Headteacher’s Blog
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 26 Jan 2024What a super week! The pupils have been looking at the Holocaust and different parts of the Jewish faith. This is formed in celebration today and in remembrance of tomorrow's actual remembrance day around Freedom and what this means to us all.
Congratulations to the football team who won their match 5-2 against Lawn Primary School - amazing job boys - well done.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Harleigh PM & Harrison T 🤩 Year 1 Harry H & Elena FK 🤩 Year 2 Jaxon N & Hugh R 🤩 Year 3 Molly M & Junior T 🤩 Year 4 Phoebe D & Lucas L 🤩 Year 5 Courtney R & Isla Rose S 🤩 Year 6 Sasha C & Brooke C 🤩 Amazing job on completing some lovely work throughout the week.
House Point Winners
St. Andrew William S 🥳 St. George Courtney R 🥳 St. Patrick Imogen D 🥳 St. David Poppy 🥳 Super work earning lots of house points for your house.
The winning house this week with 330 house points is St. Patrick 🇮🇪 Congratulations on winning the cup this week.
Top Doodlers
The following pupils have achieved a massive 500-day streak:
William S for 500 days in both Maths & Spell &
Zayn I for 500 days in Maths - amazing job boys!
Maths: Y5 🧮
Spell: Y2 📝
Attendance
The winning class this week with 94.21% is Year 5 🏆. Well done on being in school regularly.
May I remind parents that headteachers cannot authorise holidays during term time. This could result in a fine from the Local Authority. Headteachers are only allowed to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances. This will result in unauthorised attendance and if there are 10 sessions, which equates to 5 days, this may lead to a fine being issued.
In other news
Monday
Year 4 trip to Steam
Wednesday
Year 3 & 4 Football Tournament
Thursday
Year 5 & 6 Football Tournament
14:45 Y4 Class Assembly - parents welcome
17:00 Arbor workshop for assessment - parents welcome
That is it from me this week. We are going to be holding a 'Break the Rules' day in school, so watch out for our communication.
Have a fabulous weekend.
Mr A
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 19 Jan 2024Another week has flown by and we are getting to grips with the new app and getting all the assessments and things set up for you. You should now be able to see where your child is in their learning for Reading, Writing, Maths and Science. We are working on the other subjects, which will appear before the end of the term. You may also have noted that there are two parent evening slots on the app - you can book your appointment from the 30th of January if you prefer the Tuesday appointment or the 31st of January if you prefer the Thursday appointment.
I have reminded the children today that they must come in via the large gates where Mr Hatcliffe and I stand - this is because we have a one-way system in place but also, I feel that it is essential that we say good morning to the children as they enter the school. Can you please make sure that you help them not get into trouble by coming in the right gate, thank you.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Lily H & Phillip C 🤩 Year 1 Roman E & Zayne S 🤩 Year 2 Stanley H & Poppy M 🤩 Year 3 Jasper M & Carter R 🤩 Year 4 Ayla A & Jack P 🤩 Year 5 Sade C & Kanyenna N 🤩 Year 6 Alfie C & Hannah S 🤩 Well done on working well throughout the week.
Housepoint Winners
St. Andrew Hannah S 🥳 St. George Oliver L 🥳 St. David Alfie C 🥳 St. Patrick Alfie R 🥳 Super job on earning lots of house points for your house.
This week's winning house with 286 house points is St. Andrew 🏴
2nd St. George
3rd St. Patrick
4th St. David
Top Doodlers
Well done to Marlon S & Arthur WT for achieving a 50-day streak in Maths.
Well done to Lucas L for achieving 250 day streak in Maths and Spell and well done to Oliver L for a 250-day streak in Maths.
A big shout out to Aflie R for achieving a 500-day streak in Maths - you are all superstars 🌟
Maths: Year 2 🧮
Spell: Year 3 📝
Attendance
The winning class this week, with 99.5% is Year 3 🏆 well done on being in school every day - every day counts!
Whole school attendance is currently 95.49% and National is 94.7%; therefore we are now 0.79% above national figures - Well done everyone, keep it going. Remember, every day counts, so please make sure that your child is in school every day.
In other news...
All week children will be learning about the Holocaust and the theme this year is Fragility of Freedom. Each class will look at this at age appropriate level and there will be a celebration of work on Friday 26th January for the pupils.
Holocaust Remembrance Day is Saturday 27th January. If you are interested to know more, please follow the link: Holocaust Remembrance Day
I hope you have a lovely weekend and the temperature is not too cold for everyone.
Mr A
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 12 Jan 2024It has been a good start to the term and the children have settled back in to their routine and learning. As you may have noticed we have several improvement projects happening around school. Y3, Y4, & Y5 have new doors in their classrooms to get to the outside area. We are waiting for the company now to create something different and change from the stones, so that these year groups have an outside area.
The children have also asked for a trampoline through the school parliament, so we are working on this development for the children. This will be supervised at all times and will not be allowed to be used after school.
Arbor
I am hoping that you are now all on Arbor and getting our communication via email or in-app messages. If you have not downloaded the app, please make sure that you do as we can send messages through to the app. I can see that 87% of parents have downloaded and logged into the app - thank you.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Hope H & Tommy C 🤩 Year 1 Olivia M & Mikhail S 🤩 Year 2 Imogen L & Sebastian S 🤩 Year 3 Jack T & Dylan O 🤩 Year 4 Nathan K & Romeo H 🤩 Year 5 Imogen D & Ethan M 🤩 Year 6 Brooke C & Lyla A 🤩 Excellent effort from all of you - well done.
Housepoint Winners for each House
St. Andrew Louis F 🥳 St. David Jack T 🥳 St. George Logan C & Jamie L 🥳 St. Patrick George G 🥳 Well done on earning plenty of housepoints for your house.
This week's winning house with 132 housepoints is St. George 🇬🇬 - super work, well done.
2nd St. Andrew
3rd St. Patrick
4th St. David
Top Doodlers
Well done to Jack T for achieving a 365 day streak in Doodle Spell.
Maths: Y5 🧮
Spell: Y2 & Y3 📝
Attendance
This week's winning class with 99% attendance is Year 2 🏆 well done for being in school every day.
Whole school attendance is 94.64%, which is below
That is it for this week. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and we loo forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Mr A
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Happy New Year Blog
Fri 05 Jan 2024Welcome Back.
Happy New Year 🥳🎊🎉
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and a welcomed start to the New Year. I cannot believe that we are in 2024. I will have been HT at the school in April for 11 years. Where did that time go?
Arbor
I know that we are having some teething problems with Arbor. We are working as quickly as possible to ensure all these issues are corrected quickly. If you have not connected to Arbor yet, you should have received an email from Arbor with your code. If you have not had this, then we do not have the correct email address for you. Please come into the office and we will update this for you.
The children have settled in well and it is lovely to see them all back and in school uniform. If you are unsure about the uniform you can see what your child should be wearing HERE
Well done to all the children that have been active on Doodle over the holidays. We have had emails about children completing 50 days, 100 days, 250 days, 365 days and 500 days streaks! That is just amazing! Keep up the good work. I do not know what I am going to do when the first child gets to 1000 days.
In other news...
Next week, some Year 5 & Year 6 girls will be representing the school in a football tournament. Let's hope we win 🏆
Later in the term
Y4 are going on a trip to the Steam Museum.
There is a Y3/4 football tournament.
Year 4 Class assembly.
Parent meetings
Maths Whiz
and of course our Topic celebration.
The term ends on Friday 9th February.
That is it from me. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will see you next week.
Mr A
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Merry Christmas Blog
Fri 15 Dec 2023Wow! I cannot believe that this will be my final blog of 2023! Where has the year gone? Madness.
St. Patrick have won the first term's house points and they are going to celebrate their afternoon when we return in January.
The staff and I would like to thank you for all of your support this term and we would like to wish you all, a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
In other news...
Monday
New Year's Day - school is closed
Tuesday
Teacher Training Day - school closed to pupils
Staff will be in training on our new app Arbor
Wednesday
Back to school
We look forward to welcoming you back to school
Have a super time and a wonderful Christmas everyone.
Mr A
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Sat 25 Nov 2023I am so sorry that you have not had a blog for a couple of weeks and that you have been waiting for me. Thank you for waiting.
As we are coming to the end of the term, you should have received your child's term report. This is to indicate how well they are getting on since the parent meeting in October. If you have not received a report, please come to the school office and we can check to ensure that we have the correct email address for you.
I hope you enjoyed all the pictures on Facebook with the children enjoying spending time with the animals. I know they had an amazing time - thank you kindly to the parents who organised and paid for this wonderful opportunity.
Our youngest children started our Christmas celebrations with a wonderful nativity. It definitely made me very Christmassy and I want to start looking forward to the Big Day.
Next week is our final week of term as we break for Christmas on Friday 15th December. The school closes at 1pm. There are no teacher clubs on this day but the After School Care is open as usual until 6pm. Just to remind you that 2nd January is a teacher training day, and therefore, the children are not in school. All children come back to school on 3rd January 2024.
Consultation for joining Brunel Academies Trust
Thank you to all the parents who came to the meeting on Wednesday, it was great to see you there and you were asking some great questions. Thank you also to the parents who have emailed in, they also were very insightful questions. Parents have until Friday 15th December to put in their views about joining the MAT, but thus far, we have had some positive feedback. If you want any more information or you want to ask me a question, please email me: head@chiseldon.swindon.sch.uk or if you would like to email the Chair of Governors, please email clerk@chiseldon.swindon.sch.uk. If you would like to email Miss Jackie Fieldwick, who is the CEO of Brunel Academies Trust, you can by emailing: jfieldwick@brunel.org.uk
ScholarPack to Arbor
There will be an email coming out to you before the end of the term explaining why we are moving our system from ScholarPack to Arbor. This is not something that we planned on doing but Arbor has bought out ScholarPack and is now slowing down their service and support for this service. Please see the email next week regarding what parents need to do to be prepared for when we come back in January.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Arabella C & Jaziel D 🤩 Year 1 Olivia M & Travis F 🤩 Year 2 Amy Grace C & Chizi N 🤩 Year 3 Benjamin RP & Reuben J 🤩 Year 4 Jibril S & Grace C 🤩 Year 5 Aurora Joan CM & Oliver M 🤩 Year 6 Rosie M & Eymen T 🤩 Well done to all of you for working hard during the final weeks of term.
Housepoint Winners
EYFS Arthur H 🥳 Key Stage 1 Sebastian P 🥳 Lower Key Stage 2 Jasper M 🥳 Upper Key Stage 2 Imogen D 🥳 Well done on earning lots of housepoints for your house.
The winning house this week with 467 points is St. Patrick 🇮🇪
The winning house this term will select their celebration next week. The winning house with 3904 points is St. Patrick 🇮🇪
Top Doodlers
I am in shock and awe with the following children who have managed a massive 500+ day streak. I cannot believe that you have not missed a single day in well over a year. What a super job. Well done to:
Jack Taylor
Sebastian Plumstead
Imogen Davies
The following children have achieved amazing streaks:
Hugh Rogers for 365 days in Spell
Logan Curtis for 100 days in Maths &
Jasper Maybury for 100 days in Maths and Spell.
Maths: Year 4
Spell: Year 4
Attendance
The winning class this week with 97.49% attendance is Year 5! Well done on being in school regularly.
Whole school attendance is 95.39% Remember, every day counts and we must be in school. We are just above national, so we must keep working together to improve our attendance,
In other news...
As we enter the final week before we break for Christmas, everything is going on.
Monday
6pm KS1 Christmas Show. If you have not purchased your ticket yet, please see the office on Monday.
Tuesday
6pm KS2 Christmas Show. If you have not purchased your ticket yet, please see the office.
Wednesday
6pm KS2 Christmas Show.
Thursday
Christmas jumper day
Christmas dinner, please purchase on ParentPay.
Christmas disco - this is free but they may want £1 for sweets & a drink (15:25 - 17:00). They will already be in non-school uniform with their Christmas jumper.
Friday
Last day of term. There are no teacher clubs, so school finishes at 13:00. After School Care is open until 18:00 as normal.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week.
Mr A
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Sat 11 Nov 2023Good morning everyone,
It was lovely to see some of you at the Cenotaph this morning to remember those who gave so much.
It has been a busy week, but the children have all returned to school after the half-term break. We are learning lots and preparing for Christmas already, as we do break up rather early this year 15th December.
If you have not signed up for the sleepover on 24th November, there is still plenty of time. This gives you an evening to spend together or go shopping for early Christmas gifts. Children come to school at 18:30 and you pick them up the next morning at 08:00. They would have all had some breakfast and will be very tired.
This week we have a new award. Mrs Perre's OPAL award. Look at the fantastic job she did in creating a smashing trophy (see pictures) - the children loved it!
Stars of the Week
EYFS Theodore I & Hunter T 🤩 Year 1 Samuel T & Lucas O 🤩 Year 2 Imogen L & Eva D 🤩 Year 3 Louis F & Tristan B 🤩 Year 4 Ryker H & Alfie R 🤩 Year 5 Neve D & Thomas C 🤩 Year 6 George G & Ellie D 🤩 Super effort, well done to all of you.
Housepoint Winners
EYFS Tobias S 🥳 Key Stage 1 Oliver L 🥳 Lower Key Stage 2 Mackie C 🥳 Upper Key Stage 2 Alfie C 🥳 Well done on earning lots of housepoints for your house.
The winning house this week with 405 housepoints is St George 🇬🇬 🏆
2nd St Patrick
3rd St David
4th St Andrew
Top Doodlers
Well done to Tobias S for achieving a 50-day streak in Maths and to Alfie C for achieving a 100-day streak also in Maths.
Maths: Year 3 🧮
Spell: Year 4 📝
OPAL Award
The winning class this week and deserved winners of the Golden Welly trophy, is Year 4
Attendance
This week's winning class with 96.57% is Year 3 🏆 Super job at being in school regularly.
Whole school attendance is 95.66%. We do need to keep above 95%, so remember everyone, every day counts in our learning journey.
In other news...
Next week will kick off the week with our Anti-bullying week. To help us celebrate this, we have booked a local artist who is going to be working with every class to create a sculpture to help us remember and celebrate Anti-bullying.
Year 4 are off to their PGL residential trip - have a super time and we will see you on Wednesday when you get back.
We also have our Maths week starting - as this is a national event. If children stay in the green and are in the green on Friday, they will have a hot chocolate to celebrate -so get doodling.
On Tuesday we have a football match at school against Lethbridge - good luck to our team, let us hope we win.
And on Thursday some of our KS2 children are performing at the Wyvern at the KS2 Christmas Voice Festival. I cannot wait to go and see them in action.
Have a super weekend, at least it is sunny today.
Mr A
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 03 Nov 2023Welcome back!
Does it feel like we have returned for a while and the lovely half-term break seems far away? The children have come back to school positive and are enjoying being back in school. This is my favourite term as we build up for the Christmas celebrations - I know, I have said it, Christmas! Just to let you know it is only 7 weeks away.
You may have noticed our "Show you care, Park elsewhere" signs. Please may I ask that you respect these figures and do not park where they are placed. This is to help with our pupils crossing the road to school. I was shocked the other morning when two cars parked on top of the little guys and another two cars/vans zoomed down The Orchard.
These signs are to make it completely safe for our children to cross the road safely, please think about where you park as there are plenty of places around the village green with just a short walk to the main gates.
A little moan about the main gates, can you please make sure that you come in via the large gates where I or the senior team stand and exit via the small gate. We do run a one-way system at school to help everyone - thank you for respecting this little rule.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Mason H & Arthur H 🤩 Year 1 Zayne S & Mia RM 🤩 Year 2 Sofia G & Arthur WT 🤩 Year 3 Enhar T & Niamh C 🤩 Year 4 Charlie S & Eva G 🤩 Year 5 Bobby A & Thomas M 🤩 Year 6 Yana G & Esmae D 🤩 Housepoint Winners
EYFS Elliot M 🥳 Key Stage One Natalia L & Mia RM 🥳 Lower Key Stage Two Niamh C 🥳 Upper Key Stage Two Logan C 🥳 Top Doodlers
50 & 100-day streaks for Spell or Maths: Lucas S, Zayyn I, Elliot M, Eleanor T, Imogen L, Elena FK , Natalia L, Oliver L, Mia RM, John H, Niamh C, Alfie C, Sidney M, Logan C, Koby C, Hannah S.
250-day streak Maths - Hannah S
265-day streak Maths - Niamh C
Wow well done to all of you for keeping your streaks going for such a long period of time.
Maths: Year 2 🧮
Spell: Year 4 📝
Attendance
This week's winning class with 98.64% is Year 1 🏆 super work being in school so regularly.
Whole school attendance is 95.48%, which is slightly below our target of 97% for the year. Let us make every day count.
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 13 Oct 2023It was lovely to see so many of you at the end-of-term Topic Celebration yesterday. The children absolutely love having you all in to work with them in the classroom.
This term's topic of Hollywood has been excellent and the children have enjoyed looking at movies and how they are created.
I appreciate your support this term and now enjoy a relaxing two weeks with some lovely family time as we prepare for term 2, and the build-up to Christmas.
School photos will come out the first week after half term, and you will have a week to order what you would like for yourselves and those little Christmas gifts.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Braydon HF & Alex S 🤩 Year 1 Lucas O & Travis F 🤩 Year 2 Chloe A & Chizi N 🤩 Year 3 William S & Jasper M 🤩 Year 4 Romeo H & Ayla A 🤩 Year 5 Teddy N & Harley S 🤩 Year 6 Teddy C & Kai S 🤩 Well done on producing some fantastic work. You can see some of it
Housepoint Winners
EYFS Hunter T 🥳 Key Stage One Ben S 🥳 Lower Key Stage Two Calan D 🥳 Upper Key Stage Two Ewan C 🥳 Well done on earning lots of house points for your house.
This week's winning house with 302 housepoints is St. Patrick 🇮🇪
2nd St. George
3rd St. David
4th St. Andrew
The winning house of the term, with 1770 housepoints is St. Patrick 🇮🇪
All houses earned enough housepoints to have an extra play today and they had lots of fun outdoors. St. Patrick and St. George earned enough housepoints to each get a coloured pencil with their house on it.
Top Doodlers
Maths: Y3 🧮
Spell: Y3 & Y5 📝
Super stuff! Remember to keep doodling over the half-term break.
Attendance
This week's winning class with 97.58% is Year 2 🏆
Whole school attendance is 95.02%. Attendance is falling - remember it is really important to be in school every day.
In other news...
We continue Black History Month for the first two days back at school.
Tuesday
15:30 Halloween Disco. The children can bring their costumes in to school and we will let them change before the disco.
Wednesday
11:00 Fire Engine visiting our EYFS
Thursday
17:00 Y4 Parent Meeting re Osmington Bay
Friday
09:00 Height & Weight in Reception & Y6.
If you are finding it hard to afford things at the moment, did you know that during the autumn you can make your own washing detergent for free using conkers? Here is the recipe:
130g Conkers (about 10 good size ones)
Measuring jug
1 litre boiling water
Sieve
Old detergent bottle
5-7 drops of your favourite essential oil - make sure for soap making.
Cut conkers into quarters, then remove the outer shell revealing the white centre. Crush these into pieces and cover with 500ml boiling water - stir and leave overnight (at least 8 hours).
The next day use the sieve and strain off the thick creamy liquid into your 1 litre detergent bottle. Put the soaked overnight pieces back in the measuring jug pour over another 500ml of boiling water and leave for 2 hours. Strain with the sieve into the 1-litre bottle containing the 500ml already made. Add your 5-7 drops of essential oil.
To wash. Hard water area: 100ml; soft 50ml in a cap and pop straight into the drum then add your clothes. Free washing detergent. I do use washing soda to soften my water in the detergent drawer so I use less detergent.
Hope that helps.
Have a lovely holiday and we will see you all on Monday 30th October.
Mr A
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The weekly blog - keeping you up-to-date with school life; Stars of the Week; Housepoint winners and much more..
Fri 06 Oct 2023This term is going quickly and we are now most certainly in Autumn with the vibrant colours appearing on our trees.
I am excited to tell you that our school is actively celebrating Black History Month. The children have been fully engaged in exploring this year's theme, 'Saluting Our Sisters.' This theme focuses on the significant contributions of Black women in history, highlighting their stories, triumphs, and the pivotal roles they played in shaping our society. This was celebrated in my assembly on Tuesday to kick-start the month.
Our children have been participating in various activities, including classroom discussions, reading sessions, and creating projects, all aimed at educating them about the rich history and cultural heritage of Black women. It has been incredibly rewarding to see the enthusiasm, curiosity and some writing our children have shown towards learning about these inspiring figures.
I would like to thank all parents and carers who attended our recent parent evenings. It was wonderful to see many of you engaging with your child's education and progress. These meetings are a crucial part of our ongoing efforts to maintain strong communication between school and home.
For those of you who were unable to attend, please remember that it is not too late to discuss your child's progress with their class teacher. We strongly encourage you to make an appointment before the October half-term to ensure you are informed about your child's achievements and areas of development.
Stars of the Week
EYFS Isabella-Aria C & Teddy S 🤩 Year 1 Ocean-May W & Tymon J 🤩 Year 2 Amber E & Charlie H 🤩 Year 3 Junior T & Reuben J 🤩 Year 4 Tayla P & James W 🤩 Year 5 Koby C & Cledwyn M 🤩 Year 6 Ewan C & Sasha C 🤩 You can see some of their work
Housepoint Winners
EYFS Ronnie F 🥳 Key Stage One Savannah T & Aubree D 🥳 Lower Key Stage Two Oliver S 🥳 Upper Key Stage Two George G 🥳 Well done on earning plenty of points for your house.
This week's winning house with 394 housepoints is St. Patrick's 🇮🇪
2nd St. George
3rd St. Andrew
4th St. David
Top Doodlers
Well done to George G for achieving a 365-day streak in Spell & Maths - what a fantastic achievement.
Maths: Year 3 🧮
Spell: Year 5 📝
Attendance
The winning class with 98.18% is Year 5 🏆 well done for being in school regularly.
Whole school attendance is 95.22%. Remember, we need to be in school daily to achieve the best.
In other news...
Next week is the last week of term and we finish at normal time.
Tuesday
09:30 Harvest Festival. This is not for parents.
Wednesday
09:00 Maths Whiz
Thursday
14:00 Topic Celebrating - parents are more than welcome to come into school and work with your child.
I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and that you enjoy the weekend. It is looking like we are set for a bit more sunshine before autumn truly sets in.
Mr A
