INAPrimaryNewsletter

22 January 2016

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AnnouncementsImportant Notice Regarding Breakfast Club and After School Club

Can I please remind you that payment must be made in advance when booking a place for your child to attend either breakfast club or after school club. If you are having any difficulties with your booking, please contact Ms Rayner in the reception office. Thank you.

>>> NewsDear Parents and Carers,

I look forward to seeing some of you tonight at the school’s first Creative Writing Awards. Mr Abrantes has introduced the initiative, encouraging staff and students from the primary and secondary schools to put pen

to paper under the inspiration of the theme “Light and Dark”. The result is an amazing anthology of poems and creative writing, illustrated with some drawings and photos.

Congratulations to the primary children who are having their writing published and many thanks to Mr Abrantes!

With best wishes,

Rachel Macfarlane,

Principal

Message from Ms Chaggar

Can you please check at home for any old uniform items that you no longer need/want that could be resold during the next coffee morning on Tuesday 26th January. Items need to be washed and handed in to Ms Chaggar.

Composer of the FortnightFor the next week we will be listening to and learning about Clara Schumann as our Composer of the Fortnight. As a suggested activity to support at home, you could gather some facts about Schumann in preparation for the coming weeks. Information can also be found on the following youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7g-VeD2kkU

Guided Reading We will be starting ‘guided reading’ for Reception this half term, now that most children are blending and reading words. Once the guided reading assessments have been completed, reading books will be sent home each week along with a book for you to record your child’s reading progress at home. A letter will accompany the books with further information about ‘guided reading’ and how you can support with your child’s reading at home.

Year 1 parents, please can you have a good look around at home for any guided reading books that you may still have. There are some books missing and because of this some of the sets are now incomplete and will need to be replaced to make the numbers up for a group pack. This is very costly to the school. In future, parents will be asked to pay for any missing guided reading books. Thank you for your support with this.

Safeguarding ChildrenAs 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

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>>> NewsExciting Learning this Week Reception

The Reception children have been reading ‘Man on the Moon’ by Simon Bartram, making some great alien masks and creating their own aliens using the stickle bricks.

Exciting Learning this Week - Year 1During science this week the pupils have been looking at life cycles and also categorising and grouping different animals

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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: Hannah Nakhuda – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always being cheerful and spreading her happiness in Curie Class.)Asiyah Ali – Scholar of the Week (for learning all the names of the planets at home.)Maxwell Class:Hanad – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always helping to look after the classroom and being a fair friend.)Prajin – Scholar of the Week (for trying hard with his writing to make a sentence.)Newton Class: Kallum Bihal – Headteacher’ Habits Award (for always being honest and well mannered.)Aqsa Saeed – Scholar of the Week (for extending her vocabulary in her phonics lessons.)Britten Class:Ava-Lily Pemberton-Mardenborough– Headteacher’ Habits Award (for trying her best in maths and asking questions when she’s not sure.)Ibrahim Ijaz – Scholar of the Week (for a fantastic piece of writing comprising of connectives and amazing vocabulary.)Fitzgerald Class:Arissa Isha-Butt– Headteacher’ Habits Award (for being very trustworthy to always try her best.)Aqeel Nazir – Scholar of the Week (for leading great discussions on animal groupings and animal x-rays.)Glennie Class:Rufaida Hasnat – Headteacher’ Habits Award (for being an honest role model by always being honest.)

Nandini Sharma – Scholar of the Week (for excellent group work during topic learning whilst making butterfly life-cycles.)

The following pupils have received 25 or more 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

Mohammed Musa Ali – Curie ClassMuhammed Adam Natha – Britten ClassHamza Omer – Britten ClassHamna Adil – Glennie Class

Headteacher’s LunchWell done to the following pupils that have

been nominated for the Headteacher’s Lunch next week on Thursday 28th

January, an invitation will be given to the children during our Celebration and

Awards Assembly:

Ayoola Yekimi NewtonZara Choudhry NewtonSaim Rehman MaxwellYusuf Ahmed CurieArjun Bihal GlennieFaheem Ahmedabadi FitzgeraldEesa Anwar Britten

Prim

ary Praise and R

ecognition

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Prim

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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 89.7%

Maxwell 92.3%

Newton 97.4%

Overall Attendance: 94.5%

Congratulations to Britten class, who are the winners for this week. Who will be the first class to reach 100% this half term?

National average attendance for primary schools is 96.1%

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%.

Britten 97.7%

Fitzgerald 96.3%

Glennie 94%

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DebtorsAt Isaac Newton we aim to enrich the lives and experiences of our students, and to inspire them, by providing a wide range of learning opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. Such enrichment activities might include extra-curricular clubs, sports events and fixtures, cultural visits, music and theatre performances, adventure activities, educational conferences, and subject-related educational visits and competitions. A number of these are free of charge, some are fully chargeable and some require voluntary contributions from families. Some activities may not go ahead if insufficient contributions are received.

As you are aware, all schools are facing significant budget cuts. In order to successfully continue the fantastic enrichment opportunities and family dining service, it is really important that families pay for their child’s chargeable activities and contributions to enrichment activities on time in order to avoid debts building up and unnecessary staff time taken in chasing those debts.

We have, unfortunately, experienced a small number of parents/carers who continuously fail to make payments despite being chased on a number of occasions. We are, therefore, about to take our first family to the small claims court in order to recover the monies owed. This is not something that the Academy wants to do but we are unable to continue to allow such debts to accumulate. It is also unfair to families who pay in a timely manner for school meals and activities who are effectively subsidising those who don’t.

We would ask that parents/carers pay for other activities in a timely manner in order to avoid the activity not going ahead at all and unnecessary staff time chasing payments which could otherwise be used on teaching and learning activities.

Thank you for your continued support.

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"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 well-rounded individual and resilient learner.

There are seven BRIDGES habits that we will be working on, which will rotate on a weekly cycle throughout the year. The BRIDGES habit of the week will always be introduced at the beginning of the week during the Monday assembly and reinforced throughout the week across the curriculum. Each class teacher will award 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 above

Week commencing 25th January– DiscoveryAt School:

• Wemakeourlessonsfunandinteractiveeverydaysothateverychildloveslearningandhasa sense of enthusiasm with everything they do. Our lessons are very hands on and we ask the children to share their learning with their ‘talk partner’.• Wetalktothechildrenaboutlookingoutforthedetailsonthingsaroundthem,lookingclosely at the bugs and the leaves in the playground and what happens to everything as the seasons change. We encourage the children to check their work and try to spot any errors they may have made.• Throughourtopicapproachweengenderasenseofcuriosityandwonderinthechildrenwherethey are keen to go home and find out more. We talk about human characteristics and traits and what makes us all the same but equally what makes us different and that it is good to have differences and to appreciate them with an open mind.• Everyareaofthecurriculumhelpsthechildrentobecomemorecreative-throughrole-play,stories, musicandPE–helpingthechildrentousetheirimaginations.

At Home:

Encourageyourchildtousetheirimaginationbymakingupstoriestogether,orsuggestingwaysinwhichthey could change parts of a story they know well. You could change the gender of the characters, have them go on a different adventure etc. Pupils love to role play different characters and it is often even more fun when the adults join in too. Play along and have fun!

Play games with your child like ‘I spy’ where you can see how many things they can notice beginning with a certain sound or letter they may already know or ask your child to think about an object and describe it using powerful adjectives. Ask questions like ‘I wonder what would happen if…?’ or ‘what do you think mighthappenif?’or‘whydoyouthink…?Thesetypesofdeeperquestionswillencouragethechildrentouse their creativity and imagination more fully.

Eitherindependentlyorwithhelp,encourageyourchildtoreadorresearchmoreinformationaroundthetopics they are studying in class. Year 1 could be finding out facts about the world, finding out information about different countries – their flag, the capital city etc.

Tam Broadway, Head of Primary

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Key Dates for the Spring Term 2016: Primary

Future Key Dates for Spring TermCoffeeMorningwiththeHeadofPrimary–Tuesday26thJanuary9.00-10.00am

MathsMasteryParentWorkshop–Wednesday3rdFebruary6.00-7.00pm

Fitzgerald Class Assembly (Fitzgerald Class Parents Invited) – Friday 5th February 3.00pm

BreakupforHalfTerm–Thursday11thFebruary

Staff Inset Day (School Closed for Pupils) – Friday 12th February

Back to School – Monday 22nd February

Higher Attainers Parent Workshop – Wednesday 24th February

WorldBookDay–Thursday3rdMarch

Curie Class Assembly (Curie Class Parents Invited) – Friday 11th March 3.00pm

Primary Reports Sent Home – Friday 18th March

Parent Progress Meetings – Tuesday 22nd March

LastDayofTerm–Thursday24thMarch–12.15pmFinish