Kensworth CE Academy

July Newsletter With God by our side, we can move mountains

Our Value for next half-term is Thankfulness

We can show thankfulness by:

Saying thank you to those who help us

Not taking anything for granted

Expressing gratitude to God

http://www.kensworthacademy.com email: Office@ken.dsamat.co.uk July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers, 

We appear to have made it, almost, to the end of the most peculiar academic year ever… We could never have

imagined, in September, that we would be doing almost half of the year as a virtual school. Before lockdown,

class dojo was a small part of our schools' rewards system and now has become an integral part of our school

home learning and communication systems with you all, and as for zoom, none of us had heard of that before!

We held our leavers’ service over Zoom and cut our leavers’ ribbon at a social distance on the field with families

in cars, as we held our 'drive-through' event. I admit to being rather choked up saying goodbye to my second

class at Kensworth Academy. We also said goodbye to Mrs Harrison, a huge loss to our school but also to me

personally as we have worked together for many (many) years.

I hope you agree that under these very challenging circumstances, all of the staff have done an excellent job in

adapting to a way of working for which none of us originally trained. While I will celebrate the successes and

the significant learning we have done during this period with them, I think I can speak for the whole staff in say-

ing that we are really looking forward to teaching in reality; nothing beats the dynamics of the classroom -

where we can see the reactions, hear the spontaneous thoughts and celebrate the achievements of our pupils

and of course have an awful lot of fun!

Teaching and learning at KCEA will never be the same as pre-lockdown, but I am confident that I can assert that

the one thing that will undoubtedly remain is the joy that comes from outstanding interactive lessons. We have

a lot to celebrate from this time in our lives and we will be marking all of this once we are allowed, with an

event in school to celebrate all of the wonderful learning that has happened at home.

In school, staff have not only been busy teaching children (in-class and via dojo) but they have been cleaning

classrooms, putting up new displays and emptying cupboards. Mrs Reason has organised new play equipment

on the KS1 playground to be installed early in the new term with our PE Funding money, preschool has been

completely redecorated and other areas of school have been updated too. We are really excited to announce

Mrs Whitmore will be training to be Kensworth's Forest School leader and we will be starting forest school style

sessions in the Autumn term. Mrs Price and Mrs Whitmore have worked extremely hard making the old pond

area reusable after it was cleared a few years ago by our amazing PTA and community. All staff have completed

extensive training on Special Educational Needs, safeguarding and teaching and learning during periods when

they were not face to face with children. It is safe to say we have been very productive showing our Christian

values of perseverance, resilience, trust and service (to name just a few).

Cont...

You will find the

Thankfulness values

homework later in the

newsletter—share

your homework on

Classdojo if you can,

we’d love to see what

you do!

I would also like to send a massive thank you to all of you. Many of you have had the unforgiving tasks of

attempting to work from home and home schooling simultaneously. Some days it has been more successful than

others and your funny messages telling us of days when things went... not entirely to plan.. did make us chuckle.

Thank you for your engagement, for talking to us through the good and bad days and above all keeping us motivat-

ed to upload more and more as we saw how enthused the children were with your help and guidance. Thank you!

Some of our community also suffered loss during this time and we would like to extend our sympathies to anyone

that has experienced a bereavement or difficulties and to offer to help. We can signpost you to a number of organ-

isations that can support and help you if you feel that this would be of benefit. If your child has been affected dur-

ing the lockdown and you are concerned about them please make contact with us. We also have a number of ave-

nues we can explore with you in the new school year.

The Autumn term will continue to be different from 'normal' and I think we are all starting to realise that a full re-

turn to the 'old' normal is someway off. Please read the return to school letter carefully as there are a number of

key points to take note off. Different drop off and pick up points and one way systems to get your head around. All

of these measures are for yours, your children and our staff's safety thank you in advance for following all the new

procedures.

All that leaves me to say is I hope you all have a rest and some sort of holiday, even if it is not the one you had

planned. We are looking forward to having you all back in school in the new academic year.

All the best

Mrs Bates

Whole School News & Reminders

Pupil Premium eligibility

If you feel your financial circumstances have changed as a result of changes or job losses, you may be entitled to

claim for free school meals. This would mean we can arrange for supermarket vouches to be emailed to you if your

child is not in school. In the first instance, you would need to contact the local authority who will require the Na-

tional Insurance numbers and dates of birth for yourself and partner. They will be able to tell you pretty quickly if

you now have an entitlement. The local authority will then inform us. Please contact Central Bedfordshire Council

on 0300 300 8306. They may be experiencing a high volume of calls at the moment so be prepared to be patient.

Website

Please keep checking the school website. We are working hard to ensure it is constantly up to date and contains

masses of useful information. The COVID 19 update section is under “News” tab then “Latest News” tab. The term

dates for next school year 2020-21 are also on the website.

School Dinners

If you currently have a child in year 2, please remember that from September you will have to pay for school din-

ners as you will no longer be eligible under the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme. The meal cost is £2.30

per day and should be paid for in advance, preferably at the start of a week or a half term. Payment should be

made online at: www.hobbsschoolcatering.co.uk

School Uniform

School uniform is available to order online at my uniformshop.co.uk. Please don’t forget to check our Uniform and

Appearance Policy on our school website for full details.

Roofing Work

Unfortunately, we have no update to give you with regard to when roofing repairs to the school hall might take

place. The Trust are lobbying the Educational Funding Agency for an outcome as well as the local MP, Andrew

Selous. We would like to reassure you that the school is not incurring any cost whatsoever over this project or the

hiring of the portacabin.

Silly Squad Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge is the biggest children’s reading for pleasure programme in the UK. Last year, 4591

children and their families from Central Bedfordshire alone took part. For full details, please see the email sent

out to all parents on the 9th July.

We look forward to seeing you all again in September.

Term Dates 2020-21 (Subject to Government guidance and change)

You will find all term dates on the school website. As a reminder the Autumn term dates are as follows:

Monday 7th September – Saplings and Holly pupils return

Tuesday 8th September— Oak and Hornbeam pupils return

Friday 23rd October – INSET day

Monday 26th – Friday 30th October – half term

Monday 2nd November – school returns

Friday 18th December – school closes for Christmas holiday at 1.30pm

Ultimate Rainbow Unicorns Pod News

The children worked as a team to find loose

parts on the field and together created their

very own ‘pod hide out’ on the school field.

“This is the pod hide out it’s a good place to

come for some quiet time to think.”-Jensen

The pod joined in with colour day for the NHS and created a paperchain rainbow. We are all having so

much fun joining in with sunshine circles, craft activities, and outdoor learning. Together we have en-

joyed hot chocolate afternoons, and game times, where the older children in the pod have been teach-

ing the younger children card games such as 21, Rummy, and Go Fish! We are all looking forward to

our Pod vs Pod afternoon!

“ I REALLY LOVE PLAYING THE PARACHUTE

GAMES. THE SHARK GAME, AND CAT AND

MOUSE ARE MY FAVOURITES.”-LIBERTY

The children enjoyed making their very

own pitta bread pizzas and using their

fraction knowledge to cut them into

equal parts.

“They were very tasty”-Lily

“I can do fractions, it’s when you share

something in equal amounts isn’t it?”-

Henry.

Be Awesome, Go Big Pod

by the children

The children in Hornbeam’s pod would like to

share their thoughts and feelings since being

back. This account is written by our

awesome leaders, the children!

‘Before we came back to school we had a mixture of feelings. I was scared, excited

nervous and relieved to be returning to school. The thought of going back to school

was nerve wracking, I was scared about breaking the rules. I felt nervous because I

didn’t know what to expect. I was really excited as I so wanted to see my friends. On

my first day back as we were greeted, my first reaction was to want to hug all my

friends and teachers but I knew I couldn’t, instead I was happy to feel the butterfly

hug as it fluttered towards me. We soon knew what we needed to do after Mrs

Rooney had displayed our visual timetable.

One of the things I have loved most, is having my own tray with all my own belong-

ings. As a Year 6, I now understand how Reception do Read Write Inc, as one of the

younger children has taught me, we are all learning so much from one another.

One of the best things we have been doing is to plan, and make our very own snacks.

We’ve made cookies, which were yummy, now we’re making cupcakes. We had fun

with our berry smoothies and even suggested we try green smoothies (not my favour-

ite but at least we all tried it, Mrs Riach told us it was healthy for us). Pancakes were

great fun and we tried the French style crepe au beurre!

I love my pod because all the people are kind, sharing and we help one another. It is

always a crazy fun packed time and I’ve never been so excited to get to school

every single morning. Life in our pod really is awesome and super fun. I love being at

school as I feel as safe in my pod as I do at home

We recently started Sumdog and have been testing our

maths skills against other schools. We really wanted to

win. I feel very happy in the pod. Every day it just gets

better and so, so much fun, with games like Captain’s

Coming, Zoom, Bing and Poing. We have amazing

teachers and our team has lots of teamwork and we

have proven Together Everyone Achieves More!

Every day we tend to the plants in the Pencil Garden. We have planted: lettuce, cab-

bage, tomatoes, strawberries and beautiful pots. The plants were kindly donated by

people in the village. We’ve moved the bird table to just outside the door and watch

the robin every day. I think he’s really watching us .

As a year 6, I have really enjoyed this special time, as ‘me time’, getting ready for

transition to secondary school. We are following the Be Awesome, Go Big Project. Did

you know that the journalist Matthew Syed was also a famous table tennis player?

We’re learning about growth mindset and resilience to help us, just like Matthew did.

We even have our own ping pong set and have regular challenges. The really best bit

is we get to roll down the hill.

THANK YOU KENSWORTH!

Be Awesome, Go Big Pod

by the children (continued)

Tiger Prime Pod-cast

Over the past 6 weeks, the children in Key Worker Pod one have been busy engaging in English and Maths

challenges as well as reviewing maths strategies from past learning. They have been encouraged to join in

with Talk Time, where we have shared our worries, feelings and thoughts, however small, about the news

around us.

Their energy levels have been stretched with plenty of sports activities lead by Mr Tippite, our Future

Games leader, as well as a week of morning P.E. challenges and a full Paralympics day where they

competed and had fun. In the classroom they have been cooking chocolate tiffin, choc chip cookies

and enjoyed a mug of fresh hot chocolate to celebrate National Chocolate day on 7th July (there serious-

ly is a day for everything!).

This week we are all making pizza with our own favourite toppings. Art and Design is always top of the

list also, so they have created stain-glass windows, bird feeders & houses, worry jars and completed a

short project on French artist, Georges Seurat and his famous pointillism style. So, what with all of this as

well as a live online music session, film afternoon with popcorn, learning new board games, short

story book writing, science experiments and more, they have all thoroughly enjoyed themselves and

we have loved having them back. For those of you who are still working hard at home with your school

learning, we miss you so much and can’t wait to see you all in the Autumn Term.

Have a great safe Summer!

We have had a very busy term in the 'Petit Pois' pod. It has been really lovely being back

to some normality for both us staff and also the children. As well as keeping busy with

Read Write Inc and Maths, we have been doing lots of P.E, Sunshine Circle, baking, gar-

dening and art and crafts. This term we have had an Italian Day, celebrated Chocolate

Day, Olympics Day and the NHS' 72nd Birthday and taken part in National Sports Week.

We are extremely excited about our growing garden of strawberries (which have been

taste tested), runner beans, carrots, pansies, poppies, sunflowers and one courgette...so

far!

We have very much missed the remaining members of Holly Class who continue to work

hard with their home learning. I have thoroughly enjoyed receiving their messages and

photos of what they have been up to.

It's a sad time with the Year 1's about to leave to move up to their new class but I look

forward to welcoming back our new Year 1's and our new Reception children. I hope

you all have a fantastic summer and enjoy the well earned break!

Petit Pois (in a pod)

Home Learning

A massive well done to everyone for all your hard work and

participation in the DSAMAT Maths Competition on Sumdog. All of

the schools took part and we are extremely proud that Holly class

were the overall champions! Amazingly, we had 3 classes in the

top ten and four children came in the top ten students overall, out

of 321 children! We were very excited to receive such a fabulous

trophy for our winning class!

We took part in the National Sport Week with lots of you com-

pleting the daily challenges and recording your scores. The re-

sults were calculated for each year group within areas, we

were part of the Dunstable and Houghton Regis area. Out of

all the schools that took part, our Year 5 & Year 3 children

came 1st, Year 4 & Year 1 came 2nd, Year 6 came 4th and Year

2 came 5th.

Over the past term, you have amazed us with your dedication and hard work with your

home learning activities. We would all like you to know how proud we are of you and

your families. We hope you have a restful and fun summer.

See you in September!

COVID—19 Updates and advice

Click here for the most current advice from the government regarding the COVID-19

outbreak

The government have released and updated a document giving information and ad-

vice surrounding school closures and home learning.

Closure of educational settings: information for parents and carers

There is a section at the end with online safety information. Alternatively, lots of links

to online safety resources can be found on the school website in the ‘Parent Zone’ on

the parent information page

This document gives guidance for looking after mental health and wellbeing:

Guidance for parents and carers on supporting children and young people’s mental

health and wellbeing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

Stay alert

We can all help control the virus if we all stay alert. This means you must:

stay at home as much as possible

work from home if you can

limit contact with other people

keep your distance if you go out (2 metres apart where possible)

wash your hands regularly

Do not leave home if you or anyone in your household has symptoms.