Our Week 23rd - 27th November 2020
Sunday 29 November 2020
Principals Summary
Many thanks to all the parents who shared our Tweet about the prospective parents' zoom meeting last week. It was gratifying to hear people unconnected to the school use terms such as "fast-improving", "great reputation" and "heard that the school is going places.". That they gathered this from word of mouth recommendation and in comparison to other schools locally is a compliment to not only staff and pupils but the parental engagement and commitment. The commitment to the improvement, together for the last three years is paying dividends, so a heartfelt thank you from all at the school.
Also this week, we held a constructive and supportive parent forum meeting on Zoom that highlighted a need for the academy to review the way we communicate. We looked at the impact of the newsletter in its current form and readership. We concluded that the impact did not justify the effect on workload.
In summary, the suggested modifications would be a weekly notices email and a more substantial half-termly newsletter in electronic and hard copy. This newsletter would contain a year group by year group section, including curriculum and pastoral/events reports.
We will write to you in the coming weeks to consult on the suggested approach.
COVID Plans:
We are beginning to see a rise in those self-isolating and therefore requiring remote learning support. Please ensure you inform us as quickly as possible if you are keeping your child out of school with suspected symptoms.
Any changes will be reflected in the remote learning policy listed on the website.
Attendance Champions
Well done Year 2!!!
Year 6 lets up your game.
Achievers of the Week
Bravery | Honesty | Resilence | Aim High | Respect | |
Reception | Ayushi | Kavinav | Shirin | Charles | Katy |
Year 1 | Piotr | George | Youcef | Hazel | Louis |
Year 2 | Ishika | Harish | Lewan | Ezekiel | Sara |
Year 3 | Keshawna | Samriddhi | Vaani | Chevonne | Finley |
Year 4 | Kayesa | Edson | Ramzi | Tudor | Hafsa |
Year 5 | Dulcie | Taneece | Charlie | Jorge | Anas |
Year 6 | Kennedy | Razvan | Ayaan | Layla | Shivelle |
House Point Champions
Ceresus strengthen their grip on the lead!
Makaton Sign of the Week
Demonstrate the sign of the week for Mrs Desai and earn a Green Dojo!
The Coming Week (s)
Reception Prospective Parents Tours
If you know anyone who is looking for a Reception place for September the academy is offering a series of Zoom calls for prospective parents.
https://arkovalprimary.org/admissions/september-2016-reception-tour
Christmas Celebrations
The nativity will likely be filmed this year - once we have all parental consent enquiries back. However, as im sure you appreciate this is time-consuming and challenging.
We will NOT be holding the winter fair nor winter music festivals this Christmas. We will continue to celebrate Christmas in school as we have Eid, Diwali and Hanukkah.
We will be planning a more extensive school music concert later in the year to make up for the curtailment of the winter music festivals.
Road Safety Day (3rd December)
This will be an important day in our Road Safety awareness programme - all children (and staff) will be wearing their most visible clothing.
Parent Consultations
Please expect contact from your class teacher to arrange your parent consultation call for the Autumn term. This call will detail our recent assessment results, plans for gap closing activities and the wellbeing and attitudes of your child.
Library
A huge well done to Mrs Thomas, who with much hard work and ingenuity has managed to get the library back to a shade of fully functioning and with a straightforward and safe operating procedure. Expect to see books coming home shortly.
Home learning
Mathletics, Times Table Rock Stars and other remote learning logins will shortly be issued for home learning. We will expect you to complete this alongside 20 mins of home reading ready. We will soon be giving guidance for the brand new Seesaw programme we will be using to collate all of our home learning online.