News article
Your Weekly Letter from the Head Teacher | Fri, 13 January 2012
Thursday January 12th 2012
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back and a very happy New Year to you all! I do hope everyone had a lovely Christmas holiday and getting back into the routine of coming to school again on these dark mornings has not been too hard! We have a very busy and exciting term planned and the children have settled back into learning and working hard beautifully. We have had a number of new families join our school this term and I want to say a special welcome to them and I hope they enjoy making new friends.
JANUARY TEACHER TRAINING DAY
As you will be aware we had our last teacher training day of the school year on Tuesday 3rd January. I always like to keep parents informed about these important days as they help to shape and improve the quality of teaching we deliver for your children. We all spent some time on the morning looking at our behaviour policy and thinking about more ways that we can reward children for outstanding effort and work and excellent behaviour. We also looked at the Nelson handwriting scheme which we have formally adopted across the whole school to improve consistency and fluency in joining letters! Teachers spent some of the day reviewing the progress of pupils in their class following the assessments completed at the end of the Autumn term and finally we reviewed our scheme of work for art and particularly checking progression in painting skills. The teachers then completed a number of art tasks some of which are on display outside of my room for the children to see. We have some very talented artists on the staff and this all helps to ensure the quality of teaching we deliver continues to improve.
Mr Wallis-Clarke’s Young Achievers
We have a bumper crop of young achievers this week as this newsletter covers children coming to see me with their exceptional work in the last week of term before Christmas and the first week back!
Firstly Daniel and Toby came to show me their very well crafted and emotional pieces of writing based on a short film called ‘The Piano Player’. Toby came to show me his prize from a recent fencing competition in Durham.
A big congratulation and well done to Max , Louis and Akinwumi for singing with Newcastle Cathedral choristers at Grey’s Monument to launch the Digital TV switch-over and being pictured in the Chronicle!
Amy and William in Year 2 were sent by their teacher in recognition of excellent writing and completing the long story of ‘The King’s journey’.
Tess in Year 4 was rightly proud of her 400m swimming certificate, as was Polly for being the most improved swimmer at Fenham Pool. Anna in Year 3 and Emma in Year 2 gained their 50m swimming badges and Abbie Nicole in Year 5 showed me her certificate gained for diving in a submarine in the Atlantic Ocean!
Matthew in Year 2 showed me his wonderful plan for a house to protect the 3 little pigs from the big nasty wolf and Minnie in Year 3 brought her huge trophy for Irish dancing into school along with her photographs, crown and sash for being Champion of Champions in 2011.
Lauren in Year 3 gained a distinction in her Grade 1 piano and Ruby in Year 3 has been celebrating her excellent dancing at St Hilda’s church.
Dylan in Reception was so proud to show me his excellent independent writing about the sun and Finley in Year 2 was very proud of his excellent success in spelling tests. Kali showed me her certificate gained for taking part in a sports holiday camp and also her Elf certificate gained at the ‘Elf training school’.
Finally a huge thank you to Ruby in Year 2 for making some wonderful sweets for me as a Christmas present! They were wonderful!
I continue to look forward to hearing from you and your children in the future so that we can share everyone’s success within our school community
PARENT CONSULTATION EVENINGS
Just forward notice that our meetings for you to come and talk to your child’s class teacher about their progress will be held this term on Wednesday 22nd February, Monday 27th February and Wednesday 29th February. More details about booking appointments will be sent out this term but please get these dates into your diaries for these important meetings. During these open evenings governors will be available and we are going to be holding a consultation event in the main entrance so please come and tell us your thoughts and views of what you like about our school and how we can make it even better.
RECEPTION APPLICATION DEADLINE
If you have a child ready to start our Reception classes in September 2012 please make sure your application form is returned to the Civic Centre by Sunday 15th January. We only have 90 places available and demand this year for places is going to be as great as ever judging by the number of parents I have shown around.
WEST JESMOND’S GOT TALENT
As if we didn’t already know this! Our annual talent show event is taking place on Wednesday 8th February from 6 pm. Tickets will be available shortly but it may be another date for your diary.
THANK YOU TO OUR FRIENDS
Finally I just want to say a huge thank you to the ‘Friends of West Jesmond’ for all their wonderful work in the run up to Christmas organising the Shopping Event and Christmas Fair. This fundraising is so important to us and has helped us to order a large ‘Activity Trim Trail’ for the Key Stage 2 yard which we are hoping will be ready for the Summer Term as well as supporting us with improving our reading stock and updating DVD players in certain classrooms.
With my very Best Wishes to you all for another very successful week ahead at West Jesmond
Gary Wallis-Clarke
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
0191 281 0000
