School life continues to have a healthy buzz with a variety of 'regular' and additional activities going on. Your children constantly demonstrate a really healthy attitude to learning and consistently model the school values of thoughtfulness, resilience, adaptability, principled, respect, cooperation, enquiry and communication.

This week we've had a 'Learning Walk' with the Local Authority and leaders from local schools, and they all commented on the children's exceptional behaviour for learning - they are a real credit to you all. As we continue to work through challenging times, we are so impressed with how the children have adapted to the changes and take them in their stride.

Thank you very much for helping us, and your children, to follow all of the guidance possible in order to keep school life as 'normal' as possible; everyone's collective efforts mean that this term has gone very smoothly and the impact of this on children's learning can not be underestimated.

Although there will be some fun special events coming up before the end of the term, there will also be lots of new learning too. We are really keen to use every session to support continued progress in all areas.

We are aware that many children enjoy climbing the trees outside the front of the school before and after school. Whilst we can't ask you not to let them do this, could you please ensure that you keep a very close eye on them? A child was injured last week and we are concerned that others will too as they get very excited! We are also concerned about the damage to the trees - please encourage your children to treat them with respect, thank you.

Part-time roles in the school

If you are keen to find out more about a relief midday supervisor role or a permanent cleaning role, please make contact with us via Naomi Godwin - Business Manager using the office email address: office@deanshanger.northants.sch.uk

We are starting a new craze in the village - Rainbow Christmas stars. This will be an activity to unite us, and give a nod to the NHS rainbow theme, by displaying a rainbow-decorated star in the windows of homes around the village. We can all wish upon a star together as a sign of hope for a good year ahead.

Olivia's beautiful rainbow stars should hopefully inspire you.

Christmas jumpers/festive coloured tops can be worn on the Friday 11th, Monday 14th, Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th December with the bottom half of our regular school uniform.

On Thursday 17th December is the last day of term, all children are invited to wear pyjamas for a cosy movie opportunity.

Please be reminded that children can bring in Christmas cards for their friends if they would like by 11th December but please help us to discourage them from giving them straight to their friends in the mornings. The cards need to be quarantined in class boxes and then sorted and sent home on the last day of term. Please make sure that they say the child’s full name and class on the front of the envelope.

As many of you will be aware, your child/ren undertook some assessment tests a couple of weeks ago. We were extremely impressed with the purposeful way all the children across the year groups approached these. The results are very encouraging and you will be pleased to learn that in many areas we have met our Milepost targets as a school. We will now be using this information to further inform our planning and set up further interventions to enable the children to make good progress.

We held an assessment meeting on Wednesday, November 18th via Zoom. This was very well attended by parents across the school. We shared information about how we as a school use both formative(day-to-day) and summative assessment across all year groups. The information from this meeting can be found on our website. In the new year, there will be further meetings with various year group parents. As some of you know, there will be no SAT tests for Year 2 children this year and the SPaG test for Year 6 children has been suspended.

Future events coming up...

Spelling Bee via Zoom in Classes

2:00pm – 3:00pm

December

Christmas lunch for all year groups

12:00pm – 1:30pm

December

Last Day of Term

9:00am – 3:30pm

December

Training Day - No Children

9:00am – 3:30pm

December

Governors update from Mr. David Aaronson, Chair of Governors

Whilst the beginning of last week was slightly quieter, with meetings on Zoom with Mrs. Rice for a general talk and catch up around various issues, (these are very valuable as they keep me informed of school life) and governor training, by the end of last week, governor life became very busy!

On Friday we had the Learning Walk and then yesterday, a curriculum meeting followed by a full governors' meeting. These are constantly supporting school improvement and ensuring that we are aware of school actions and their impact.

Christmas is just around the corner and as we are all aware it will be very different to the normal celebrations we would expect at this time of year, but I am certain that school will do all it can to create a festive atmosphere, whilst keeping everyone safe and well.

I would like to thank all of the governors for their support and hard work during the last term. The same thanks extends to all the staff, pupils and parents/carers.

Can I finally take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and A happy and peaceful New Year?

David Aaronson (Chair of Governors)

Email - chairofgovernors@deanshanger.northants.sch.uk

Thank you, Mrs. Pauling, for supporting the school with the purchase of two beautiful new rugs.

Deanshanger Primary School Follow

Huge congratulations to Harry for becoming a word millionaire. @AccReader we @DeanshangerS are so proud of Harry. Fantastic achievement. #millionairereader #education #books #welldone https://t.co/mWuUxBsbkg

3 hours ago

If you have any questions about school life at any time, please make contact. Open-door communication is very much encouraged.

Take care,

Rachel Rice

head@deanshanger.northants-ecl.gov.uk

Newsletters

Deanshanger Primary School - Newsletter 8 8-12-2020