Head Teacher's Blog 16.10.23
15th October 2023
We’ve got a great week ahead of us with Harvest celebrations and Halloween discos to look forward to but first, let’s just spend a minute reflecting on last week.
Firstly, a huge thank you to Chestnut for sharing a wonderful class assembly with us. Your enjoyment of your class text for this half term, Oliver Twist, certainly shone through in the wonderful scenes from the story that you created and shared with us. There are some definite budding actors amongst you and we all loved the Oliver songs that you performed with gusto!
Plum class family lunch was a really happy occasion on Wednesday with the children welcoming their families into the dining hall and spending a lovely lunchtime together. Many of you commented that it was a lovely ‘window’ into a little part of your child’s day with us. Thank you for taking the time to share this experience and strengthen the connection between home and school which is so important, especially for our younger learners.
Moving on to next week:
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Harvest celebrations will take place on Wednesday, Please bring your donations of non perishable items for donation to the food bank or vegetables for soup making to school on Tuesday.
Timings for Wednesday are as follows:
Pear, Plum and Oak - 9.15am
Ash, Beech, Willow and Chestnut - 10.15am
Maple, Sycamore, Larch and Rowan - 2.15pm
Please note that our Friends of Swansfield will be running raffles at each performance so pop a few pounds in your pocket if you can!
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Entries for the pumpkin competition should be brought into school on Thursday or Friday. Our head girl and head boy will be judging the competition. The pumpkins will be a great addition to the decorations at our Hallloween disco. Children are encouraged to take their pumpkins home after the discos and please note that we won’t be able to keep pumpkins over the weekend - they start to get a little smelly!
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Friday night is Halloween disco time with our Early Years to Y3 children coming along between 5 and 6pm (accompanied by an adult) and our Y4 - Y6 children coming between 6.30 - 7.30 (children must be dropped off and picked up by an adult at the main entrance, but can be unaccompanied during the disco)
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Details of our forthcoming parent consultations will be sent out by email during the week. These will take place in the weeks commencing 6th and 13th November. Morning, afternoon and evening appointments will be available.
We took a close look at the teaching of history and geography across school last week and it was wonderful to see children from Early Years to Y6 engaged and active in their learning. Particular highlights included our Y1 and 2 children as they became historians, looking closely at a selection of cars. They identified their own criteria to sort and then had a go at spotting similarities and differences and ordering according to their place in history. I was really impressed with the children’s analytical skills as they looked at features such as headlights, steering mechanisms, engine types, body work and wheels to make their judgements. I must give special mention to Oak class who invited me back to their classroom on Friday afternoon to see their fabulous home learning on transport from the past that they had produced by talking with older family members. What amazing photographs, stories and discussion as children shared what they had learnt with each other and classroom staff!
Further up school in UKS2, it was geography in focus as part of their raging rivers topic. The children were deeply engrossed in investigation work about the different parts of a river - upper course, middle course, lower course and the characteristics of each of these sections. Groups of children were using a range of sources to research and then feedback their new knowledge to their table groups. The children were also able to make connections to previous learning about rivers, from LKS2 - super to see bodies of knowledge growing amongst such agile and conscientious learners!
As always, hard work and great effort has been rewarded across school. This week’s stars of the week are: Jack Hollingworth and Jonny Evans, Harrison Knox and Frankie Turnbull, Hallie Davies and Lottie Brown, Jaxon Marshall and William Thomas, Evie Holland and Jacob Wilson, Freya Rogerson and Alex Drinnan. Well done to you all, we are very proud of you!
Just to whet your appetite for Wednesday - here’s a harvest tune to get you in the mood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rTXCnoLRzA
Looking forward to seeing you all in the week,
Mrs G