Newsletters

Friday 20th January, 2023

Luckily, we have avoided any severe weather this week, although it has been bitterly cold. We have managed to get outside on most break and lunchtimes which I'm sure the children have been very pleased about. 

We enjoyed having Year 4 parents in school this week and will continue to add dates as the school year progresses. We are also looking to host some coffee mornings throughout the spring and summer. These will be informal but will give you a good chance to chat to key school staff about any issues you'd like to, including SEN and the curriculum. The first one will be on Tuesday 7th February at 9am, with Mr Walton, Miss Clark and Mrs Magee. 

We have been holding pupil progress meetings across the school where we analyse and look at how well they are progressing. One of the key indicators for us is how well their reading is progressing and especially their understanding of the texts read. We continue to encourage all children to read regularly at school and home and to share texts with parents. We all lead such busy lives now but finding time to read together, or for a child to read independently is so important; helping build their vocabulary and confidence. 

Please do read the information below about parking on the yellow lines at the front of the school. It is important we keep this area completely clear so all the children have a safe passage to and from school. 

An email was sent home this week about the NEU strike action over the next few months. We will let you know as soon as we possibly can if there will be any disruption on the strike days.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Kind regards

Matt Walton

Headteacher 

Adapted Games

Today children from across the school took part in a morning of sports in the Norwich East School Sports Partnership Adapted Games at UEA. 

The purpose of the event is to introduce new sports and skills to children, to try and engage them in an active lifestyle, and to experience social interaction in a different environment.

Activities included: bowling, bean bag toss, target ball, curling, basketball shot, bench roll target game, volley bat.

We all had a fantastic time and there were some performances to be really proud of. Here are some of the highlights:

"I enjoyed everything about the morning!" Alfie (Year 4)

"I liked playing volley bat the best. I think we got the most points" Max (Year 5)

"The minibus journeys were great fun. I enjoyed playing the curling the best" Noah (Year 6)

A big thank you to the Norwich East School Sports Partnership for organising the event and to Sprowston Community Academy for letting us borrow their minibus for the morning.

Year 4 Parent Lunch 

Year 4 welcomed parents into school this week to see what is going on in the classroom and to enjoy lunch with their children. We were delighted to have so many joining us and for the children it will have no doubt been the highlight of the week!

We hope you enjoyed seeing the children's books and seeing them complete Accelerated Reader and Times-table sessions. We look forward to welcoming you in again soon!

Science Club 

Mr Reeds & Mrs Lewis are once again running a science club and the children have really enjoyed the first two sessions. Last week they enjoyed learning about electricity and this week they were learning about static electricity and sticking balloons to their faces! I'm sure with Mr Reeds (or Professor Khrol) around, the next few weeks will be a lot of fun!

Cyber-security 

We were delighted to welcome John Greenwood from the Specialist Crime and Intelligence department of Norfolk and Suffolk Police into school this week. John talked to children in Years 5 and 6 about the importance of cybersecurity. The children found out more about how to use apps and social media safely, how to protect personal information online, the impact of their digital footprint, how to create a secure password and the impact of cyberbullying. 

As always it was a fascinating and engaging session from John. We will be continuing the discussions in class over the next few weeks.

There is more information about how to help keep your children (and you) stay safe online in the 'stay safe online' section of our school website.

Marvellous Me 

Thank you if you have let us know whether you are happy for your child's photo to be on Marvellous Me.

For those who haven't yet told us, we are going to use the photo permissions we already have from you. We are going to treat Marvellous Me like the school website. If you have said yes to photos on the school website we will post images, but if you originally said no, we will not post images of your child. Please get in touch if you'd like to change any photo permission choices. 

Parking

Before Christmas, it was brought to our attention that some parents or carers were parking on the yellow lines outside the school. We have been keeping an eye on the situation, and we have seen cars waiting and stopping there at various times.

Please can all parents and carers avoid parking, stopping or waiting on the yellow lines or parking on the pavement next to the yellow lines. This area needs to be kept clear for safety purposes. This allows a safe passage into the gate at the front of the school and enables children to cross the road safely by allowing clear vision, so they can see both ways if they need to cross the road.

Recreation Ground Road, as we know you are all aware, is extremely busy both before and after school. Please help us to prevent accidents as much as we possibly can by following the principles above.