Wheelie

WednesdayWell done to all the

children for biking and

scooting to school!

This week…

Infant site: 9 bikes & 19

scooters

Junior site: 19 bikes & 10

scooters

We have chosen to support a wonderful local

charity in all schools across TMET with a non-

uniform and wearing red day. There will be some

fun things happening on this day too that children

can take part in/buy so you may want to send

them into school with some additional money (£1

additional max).

Over the next 3 weeks I will share some of the findings from our first

Challenge Partners Quality Assurance review, completed by 3 senior leaders

from across the country and an active lead OFSTED inspector who wrote the

report. The full report is on our website. This week I will focus on the points

to celebrate, next week on our accredited national area of excellence and the

final week I will talk about the even better if points and our next steps towards

these. I feel that these quotes give you a really clear indication of the schools successes;

Leadership

• The school is extremely well led

• Senior leaders base the curriculum on the school’s vision of ‘looking far beyond academic

qualifications’. Their aim is to encourage pupils by developing the teaching of character

behaviours to ensure that they are ready to face the challenges of the next stage of their lives.

• Leaders ensure that the quality of teaching continues to improve through appropriate challenge,

regular monitoring and well-organised, effective support. They are reflective practitioners who

identify next steps for the school accurately and enthusiastically work with staff to address

these.

• Work with the Mead Educational Trust allows high quality professional development and

sharing best practice. These opportunities continue to energise staff.

• Central to all aspects of the school’s work is a focus on staff wellbeing

Quality of Education

• The quality of teaching and learning has led to improving outcomes across the School

• Pupils are very proud of the role that the school has played in their learning and they appreciate

when teachers plan activities closely matched to their interests

• The caring, nurturing ethos of the school ensures that pupils’ wellbeing has a high profile and

there are high levels of respect between all. It encourages pupils to take risks with their

learning.

• Questioning is a key strength. It targets, probes and appropriately tests pupils’ knowledge. It

works successfully because it is closely linked to teachers’ strong subject knowledge and is

replicated by support staff.

• Attitudes to learning are highly positive. Pupils are fully focused and highly engaged in lessons

as a result of teachers’ high expectations for challenge, behaviour and learning.

• All staff are committed to ensuring that pupils with SEND make at least expected progress. All

staff are supported by the inclusion leader to increase their confidence in planning activities to

support the needs of all learners progress from their individual starting points

https://kestrel-tmet.uk 0116 2461732

@kestrelmead kestrelmead

7th February 2020

Mon 10th Feb:

Parents Evening

3.30-7pm

Tues 11th Feb:

Parents Evening

3.30-5pm

February Half-Term

Mon 17th – Fri 21st Feb

Tues 25th Feb:

Shrove Tuesday Dinner

Weds 26th Feb:

YR 5 - Conkers

Children will return to

school by 3.20pm

Thurs 27th Feb:

Class 16 & 17 –

Rutland Water

Children will return to

school by 3.20pm

Fri 28th Feb:

Class 18 & 18a –

Rutland Water

Children will return to

school by 3.20pm

Edition 20

REMINDERS

Attendance Winners W/C 27/01/2010 Falcon with 98.5% and 14 Chaffinch

& 17 Blackbird with 98.4%

We encourage children to ‘Go for Green’ in 2020

and achieve attendance of at least 97%!

Advice for Parents/CarersYou should not be unduly worried about the possibility of your children catching the Coronavirus.

There is no reason why your children should not continue to attend their early years, school or

further education setting as normal.

We recognise that some families or children may be planning to travel to China during the

forthcoming half term period. If so, please refer to the FCO’s latest travel advice via the links below.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-and-avian-flu-advice-for-travel-to-

china

Year 4 Gudwara VisitOn Tuesday, Year 4 visited the Gurdwara to learn about

Sikhism. First we went to the prayer hall where we were

offered some Prashad (holy offering). They learnt about

the ritual of prayer and how people give money towards

the Langar (kitchen/food hall) where they serve around

2,000 meals a week to any religion or race. We then went

to explore the museum, which had different models of

Gurdwaras in India and Pakistan.

The children asked lots of questions! After that, we had a

chance to see the bedroom where the Guru Granth Sahib

is kept at the end of the day to show respect.

Finally, we had a delicious meal of curry or chips and

beans in the food hall which the children really enjoyed.

Year 4 had a great morning!

Votes for Schools

Our last question was

‘Is the UK a tolerant place to live?’ and ‘If you

could live anywhere would you choose Britain?’

We had many children across school talking about

the effects of Brexit and how accepting we are as a

country. More children thought that the UK is a

tolerant place but a large proportionate of children

think that there is more that we can do to be

tolerant of others!

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and

our question is supporting the theme this year

which is ‘Find your Brave’.

The question is ’Could you support a friend

struggling with their mental health?’

Teachers have discussed how important this is and

have begun to explain some reasons why and how

we can support each other. Check back next week

for the results!

Sports

Update

Beaumanor Hall This week, the Year 2’s went to Beaumanor Hall to learn

‘survival skills’! The day began with one class learning how to

make shelters and the other class carrying out orienteering

skills.

Building shelters was great fun! We were not given any

instructions HOW to make them, only the safety information

needed. This meant we could be as creative as we wanted! We

used everything around us such as branches, twigs, tarpaulin

and rope. We then evaluated them and Mark (our trainer),

discussed our shelters in detail and assessed whether they

were wind-proof and waterproof. At the end of that activity, we

all had a gorgeous mug of hot chocolate each, made on the

newly lit fire!

The orienteering activity required concentration and directional

skills. We had a map with numbers on it and clues to match the

number and location. The tricky part was to locate and navigate

our way around the map in order to collect all of the clues! Each

of us were very competitive and ensured to focus and

concentrate to complete the activity. This activity required

curiosity and copious amounts of resilience. This we proved to

have!

Above all, we all had a fantastic day and so much fun!

#outdoorlearningisessential #creativity #trust #takerisks

SEND Coffee Morning

Last Friday we had our SEND coffee morning. We talked about

what different anxieties are children have and talked about how we

could overcome these. We talked about what anxiety is and talked

about factors to reduce this. We spoke about our own experiences

of anxiety and what as adults, we might do. We then created worry

monsters in school to take home to our families with the idea being

that the children can post their own worries at home.

Coffee Mornings/Afternoons are a good way to chat to new people

and make new friends. Tea, Coffee and not forgetting cake is

always provided! Miss Rowe would love to see you there next time!

Look out for more details to come.

Shrove Tuesday Dinner Event All packed lunch children would have received a Shrove

Tuesday Dinner Event letter at the beginning of this week. If

your child wishes to have this dinner (menu on the right), please

make the payment on school-money and return the permission

slip by Monday 10th February. Payments will not be accepted

on school-money or at the office after this date.

If your child is already a school meal, they will automatically be

having the Shrove Tuesday Dinner and no further action is

required.

All meal options will be selected in class on the day.

Wheelie WednesdayLast week, Chris from Sustrans came to do a relaunch of Wheelie

Wednesday. He handed out some prizes to those who rode a

bike/scooter to school. The Eco Warriors got together and spoke

about what we can do as a school to encourage children to cycle.

One of the Eco Warriors said:

“Cycling is so much better than going in the car because when

you go in the car, you can get stuck in traffic and if you are

cycling you can zoom past. It is also better because cars are

polluting our air and cycling keeps us healthy. We Eco Warriors

want to cycle to school every day!”

This week 19 children rode to school and 10 children scooted to

school! Well done for being healthy and active! Let’s get everyone

cycling to school!

Reminder: Please remember to return your

child’s ‘Code of Conduct’ form, if you haven’t

already. Any outstanding, will be chased on

Parents Evening.

Thank you in advance!

KS2 Library – 1st Birthday!This week we have been celebrating the KS2

library’s 1st birthday! We had balloons and

stories and a challenge to find a book written by

an author whose name started with the same

letter as ours!

We have our first

Reading

Millionaire!

Congratulations

to Rien!

I wonder who will

be next…