This week our focus for rewards is KINDNESS. It was the School Council, who requested that the word "kind" should be part of our school's ethos and how right they are. So today's assembly will be all about the little things we can all do to show kindness to others through kind hearts and kind words.

The Ivan Jones Amazing Poem Award-A Better World

There's an excited buzz about our three poetry competitions. I've visited a few classes this morning and noticed that the class poem-off poem is featuring in lessons-I cannot wait to hear what classes have done to make the class recital  vibrant and interesting.

Children who are entering the Ivan Jones Amazing Poem writing competition need to remember that all poems are to be brought into school on Friday morning when teachers will make the time to work on the presentation of this year's entries.

There will be a new poetry recital champion this year. Sarah Crosley won the shield for three consecutive years but she moved into secondary education this Summer. Anyone can win! I cannot wait to see what you will do with the new class poems, especially Year 4 with their Carol Ann Duffy poem about Elvis. Finalists can use props, powerpoints, drama, music or costume to gain those extra valuable points. And, if your child wishes to enter but is finding the poem difficult to learn, why not learn part of the poem well?

Scrapbook Challenge

Well done to everyone who has created a scrapbook about their class Summer holiday reading book . There are some stunning efforts. We are waiting for the main prizes to arrive but, we're so impressed, that we think that every child's efforts should be acknowledged. 

Robbie's Back

There was no one happier than me to see our Bark and Read dog, Robbie, back in school. I need my Friday cuddle! Last week Robbie was very alert and clearly excited to be back in school again to listen to our wonderful readers. Thank you to Nicky, his handler, who quietly applied for a grant to extend her time in school. Nicky presented the school with £200 to use as we wish, which we are spending on books for prizes and our library. 

School Priorities in 17-18

Each Summer we analyse children's attainment and progress across the whole school to decide upon our priorities for development and training. Here is what we decided to improve:

1. To further raise the profile of maths in school so that children in every year make good or better progress.
2. To continue to improve English skills especially to support our most able children to answer the most difficult questions about a text and the least able writers to make good progress.
3. To introduce a new scheme of work in Religious Education so that children are challenged through an initial question and find RE to be a fascinating subject.
4. To further develop the school ethos using the 4 key words of kindness, respect, determination and aspiration so that overall the behaviour of children is outstanding and a structured system of rewards based on these words is fair to all.
5. To further develop the systems already in place to accurately track the progress children make in subjects other than English and maths ( e.g art, history, design technology) so that planning is targeted at the children's level and they make even better progress.
6. To improve the attendance of a small group of children so that the school achieves its target of 96%.