KIND BRAVE CURIOUS

Spring Meadow Infant and Nursery School News Newsletter 5— 19th December 2019

A very happy Christmas to you all. The children have been very busy learning about the real meaning of Christmas, sharing

their knowledge with all of our parents and carers over the last few weeks. I cannot express my gratitude to you all

enough for attending our events and supporting the school so it is the best it can be for your child. A huge thank you to all

of the staff at the school who always work tirelessly and selflessly to make sure the experiences provided for the children

are exciting and fun. The support staff provide a never ending supply of ideas and energy to make the school look

wonderful too.

Our Parents, Staff and Friends Association (PSFA) played a magnificent part in this years events also. The team is very small

and are always on the look-out for new members to help with special events for the children. Our Co-Chairs, Leah Mason

and Glenda Matthews with Kellie Driscoll voluntarily organised the incredibly successful Christmas Fair. Please see the

PSFA features in this newsletter which evidences both the amazing work done as well how the money raised has been

spent on your children.

Santa arrived in school on Wednesday and the awe and wonder on every child’s face

was worth its weight in gold. You have wonderful children, who truly love this special

time of year. We all wish you a wonderful family Christmas break and a very happy

new year for 2020. We look forward to seeing you all again on 6th January 2020. We

are expecting Ofsted any day and once again I would like to ask if you can go onto

Parent View to complete the survey. Ofsted will be very eager to find out what you

think we do well and what we could do better. They will be speaking with you

personally where possible when they come, so please be ready to share your views.

Annette Blewett—Head Teacher

Christmas Nativities

Every child in the school took part in

this years’ performances and it was

just amazing to see them all be the

brave young people we all wish for

them to be.

Nursery parents and children enjoyed Carols and songs

with their small children, it was just magical.

Reception and Rainbow parents enjoyed seeing the

nativity shown in a different way with the most

spectacular singing. Again, the bravery of every child

was just fantastic. It is a scary place to be on stage

under the lights and they all rose to the occasion to

entertain.

Year 1 and Year parents were treated to songs and

instruments and a grumpy old Inn Keeper who

eventually saved Mary and Joseph so the baby could be

born.

The staff at Spring Meadow are all outstanding in their

desire to do the best for our children and their families

and I know you would all wish them a great big thank

you for their dedication.

Choir

The choir continued our tradition of visiting Roslyn Court

residential home to sing Christmas Carols to the

residents. They sang their hearts out and were a real

credit to the school and their parents.

The owners of the home presented the children with a

small gift from Santa as a thank you.

The choir also showed their expertise at the Christmas

Fayre, singing on the stage to a large audience. This is an

amazing experience for our children who are able to

demonstrate such bravery.

KIND BRAVE CURIOUS

Christmas Fayre

The Christmas Fayre was a wonderful success and was

extremely busy with so much to do and so much to see.

Parents and friends once again worked incredibly hard to

make the fayre a wonderful experience for the children.

Santa was here providing those special

wonder moments for the children. We

had some new activities for the

children to enjoy, including the

drawing areas and the tree decoration

making station.

Key members of the PSFA gave up a huge amount of their

free time to get the events prepared, including the

Tombola, which everyone loves, the raffles prizes and

presentation and the refreshments and cakes to name just

a few.

We raised just over £1200, which is just incredible.

If you would like to become more involved in supporting

the school to raise money for the children, please let Kate

know.

Christmas lunch and Christmas treats

The kitchen team, Lucy, Judy, Gemma and Leah took

great pride in making wonderful Christmas meals for

our children and parents.

All food is cooked from scratch and is of the highest

quality and we hope you all enjoyed this special

event.

The Christmas Treats event went really well and

once again the kitchen staff excelled themselves in

making the most delicious sweet treats for us.

The Gingerbread house raffle prizes went to a parent

of a child in Year 2 and another parent of a child in

Reception. The large fruit cake was won by a parent

with a child in Nursery. Congratulations to all.

Parent Staff and Friends Association (PSFA)

The PSFA have been working hard to raise funds for our children over the past few years. The funds raised now amount to

just over £8000 which is an amazing amount of money. Thank you to everyone who helped to raise these funds. We have

decided to spend some of this money on the following:

£2000 to buy some enhancement reading books linked to the new topics.

£1000 for the children to purchase new toys and games to play with during lunchtime breaks.

Funding for Widdershins Theatre group to performance Rumpelstiltskin to Years 1 and 2 and on 13th January, and

on 14th January, Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks to Nursery, Reception and Rainbows.

Christmas gifts for the children.

A huge thank you again to all parents who raise money for the school so our children get to enjoy extra special things.

Donation from Barnes Voice: £1000

Mrs Barbara Mould met with the head teacher

to say that she has been part of a team who had

raised money as part of the Barnes Voice team

and would we like to receive this money to buy

items for our children.

We said, ‘yes please!’

As a result of the generosity of this local group,

every class has new giant bean bags to sit

comfortably on when reading their favourite

books.

We also purchased canopies to make the

reading areas even more special. Thank you goes

to The Barnes Voice Group for £1000 they gave

to us. We are very grateful indeed.

Intergenerational Project

Every Tuesday Mrs Toth, Mrs Kratz and Mrs

Wodehouse have been taking a small group of

Reception children to Baird Lodge.

The impact of this project has been incredible both

for our children and the elderly residents.

The children have really benefitted through the

amount of talk they have used with communication

is one of our key areas of improvement for our

children.

The residents have been talking much more than

they have done for many years too we are told as

a result of the enthusiasm our children have

engendered in them.

KIND BRAVE CURIOUS

Rainbow News

It has been busy as usual in Rainbows and cooking has continued each week with the children using

their senses to explore new textures and tastes.

The children also enjoyed listening to and then retelling new stories such as Whatever Next? and

Dear Santa. Lots of fun was had being creative with Mrs Lopatka and Althea and we would like to

thank both for spending time in Rainbows helping the children try these new activities.

There has been a lot of new learning of Christmas songs and practising the

performance skills to present these to parents in the hall. We also had a fun

craft afternoon with Mums and Dads, sharing Christmas lunch with them

too.

Our families have been incredibly active in raising funds to purchase special

items for our Rainbow rooms. We are extremely grateful to all friends and

relations of our children who generously contributed to the fundraising campaign. We will spend

the money well and let you know in our future newsletters what we decided to purchase and share

some images of our children having fun with our new resources.

Curriculum: Our Deputy Head Teacher; Mrs Kansu, leads

the development of the curriculum across the school. The

curriculum learning topic overviews for each half term can

be found on our website; springmeadow.cambs.sch.uk.

The development of our skills based curriculum continues

at a pace. Developing long term memory of skills and

allowing children to keep revisiting these is essential to

secure deep learning for every child.

Spring Term 2020 first half topic

In Years 1 and 2 and Rainbows the focus is on Geography

for skills teaching this term. Please see the curriculum

overviews on the website for more details. The topic will

be brought to life through a visit from the Ely Museum

team on January 9th and 10th. The children will have a

hands-on history and geography session with a local

storyteller and musician, finding out about the Fens past

and present. A small voluntary contribution of £3.50 from

all parents will enable the event to go ahead. Please send

in this amount when we return in the new year.

Nursery and Reception: Mrs Blewett is the Early Years’

Leader, with the senior staff in these classes working as a

team to develop the learning environment and

opportunities for the children. This term has been a busy

one with new ‘learning walks’ approaches implemented

to engage children. Providing even greater challenge for

every child has been the intention and the new layout of

the rooms has proven to be incredibly successful with

many great friendships being forged as a result.

Spring Term 2020 first half topic

In Nursery and Reception and Rainbows the topic

is called Up! Up! and Away! It will focus on things we

see in the sky as well as looking at what happens in

Space. Please see the website for more details about our

plans for the coming half term. We will continue to

develop the children’s characteristics of effective learning

with a continued focus on personal development,

communicating with others, self confidence and physical

movement.

Staffing at Spring Meadow

A very warm welcome back to Miss Kyndt. She is now teaching in

Wrens for four days a week and Mrs Snape will be teaching one day a

week as well as covering planning time release.

The children in Wrens have been taught by both teachers for the vast

majority of the term. Both are very familiar with the needs of the

children and so continuity will be maintained.

We look forward to the new term, supporting the children to achieve

at the highest standards possible.

SAFETY

COATS BAGS GLOVES SCARVES KITS

We are trying to keep our corridors and

cloakrooms safe and tidy.

Please keep all rucksacks at home as we do not

have the space for these. They take up the entire

peg area and the children’s coats have nowhere to

hang and simply fall to the floor! Thank you!

KIND BRAVE CURIOUS

READING

One of the best things we can do for our very young children is to ensure they have the skills they need to be able to read.

When a child arrives at Spring Meadow, we immediately work to support them so that they have every strategy needed

to be a skilled reader. The love of reading is developed also through positive role modelling of the experience of enjoying

a good book as well as through providing regular and consistent opportunities to read for pleasure in our special reading

areas.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Listening to your child read every day at home is the single most importance piece of homework you can help your child

with. Without this daily practise, your child’s progress slows.

Every day in school we …

Teach your child phonetic sound patterns so they can decode words—this is done in groups so that support and

challenge is well managed.

Model reading behaviours through whole class teaching, especially how to enjoy and love stories and other texts.

Share how to read a book so your child can be part of the learning process.

Guide small groups to read a story or information text—these groups are organised so we can provide challenge

and extend learning.

Provide time for your child to enjoy reading in the reading areas, to go to the library and to research through the

use of a books

PLEASE, listen to your child read each day and sign the reading diary to show your child has had some practice.

Maths Event for parents

22nd January 2020 from 5.30pm to 6.30pm

We would like to share with all our families ways in which children learn to count and calculate and reason in

mathematics. It is a collaborative event where you and your child will be able to find out and explore maths learning

together. At Spring Meadow, children are ‘Mad about maths’ and would like you to be too. We aim to give you more of an

insight into how you can help your child to develop their maths by making use of what is around us in everyday life, as

well as providing you with indicators of what to expect at different stages of your child's mathematical journey at our

school.

Further information will follow, but please keep the above date and time in your diary. It is sure to be an exciting and

interesting event for all who can come.

Mrs Tomlin—Maths Leader

Rainbows, Year 1 and Year 2 Parent Consultation Meetings—Spring Term 2020

We will be holding our important parent meetings in January 2020. Please keep a note of the dates below and we will

send out formal invitation letters as soon as we return after the Christmas break. These meetings are extremely

important for you as parents enabling you to see how well your child is doing at school and what targets we have set for

the next steps of their learning journey.

29th January 2020 from 3.40pm to 5.30pm

30th January 2020 from 3.40pm to 7.00pm

KIND BRAVE CURIOUS

Dates for the Spring Term 2020 3rd January—School closed to children—staff training day 6th January—Children return to school 9th and 10th January—Ely Museum visit the children in Year 1 and Year 2 Curriculum Wow event. 13th January – Widdershins Theatre performance of Rumpelstiltskin to Years 1 and 2 14th January – Widdershins Theatre performance of Goldilocks and Three Little Pigs to Reception and Nursery and the Infant Assessment Unit children 7th February—NSPCC number day 22nd January -Maths exploration event for parents and children (5.30pm to 6.30pm) 29th January Parent meetings pupil progress 30th January Parent meetings pupil progress 11th February—E Safety Day—parents can join in with events 12th February—End of half term topic presentations to parents and carers 5th March—World Book Day

Attendance and punctuality

We have been extremely pleased with the improvements seen in the level of attendance of our children as well as those

arriving on time for school. This means more children are experiencing all the exciting and enjoyable opportunities on offer

every single day.

Our attendance leader, Mrs Kansu will be in the entrance space each day to help ensure we get as many children to class on

time so they don’t miss out on anything. She will also be there to make sure any late arrivals are registered and lunches

ordered.

We gave out over 70 Bronze attendance certificates today to children who have achieved 100% attendance this term.

Fantastic achievement for those children! Let’s see if we can increase this number next term.

Spring Term 2020

Staff Professional Day (School Closed to Pupils) Friday 3rd January 2020

First School Day of Spring Term Monday 6th January 2020

Last School Day before Half-Term Friday 14th February 2020

Half-Term (School Closed) Monday 17th to Friday 21st February 2020

First School Day after Half-Term Monday 24th February 2020

Last School Day of Spring Term Friday 3rd April 2020

Summer Term 2020

First School Day of Summer Term Monday 20th April 2020

May Day Bank Holiday (School Closed) Friday 8th May 2020

Last School Day before Half-Term Friday 22nd May 2020

Half-Term Monday 25th to Friday 29th May 2020

Staff Professional Day (School Closed to Pupils) Monday 1st June 2020

First School Day after Half-Term Tuesday 2nd June 2020

Last School Day of Summer Term Friday 17th July 2020

Staff Professional Days (School Closed to Pupils) Monday 20th & Tuesday 21st July 2020

KIND BRAVE CURIOUS

Term Dates 2020/21

Autumn Term

Staff Professional Day (School Closed to Pupils)

Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th September 2020

First School Day of Autumn Term Monday 7th September 2020

Last School Day before Half-Term Thursday 22nd October 2020

Staff Professional Day (School Closed to Pupils)

Friday 23rd October 2020

Half-Term

(School Closed) Monday 26th to Friday 30th October 2019

First School Day after Half-Term Monday 2nd November 2020

Last School Day of Autumn Term Friday 18th December 2020

Spring Term

Staff Professional Day

(School Closed to Pupils) Monday 4th January 2021

First School Day of Spring Term Tuesday 5th January 2021

Last School Day before Half-Term Friday 12th February 2021

Half-Term

(School Closed) Monday 15th to Friday 19th February 2021

First School Day after Half-Term Monday 22nd February 2021

Last School Day of Spring Term Thursday 25th March 2021

Staff Professional Day

(School Closed to Pupils) Friday 26th March 2021

Summer Term

First School Day of Summer Term Monday 12th April 2021

May Day Bank Holiday

(School Closed) Monday 3rd May 2021

Last School Day before Half-Term Friday 28th May 2021

Half-Term Monday 31st May to Friday 4th June 2021

First School Day after Half-Term Monday 7th June 2021

Last School Day of Summer Term Thursday 22nd July 2021