Hello Families and Friends,

It’s been an exciting week here at Shefford. Some of our Year 3 children have been writing their manifestoes ready for the September vote for house captains. We have created some wonderful pieces of artwork too. Staff are just as excited.

I was very pleased that children enjoyed their ‘shuffle up’ day on Friday. Lots of smiles all round.

We had a visit from our SIP, Mrs Hardman. A SIP is a School Improvement Professional who is paid to help move the school forward in line with the OFSTED requirements and based on work that has been undertaken since our previous visit. It was a very positive meeting, with Mrs Hardman visiting many classrooms, talking to children and looking in books. It is fair to say that Mrs Hardman was impressed with the practice happening in our classes and the work of the children. We shared our goals for the year ahead and meet next as a board of governors on Monday.

Attendance is always raised as a goal, and there are very clear reasons for this. You will probably have noticed the graph that is always in our weekly newsletter. However, this represents the whole of Central Bedfordshire. Therefore, we looked at our own attendance in relation to the 6 steps of progress we expect children to make every year. Our school target is 97% and we have reached nearly 96% attendance this year. Our results for children leaving Shefford as viewed in school are above national and local authority data.

In year progress (this is not attainment) for reading, writing and maths looks like this:

Weekly Update

Friday 12th July 2019

When we see the progress for our own children here at Shefford in this table, it is clear to us why our attendance monitoring officer, and our SIP all raise the matter, and of course why it is always a focus in every school when OFSTED walk in. All schools are expected to do everything possible to raise attendance, and we do this with your support. Just think what our children would succeed in with the optimum 97% target achieved! Obviously, there are a number of children who have very good reasons for absence, and we are sensitive to medical needs and disabilities – it is the ethos of our values led school.

Thank you to those parents who have been supportive regarding parking and reporting issues to the local authority. We continue to report cars on the double yellow lines to the local authority, and we politely request that our parents are duly considerate near the School Lane entrance. The car park is for staff or an allocated setting use only.

We have also been thinking more about how our values will link to our new house system and we are currently reviewing our behaviour policy to reflect this. Our framework for ethical leadership will also be part of our review and we will be thinking about celebrating the achievements of the children and developing their roles of responsibility and stewardship too.

Our roles are going to include lead roles with sports next year, and Mr Tilbury has been increasing the pupil led activities over the past few weeks, and trialling different choices in preparation for September.

I must extend thanks to our governors this year, who have worked tirelessly. Not least with myself in this new position at Shefford. Our leavers activities begin next week and we know you will share a wonderful send off with us. Your children will always be Shefford children, and we know we will continue to be proud of them as they BELIEVE, ACHIEVE & SUCCEED.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Finch

School Packed Lunch

If your child has a school packed lunch as a regular order, this will cease at the end of term. A new order

form should be completed for the new school year to be returned by 9.30am on Friday 6th September

2019. School packed lunches will not be available for the first week of term.

Year 2 Cake Sale

Well done to Year 2 for their cake sale on Wednesday. They managed to raise

a fantastic £128.20, with more donations coming in! Thank you to everyone

who donated and bought cakes!

Year 2 Seaside Day

Year 2 had a fun Seaside Day to complete our seaside topic this term. We focused on the story ‘The

Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ and then designed and created some puppets to link to this story for a Punch

and Judy puppet show. We also had a sandcastle challenge, which children completed in their house

teams. In the afternoon we had a picnic with food linked to the story and played some seaside relay

games in our houses. A super day had by all.

Year 4 Leavers Performance and Afternoon Tea

Parents of children in Year 4 are invited to watch their performance of ‘Hoodwinked’ at 2.00pm in the

hall followed by afternoon tea outside under the KS2 canopy. Please let us know how many seats you

will require on the Leavers Performance and Afternoon Tea form, that was sent out on ParentMail.

Mad Science

Mad Science have scheduled a make up session on Monday 15th July, for the session that was missed.

Little Ninja’s

Please see a Little Ninja’s booking form attached to this ParentMail. This starts on Friday 13th

September.

Music News

Choir

There will be no further after school choir rehearsals this term. However, choir will perform at the end

of term assembly.

Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge takes place every year during the summer holidays. You can sign up

at your local library, then read six library books of your choice to complete the Challenge. There are

rewards to collect along the way, and it’s FREE to take part! In Central Bedfordshire, the challenge

begins on Saturday 20th July and there are activities to join in at the libraries. After completing the

basic 6 book challenge, children are encouraged to continue reading and there is a family theatre

ticket prize at each library for the child who reads the most books.

The Summer Reading Challenge website helps you keep track of your reading all year round: find

new books to read, take part in competitions , mini challenges, and play games. For further

information: www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/summer-reading-challenge.The Summer Reading

Challenge takes place every year during the summer holidays. You can sign up at your local library,

then read six library books of your choice to complete the Challenge. There are rewards to collect

along the way, and it’s FREE to take part! In Central Bedfordshire, the challenge begins on Saturday

20th July and there are activities to join in at the libraries. After completing the basic 6 book

challenge, children are encouraged to continue reading and there is a family theatre ticket prize at

each library for the child who reads the most books.

Finer Diners

Congratulations to the children below who have sat at the ‘Finer Diner’ table this week for displaying good

manners and values at lunchtime:

Year 1

Kairo P-S

Lily-Joyce G

Myla F

Evie H

Max H

Year 2

Isla H

Annelise P

Ryan A

Harry M

Jayden L

Year 3

Mya S

Madison H

Amelia W

Year 4

Emma N

Jack W

As ever the PSA have been busy working on your behalf to raise funds to support the children’s learning and

provide activities in addition to the school’s curriculum. Your monies have paid for magazine subscriptions,

storage units for Early years, Sing up/Play out, Drumming, Leavers books and much much more. Of course,

our main focus this year has been raising money for the Immersive Classroom. We are hopeful that Phase 1

will be installed and ready to use for the children’s return in September. Phase 2 includes a movable unit that

can be transferred into each classroom giving children the benefit of Immersive learning without leaving the

class. This has been an immense and on-going project and one we hope all children will benefit from next

term. We thank you for your continued support and hope that we see you at our amazing circus in

September.

Personal thanks go to our departing PSA members who without their commitment, support and knowledge

we wouldn’t get half the things done that we do. We are losing 2 key members of our team this year. Shelley

Chandler and Julie Liddiard who between them have put in 22 years’ service!. They have more recently been

involved in sorting out our yearly Xmas cards and Hampers for the Christmas raffle. They will have served

countless cups of tea and coffee and an infinite number of hours behind the scenes planning and preparing

events. We thank them for all their hard work and dedication to our PSA and the school over the years.

Mufti Day

On the last Friday of term (19th July), children can come in to school dressed in their Summer wear in

exchange for £1.00. These monies will go towards prizes for the circus stall to ultimately raise money for the

Immersive Room. We will also have a Popup Ice Pop shop at the end of the day.

Shefford Circus—TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW

ROLL UP, ROLL UP! The Circus is coming on Saturday 28th September. The Big Top will be erected on the

school field and there will be stalls and refreshments available also. Tickets purchased prior to Friday 19th

July will be at the EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTED RATE of £6.00 a ticket and can be obtained via the school office

and now other outlets in town such as The Garage Shefford, Shefford Building Supplies, Spitfire Travel, The

Paper Shop and Swimshak. To purchase via the school please complete the form that was attached to the

ParentMail that was sent out, and return to school with the correct payment—cash or cheques accepted

(made payable to Shefford Lower School PSA). Forms are also available from the reception area in school.

Tickets purchased via the school will be sent home via your children’s book bag. Ticket sales continue to be

fantastic!

Teddies From Monday 24th June we will be collecting your unwanted teddies for our Teddy Tombola. The tombola will be at the Circus event, amongst other stalls. Please drop your teddies into the drop off ‘bin’ in schools reception area. Tombola We are looking for unwanted gifts and donations for our White Elephant tombola stall. These can include wine, tickets, vouchers or any donation that would be a suitable prize. The stall will be aimed at both adults and children so games and toys will also be gratefully received. Please drop these into the school office who are kindly collecting them on our behalf.

PSA News

Ongoing Events — all projects below are funding our Immersive Room PSA Dino Our friendly DINO is back in reception! He is collecting any type of British coin including the old £1.00

coins. Come and say ‘Hello’ next time you’re in the school office . Children love watching their pennies roll

down his neck into his tummy whilst helping us raise funds for the Immersive Room.

Easy Fundraising

We have a link with the Easyfundraising company that allows online shopping to feed commission back to

a chosen charity. The PSA have registered with this and have so far raised an additional £367.00 for the

school. Please use the following link to register https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/E2CZEL. It costs

NOTHING and once it’s set up there are reminders as you spend on applicable websites. It really couldn’t

be easier to raise money for the school.

Go Henry

Does your child receive pocket money? Do you want to have more control over how they save and spend?

If so, Go Henry could be the solution for your family. Combining a pre-paid debit card and an app with

unique parental controls, it’s been built from the ground up for both parents and children. Sign up today

for your one month’s free trial offer, after which it’s just £2.99 per child a month. The card can be used

online, in-store, and at ATMs, so as we move ever closer to a cashless society, it allows children to

experience money in all it’s different forms. This summer term Go Henry is offering to give £20.00 to our

PSA for every parent who activates.

Go on—give it a try by clicking on the link https://www.gohenry.com/uk/pta-referrals/?

promotion=UKPTASLS&ght=UKPTASLS

Lottery

Hopefully you will have seen the ParentMail and the leaflet regarding our recent registration with ’Your

Schools Lottery’ This will give you the chance to purchase weekly lottery tickets, currently giving you 3

opportunities to win prizes.

Register this month and tickets will be entered into 3 draws:

1. Your local prize draw—30% of all monies received become the local prize fund. First date 5th October.

2. The jackpot prize draw—national jackpot is a weekly draw for £25,000.

3. The draw for any giveaways they are offering—this month is a luggage set.

This will be an ongoing subscription and is available to all parents, friends and family of pupils at our

school. Not only will you be helping your school, you will hopefully win a bit of cash back for yourselves!

Community News

Please note, the following events/activities are run independently of

Shefford Lower.

Diary Dates (further dates will be added and these will be in bold italics)

Summer Term 2019

15th July Drama Club Performance 7.00pm

17th July Year 4 Leavers’ Performance and Afternoon Tea

19th July PSA Summer Mufti Day

19th July End of Term

Autumn Term 2019

2nd September Inset Day

3rd September Inset Day

4th September Staff and Children Return

Absence

Please see the graph below on the impact absence can have on later achievement.

Just a reminder the school office will need proof of all medical appointments for these absences to be

marked as ‘Medical’ otherwise these will be marked as ‘Unauthorised’.