A newsletter for Parents and Carers of Pupils at Torfield School Edition 20 Spring 2019

Torfield School really enjoyed Book Week 2019! A wonderful,

local illustrator and author, Ed Boxall, visited our school. He

presented a very engaging assembly for the whole school

which involved lots of singing and dancing in our seats. He

sang one of his poems which features in his book ‘Me and My

Alien Friend.’ The children really enjoyed listening to his poem

and singing along to the chorus!

Ed Boxall also visited every class. The classes made some

concertina books using stamp pads and a range of objects to

design and create their own monsters.

Throughout the week, children created book day bunting,

bookmarks, baked Gruffalo cakes and completed quizzes with

questions all about book characters, illustrators and classic

stories. World Book Day was absolutely fantastic; everyone

made such an amazing effort with their costumes. We had an

assembly to show off our wonderful costumes one class at a

time. The children were very recognisable in their costumes!

One child from each class won the ‘Best Dressed’ award!

These children received a certificate and chose a book of

their choice to take home. More on the next page..

Dear Parents and Carers

Another term draws to an end and we are all looking forward to the warmer weather. We have some

great events planned for the summer terms but before we look forward I want to reflect on the great

achievements of the pupils during these last two terms.

At the EYC it has been lovely to see our reception children growing in confidence as they become

familiar with their routines. The classes have increased their visits to local venues and have plans for

some exciting trips next term. We are busy making improvements to classrooms at the

EYC and look forward to the completion of the new library in the Fox’s room.

At Croft Road pupils have been very busy working hard and I have a constant stream of

visitors at my office door wanting to swap their smiley faces for a reward. We try hard to

ensure all interests are catered for when buying rewards. Some pupils have a particular

toy or game they really want and show great maturity in being able to save up, some-

times for over a year, in order to have the thing they most want. Friday assemblies are a

great time to celebrate and as the year progresses I see pupils who struggle when it is not their

turn, being able to manage their disappointment and be pleased for their classmates. These are very

important life skills.

Many thanks to all the parents and carers who attended our consultation evening this term. There is no

substitute for a face to face conversation and I cannot stress the importance of attending all meetings

where we discuss your child and their progress. If you were unable to attend please contact the school

to make an appointment as soon as possible.

We welcome your feedback at all times and are grateful for the time you spend completing our

questionnaire. I have noticed this time that a number of parents and carers were unsure of what the

school does to tackle bullying and so later in this newsletter there is an article about this area of our

work.

Please always feel free to contact us if you have a question or a concern. One of the Senior Leadership

Team will be happy to help.

I look forward to seeing you all at the term 5 & 6 events and wish you a very happy Spring Holiday.

With best wishes

Natalie Shuttleworth

Visiting story teller in

January getting everyone

involved.

All children and staff had such a fun week

celebrating the importance of books and

the excitement stories can bring to the lives

of everybody.

Thank you for your continued support in all

the activities that we hold at Torfield School.

I look forward to Book Day 2020!

This term we have been enjoying learning about

rainforests and plants. The children enjoyed collaging

rainforest animals and worked together in pairs to

complete these. They also used ICT to create pictures of

their favourite rainforest animals. 2A had a special lunch

this term where we were able to invite an important guest

to have lunch with us, the children voted for Mrs

Shuttleworth. The children had special tablecloths and a

big table for the whole class to sit around. Mrs

Shuttleworth said 'It was a pleasure to share a meal with

2A. They showed me how well behaved and independent

they have become at lunchtime and told me all about the

animals they had seen at the Rare Breeds Centre the

day before. Thank you 2A.' 2A really enjoyed their trip to

the Rare Breeds Centre and loved seeing all the animals.

The cow was

beautiful.

The chicken was

naughty.

He kept running

away.

The piglets were

eating my shoes.

It was funny.

It was a pleasure to

share a meal with

2A.

The pigs were

funny.

The children in 2M have had a wonderful two terms, they sit

beautifully during our learning sessions and work very well at

their work stations. Our English lessons usually follow a

scheme of work related to a book; they have loved reading

‘The Highway Rat, Shark in the Park and The Snail and the

Whale.’ Many of the children remember the story and look

forward to acting it out through roleplay, they also read the

story along with the teacher. Through daily writing practise,

many of the children are writing and reading short CVC words

e.g. dog, cat, bin, hat.

The children’s confidence in maths

has also grown, through the joy of

singing songs & rhymes. We do

lots of practise counting objects to

50, adding small quantities and

playing role play games using mon-

ey in our own shops. The children

are also gaining understanding of

volume, length and height using

simple measuring tools.

During Science, 2M have spent a

term exploring ‘light and dark’ and

a term learning about different cli-

mates. We studied the weather, taking daily thermometer readings and recording and predicting

the weather for the next day. We also had the most wonderful time at Herstmonceux Science

Centre and it was clear that all the children could demonstrate good investigating skills, as they

were very interested in how the different activities operated.

2M have weekly educational visits to venues in their local environment on Fridays. 2M very much

look forward to these visits which are to a wide variety of destinations including play parks,

museums and places of interest. The children particularly enjoyed the Blue Reef Aquarium in

Hastings and our sunny day at Alexandra Park. We also had a wonderful time walking around

Battle Abbey and the children always have the best day out in the woods at Bedgebury.

In the forthcoming term we will learn about plants and trees, so

expect

some

garden

centre

outings.

We are

particularly

look

forward to

returning

to Rare

Breeds

Centre.

Term 3 started with some key geography skills—map work. We looked at a

variety of maps and their symbols and then tried to plan a route from one

place to another, this also included learning our left and right which was

quite tricky for some of us. Our Geography work also took us outside into

the local area where we tried to follow Google Maps—we soon realised that

you had to be very precise about telling google maps exactly where you

wanted to go to be able to use this. Finally, in this topic we used Google

Earth to look at our school and where we lived. In Science this term we have

been looking at energy, which involved learning about light sources inside

and outside the classroom, exploring magnets and making our own circuits.

The children in 2N have been very creative again in art and have learnt a

great deal about printing. I hope you like their work.

In English we had great fun using

rhyming words and then identifying

the rhyming words in different

books—who knew you could have

such fun! We ended the term by

writing our own poetry. Some

poetry was about colour and some was about our

senses. The children thought really carefully about

their senses and were very creative.

In term 4 we linked all the books that we looked at in

English to our Science topic of plants. This led us to

writing our own version of Jack and the Beanstalk, with

the children writing independently to show how much

they had learnt about capital letters, full stops and

finger spaces. Some of

us even applied our knowledge about adjectives and adverbs—great

work 2N! To continue our Science theme we also visited the local

garden centre and chose our own seeds to grow, which the children

had great fun planting so I hope they look after them during the

Easter holidays.

Our history topic this term has been about The Great Fire of London.

The children have been really interested in learning about how life

was back in 1666 and why the fire spread. They have made their own 2D

houses which have been added to a display just outside the classroom—they

are quite rightly very proud of their work. Finally I just want to add how proud I

am of 2N working so hard in all the lessons but especially in maths. They have

astounded me at how

quick they have been to

understand new ideas

and to start to explain

what they are doing and

how they worked something out.

I hope you all have a lovely break in the

Easter Holidays and come back rested

ready for the Summer term.

In terms 3 and 4 2P have been extremely busy. The

children have really been working hard and gaining

confidence in themselves and their learning. Here are just

some of the highlights to show you what fabulous work the

children produce. In English the children have really

enjoyed developing their phonics, writing and reading skills

through a variety of stories. We have been practising our

comprehension skills through story books. 2P especially

enjoyed ‘The Highway Rat’, they were able to answer who,

what, where and why questions by the end of the term.

During term 3 and 4 the children have been working very hard on

their number skills where they have explored money through shop

roleplay. The children also have been securing their counting skills

through finding the total of two groups, their enthusiasm towards

their work never fails to impress me. Term 3 the children learnt a lot

about volume and capacity by exploring with water and filling

different containers. This term the children have been focusing on

length in Shape, Space and

Measure.

During science in term 3, 2P

had lots of fun exploring light

and dark and seeing what they

noticed. We did a variety of mini experiments to encourage

the children to talk about what they noticed and why they

think it happened. Term 4 the children have been

investigating the weather and changes in the different

seasons. We have been recording the weather and making

predictions.

During terms 3 and 4 in PSHE the children have been learning how to be a good friend and how

to be healthy. The children have practised their sharing and turn taking skills through a variety of

games with decreased adult support. In term 4 the children really enjoyed practising how to

brush their teeth properly and were proud of the skills they had learnt. As a class we have been

looking at healthy eating and exploring what is good for our

bodies and what things we

can eat in moderation.

In both terms 2P have been

practising how to be safe

when outside the school

environment through a

variety of trips. We have

learnt about stranger danger

and how to cross roads

safely. We have been practising our listening skills especially

hard and ensuring that we always listen carefully to adults when

out. 2P are a pleasure to take out and we really enjoy our outings.

I am very proud of how far 2P have come along since September

and look forward to more learning and fun with the children.

Welcome everyone to our news from terms 3

and 4. The children have continued to work

really hard and really are superstars.

Hedgehogs always fill the classroom with fun

and are an absolute pleasure to have as a

class.

Its been a busy couple of terms with the topic

focus for term 3 on Winter and Nursery

Rhymes and the Jungle in term 4. There have

been many fun packed activities and

celebrations including Chinese New Year

when the children were able to explore and

test typical Chinese food. The children also

enjoyed our recent Book week and enjoyed

interacting with a story read by Ed Boxall

who is a local author of children's books. On

World Book Day the children dressed up as

their favourite book character.

During term four we had a whole week

dedicated to science based activities with a

hands on multi sensory approach, the

children investigated floating their boats and

observed ice melting. There were lots more

great tasks to explore, enjoy and experience.

Hedgehogs have continued to visit the Croft

Road site for their swimming sessions and

enjoy the fortnightly trips to 1066 gym where

they love to explore and find their own way

around all the equipment. We have also

visited a local play park as a class for the first

time which was a great success.

May I take this opportunity to thank you very

much for all your kind donations and

continued support as always. I hope you

enjoy a happy and safe Easter break.

Mrs Hogan

Hedgehogs

We are now coming to the end of term 4, what a wonderful few terms it has been! The children have had lots of hands on learning experiences and lots of memories have been made along the way!

This past term we have been focusing on how to keep our bodies healthy. We have taken part in regular dances in class and have even enjoyed a little yoga. We took a trip to Tescos to buy a range of fruit and made some lovely fruit kebabs in school! We also had a ride on a smoothie bike which came into school; the children cycled to blend their chosen fruit into a smoothie!

During Science week Torfield School hall was set up like a science lab and the children had the opportunity to explore, investigate and question lots of different aspects of science! We have also completed lots of fun science experiments including, making our own lava lamps

and creating our own rainbow rain. We have also planted our own sunflower seeds and the children have enjoyed watching them grow!

Book Week

During book week we had a visit from a local author Ed Boxall who shared some of his poetry with a little sing-a-long. We saw lots of book characters walking around school on world book day! We also took a visit down to our local library in Hastings where we had some lovely stories read to us and we each borrowed a book to read in school.

The book we have been working closely on in English this term is called ‘The skies above my eyes’. It is a beautiful book teaching us all about what is above the clouds and beyond which links well with our topic of Space this term. The children have been looking at both fiction and non-fiction books and learning about their different purposes.

We have been working carefully on how to solve problems in Maths. Most importantly we have been focusing on how it is important to keep trying when we are faced with a problem . It has also given the children opportunities to practice being independent and working with others.

We have been on some lovely, meaningful trips this term, including a visit to Mallydams. The children learnt about the role of the RSPCA and found out about ways to look after our environment. They were given their own camera to explore the woods and they took some beautiful photos.

Thank you for your continued support.

I am very proud of the children and I look forward to seeing where the last two terms take us!

Miss Booth

2FB have been learning about poetry

and fairy tale stories in English. The

children have also been using their

senses to write a poem, adding some

describing words to make it more

exciting. They have been writing

stories and acting them out in front of

the class. They have had so much fun

doing this!

The pupils in 2FB really enjoyed Book

Week where they dressed up in

fantastic costumes. We were also visited by an illustrator who came

to show us how to create and draw our own robot.

In science we have been learning about energy. The children have

been learning about different electrical items and they enjoyed

learning how to make an electrical circuit in class. Along with this we

had Science Week where we took part in lots of different

experiments. We have learnt about rocks, plants and much more.

In maths we have been practising numbers, addition and

subtraction. We have learnt about money which everyone really enjoyed, especially the shopping

game that we did in class. In Geography we have been learning about maps, directions and

trying to remember our home address. We also made a compass that we used on our trip to St.

Helens Park. In History we have learnt about the Great Fire of London. Everyone enjoyed

making models of the houses. We have also really enjoyed our trips to 1066 Gymnastics where

we have had so much fun learning some gymnastics skills and exercises. We learnt so much

about healthy food on our trip to Tesco and we worked as a team to find the right product.

Terms 3 and 4 have been busy for our class!

In term 3, the children learnt all about the

Romans. We did some Roman food tasting

which the children enjoyed, amongst learning

about who the Romans were, where and

when they lived and how they lived. In term 4,

our topic has been about natural disasters

which the children have found fascinating. We

have learnt about earthquakes, volcanoes

and tornadoes and discussed how devastating these disasters can be for

people; this has been an excellent way for children to develop their empathy

skills.

In maths, the children have been looking at 2D and 3D shapes - naming

shapes, identifying their properties and searching for shapes in their

environment. This term, the children have been dividing numbers

through sharing and grouping. Alongside this learning, children have

been fantastic problem solvers, solving missing number problems, word

problems and playing mathematical games in groups. This has

developed not only the children’s problem solving skills but also their

ability to work well in a group and listen carefully

to others.

In English, the children really loved completing a range of activities

around The Great Paper Caper’ story. We did some work on ensuring

we really understood the story initially; discussing the pictures and the

tricky words. The children completed some drama activities around the

story as well as a range of writing tasks.

Our Rainbow Award focus in term 4 has been

about ‘Being Healthy’. In PSHE lessons, we

discussed why it is important to be healthy and

thought about all the ways we can be healthy.

The children have been grouping healthy and unhealthy foods, doing lots of exer-

cise as well as understanding the importance of

brushing our teeth, washing our hands and generally keeping ourselves clean.

Our Rainbow Award focus involved a trip to Tesco to buy some fruits to create a

healthy fruit salad back at school.

In term 3, we looked at everyday materials and their properties. We also learnt

about recycling and took some recycling down to a local

recycling point. The children have learnt all about space in

Term 4. We started by mind mapping everything we already knew about space through

drawings and words. We then learnt about the planets in the solar system, why we have

day and night, the phases of the moon and what life would be like as an astronaut. This

learning was summarised nicely with a trip to the Science Centre. The children also

took part in a Science workshop here looking at the clothing and equipment astronauts

wear.

We’ve also had Science week and Book week in

term 4. This has involved a range of fun, exciting

activities and workshops for the children!

The children are working exceptionally hard and are

continuing to develop their independence in a range

of areas. As always, I am really proud of all the

children in 2S. Well done and keep up the hard work!

Wow! What an incredibly busy two terms Rabbits have

had. In term 3 the children learnt about winter and

nursery rhymes. We continued to make marks in lots of

different mediums including pretend snow! Rabbits class

really enjoyed exploring the different nursery rhymes such

as Incy-Wincy Spider where they made playdough and

pipe cleaner spiders (which provided lots of opportunities

for counting!) and humpty dumpty which saw the class build a wall out

of giant rubber bricks to re-enact the rhyme. We looked at the types of

clothing we wear in the winter to help keep us warm and celebrations

that we might observe in the winter time. The children were particularly

fond of our Chinese New Year celebrations which included a Chinese

restaurant role play area and lots of coloured rice. We used noodles to

paint and make marks and Rabbits class danced to lots of Chinese

music.

In term Four we have been exploring the jungle and what types of

animals live in jungles and rainforests. We have created a large class

snake where each child added marks and patterns. The children have

created a habitat for pretend snakes and enjoyed pouring out mud and

adding rocks and logs for the snakes to hide under. Term four has also

seen Rabbits celebrating world book week, during which we had a very

fun and engaging visit from local author Ed Boxall. The children were

captivated by this session, singing, dancing and clapping along to the

songs Ed played on his guitar and demonstrating some impressive

listening and attention skills whilst he read parts of his stories to them.

During Science week, the children explored floating and sinking which

proved to be very popular if quite wet! It was fantastic to see them really

engaging with the resources. We have continued to visit a variety of

settings for educational visits. Alongside weekly swimming sessions the

children have visited Westfield playpark and Hastings Museum. This was

a very fun morning out for Rabbits class who enjoyed dressing up in

Kimono’s and exploring the dinosaur collection at the museum.

Hedgehogs Our topics for terms 3 & 4 have been Nursery

Rhymes & Fairy tales and In the Jungle.

During Term 3, the children explored music and

repetitive songs through the use of familiar nursery

rhymes. These songs created opportunities for

learning across the curriculum such as singing the

counting songs (5 Currant buns and 5 little ducks),

where children learned the basics of taking away from

a grand total. Badgers also enjoyed listening to

traditional fairy tales such as Goldilocks and the Three

Bears, The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding

Hood. We encouraged the children to participate in

role play activities where they acted out the stories as

different characters. The children especially enjoyed

imitating the huffing and puffing of the Big Bad Wolf.

During Term 4, some of the children have started to

complete activities at their own workstations with little

to no adult support. They are gradually becoming

more used to working independently and completing

small tasks before participating in an activity of their

own choice. These activities include work that children

have completed with adult support previously, and

now are required to apply these skills independently.

Children have also enjoyed learning about the jungle

and about the animals that live there. We have

enjoyed reading the story Rumble in the Jungle and

creating art work based on these animals. We have

explored moving our bodies the way that the animals

might in the jungle e.g. stomp like an elephant.

In terms 3 &4 we have continued our visits to 1066

gym and to the swimming pool, where children de-

veloped their gross motor skills. We have also visit-

ed the museum, where the children enjoyed looking

at different exhibits such as a train and a scooter.

They particularly enjoyed the dinosaur room. We also

visited the park, as a reward for all the hard work

Badgers have shown throughout the last two terms.

These terms have also included a science week,

where children learned about the dark and how to be

seen (wearing reflective clothing) and book week.

Next term, we will be including visits more off-site

visits such as going to the farm and aquarium. We will

be continuing our gym and swimming visits.

I can’t believe how fast the year is going already!

Every day I feel privileged to be the teacher of

Badgers. All the children, have shown so much

progress since September and it gives me joy to

witness on a daily basis. I would also like to thank you

all for your continued support and for engaging with

the Easy Peasy activities and completing homework

tasks. This really benefits your children’s learning!

Miss Inkster

This term saw British Science Week taking place nationally and the children here at Torfield enjoyed

taking part in this with our very own science week! The children all became scientists and spent the week

immersed in scientific activities that saw them develop their thinking skills whilst having lots of fun at the

same time!

We were supported during science week by our school meals provider, Chartwells, who brought their very

exciting Smoothie Bike in for the children to use. Each pupil chose which heathy ingredients they wanted

in their smoothie before adding them to the Smoothie Bike and pedalling as hard as they could to blend

their fruit into a delicious healthy drink which most of the children drank or had a little taste of.

Our hall was turned into an exciting science lab with lots of activities available for the children to explore

including a dark den, habitat exploration, electric circuits, the human body, texture exploration, sound

making and testing which materials would make the best shoes to wear in the rain! The children had a

great time and we were joined by pupils from Saxon Mount and Ark Blacklands Primary Academy who

also had a fantastic time exploring the different activities.

The children at our Early Years Centre also had lots of fun engaging with scientific activities this week.

They explored light and dark using torches and light equipment in the sensory room and discovered what

happens to ice when different things such as food colouring and salt are added to it.

The children all worked very hard this week and had lots of fun making their scientific discoveries!

We made

wellies and

tested

them!

Dear Parents and Carers

It is hard to believe how quickly the weeks have flown by since Christmas, which feels like a long time ago already!

As usual, it has been an incredibly busy time at Torfield, with many exciting activities, events and learning opportunities. I do hope you enjoy reading about these and seeing the many pictures of our children enjoying themselves at school!

This term, as you may remember, I have been providing some school support to nearby St Mary's special school in Bexhill. I mention this so that I can publicly say 'Thank You' to Natalie Shuttleworth and the staff team at Torfield for their flexibility and diligence in ensuring that this support can be provided without any negative impact on the pupils of Torfield School. I have still been into school every week and I talk regularly to our staff and pupils.

I am very sorry to say that I missed the Easter Bonnet event this week due to my activities elsewhere, but I was privileged to see some dress rehearsals earlier in the week, which were great fun. I am delighted that so many parents and carers were able to attend on the day itself.

I was also delighted to see so many parents and carers attending our parents evening this term – it was one of our highest attendances ever. We very much appreciate this and we also appreciate all the feedback you have been able to provide through our questionnaires. I was very pleased to read so many positive comments about the work everyone does at Torfield to support our pupils.

Finally I would like to wish everyone a very safe and enjoyable Easter break.

Mr Preece

Executive Headteacher

It has been a busy two terms for family learning, we have offered courses covering the Rainbow

Awards themes ‘being a good communicator’ and ‘being a good learner’. Parents who attended

the ‘make your own visual resources’ session found this to be particularly useful. They all went

home with visuals to support their routines or child’s speech and understanding for the home

environment, which they produced themselves.

The ‘Easypeasy’ programme for early years and KS1 has proved very successful too. Parents

are receiving a text message weekly with a new game to try with their children, working on a

range of early years curriculum focus areas. Feedback from this has been extremely positive.

Thankyou to Mrs Nottage (curriculum lead for Maths) and Miss Seymour (curriculum lead for

English) who ran successful family learning courses for parents, giving strategies to enable them

to support their child's maths and English development at home.

Over the next two terms, we have lots more exciting courses

coming up for parents to sign up to. The new term begins with

the Triple P stepping stones course, run by the Triple P team at

‘open for parents’. We have a good number of parents already signed up for the course.

If you are interested in any of the family learning courses, or have any suggestions for future

courses or opportunities, then please do speak to me to give your feedback.

Mrs Alison Love - Assistant Headteacher

Term 3 and Term 4 have been so busy with lots of fun events. We all

enjoyed chicken noodles in celebration of Chinese New Year of The

Pig. The children made Chinese lanterns and decorated the hall with

flags and bunting. In class they learnt all about the Chinese Calendar

and the story behind why each of the 12 animals was chosen to

represent a different year.

In February we had the Smoothie Bike in school for the week and the

children made their own healthy drinks. Chartwells, our school meal

providers, brought along the bike that had a blender attached to the

chain so that when the children peddled the drink was blended. Of

course the children soon worked out that the faster you peddle the smoother it will make your drink!!!

We also had a Hungry Caterpillar Workshop to promote

healthy eating and eating fresh vegetables. The

challenge was to make the Hungry Caterpillar out of food

and then they got to eat it! The

children really enjoyed trying

new tastes and they have

continued to eat fresh salad

daily with introduction of our

Salad Bar at lunchtime.

For Red Nose Day everyone

dressed in something red and

wore red noses!! There was a

huge queue of children in

reception waiting to have a red nose painted on and the

day was filled with fun activities.

Pancake day was another special event and the kitchen made pancakes for all

of the children to have for their dessert. There was a choice of toppings

including lemon juice, honey, chocolate sprinkles and bananas, they were

delicious!!!

Finally our Easter Bonnet Parade was a huge

success where every child had their moment of

stardom, strutting down the catwalk and wowing

the audience!! They each made a bespoke

Easter Bonnet and every class made a Spring

Hoop hoping to win first prize. The winner was 2M and the runner up was

2FB, well done to both!

You can see the hoops

proudly displayed in the

foyer with their beautiful

decoration and colour-

ful accessories. A

special certificate was

handed out to both

classes in the Friday

afternoon celebration

assembly!!

At Torfield School we are very pleased to report that incidences of bullying are very low. It is something

we constantly monitor and report about to our Governing body. Quite a few parents and carers who

completed our questionnaire indicated that they did not know enough about how the school manages

bullying when it does occur and what the school is doing to prevent it in the first place. I hope this brief

article gives you more understanding about this area and I encourage you to contact the school if you

have further questions or concerns.

Good relationships are central to the ethos of our school. The staff model positive interaction by

welcoming children and staff to the school each day, holding doors open for each other and being polite

and considerate. We see many pupils responding in kind to this type of interaction so it is very common

for children to say or sign ‘good morning’, hold a door open and offer to help. We are so impressed by this.

We reward this behaviour with smiley faces and certificates in

the belief that by highlighting positive behaviour it will become

habitual behaviour that transfers to different settings.

The pupils are taught through our Personal, Social , Health

and Economic education programmes of study (PSHE) about

how to recognise bullying and what to do about it. Children

are taught that nobody has the right to hurt them or make

them feel bad. We take part in national Anti Bulling Week and

Online Safety week activities where cyber bulling is explored.

We are careful to see the difference between interactions that

go wrong between pupils who have Special Educational

Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and those rare interactions

which are repeated and habitual and may indicate a desire on the part of a child to threaten or intimidate

another. Many of our children have very early developing social skills, often as a result of autism. They

may be unkind unintentionally because they misread a situation or do not have the language skills to

accurately communicate what they mean. We often find problems occur when there is a strong desire to

make friends without the skills to appropriately initiate this. A pupil may push another to get their attention

and a response; they often cannot tell the difference between a good response and a negative one. Any

response will do. Our high staff ratio means adults are always close by to offer guidance and help pupils to

put things right. We listen to what the children are saying to us and monitor their wellbeing. In situations

where a child is being bullied we recognise both children will

need support to manage the situation and this may mean

staff working to support the development of resilience and

self help skills along with specific guidance about what

unkind behaviour is, why it is unkind and how to change in

order to develop successful relationships.

Through our curriculum we plan many opportunities for

pupils to work and play together so they can learn from each

other and help each other to develop positive relationships,

social skills and tolerance. We are very proud of what they

achieve and so are they.

Tuesday 23rd April

Monday 6th May

Week beg 13th May

Week beg 20th May

Friday 24th May

Monday 27th—Friday 31st May

Monday 3rd June

Week beg 10th June

Thursday 20th June

Friday 21st June

Week beg 24th June

Friday 5th July

Thursday 11th July

Week beg 15th July

Wednesday 17th July NOTE NEW DATE

Monday 22nd July

Tuesday 23rd July

Wednesday 24th July

Wednesday 4th September

Thursday 5th September

First day of term 5

Bank Holiday

SATs for some year 6 pupils

Science Week

Last day of term 5

School Holiday

First day of term 6

Phonics screening for year 1 and 2 pupils

INSET—school closed for pupils

INSET—school closed for pupils

Year 6 Residential to Hindleap Warren

Annual reports home

Parents/Carers evening

Activities Week

Sports Day KS2 am KS1 & EYFS pm

Pupils visit their new class

Last day of term 4 - early finish at 1.45pm

Start of school holiday

INSET school closed for pupils

First day of term 1

Our governors have continued to work with the school to find out what we are doing well and to learn about some of our school priorities. Governors have visited the school regularly to participate in review meetings with our School Advisor and to see some of the developments we have made in recent months. They have also met with senior staff to find what we offer in terms of enrichment opportunities to support learning and progress. They also monitor finance, safeguarding and other important aspects of our work. We were delighted that our Chair of Directors was also able to join us for our Easter Celebration. Further information about the governing body can be found on the school website.

The directors of the trust are:

Jenny Smith (Chair)

Richard Preece

Sue Taylor

Sarah Fitzjohn Scott

Jean Haigh

Mike Clarke

The advisory board for Torfield and Saxon Mount are:

Sue Taylor (director)

Sarah Fitzjohn Scott (director)

Richard Preece (director)

David Wharton (appointed governor)

Rob Mitchell Davis (appointed governor)

Carol Dobson (staff)

Tracey Nottage (staff)

Natalie Shuttleworth (Head of School, Torfield)

Amanda Jagot (Head of School, Saxon Mount)