‘Mayflower Primary School ensures children learn in a safe, caring and enriching environment. Children are taught how to keep themselves safe, to develop positive and healthy relationships, how to avoid situations where they might be at risk including by being exploited.’

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Friday 12th July 2019

TERM DATES 2019/2020

School closes: Friday 12th July – 3.15pm School opens: Thursday 29th August

School closes: Friday 11th October –

3.15pm

School opens: Monday 21st October

School closes: Friday 20th December –

3.15pm

School opens: Tuesday January 7th

School closes: Friday 14th February –

3.15pm

School opens: Monday 24th February

School closes: Friday 3rd April – 3.15pm School opens: Monday 20th April

ATTENDANCE

Mayflower School’s attendance target for the Academic year 2018/19 has been set once

again at 95.2%+. Having received paperwork from the Local Authority, I am pleased to

inform parents’ that we did just meet our target last year, but I am hoping that we can all

work really hard to improve it for this academic year.

I am pleased to tell you that our attendance at 11/07/2019 stands at: 95.7%, which

includes the Nursery. If we exclude the Nursery, it stands at 96.4%. I am pleased that

we have reached a good level of attendance, however, I have noticed that a lot of children

have gone on holiday early this year and this has had a detrimental effect on attendance

in the last week of term.

Class attendance figures for June/July 2019 were:

20th June 27th June 4th July 11th July

F1 AM 96.2% 96.9% 95.4% 86.9%

F1 PM 95% 92.8% 97.6% 84%

LA 91.7% 95.7% 95.7% 97.7%

AK 96.3% 99.7% 99.7% 97.2%

AB 97.9% 97.7% 97.3% 95.3%

KM 99.2% 98% 99% 97.35

RMC 99.6% 98.3% 96.3% 89.3%

AJ 96.8% 98.7% 98.4% 93.9%

PA 98.3% 94.5% 99/3% 96.3%

LG 97.1% 95% 96.7% 93.7%

KW 95.8% 98% 95.75 93.3%

CR 99.2% 87.7% 97.1% 94.2%

PV 96.7% 96% 97.7% 95.7%

SD 96.7% 100% 98.3% 96.6%

RC 98.8% 99% 97.6% 96.2%

CS 98.8% 94.5% 100% 97%

BW 91.7% 99% 98.6% 99%

Our trophy winners for June/July were:

Foundation Key Stage 1 Lower

Key Stage 2

Upper

Key Stage 2

20th June F1 AM RMC CR CS & RC 27th June AK AJ KW SD 4th July AK KM PA CS 11th July LA KM PA BW

Congratulations to all of these classes for their fantastic achievement of winning the

trophies in June and July.

SINGING TROPHY

The singing trophy for June is going to the MAYFLOWER SCHOOL CHOIR!

SCHOOL START AND FINISH TIMES

A gentle reminder that school starts at 8.45am and finishes at 3.15pm. We are struggling

with late comers in the morning and children not picked up on time at the end of the day.

This is stressful, particularly for our younger pupils who are left at the end of the day.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY

eTwinning – Hands of the World

Our song for May was a wonderful rendition of “How Far

I’ll Go”! Well done to the whole of Key Stage 2 for tackling

and conquering the logistical challenge of filming 240

children signing the song all together in the playground!

It’s a fantastic video!

This project has been absolutely wonderful and we’re

hoping it will continue next year. If you scan the QR Code,

you will have access to all five of the songs.

Erasmus Plus KA2 Project – Thinking Allowed

We have thoroughly enjoyed having our seven French and Finnish visitors in school this

week for our termly project meeting. A huge thank you to our parents who hosted a

wonderful welcome coffee morning for them. It was lovely to have the opportunity for our

visitors to meet our parents, get to know them a little bit, and chat about the similarities

and differences between our schools and communities.

Our visitors were also invited for morning coffee with The Lord Mayor of Leicester in her

Parlour in the Town Hall. In The Lord Mayor’s speech to the group, she spoke very warmly

about our “Thinking Allowed” project and about the importance of all the international links

which we have at Mayflower, and how key they are for broadening our children’s horizons

and making them better-prepared global citizens.

During the week, there was a shared training session delivered by LifeWorlds Learning

which was attended by both the Erasmus Team and by our Connecting Classrooms partners

from local Leicester schools – Linden, Uplands Infants, Northfield House and Rushey Mead.

Super Thinking Day

As part of our Erasmus Plus KA2 Thinking Allowed project, all four schools in England,

France and Finland held a Super Thinking Day to showcase all of our new thinking skills and

focus our attention forwards on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

The children were vertically grouped, like they are for European Day of Languages, and

they travelled around school experiencing different thinking activities in different

classrooms.

We will be producing a video of the day which we will share with you in the new year.

Erasmus Plus KA1 – Staff CPD

Smart Teachers Play More

Mr Bounds and Mr Arnold spent a week in Spain working with teachers from across Europe

looking at how to make children’s learning more active and fun. They will be presenting

their ideas to the whole staff when we come back in September to see how we can use

these new ideas in the classroom.

Grand Tour in Europe: creativity, innovation, active citizenship and intercultural

dialogue

Mrs Sanghera and Miss Elias have been in Paris this week looking at innovative teaching

methods and how we can build learning partnerships between schools, companies and

society. They will give us feedback on their return.

TES School Awards – International Award

Mrs Boydon was very proud to represent Mayflower

Primary School at the House of Commons in London for the

#MPsTea on Wednesday 5th June as part of the

celebrations for being shortlisted for the TES

International Award.

Ten members of staff, including our Chair of Governors, attended the Awards Ceremony

in London on Friday 21st June and, although we didn’t win the prize, we had a great time

celebrating the successes of all the schools who were there.

Visitors from the Turkish Ministry of the Interior

We were very pleased to continue our close working relationship with the University of

Leicester and welcome a group of Government officials from Turkey into school. They were

looking at Local Government administration of education in the UK as part of their English

studies at the English Language Teaching Unit. It’s always interesting to find out how

things are done in other countries and to see what we can learn from each other. The

children are fascinated by our visitors and are always unfailingly polite and helpful.

Nursery Assembly

Some of us are still recovering from the wondrous sight of Miss Brown in her fabulous

inflatable chicken costume! Nursery gave us a delightful assembly, as always, and the

children thoroughly enjoyed sharing their learning and singing and chicken dancing with

their parents and carers and all of the school community.

The chickens have brought a lot of joy to all the children in school with each class taking

responsibility on a weekly rota. The children have to keep the chickens fed and watered,

clean the cage out and collect the eggs. They have learned a lot about caring for others

and what is needed to keep animals healthy. Huge thanks to Miss Brown for taking them

on their mini-vacations every weekend and holiday!

Eco Celebration

Our Year 6 children represented the

school at the annual Eco-Schools

Celebration. They used this opportunity

to disseminate their learning around

plastic pollution from their eTwinning

SNOPP project. They have spent the year

investigating plastic use and comparing

their findings with schools in Germany,

Poland, France and the USA.

Gardening Club

Gardening Club have had another busy term, with all of their big competitions coming in

the same few weeks! Thank you to our staff for all their fantastic hard work and to our

wonderful children for all their enthusiasm and commitment.

Chatsworth House

Gardening Granny got to

visit Chatsworth as part of

our Sensory Planter display.

The children had designed

the garden to engage all the

senses and visitors were

encouraged to interact with

the display.

We thoroughly enjoyed

everything that the RHS

had to offer.

BBC Gardeners World Live MealBarrow – Around the World in 30 Barrows

The School Wheelbarrow competition at BBC Gardeners’ World Live is an exceptionally

popular annual feature at the show. School Children, from infant up to secondary level can

show off their creative flair, working as a team, with the satisfaction of seeing their final

creations on display at the show, enjoyed by tens of thousands of visitors.

Our wheelbarrow was at the BBC Gardeners World show in Birmingham for the whole world

to see!

Grow your Grub

Thank you to all our parents who trotted off to Evington Park and voted for our other

wheelbarrow! We needed to produce a menu for a three-course meal. The choice of dishes

could be as diverse as we liked and included all food groups (e.g. fish, meat etc) as well as

fruit and vegetables. We used the Eatwell Guide to help plan our menu. The menu was

judged on Presentation, Nutritional value and Creativity and appeal. It was lovely that the

community was able to get involved in this event! Sadly, we didn’t win, but had a lot fun

trying!

Learn to Ride, BikeAbility and Dr Bike!

What a busy cycling year we’ve had in school! As well as having children learning to ride in

Year 1 thanks to Sustrans East Midlands, we have also had our Year 6 children learning

road-cycling skills thanks to the team from BikeAbility!

All of this cycling effort, as well as the Air Pollution

monitoring which our Young Consultants have done, has

meant we have been awarded our Air Quality Label.

We are still working on funding for bike and scooter sheds

to help and encourage us to get out of our cars and onto

two wheels!

Healthy Schools Network Award

Mayflower was one of only 20 schools in Leicester to be awarded the Healthy Schools

Award. We have spent time this year looking at Physical Activity; Social, Emotional and

Mental Health and Healthy Eating.

Year 4 Ukulele Concert at De Montfort Hall

We are so proud of our Year 4 children who were amazing when they performed at De

Montfort Hall! Given that they have only been learning the ukulele for a year, they gave a

stunning performance. Thank you to all of our parents who came along to support them –

your presence was much appreciated!

Quorn Healthy Eating

Year 4 had a wonderful morning cooking up all sorts of very healthy delicious delights with

our visitors from Quorn Foods! We have offered a number of Healthy Eating programmes

in school this year to encourage our children to make healthy choices when thinking about

food and drink.

School Mela

Thank you all for your amazing support at this year’s Mela. We raised over £1000 in one

afternoon, which is fantastic. Huge thanks too to the Dream Team of Mrs Sanghera and

Mr Bounds who spend a lot of time planning the Mela and making sure it runs smoothly.

Trips and Visits

Nursery to Evington Park

Thank you to all our parents who came along for our lovely

Picnic in the Park. The children thoroughly enjoyed playing

together whilst having their grown-ups there as well!

Here’s hoping there are many more sunny days in the

summer holidays so that you can enjoy the park again as a

family.

Reception to Brocks Hill

Despite the slightly damp weather, our reception children had a wonderful time at Brocks

Hill exploring the natural world.

Year 5 to Bradgate Park

The University of Leicester Archaeological Department invited schools to visit their

summer dig at Bradgate Park and designed a programme of activities for pupils. This was

a perfect opportunity for our children to speak to archaeologists and see them at work.

Year 6 to Woburn Safari Park

Our Year 6 team loved their day at Woburn and thoroughly deserved it after working so

hard this year!

A big thank you to all our staff who work hard to create such amazing learning opportunities

for our children. Arranging and managing trips does create a lot of work and we are very

grateful that our staff are more than happy to go above and beyond for our children.

PE - Saffron Lane Sports Day

Well done to all the children from years 4 to 6 who took part in the Leicester City schools

competition this year.

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE 2019

And Finally…

I just wanted to conclude this final newsletter of the year with a very sincere note of

thanks to all our parents for the wonderful support you provide to our school. As you will

know, I have had the pleasure of working in many, many different schools in a wide variety

of roles, and I can honestly say that Mayflower is by far and away the best of them all.

Sometimes, as parents and staff, it is difficult to make a comparison between what our

children receive, and the form of education elsewhere. What sets our school apart is the

passion, dedication, hard-work, and creativity of our teachers, the curriculum they teach,

the quality of care for our pupils, and the links that we have built with our local community,

the city, our European friends, and the global community of learners that make up our

beautiful planet.

Of course, nothing can ever stand still, and the staff and governors have been working very

hard to bring further development into our school next year. Uppermost will be all of the

following:

The appointment of our new Assistant Head Teacher, Mrs. Chandarana

A 3-class structure in Year 5 and Year 6

One full year of swimming for all pupils in Year 3

Access to outdoor learning for pupils in Year 2

A Nurture Room to support the emotional wellbeing of our children

A new name for our Nursery – ‘The Orchard Nursery’

The retention of Mrs. Kaur, as our new Year 5 teacher

A new bike shelter

Parking bays for scooters in Key Stage 1

Needless to say, as the year progresses, there will be more exciting developments, but I

hope you all join with me in looking forward to these exciting initiatives ahead.

Finally, I wanted to thank you all for your strenuous effort in respects of attendance. We

have reached the challenging target that we set, and this has had a direct impact on the

progress the children have made. Every lesson really does count, and I hope that this

positive trend will be maintained next year and beyond.

To finish, I offer my thanks, once again, for all the support you give. Our children have

performed outstandingly well in the Key Stage 2 national tests, and this very much confirms

the impact of our school. The fact that this has been done whilst maintaining a curriculum

of breadth, depth and diversity, makes me very proud indeed. Have a great summer!!

Mr. L. Whitney – Head Teacher