Sudbourne Primary School Tel: 020 7274 7631 NEWSLETTER Email: [email protected] Webpage: www.sudbourne.com Twitter feeds: Friday 4th October 2019 @sudbourneschool @sudbournechild @sudbournePTA WEAR SOMETHING YELLOW! Thursday 10 October is World Mental Health Day. At Sudbourne we will be supporting the charity Young Minds by taking part in #HelloYellow – an initiative aimed at spreading the word that what ever you are going through, you are not alone with your mental health. We invite children to come to school on Thursday wearing an item of yellow clothing and ask parents to consider making a donation of £1 on School Gateway to support this brilliant charity who has worked with Sudbourne Primary School for a number of years. If you wish to make a larger donation on School Gateway, this is possible as we have made this a flexible amount. Whether it’s a scarf, hat, or your favourite bow tie, dig out your best yellow clothes and wear them with pride on 10 October for World Mental Health Day. Jade Zelkowicz, Community Fundraising Manager for Young Minds, said: “We know that young people face a huge range of pressures, including exam stress, bullying and concerns about body image. When these pressures become overwhelming, it can be an incredibly isolating experience, and the smallest gesture of support can make a huge difference. By wearing yellow trousers, a yellow wig or painting their nails yellow, thousands of children and teachers across the country are showing their support. We’re extremely grateful to everyone who’s taking part.” To find out more about #HelloYellow or to make a further donation, go to www.youngminds.org.uk. UPDATE FROM LAMBETH ON THE SUDBOURNE PRIMARY SCHOOL PROJECT As you are aware, the Sudbourne Primary School Project is in progress. This is an exciting project for the school pupils, staff, governors, community of Sudbourne Primary School and Lambeth Borough Council. The principal contractor for the Mandrell Road site has been appointed. The site will be mobilised in November and construction works are starting from the early part of 2020. Lambeth Council along with the school and contractor will arrange the ‘Meet the Contractor’ day in December 2019. We are currently working with the architect and consultants on updating the drawings and the planning submission for the Hayter Road Site. Information sessions on the Hayter Road proposals have been arranged during the Phase Meetings each day from Monday 7th October to Thursday 10th October from 5.30pm at Sudbourne Primary School, Hayter Road, Brixton SW2 5AP to review the proposed designs and provide any comments and feedback on the proposals. Images of these proposed designs will be available to view, and school management, the Schools and Communities project team from London Borough of Lambeth and consultants will be on hand to talk through the process and explain how they can work together in partnership with all concerned. We hope you will be able to attend this event and look forward to meeting you then. CURRICULUM As mentioned in a previous newsletter we are having a strong look at the curriculum breadth at Sudbourne. A key reason for this is to free some additional time during the week to ensure there is the time for teaching the full range of curriculum subjects, including and also beyond English, science and mathematics. This will provide more time for the foundation subjects (Art and design, Computing, Design and technology, Geography, History, Languages, Music and PE) and provides a more continuous approach to the learning in the foundation subjects rather than doing a number of days together on a subject and then not revisiting the subjects for a long period of time. What we are wanting is for pupils to experience the wider curriculum subjects more often than previously and every week. The rationale for this is that by approaching these subjects this way pupils will be able to know more, remember more and do more with an increased level of skills and knowledge. By studying subjects on a more frequent basis we are also wanting to ensure that pupils’ understanding in their long-term memory within and across different subjects is deepened. This will additionally help to ensure that they can transfer skills from one subject area to when working in another. To free some time in the timetables we have altered some of our arrangements. We have reshaped some of the assemblies and the way we organise subjects. For example, previously, we had one PE curriculum lesson and one fitness lesson per week for the pupils. We have moved to continuing the PE curriculum lesson and instead of the fitness lesson we are using the daily mile through the week to help support the pupils’ health and fitness levels. Our commitment to pupils’ health is high and this is why we have a teacher who focuses very largely on teaching PE to the different classes. It is also why physical activity is a key focus for our after-school clubs. We additionally have focused and supervised sport and fitness opportunities organised by staff at lunchtime. As with all aspects of the school’s work we will evaluate and keep under review the impact of this approach. If we feel that there is a more effective way of approaching the teaching of the full range of the curriculum subjects then we would adapt what we do. READING DOG As you will be aware from the first newsletter of the year, we are having a focus on further developing the children’s reading skills. To help with this we are hoping to be able to have a reading dog come to the school after half term. There is research that shows that some children and adults prefer reading aloud to an animal, such as a dog or a cat, rather than to an adult. This has shown to develop pupils’ confidence in reading aloud but also to encourage greater fluency. This is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. We have a member of staff who has been registered as a volunteer and has a dog that has been assessed and registered as a Pets as Therapy dog. This is a national charity founded in 1983. The charity works to enhance health and wellbeing in the community through the visits of volunteers with their behaviourally assessed animals. As well as the dog having been assessed, senior leaders have carried out a risk assessment to ensure that the children are kept safe at all times. We are very aware that some children and people do not like dogs and may have an allergy to them. Therefore, if for whatever reason you do not want your child to either read to or get near to the dog then please let the office know by the end of this half term, Friday 18th October. We plan that the dog (Amber) will visit on Thursday 31st October. HOMEWORK At Sudbourne, we aim to use homework as an opportunity to consolidate pupils’ learning in 3 key priority areas: - Reading - Spelling/Phonics - Key number facts/skills (KS1 – counting, KS2 – times tables) You may have noticed that your child’s homework has changed slightly this year. This has been done in order to streamline their homework to focus on the key skills listed above. We are having a strong focus on reading as this is a crucial skill needed to access many other curriculum areas. Phonics plays a significant part in this in the development of early reading skills development. We have identified spelling as a key ingredient in improving the written work of pupils and want this to be a firm priority within the homework pupils receive. Number skills are an essential platform on which pupils build their mathematical understanding. This is why we are focusing on this element of mathematics in the homework. Here is a brief outline of the homework expectations for each phase: KS1 LKS2 UKS2 Reading 10 minutes per even- 15 minutes per even- At least 15 minutes ing. Adult to write in ing. Adult or child to per evening. Adult or reading journal at write in reading jour- child to write in least once a week. nal at least once a reading journal at week. least once a week. Spelling/ Pupils to learn the Pupils to learn 10 spell- Pupils to learn 10 Phonics words taught in their ings each week for spellings each week Phonics lesson for weekly spelling test. for weekly spelling weekly test. test. Mathematics Half-termly ‘counting Pupils to complete Pupils to complete tasks’ set to be com- times tables activity times tables task in pleted by parent and on sheet or within book. child together. book. We recognise that some parents would like additional resources to support their child’s learning at home. A list of suitable resources that are widely available for your child’s age range will be shared at the Parents’ Information Evenings next week. FAREWELL TO MADAME SALLY CORNFORTH Sadly, we say farewell to Mme Sally Cornforth who is retiring. Mme Sally started the after school French Club at Sudbourne in 1995 and has been successfully running it ever since together with trips to Boulogne! Her French Club was always very popular and we would like to thank her for all her dedicated teaching over the years. She really nurtured the children’s love of French. We wish her all the very best in her retirement. FROM THE PTA Dear Parents and Carers, 2020 PTA SCHOOL CALENDAR - CLASS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Can you please give a couple of hours of your time to work with your child's class teacher? We are aiming to make a piece of art for each month for our 2020 school calendar, and WE NEED YOU! In the past class parents have joined together to form a creative team and take on the shared task of producing one image.