Headteacher’s Blog
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.
-
The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 28 Jan 2022Another week and more changes to the COViD rules and how we keep you up to date with everything that is going on. In relation to school time, if you let us know the day the lft is positive, we will calculate days 5 and 6 for you and the earliest your child can return to school. This is placed in the register under the COViD-19 code - and to help children who are at home, these days off are not calculated in the Gold, Silver, Bronze certificates that are due in April.
If your child is off and is poorly they do not need to complete any assignments on Teams. However, if they do not have any symptoms and do not feel unwell, you can of course access assignments on Teams.
Next Academic Year
I am looking at the term dates for next year and placing our TD days where we think we may need to have them. As soon as I have finished, I will publish them on the website.
Stars of the Week
Nursery Tymon J & Oliver L 🤩 Reception Aubree D & Daisy M 🤩 Year 1 Charlie A & Jack T 🤩 Year 2 Tayla P & Ryker H 🤩 Year 3 Isla-Rose S & Regina R 🤩 Year 4 Beau D & Teddy C 🤩 Year 5 Jack T & Oscar N 🤩 Year 6 Thomas TA & Fraser L 🤩 Housepoint Winners
EYFS Aubree D 🥳 Key Stage 1 Vanessa P 🥳 Lower Key Stage 2 Beau D 🥳 Upper Key Stage 2 Rayyan Z 🥳 Uniform
May I just remind parents of the uniform policy and what children should be coming into school wearing.
White polo shirt (with or without logo)
Red jumper, cardigan, fleece (with or without logo)
grey/black trousers, skirts (must be knee-length), pinafores
grey/black socks
white/red/grey/black tights
Black shoes. These should not be trainers. Trainers are required for the mile run, which all children take part in daily.
Now that shops are fully open, we are not expecting pupils to come into school without uniform. If you are waiting for delivery, a note/conversation with me or the class teacher letting us know would be gratefully received.
Uniform helps pupils follow school rules, not worry about the latest fashion/trends, and gives a sense of belonging.
Attendance
Reception is this week's attendance winners, with 95.24% - well done.
Whole school attendance is currently: 93.82%
National: 94.4%, so we are slightly behind the national data at the moment.
I hope you have a lovely weekend, enjoying some much-loved family time.
Mr A
-
The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Thu 20 Jan 2022Welcome to this week's blog. It all happens in a week, maybe we should think about a garden party on the school green! The DfE has released new guidance around what we can and cannot do from next week, in relation to COViD. We have been told today that Swindon primary schools are seeing high rates of infection but we should see this calm over the next week or so. Therefore, I am not changing any of our restrictions until at least the February half term. The risk assessment will stay in place and we are not holding whole school assemblies, we will remain in bubbles for break and lunchtimes and our extra cleaning will remain. Can you please make sure that you are wearing a mask when meeting with the class teacher and we are not holding any meetings unless it relates to SEN.
It is important that we keep COViD at bay in our school and do not go back to where we were in December. Therefore, if your household, in general, has COViD and one person does not, I am more than happy to authorise staying at home until everyone is clear. This will help us keep COViD at the school gates.
I will review the guidance during the half-term break and update all parents/carers around arrangements.
Next week, we are going to be remembering all those who died during the Holocaust in WW2. This is an annual event that we always teach children about and respect. This of course will be age-appropriate. The theme this year is: One Day
‘You didn’t think about yesterday, and tomorrow may not happen, it was only today that you had to cope with and you got through it as best you could. ’
Iby Knill, a survivor of the Holocaust
Therefore, the children will be thinking about 'One Day' in particular in history and during WW2.
You can join in by lighting a candle and safely putting it in your window at 8pm on 27 January. To remember those who were murdered for who they were. To stand against prejudice today. The school will place a candle in the staffroom window throughout the day to remember and celebrate ahead of the evening.
Stars of the Week
Nursery Colby D & Natalia L 🤩 Reception Arya C & Molly B 🤩 Year 1 Bella M & George H 🤩 Year 2 Romeo H & Amelle D 🤩 Year 3 George H & Koby C 🤩 Year 4 Brooke C & Kai S 🤩 Year 5 Poppy L & Amara LL 🤩 Year 6 Reuben BT & Dylan D 🤩 Housepoint Winners
EYFS Aubree D 🥳 Key Stage One Romeo H 🥳 Lower Key Stage Two Kai S 🥳 Upper Key Stage Two Iona A 🥳 Attendance: Year 5 are this week's winners with a 98.55%, well done.
Whole school attendance currently is: 94.14%. National attendance is 94.4%, which means we are 0.26% behind national figures.
I hope you have a lovely weekend and get to spend some lovely family time.
Mr A
-
The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Thu 13 Jan 2022Another week and we have some announcements to make regarding staffing at the school. Miss Swift, in our nursery, has decided to take a different career path and become a carer for the NHS. We wish her all the very best on her new adventure. Mr Hatcliffe will move to the nursery for the am session to deliver the teaching and work with the nursery staff. We have a student-teacher in year 1, Miss Walker, who will be with us until March. As part of her course, she has to deliver a lot of the teaching and has some key tasks to complete. She will work alongside Miss Harris.
Governing Board
The Governing Board. We currently have two vacancies on our board of governors. Unfortunately, it cannot be a parent as we currently have 3 parent governors but if you know anyone that is in HR or Finance or has knowledge of the curriculum and would like to join our board, can you please ask them to email either me head@chiseldon.swindon.sch.uk or the Clerk, clerk@chiseldon.swindon.sch.uk. Thank you.
COViD Update
Without tempting fate, we currently are fully staffed. Staff test two times per week to make sure that we are not carrying the virus without realising it. We remain in bubbles, EYFS, Y1 & Y2, Y3 & Y4, Y5 & Y6. Break times and lunchtimes are staggered and we are not holding any whole school events (assemblies etc). We are keeping our doors open and windows open to allow plenty of ventilation but each class does have a monitor from the government informing them of clean air and when they need to provide more ventilation.
I receive daily newsletters from the DfE in relation to COViD and what schools need to do to keep everyone safe. As you know, if your child develops symptoms, they need to carry out an LFT. There is no requirement at the moment to book a PCR to confirm the result. Once you inform us of the date you completed the LFT, we will work out dates for you and let you know possible return dates to school.
Today, the DfE has released further guidance today around isolation. It is as follows: From Monday, if you test positive on an LFT, you need to isolate for 5 days. If on the 5th day you test and it is negative, you can test on the 6th day and if this is negative, you are able to return to school (again, please contact us and we will work out dates with you). However, if you test on the 5th day and it is positive, you need to complete the full 10 days of isolation.
Stars of the Week
Nursery Arthur H & Teddy S 🤩 Reception Bella-Rose B & Immie L 🤩 Year 1 Sophie KP & Junior T 🤩 Year 2 Alfie R & Theo R 🤩 Year 3 Jack B & Courtney R 🤩 Year 4 Poppy R & Sophie D 🤩 Year 5 Sophia B & Olivia J 🤩 Year 6 Harry D & Zuzanna K 🤩 Housepoint Winners
EYFS Ben S 🥳 Key Stage One Oscar S 🥳 Lower Key Stage Two Eymen T 🥳 Upper Key Stage Two Castor S & Ellie C 🥳 Attendance
This week's winners with 100% attendance, is Year 4 - fabulous! Great job 🏆
Whole school attendance has dropped slightly and is now at 94.3%, which is 1.8% below national figures. Please make sure that your child is attending school regularly, to make the most of learning.
And as our image says, we get stronger as we work together during this time.
Have a fabulous weekend, I will see you on Monday.
Mr A
-
The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 07 Jan 2022Happy New Year 🥳
Welcome back - it has been lovely to catch up with you all over the past few days. I do hope that you all have had a wonderful break and shared some great family time. I know that spending time with my children over the break has been wonderful.
This term is 7 weeks and we break on Friday 18th February. During this term we have some key activities happening: 27th January, we celebrate Holocaust Memorial Day; 10th February Y4 Class Assembly; 15th & 16th February we have our parent/child meeting with class teachers; and 17th February is our Maths Whiz.
If you haven't read the app message yet, we are moving forward with our paperless school by introducing an electronic reading record. This can be downloaded on a mobile phone or tablet with an APP or you can use a desktop computer with a Web Browser. This helps parents log when pupils are reading or when parents are sharing stories with the children. It also allows the teacher to place the reading level the children are working on and what books they should be bringing home to read. It is important that children complete their homework of daily reading and logging this on the APP.
Children will still be able to collect their 30 reads and come to the office to see me.
Stars of the Week
Nursery Eddie I & Hunter T 🤩 Reception Stanley H & Sebastian P 🤩 Year 1 Carter R & Tristan B 🤩 Year 2 Grace C & Oscar S 🤩 Year 3 Sade C & Jakub K 🤩 Year 4 William W & Eymen T 🤩 Year 5 Ava TA & Robert R 🤩 Year 6 Charlie J & Thabo M 🤩 Housepoint Winners
Key Stage One Grace C 🥳 Lower Key Stage Two Teddy C & Eymel T 🥳 Upper Key Stage Two Ray G 🥳 Attendance
Well done to Nursery, Reception and Year 3, who are this week's winners of the attendance cup with 100% attendance this week.
COViD-19 Update
As you know from my APP message before returning to school, things are the same here at school concerning staying in hubs, no whole school assembly, staggered lunchtimes, keeping 2m when on school site and wearing a mask if you would like to speak with a class teacher.
From Tuesday, some rules are changing. If you test positive on an LFT, you will not need to book a PCR test but show us the positive LFT, so we can make reference of the number on our system for attendance. We will then calculate the isolation period. This works out as follows. You test on day 6, if negative, 24 hours later you test again (day 7), if negative, on day 8 you can return to school. If you test positive on day 6, you start the process again on day 7, which would mean that if two negative tests, your child would return on day 9. Do not worry about remembering all of this, as you email in with a positive LFT, we will talk you through what you need to do concerning isolation.
Swimming
I am pleased to inform you that swimming is starting again next week. Y6 will kick start our programme of yearly swimming. Unfortunately, as we are starting late in the year, Y1 & Y2 will not be swimming this academic year. All year groups will return to swimming next academic year. This year, we should get through Y6, Y5, Y4 and Y3.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and we will see you on Monday
Have fun
Mr A
