11 months ago
Posted on 06th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Before school arrangements

Some children are playing under the trees before coming into school and bringing mud in or playing tag and having accidents, meaning their are either hurt or full of mud or both!

This is happening at the pedestrian entrance from The Grove when waiting to come in via the rear playground gates and at the front of school when waiting to come in by classes 4, 5 & 6. Please can children wait on the path with their paretns prior to the gates opening to prevent this messy start to the day. Children have been reminded about this in assembly this week.

11 months ago
Posted on 06th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Online and App safeguarding concerns

Unfortunately some children are accessing online content at home which is not designed for their age group and is causing distress to our school community. This is a safeguarding concern. We kindly ask that parents support us with this matter by respecting both our school and the UK guidance. Our website offers multiple links to the online safety guidance and we regularly refer to guidance in order to keep pupils safe.

Current issues relate to WhatsApp (13+), Discord (13+ or 17+) and Twitch (13+). If age restrictions were being adhered to, we would not have these concerns in our school and our children would not be subjected to harmful or potentially harmful content.

WhatsApp – multiple classes in KS2 have children’s WhatsApp groups. These groups are causing significant challenge for our school. Some children are being deliberately unkind to each other using these platforms. This is happening at home, but is causing disruptions in school and is taking up valuable staff time to rectify. The age restriction for WhatsApp is 13+.

Live streaming apps – Discord and Twitch

Discord – Discord has an age restriction of 13+. While users must be at least 13 to sign up, they don’t always verify age, and some servers geared towards older users may contain content inappropriate for younger users. Apple’s App Store rates Discord 17+ for a range of reasons, including “Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes” and “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity.”Similarly, Google Play rates the app as ‘Parental Guidance’ because of user interaction and in-app purchases.Because users may share images on text channels or engage in voice chat, children and young people run the risk of exposure to inappropriate content or language.

What is Discord? Safety guide for parents | Internet Matters link

Twitch – Twitch, a live streaming platform, has age restrictions and content restrictions in the UK to ensure the safety of users, particularly children and young people. The platform restricts access to content with sexual themes and gambling, especially for those under 18. Twitch has an age restriction of age 13 under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who ‘agrees to be bound by’ Twitch’s Terms of Service if the user is under 18.

What is Twitch? What parents need to know | Internet Matters link

We thank you for your support with this matter and hope to see a positive change in online activity to support the emotional health and wellbeing of our primary aged children. Internet use is a powerful tool and whilst we want our pupils to be proficient in the online world to further their learning and access, this needs to be in a safe, responsible way which is appropriate for their age of development.

Mrs Lyall.

11 months ago
Posted on 05th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Summer term transition arrangements

This half term the children will have the opportunity to spend time with their next class teacher enabling them to find out about their class expectations for September. We provide this opportunity for all children and additional opportunities for those who need it as part of our Special Educational Needs offer.

On Tuesday 1st July all children will spend time in their next class. Y6 will be at their secondary schools on this day and nursery aged pupils will be in our Reception class. Classes R and 1 will spend the full day with their new class teachers. The rest of school will spend the morning in their next class. Current Y2 will be taught by miss Darmanin (Y6 teacher) for the afternoon session.

Other transition key dates:

19th and 26th June – new reception intake in school for the afternoon. Current reception taught by other school staff.
19th June – Y5 to Thomas Adams school.
30th June, 1st July, 2nd July – Y6 at secondary schools.
8th July – Y5 to Grove school.

11 months ago
Posted on 05th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Celebrating Success. Certificate of Achievement 6.6.25

Well done to everyone who received awards or shout outs today. We are very proud of you.

Class R – Harry D for being much more resilient in our classroom. Well done Harry!
Class 1 – Sid for always being a fantastic role model for learning in our classroom.
Class 2 – Charlotte for being resilient, hardworking and kind. Always showcasing our school values.
Class 3 – Cecily for being a great learning role model and having exemplary behaviour.
Class 4 – Ruby for always putting in 100% effort in all that she does. Well done Ruby.
Class 5 – Sam for contributing much more in class, well done Sam, keep it up!
Class 6 – Maisie for being an absolute superstar! Amazing effort in class and always being kind and helpful.
EY/KS1 Headteacher’s award – Rory in class 2 for showcasing our values through sharing his ideas in assembly thoughtfully and respectfully.
KS2 Headteacher’s award – Emily H in class 4 for showcasing our values through being patient, kind and thoughtful and always being respectful.
Lunchtime award – Tabitha in class 3 for being polite and kind to others.
Raffle ticket – Destiny in class 6.

11 months ago
Posted on 05th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Celebrating Success. Book Worm 6.6.25

Well done to everyone who received awards or shoutouts this week, we are very proud of you.

Today we celebrated reading in our celebration assembly, with praise for lots of children for their reading at home and reading throughout the curriculum in school.

Class R – Scarlett
Class 1 – Daniel
Class 2 – Henry
Class 3 – Myles
Class 4 – Kit
Class 5 – Emily
Class 6 – Jasper

Congratulations to all our chosen Book Worms, your reading at home and school was excellent this week.

Remember to keep up those good reading habits.

11 months ago
Posted on 05th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Weekly House Points 6.6.25

Weekly house point totals are:

Owls = 93

Badgers = 116

Squirrels = 139

Foxes = 134

Well done to the Squirrels .team this week.

11 months ago
Posted on 05th Jun 2025 by Penny Lyall

Jackie’s retirement

After almost 30 years at our school, Jackie has decided to retire at the end of this summer term. I think we can all agree that she is deserving of a well earned rest!

Jackie has fulfilled a number of roles in school over her lengthy dedicated service, all of which have been focussed on caring for our school community. As a cleaner and lunchtime supervisor and jointly leading our wraparound care provision, she has always given her all and made a valuable contribution to our staff team.

Jackie is known by many as being kind and thoughtful, she is considerate of others and loved by our children. She will be a huge miss to our school.

On behalf of all the children and staff, we wish her all the very best in her well deserved retirement and can’t wait to hear all about the wonderful things she intends to do.

11 months ago
Posted on 23rd May 2025 by Penny Lyall

Garden donations please

Huge thank you to Jake and his family who have kindly donated a planter for use in our school garden. Mrs Noden has asked if anyone would kindly be able to donate some top soil to enable use to use the new planter and the existing planters and tyres to their full capacity and hopefully grow some delicious produce!

If you are able to support with this, please see Mrs Noden.

I would also like to do some rock painting with the children after half term in a lunchtime club, with the aim of creating some interesting rock animals or patterns to add to our garden areas and flower patches. If anyone has any suitable sized rocks which they would like to donate, or that children find when out and about on half term adventures, please save them and send into school. Many thanks, Mrs Lyall.

11 months ago
Posted on 23rd May 2025 by Penny Lyall

VE day letters – it’s a small world!

Harriet in Y5 and her family have discovered that her great uncle was on the same ship as Commander John. Wow! What a small world! Through sharing her learning at home, Harriet and her family realised that they recognised some of the events/names and through discussions and research they found this wonderful connection. Harriet has written a second letter to Commander John, which we will send off with our pack over the weekend. In her letter Harriet shares the information they have uncovered and asks John if she knew her great uncle, who sadly lost his life aged just 17 on that ship in the very tragedy that John shared with the children in his letter.

We shared this news in celebration assembly today, with children and staff sharing in the disbelief of this connection. We hope that John receives our letters and who knows he might even respond! We will keep you posted.

This connection highlights the true sense of wonder and amazement that can be found through the enjoyment of history and through sharing learning at home leading to research and further discovery. Thank you to Harriet and her family for sharing this with us, we look forward to hearing about any developments if they arise.