Message from the Head of School

28.04.2020

THE VALE ACADEMY NEWSLETTER

Message from the In this issue: Head of School • Message from the new Head of School Hi Everyone, •Messages from each year group Our second newsletter has arrived! Thank you all for your feedback and lovely messages about our new communication. It is great to hear •International Dance Competition that so many of you have enjoyed reading the first newsletter, which makes writing this message even more enjoyable than the last! •Mental Health and Wellbeing

Last week blessed us with such gorgeous weather. We have seen some wonderful examples of children playing outside, others building Bug Hotels and some children have learned how to ride their bike! What a fantastic achievement! We are very proud of all of our children.

The weather this week doesn’t look so favourable if you are a sun- seeker. The rain does mean that I have less of an excuse to avoid the housework.

All children from Year 1—6 should now have received their Seesaw log in (Nursery and Reception should receive their codes this week). Our teachers have been setting different tasks on the app for the children to engage with and it has been great to see they way that children have responded to this. Hearing some of the children explaining how they have solved some very tricky maths problems really made me smile. I hope that this app brings us even closer together as a school community. Please do give us feedback about this app and any other communication ideas so we can continue to improve our provision during this time.

We have put the link for The Oak National Academy on our school website. This is an online classroom full of high-quality resources to support you with Home Learning. You can either follow the lessons when they are scheduled or you can choose to access the lessons when you feel appropriate. The lessons are designed to be in sequence and should provide up to three hours of Home Learning each day, should you wish to access this.

It’s amazing where else you can find Home Learning ideas these days. Whilst looking for a fridge on the Curry’s website, I found some great tips to get creative:

The Great Indoors:

The Scouts have really stepped up to the mark here. The organisation is known for its love of the great outdoors, but they’ve also managed to pull together some inspired children’s activities for the home. Head to the scouts.org webpage, and under ‘Great Indoors’ you’ll see over 100 stay-at-home activities to help kids learn new skills. You’ll find everything from creative drawing to science experiments in a tea-cup.

The Drama Geezers:

Meet the guys that are on a mission to bring some drama into kids’ lives. Their YouTube channel is full of fun activities for families to try at home. Drama is brilliant for unleashing your children’s imagination, and you’ll want to get involved too, right? So brush up on those long- lost acting skills!

We hope you find our second newsletter a fun one to read. In addition to keeping you up to date with what our staff members have been doing, we have decided to share some different activities for you and your families to do whilst at home.

Keep an eye out this week for a very special message from our staff members to you and your children!

If you do have any questions, please email [email protected] and your message will be sent to the appropriate member of staff.

Stay safe. We will see you all soon!

Mrs Knight

Hello Nursery!

This week, Archie has been busy with his mummy and brother making chocolate nests with left over Easter chocolate, bird watching and taking his daily walk around the chalk pit.

Dusty has been really busy! He has been making a ramp in his garden for his cars, planting flowers, cooking including making eggs, chopping bananas and cooking on his fire pit. He has also been sorting buttons, mark-making making puppets for role play and playing games with his family.

This week we thought you might like some ideas for activities to do at home. We have chosen a book that you might like to read and some activities linked to the story.

As it is now spring, we have chosen ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as our book this week. You can share this story on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Once you read the story you could:

Make you own caterpillar or butterfly

You could do some counting (you could use real fruit or follow the link) https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-n-568-the-very-hungry- caterpillar-maths-booklet?sign_in=1

You could make a fruit salad using some of the fruits that the hungry caterpillar ate.

As always, we would love to see and hear about what you have been up to, so please share what you’ve been up to. You can do this by getting your parents to email [email protected] or they can send a message to The Vale Academy Facebook page, these can then be forwarded to us! Hello Reception,

In Squirrels this week, Macey has been busy with the challenges we sent last week. She has made a sword and shield after learning about St George and made Miss Corr a lovely birthday card. She has also enjoyed dancing and painting.

Giulia has also been busy doing the challenges. She acted out the story of St George and talked about how the characters were feeling. She did 13 star jumps in 10 seconds beating her daddy! Well done Giulia!

In Badgers, Jake has been busy working out, baking banana bread, counting with cheerios, making a dragon out of junk modelling and being a rockstar!

Archie has been busy planting tomato and pepper plants as well as doing sums on the blackboard and counting with coins. He also had a video call with Jake. It is lovely to know some of you are keeping in touch with each other.

This week’s activities are based around Ramadan. On Thursday 23rd April, Ramadan started and will continue throughout the month. Please remember to try and let your children do the activities by themselves.

Personal, social and Emotional Development-Play a board game with a family member. Remember to take your turn and not to cheat! This is all about taking turns and following the rules of a game together.

Communication and Language– Phone or FaceTime some- one special to you. This could be a relative or a friend. Be sure to speak nice and clear!

Physical Development- To help with your fine motor skills (and around the house) can you help to peg the washing in the line?

Understanding of the World- On Thursday, the Islamic festival of Ramadan started! Below is a video and a PowerPoint to help explain what it means to take part in Ramadan and who does this.

*Talk to your family about what you notice about Ramadan? *Do you think it would be easy or hard to have no food or drink all day? https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/23286976 https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-2547163-eyfs-all-about-ramadan- powerpoint

Expressive Arts and Design- Can you create your own moon and stars?

Mathematics- Can you sort the coins according to their value. Can you use different coins to make the same value. E.g. 2p+3p=5p 1p+1p+1p+1p+1p=5p

Literacy- Can you write about what you have enjoyed the most this week? Remember to try your best and if you think you can extend this please have a try!

As always, we would love to see and hear about what you have been up to, so please share your lovely work. You can do this by getting your parents to email [email protected] or they can send a message to The Vale Academy Facebook page, these can then be forwarded to us! Message from Mrs Pullen,

Hi everyone! I hope that you are all ok and enjoying all of the sunshine with your families. We have certainly been making the most of it. We have had the paddling pool out in the back garden. There has been lots of splashing!

We have been on lots of walks for our daily exercise and Mr Pullen is using it as a chance to practise using his camera and has been taking many pictures of all the beautiful flowers that we see. Have you been out on walks? What have you seen while being out?

I have also been spending lots of time with my cat Gizmo. He is not very well at the moment because he has a cold. He has been sneezing a lot and just wanting cuddles. I am missing all of the fun that we have together and cannot wait to see you all and hear about all the things that you have been up to with your families.

Speak you all soon, Mrs Pullen xx

Message from Mrs Ellyard,

Hi guys! Well that week seems to have flown by! I have really enjoyed seeing lots of pictures of the activities and learning you have been doing at home – I am so proud of you! If you haven’t been on the Seesaw app yet, it is a really nice way for me to see what you are up to and you can see some of your classmates and send messages or videos to say hello to each other! If you are not sure of your log in details, please check your email and if you still do not have them, please contact the school email address and we can send them out to you.

I hope you are all having fun – it looks like lots of you are! Did any of you have a go at drawing the cartoon penguin I suggested last week? If you have, I would love to see them! There is also a lovely competition through John Lewis at the moment where they are asking you to design a super- hero-themed bear in honour of our incredible carers in the NHS. For more information and a template visit https://www.johnlewis.com/ content/your-partners-through-it-all/feel-good-friday

This week we have been taking my dog Ellie out for really long walks through the woods and the countryside. Most of the walks have been lovely and dry, but my dog is a bit like Peppa Pig – she loves jumping in muddy puddles! I thought we would be safe as the weather has been so hot, but Ellie still managed to find big muddy puddles to roll around and splash in, although she dried off quickly! On one of our walks we had to keep Ellie on a lead as there were lots of cute little lambs hiding under trees to get some shade - it really does feel like Spring now! Have you seen many signs of Spring as you have been looking out of the window or going outside exercising and exploring? Have you tried planting or grow- ing any seeds or flowers? You could try saving some of the seeds from your fruit and planting them to see what happens.

I hope you all have a great week – and I look forward to seeing what you have been up to!

Mrs Ellyard :) x

Message from Mrs Bright,

Hello Year 1,

What lovely weather we have had this week. We hope you are enjoying yourselves outside, either in your gardens or on your daily exercise. Mrs Bright doesn’t have her own garden but made use of some communal space to have a BBQ with her family. If you don’t have a garden, what space could you use safely to have some fun with your family?

She has also been investigating some of the local walks around Dunstable and is enjoying finding new things in nature, such as this egg shell. One game she plays on her walks is “I spy” with her daughter to practise phonics. Can you suggest any other games they could play? Thank you for all your lovely suggestions last week. Mrs Bright looks forward to trying Jamie’s cake and making Samanth’s bonnet!

Stay Safe

This week, Mrs Pender and her children have been making the most of the weather with a bit of gardening. Her children have been putting in plants that they grew from a seed. They are hoping the slugs don’t eat them. They have also been going for walks over Blows Downs to the Bluebell Woods. Mrs Pender said that they look beautiful and they even found a fairy door on a tree. She is missing school and is hoping we get back soon to see you all.

Mrs Evans has been making some hanging baskets for the garden. Mrs Evans is very good at gardening! She also decided to up-cycle an old table she found in her garage. She painted it and made it into a new garden table. Up-cycling is very good for our environment and gives you a little pro- ject to keep yourself busy.

Mrs Mulford has been keeping herself busy with the new See-Saw teaching app. She gets very excited when the children complete tasks, especially when she gets to hear their voices - keep up the good work! Mrs Mulford has found a new love for bike riding. She is able to explore her home town by riding around and has found a few new parks near her house. Mrs Mulford is looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Mrs O'Brien has been enjoying the sun and has encouraged her children to do learning outside in the garden. I hope you have all enjoyed the sun as well. She also celebrated her daughter's birthday and had to make lots of Lego sets once the presents had been opened.

This week Miss Chowdhary has been enjoying the sunshine at home and has spent more time tidying and organising things. She has sorted out all of her craft things and is hoping to make some special decorations for her home soon. Have you been doing any arts and crafts? Miss Chowdhary also has some new vegetable plants to look after, Clarissa and Clive the courgette plants and Lola the lettuce plant have now joined Terry the tomato plant in the garden. Fingers crossed Miss Chowdhary can help them to grow! Hello Year 3!

We have been very busy putting activities together on ‘Seesaw’ and you should all have had your log in details by now. Log in and turn your notifications on to stay updated! We are putting new activities up weekly for you all to complete and share with us. We have enjoyed watching your sock puppet shows, seeing your pictures and interacting with you on the app

We have also put up the following activity:

Time to say ‘Hi!’ – This is a good opportunity to say ‘Hi!’ to everyone in your class and wish them well. Tell everyone what you've been up to and any facts or information you'd like to say. Make a video, leave a voice note, or just a message—anything will be good. We want to hear from as many of you as possible! It would be so nice to hear from you all and of course your classmates can hear your messages too!

Mrs Lee has been reading lots this last week and has already com- pleted 2 books! She has also been enjoying reading with her children and they have been completing book reviews together. They have also watched the new ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and com- pleted a film review together. What films have you all watched? Have you read any books? Could you complete your own review on them and upload it to seesaw?

Miss Cullen has been enjoying getting to know the area near where she lives. She is particularly enjoying exploring the woods and has found dens, sculptures and even an area for storytelling. What do you think would be an exciting story to tell in this setting? Have you found any new local areas on your daily walks?

Mrs Brown has been making her garden look nice for the sunny weather so she can sit out and enjoy the sun. She has also been making cinnamon sticks with her son Stephen (he did most of the work) while Mrs Brown enjoyed tasting them. Mrs Brown hopes you are enjoying the activities on SeeSaw and has seen some lovely sock puppets and would love to see more things you are doing at home!

Mrs Atkins has been enjoying the sunshine in her back garden with her family. They even made a tent to sleep in which was lots of fun (although it got very cold at night.) They spotted lots of stars when it was dark and made S'mores on the fire.

Mrs Allen has been working with her youngest son this week. He wanted to make an Easter pencil holder. They used recycled materials, to make a pen holder that looks like a chicken. They still have lots of finishing off to do this week but you can see what they have done so far. Mrs Allen wants to know if you have been doing any crafts and is wondering if you can share them on Seesaw so she can see them!

Miss Taylor has been working hard on her garden to make it safer for Winston. She doesn’t want him escaping through any holes in the fence! She has planted grass, as well as some bulbs, and is eagerly waiting for them to grow. Miss Taylor has been chat- ting to her class on Seesaw, praising all their amazing uploads. She has brought the book ‘Slime’ by David Walliams and is going to upload her reading a chapter a day on the app, so being at home doesn’t stop 3BT enjoying a story together!

From The Year 3 Team:

Miss Lee, Mrs Brown, Miss Cullen, Miss Taylor, Mrs Atkins and Mrs Allen Hello Year 4,

I hope that you and your families are all healthy and are enjoying this time off from school as much as you can.

Having this time off has given me the chance to catch up on some very overdue decorating! Have you been helping or doing jobs around your house or garden? I wish that I had a robot or machine that could help me. Maybe you could design and draw one which could complete lots of jobs for you?

Catching up with some decorating, exercise and reading.

The World Veterinary Day is observed and celebrated on the last Saturday of April each year in order to acknowledge the amazing work done by veterinarians across the globe.

If you have your own pet at home, or wish you had a special pet, could you create a poster to show how you need to look after it and care for it.

Don’t forget there are lots of activities on the school’s website and Education City and you are all amazing at Times Table Rockstars! We have loved seeing your work on Seesaw too!

All of the Year 4 team would love to hear and see all about the fantastic things you have been doing. If you would like to share this with us, your parents/carers can email [email protected] or they can send a message to The Vale Academy Facebook page, and these can then be forwarded to us!

Take care Year 4, we are missing you all!

Message from Miss Pendrill:

Well Year 4, where do I start? ... I suppose the most important thing I need to tell you is that I miss you all so much and can’t wait to see all your smiling faces very soon. I have been keeping myself extremely busy. Gracie has painted a beautiful sloth on her bedroom wall, we have camped out in our garden for the night which was fun, but very cold. We had a little bonfire and Gracie told me some funny spooky stories. Do you know any funny spooky stories? If would be lovely to see some of your beautiful writing. Stargazing was really nice too. We saw some beautiful constellations. Do you know what your star sign is? I’m Leo the Lion, which in Greek mythology is said to be the lion killed by Hercules. What facts can you find out about your star sign.

I look forward to hearing from you and seeing what you’ve been up too.

Take care Year 4.

Lots of Love,

Miss Pendrill xx Hi Year 5,

We hope that you have had a great week and enjoyed the glorious sunshine – we certainly did!

Thank you very much to everyone who posted messages, photographs and examples of their work on our new app: Seesaw. It was really lovely finding out what you have been up to and seeing all the fantastic learning that has taken place. Don’t forget to keep your brains busy and try and have a go at some of the activities on here.

This is what we have been up to over the last week:

Miss Devenney has been helping her children with their home learning. Jessie has been learning about fractions. Mrs Devenney has been trying to make it as much fun as she can and on Friday they painted the answers on the garden shed. If you have any suggestions on ways to make learning about fractions fun, please do send your ideas!

We’ve renamed Saturday ‘Sweet Saturday’ and have been baking something that Jessie and Oscar choose, which of course involves a lot of sugar, butter and chocolate! This week we made Smarties cookies, which were very tasty.

Miss Page has been busy going on long daily walks in the eve- nings, and doing PE with Joe Wicks every morning! She is feeling very active and it is making her more productive, meaning she is more focused on her uni work. What exercise have you been doing during lockdown?

Miss Page has being enjoying the sunshine, having more BBQs and even an outdoor cinema in her garden. She got lots of snacks

Mr Benger has been doing as much exercise as possible, making sure he does as many runs or walks as he can. He has also become a ‘Flat Pack Furniture King’, putting new things into his living room! With the week being beautiful, he has enjoyed spending time in the garden, taking in some sun whilst doing work and looking at all the brilliant work you have been doing. Make sure you keep it up, as all of us enjoy seeing what you have done. We miss you lots and can’t wait to see you again.

Mrs Slusarz made a family bucket list this week. They all had to pre- pare a persuasive speech about the things they want to do and places they want to visit as a family. They all agreed to visit Rome as Bianka has learned a lot in school about Ancient Rome and persuad- ed them to visit historical monuments and places. Also, Bianka made a giant colosseum and thanks to that they put it down as a number one priority. Can you, as a family, make your own bucket list? We’re looking forward to hearing about your choices. Remember to use persuasive language to convince your family to visit places of your choice! Good luck

This is Bianka’s colosseum. It took her two days to make it!

Mrs Ryan hopes that you and your families are all safe and well. You should know by now how much Mrs Ryan loves all animals and nature. Some of you may also know that she has quite a few pets at home, including some snakes!

There is one animal which is probably her favourite - penguins. You could celebrate this day on 25th of April, but if you didn’t know for this year, don’t worry, another Penguin Day is coming up next in January, 2021.

Mrs Ryan would like you to look closely at these beautiful birds and possibly make a colourful poster or a picture of these amazing creatures.

Bye for now. We will look forward to hearing from you soon.

Lots of love,

Miss Devenney, Miss Page, Mr Benger, Mrs Slusarz, Mrs Ryan and Mrs Wadsworth This week, Miss Mooney has really enjoyed seeing all of your fantastic work on Seesaw and having the chance to write to you all again. She has been enjoying the lovely weather, something that doesn't happen very often in Ireland. She has been out running and even climbed the mountain behind her house with her brother and her dog, Toby - her legs are quite sore today. While they were at the top, taking photos, her brother dropped his camera lens off the edge and it bounced the whole way down to the bot- tom. She was thinking, that seeing as it is nearly May and the 1st of May marks the start of Photo Month, you could all take one photo/a collage of something that is bringing you happiness at home. The pho- to could be of whatever is bringing you joy or of you doing something that makes you happy. Here is her photo to get you started. She would really love to see all of your smiling faces.

Mrs Howarth has been taking part in lots of different quizzes over the past few weeks with friends and family. In her quiz, she had a few questions, which are called Dingbats (she en- joys these). They are types of puzzles in which a common word or saying is hidden in a cryptic or unique arrangement of words. Do you think you can guess these ones? Maybe you could look for different types of quiz questions to put together for your family?

This week hasn't been as hectic for Mrs Fuller. She finally finished painting and doing odd bits of DIY. She and the children have been playing lots of family games: Con- nect four, a memory card game and Uno. Apart from losing most games she has enjoyed it!

Mrs Render misses you all! She hopes you are all keeping safe and finding things to keep you occupied. Mrs Render has been trying to bake cakes and doing some art work with Tilly on the garden shed, painting rainbows and a rainbow snail. She hopes to see you all real soon and hopes you are all trying to do a little school work.

Mr Barker has been enjoying creating quizzes for people. He made a quiz for the staff members at our school, which Sharnie won this week. He always does a ‘Connection Round’, where the answers to the first four questions are connected in some way, giving you the answer to the last question, ‘What is the connection?’ Here is one for you to try:

Q1: What is the name of Queen Elizabeth’s father?

Q2: Finish the song title by Queen: ‘We Are The ______’

Q3: What is the tallest animal on Earth?

Q4: What substance do bees make?

Q5: What is the connection? INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY Wednesday 29th April 2020

Calling all pupils, parents and teachers of The Vale Academy…

Wednesday is International Dance Day and we have a job for you!

We would love for you to film a video of you and your families dancing around in your homes/gardens and send it to Mrs Randell to create our very own Vale dance video!

The Rules

The video needs to be 15-20 seconds long

Be as silly or as serious as you like

Costumes and props are encouraged but not essential

You can dance to any song you like (however we will edit a song over the top of all videos anyway)

Please email all videos to [email protected] by Friday 1st May

(The video will be revealed on our Facebook page next weekend so keep your eyes peeled) It is really important that you look after your Mental Health and Wellbeing while you are at home. As much as we love seeing all of the Home Learning activities that you have been doing, we also love to see how you are looking after yourselves and your families during this time.

Remember our 5 ways to look after our wellbeing:

Why don’t you try out this game to take your mind off of difficult things and have some fun?

https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/games/balloon/