feeling very well but perks up later on please still send them in as they will get there afternoon mark this will also help improve attendance.
You can read more about the importance of school attendance on the Lewisham website as well as in the Kilmorie Attendance policy.
Playground Update: From Monday, we will have a wonderful new 100 square, and yes there are meant to be numbers missing as this encourages children to think/talk about number! We also have a fabulous climbing frame too, that has been designed to promote health & lifestyle, mental wellbeing, motor skills and personal development. There will naturally be a rush to have a go on it, so Louise has put together a rota to help ease ‘the rush’ and make sure everyone gets a go (if they wish). This will only be in place for the next two weeks whilst it is new and exciting. May I take this opportunity to remind you that children should not play on this equipment before or after school.
Next Wednesday is National Numeracy Day. The day aims to build recognition about the importance of numbers and numeracy and to encourage people to sharpen their skills and build their confidence with numbers. Many people, including children think they are not ‘numbers people’, but numbers play a big part in all our lives, and it is important to support changing people's perception of numbers. To help, children will be making a poster to show how they feel about Maths by comparing their Maths learning to an animal! This will be self-reflection on their own learning and challenges in Maths.
Don’t forget next week is Mental Health Week and Walk to school week, please remember that on Thursday we will be having a ‘wear it green’ day. You can make a donation online, should you wish to do so. As the theme is anxiety, we wanted to also share this link to help you if your child has anxiety.
Census day is on Thursday 18th May. Chartwells will be serving up a delicious 'Burgers All Stars' themed lunch (menu here). If your child doesn’t usually have school dinners and you would like them to have this special themed lunch, please complete this form before 10am on Monday (15th May). Apologies for the short notice, we have only just received the menu from Chartwells.
Yesterday I was drawn to the year 4 learning on the grass. They have been learning about sustainability and plastic pollution this half term and as part of their immersion into their next piece of persuasive writing, were making bird feeders and bug hotels. These were being made from recycled materials and Rebecca and Sarah R's Class collaborated, working in mixed class groups. They have now been put in the Wild Garden for the local nature to enjoy. It was lovely to see the children so focused and enthused by their learning.
Important parent workshop next week: A 2022 report by Ofcom states 9 out of 10 children have their own mobile phone by the age of 11. Of 8 to 11-year-olds, 64% use social media and 84% use messaging sites/apps. Those numbers increase to 91% for social media usage and 97% for messaging site/apps for 12 to 15-year-olds! (Ofcom Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2022) This increase in usage has also led to an increase in content creation and potential safeguarding risks. To support parents with mitigating this risk, Athena’s (a service in Lewisham) tech team are running a parent workshop about keeping children safe online from 6-7pm in the main hall.
Summer is on its way: Eva, our school gardener has reported that a family of robins have been living in a bird box in our Wild Garden. They were first spotted by a year 3 class and then on another day she found the young robin sitting in the box just watching a year 1 class having their forest school session. The baby bird seemed very happy watching the children play just like the parents who are very happy to watch Eva gardening, waiting to see if she unearths a worm or two! We have had tits nest in our box before, but this is the first time a family of robins have made it their home.
We (the school) are looking after 9 new cherry trees on Elsinore Road planted with Street Trees for Living. Apart from watering the trees, we have to keep the bases free of weeds for the first few years. These pictures show a before and after for one of our trees.
Also, at the school we have a few bluebells growing in our Bluebell alley which is behind one of the sports cages, this is the first plant which came into bloom this year – do take a look they look lovely.
Really looking forward to some normality next week – no bank holiday and whole school, celebration and class assemblies are back!
I hope to see our Early years children at the garden party on Saturday, please note access will be via the gate on Elsinore Road and children need to be supervised at all times. More information in the Reminders box below.
For those not coming to the garden party, I look forward to welcoming you back on Monday.
Kind regards
Julie
