Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been a lovely week back after half term. Although for most the break was characterised by dreary weather, it has been great to hear about what the children got up to. Back in school, there has been some wonderful work and overwhelmingly positive attitudes to learning. Children are really challenging themselves to learn new things and master important skills.
Home / School Link
We are super-fortunate at HB school to have such amazing parents and the part you play in helping your children to progress through their primary education is crucial (as I have said many times before). Please do continue to support your child - especially where they may have a few things to work on - it really does make all of the difference. Help with 'basic skills' is particularly important:
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Handwriting. This starts with pencil grip. Help your child to develop a comfortable 'tri-grip' so that the thumb and forefinger hold the barrel of the pen or pencil and then rest it towards the end of the middle finger. Practice mark making to develop fine motor control. Finally move on to handwriting practice. Start with individual letters (especially helpful where there are misconceptions in how to form the letter fluently) and then practice joins. Practicing spellings is a good idea with a focus on handwriting.
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Reading. Even for children who are fluent, comprehending readers, it is helpful for families to hear them read aloud occasionally. As well as helping with word recognition and application of phonic skills, you could try VIPERS activities with your child! The acronym stands for ... Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Summarise/Sequence.
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Number facts. Start with 'number bonds'. Help your child to learn addition calculations that make another number. Eg, 3 goes with 5 to make 8. This is important later when adding 8 on to 17 for example: the 8 can be added as a 3 then 5 for efficiency - rather than counting on 8 from 17. Between Y2 and Y4, help with learning multiplication facts is incredibly helpful.
Of course, we also greatly value other work that children do at home too ...
Volatile Volcanoes and Awesome Antarctic
What brilliant work from Lily who has taken her learning from the classroom and made a model of a volcano at home. We love this type of independent homework. The beautifully made model also includes a caption explaining how it was made and gives information about volcanoes. This follows hot on the heels of a similarly fantastic piece of homework from Dylan. Having studied the Arctic and Antarctic in Class Two's 'Great Scott!' project, Dylan went home and, completely independently decided to create a 3D scene, which also had been made with a great deal of care and thought. Really well done both of you! PS: When I asked if Dylan could bring in his homework for a photo, he went home and made a totally new model! What incredible dedication.
LGB Meeting
The Local Governing Board met on Tuesday evening. During the meeting we scrutinised the Head of School's report - looking in particular at attendance for different groups of children and at the seven areas of the revised Ofsted Inspection Framework to assess the school's current position. We also reviewed Safeguarding in the school; elements of the curriculum and the Anti-bullying Policy. The meeting was an incredibly positive one with the LGB providing a good deal of challenge (as well as invaluable support) to the Head of School. If you don't sit on the LGB, it is probably pretty hard to know what these volunteers do for the school and yet they perform an incredibly important function. The current LGB is a strong one - both in terms of quantity and quality! The board consists of: Mr Stephen Graham (Chair); Rev Tracey Doyle; Mrs Helen Carn; Mrs Becca Large; Mrs Susie Kevern; Mrs Rosie King; Mr Lee Trevellick; Mr Haydn Ayres; Mr Simon Hayward; Mr Rob Norton (HoS); Mrs Verity Goss (Clerk to the LGB). Over the next few months, we will have a short 'pen picture' of each of the LGB members in the newsletter, so that you know who they are, what motivated them to become governors and a little about their backgrounds. In the meantime, if you would like to find out more about the work of the LGB in the successful running of the school then please contact the school office in the first instance.
Board Games Club
Thank you to Jack (who's excellent idea this was) and to his second in command, Isaac, for running an excellent first ever Board Games Club on Tuesday. All who attended has a great time playing a range of games. There is the promise of more games to come next week. If your child is in Year One and they would like to come to the club, we do have room for a few on a first-come-first-served basis. Please message me directly if your child would like to attend from next Tuesday. head@high-bickington-primary.devon.sch.uk
Collective Worship
Our new Christian Value for the half term is FOREGIVENESS. In CW we heard a version of the parable of the unforgiving servant and the worship team for the week (Kaitlyn, Francesca, Esmay and Evelyn) read out some scenarios about saying sorry ... Sometimes the apology was genuine ... Sometimes it wasn't! One of our prayers was: Dear God, Jesus told his followers that they must learn to forgive from the heart. Forgiveness can be hard. Help us to understand forgiveness. Help us to learn to forgive. Help us to practise forgiveness whenever we can. Amen.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Rob Norton
Head of School
