13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
Safeguarding Children As part of their curriculum, the children learn how to keep themselves safe. The following website has been set up by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to offer parents and schools advice on how to raise safeguarding awareness with children. There is a notable section called ‘The Underwear Rule’ which is of particular support and guidance to parents. The website also offers advice regarding ‘online safety’ and how to obtain support or advice regarding the safeguarding of children. www.nspcc.org.uk
A Message from Ms Chaggar Please let the school know in good time if you are sending someone else to collect your child from school. The staff will not send a child home with an adult who has not been authorised by the parents/carers. This is in the interest of safeguarding your children. Thank you for your cooperation.
Newsletter Focus Group
We will be hosting a parent focus group in the Secondary building on Monday 16th January 2017 at 6pm to discuss the weekly newsletter that you receive. We welcome all parents to participate and discuss your thoughts and ideas on the design, content and distribution of the newsletter. Please let us know if you will be attending the focus group by emailing marketing@isaacnewtonacademy.org or phoning the school reception on 0208 911 6666. Many thanks Ms May Marketing and Communications Manager
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
From Tam Broadway – Primary Headteacher It was a great turnout for the Parent Progress Meetings on Tuesday. As always we enjoy the opportunity to work in partnership with you, to discuss your child’s progress and attainment for the term and also share the next steps and ways in which you can help your child at home. I hope you took the opportunity to ask lots of questions about your child’s report and learning and to have a good look through your child’s books.
Exciting Learning this Term Newton class made towers to match numbers 0-15 and arranged themselves in order.
13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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Sinbad the Sailor Pantomime Trip As part of our ‘Let’s Pretend’ topic, the Reception pupils enjoyed a fantastic visit to the Theatre Royal Stratford East to enjoy a fun-filled performance of Sinbad the Sailor. It was a wonderful opportunity offered to the school by Bloomberg who were super generous and paid for all the tickets, coaches to and from Stratford and also supplied free refreshments for the children during the interval. We all had a great time; the children were fantastic given the length of the performance. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who helped out this time, your help was invaluable.
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
Composer of the Fortnight A. R. Rahman
We are currently listening to and learning about A. R. Rahman as our Composer of the Fortnight. As a suggested activity to support at home, you could gather some facts about Rahman in preparation for the coming weeks. You can hear some of his music on the following links. www.arrahman.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._R._Rahman
13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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Praise and Recognition Every week each teacher chooses two children from their class to receive a certificate in assembly, one in recognition of a child demonstrating our BRIDGES habit of the week and the other in recognition of a pupil’s academic effort throughout the week. Well done to the following children, who have been recognised this week!
Curie Class: Tariq Hamed – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for being brave and trying new activities during the afternoon.) Shresta Yeruva – Scholar of the Week (for her beautiful handwriting and for writing a sentence in literacy.)
Maxwell Class: Eshaal Khan – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing optimism and thinking positively about her sentences.) Rumaysah Bukhari – Scholar of the Week (for using positional language in maths.)
Newton Class: Alexis Burvill – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for giving it a go and using positional language during maths.) Zoya Butt – Scholar of the Week (for suggesting a word to rhyme witch – ‘stitch!)
Britten Class: Asiyah Ali – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing great courage when going to enrichment even though she was afraid of trying something new.) Katrina Kaur – Scholar of the Week (for writing a fantastic piece about her toy.)
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
Fitzgerald Class: Kareem Al-Khouli – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for contributing some super ideas on the carpet.) Shahed Hussain – Scholar of the Week (for inventing a great evil enemy for our story writing.)
Glennie Class: Miriam Mirza – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for coming back to school with an optimistic attitude and improved self-confidence.) Safwan Khan– Scholar of the Week (for making excellent links in his learning.)
Al-Kashi Class: Amber Carless – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for being a good leader and taking the opportunity to try new things by helping others who are struggling with their learning.) Meerab Dar – Scholar of the Week (for showing a deepening understanding of how to solve multiplication and division calculations.)
Fibonacci Class: Emaan Hassan – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing wonderful bravery and for maintaining a positive attitude throughout all of her lessons.) Aariz Khan – Scholar of the Week (for a positive and focussed attitude and for making the effort to support his peers.)
Pythagoras Class: Aisha Bashir – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for showing courage and displaying great role modelling in offering lots of answers in class and showing great behaviour.) Arjun Patel – Scholar of the Week (for showing a good improvement and doing very well in his maths multiplication and division work.) 13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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The following pupils have received 25 merits since September for making good choices and moving up to gold on the class ‘good choice chart’ – this is fantastic achievement. A special ‘bronze’ certificate will be presented during the Celebration and Awards Assembly. Kiana Benjamin Rasim Balaj Akbar Hussain Mahammadou Sillah Marega Gulle Jannat Zahir Saara Anna Jilani Aqsa Saeed Xavier Ambria Samuel Chamberlain-Thomas Adam Chowdhury Anmeek Sood Soha Zaidi Vianna Mahendra
The following pupil has received 50 merits since September for making good choices and moving up to gold on the class ‘good choice chart’ – this is fantastic achievement. A special ‘silver’ certificate will be presented during the Celebration and Awards Assembly. Zara Choudhry
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
Headteacher’s Lunch Well done to the following pupils who have been nominated for the Headteacher’s Lunch, taking place on Friday 20th January. An invitation will be given to the children during our Celebration and Awards Assembly: Aadam Ali Eesa Hussain Ceylan Warner Kisa Fatima Sarrinah Begum Deepshika Ravi Ayoola Yekini
Message from the Year 1 Teachers Year 1 pupils need any scraps of fabric that you may have lying around at home for their art learning next week; any donations would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.
Message from the Year 2 Teachers Pythagoras and Al Kashi have swapped their PE days. So Pythagoras’ PE will now be on Thursday afternoons and Al Kashi’s PE will be on Friday afternoons. The children will still need their PE kit on Monday afternoons too as usual. 13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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Message from the Reception Teachers
Is has been noted that a number of the children are coming into class looking and feeling very tired in the morning. Following conversations with parents we are finding out that some children are going to bed very late. To ensure a refreshed start to the day we would recommend that Reception children are in bed by around 7.30pm on a school night. Thank you for your support. If you have any old and unwanted pots, pans or baking dishes etc., then please bring them in for the Reception children to make good use of during their outdoor afternoon provision. Many thanks.
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
BRIDGES in the Primary Phase “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.� Isaac Newton
BRIDGES are habits of mind or learning characteristics that develop a pupil's character and learning power and enable him/her to grow into a wellrounded individual and resilient learner. There are seven BRIDGES habits that we are working on, which rotate on a weekly cycle throughout the year. The BRIDGES habit of the week is always be introduced at the beginning of the week during the Monday assembly and reinforced throughout the week across the curriculum. Each class teacher awards a certificate to a pupil that they feel has demonstrated the BRIDGES focus for the week. Each week we will update you on the BRIDGES habit that will be introduced in the coming week and offer some top tips on how to reinforce the habit at home too. Please also refer to the Primary BRIDGES wheel below.
13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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Week commencing 16th January 2017
Resourcefulness Resourcefulness comprises ten dispositions: Questioning Remembering Imitating
Making Connections Transferring Adaptability
Flexibility Reasoning Scavenging Recycling
At School
• It is important that the pupils are able to use and remember their vast phonics, spelling and vocabulary knowledge and apply this information when beginning to write independently. The children imitate familiar stories and characters they know and apply these to their own stories. • As adults we are acutely aware that we model behaviours for the pupils every day during lunchtime when we eat with our knife and fork, wash our hands, dress and present ourselves, in how we speak to each other; knowing that the children will imitate the behaviour they see. • As well as being able to read the sounds and words on pages, the pupils now need to be able to question, reason and comprehend the text they read and explain what is happening and explain their ideas. • In Maths the children need to apply and transfer their knowledge to different problems and also give reason for the way they have worked out the answers. • Every classroom has a recycling bin which we encourage the children to use and we also look at how we can use materials around us to incorporate them in pieces of art or other areas of our work before we throw things away.
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
At Home
• When your child finds reading a word difficult or a maths question challenging, ask them to remember and use the things they do know and apply it to the new word or challenge etc. Ask your child lots of questions when you listening to them read at home – some obvious to find answers but also so more tricky questions eg. Why do you think …? Why did the character …? How do you know…? • Encourage your child to use their spelling and vocabulary knowledge to extend the level of interest in their writing. Get them to use familiar story characters, settings or plots to base their own stories upon. Perhaps they could scavenge interesting words from stories they read and create their own ‘interesting word dictionary’ to use whenever they are writing independently at home. • Remind your child that it is important to adapt their behaviour according to the occasion or place, as parents you will of course role-model how to behave and encourage imitation. • Encourage your child to use items around the house to create a piece of art or make junk models and re-cycle as many items as possible. Ask questions: What could we use this box for instead of throwing it away? Do you think we could make a car, boat or castle from this large box we have? How can we use some of the things we have around the home and turn them into something more useful?
13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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A Message from Ms West Reception Guided Reading From Monday 16th January, the Reception children will begin Guided Reading sessions in school. Guided Reading is where a group of children spend time with the teacher exploring and sharing a reading a book. These sessions will support in your child’s reading development and comprehension skills. After they have had their Guided Reading session with their teacher, they will then take home the book to share with their parents. During the week, we would like you to read your child’s book with them and write a comment about their successes in their Yellow Reading Record book which will accompany the reading book. Please ensure the book is returned to school the following week with the Yellow Reading Record book. In the child’s next reading session, the teacher will review any comments made in the Yellow Reading Record book and swap the reading book for another. Your child will not be issued with another reading book until the previous one is returned. If you lose or damage the reading book, we will ask for payment to replace the book. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak with your child’s class teachers, or come and have a chat with myself. Happy reading!
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017
Attendance Regular attendance is a crucial factor in students’ educational development and ability to achieve their full potential. At Isaac Newton Academy every student is set the target of 100% attendance. The class with the highest attendance at the end of every week is awarded the attendance trophy during Friday’s Award & Recognition assembly. Curie Maxwell Newton
89.5% 93.8% 99.2%
Britten Fitzgerald Glennie
98.1% 96.3% 99.6%
Al-Kashi Fibonacci Pythagoras
99.3% 91.7% 97.1%
Overall Attendance: 96.3% Well done and congratulations to Glennie class who are the winners for this week with 99.6%. There has been a slight improvement in attendance this week but we still need to make it our collective priority this term. Thank you for your support. National average attendance for primary schools is 97.1%. It is important that the children attend school every day and do not miss any learning. Thank you for your support in ensuring your child is at school every day. We always strive for 100%. 13 January 2017
Primary Newsletter
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Key Dates for Spring Term 2017 Monday 23rd January Thursday 26th January
Handwriting Week SATs Information Workshop 1 – Maths (Year 2 Parents) 9.00am and 6.00pm Friday 27th January Glennie Class Assembly (Glennie Parents Invited) 3.00pm Saturday 28th January Chinese New Year Thursday 2nd February SATs Information Workshop 2 – English (Year 2 Parents) 9.00am and 6.00pm Friday 3rd February Coffee Morning 9.00am Tuesday 7th February E Safety Workshop 6.00pm Friday 10th February Fitzgerald Class Assembly (Fitzgerald Parents Invited) 3.00pm Monday 13th – Friday 17th February - HALF TERM Monday 20th February Pupils return to school Wed 22nd February High Attainers Parent Workshop 6.00pm Wednesday 1st March St David’s Day Thursday 2nd March World Book Day Wednesday 8th March International Women’s Day Friday 10th March Britten Class Assembly (Britten Parents Invited) 3pm Friday 17th March INSET Day: no school for students Monday 20th March Handwriting Week Monday 20th – Friday 24th March – Home & Family Week (No enrichment clubs) Tuesday 21st March Coffee Morning 9.00am Thursday 30th March Easter Bonnet Parade 4.00pm Friday 31st March Easter Egg Hunt Friday 31st March End of Term Awards Assemblies - Term Ends at 12.15pm
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Primary Newsletter
13 January 2017