Dear Parents/Carers,

Safer Internet Day

Next Tuesday (9th) is Safer Internet Day. This is a great opportunity for children in school and at home to learn more about how to use the internet safely. This year's theme is ‘exploring reality in the online world’. 

Please visit the UK Safer Internet Centre for more information for parents and carers -

www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers

Also, just a reminder that the following information can be found via the school website (www.ctk.education):

• NSPCC - Speak out. Stay Safe.
• Think you know
• Childline
• Domestic abuse advice
• Internet safety
• First Response contact details 

Welcome to our New Academic Mentors

The Academic Programme is a new national programme focussed on giving children high quality support and tuition in schools during this pandemic. I would like to welcome our first Academic Mentor, Miss Garrett, who has started working in Year 4. Miss Owers will be joining us after the holiday and will start off by working in Year 3. Our Academic Mentors will be supporting children in school and those learning at home.

Home Learning Links on the School Website

Mrs Buckland and Mr Prichard have added a number of very useful links to support English and Maths. These can be found on the school website, under the Home Learning tab.

Lockdown Home Reading

From Monday, and then every Monday, school reading books can be exchanged for new ones. Please arrive at the reception entrance within your year group time slot and ring the bell. Remember to socially distance and wear face masks, should there be a queue.

We ask you to use your child’s current reading bag to transport them to and from school : this will enable us to establish a full exchange and match books accordingly.

Please place returned books in the collection boxes ready for quarantine. A selection of new books can then be handed out by Mrs Martin or Miss Wakeford. 

• 9.30-10am - Reception
• 10-10.30am - Years 1 and 2
• 11:15-11.45am - Years 3 and 4
• 12am -12.20pm - Years 5 and 6

If you are unsure of using this option or require more texts in the week, there are many books available online. These are found on the classroom google account for your child.

Zoom Meetings

For everybody to get the most out of zoom meetings, can we ask that families avoid too much background noise. We do understand that this can be very tricky, but if we can avoid things like television noise or alarms beeping, it would be very much appreciated. 

A Guide to using Time tables Rockstars and Numbots (a more extensive guide can be found on the school website under home learning)

Time tables Rockstars (TTRS )is a brilliant programme to support your child learning their times tables. Children in Years 3 to 6 use this regularly in school and just 5 minutes a day, if your child is at home, would go a long way towards improving their maths skills. Your child will have a rockstar name and an avatar to personalise. When your child first started the programme it assessed their ability level and set them a series of ‘gigs’ (1 minute of quick fire tables questions). They will move through the tables from the easiest (10s and 2s) to the most difficult. 

Time Table Rock Star BATTLE

Every Wednesday at 1:35pm we will be having a Rockstars BATTLE. This is not only brilliant fun for children and staff, but a link to connect our pupils both at home and in school. It is currently Girls vs Boys and the top 3 in each group will receive a certificate.  

Numbots (Log in details are the same for TTRS and Numbots)

This is a programme for younger children (Reception to Yr2) focusing on the addition and subtraction of numbers to 20. The children follow the programme through with the help of a series of robots.

Languages in School

Recently we reviewed many characteristics of our school community. It was fascinating to find out that we have 25 different languages spoken by children and parents within our school. We know that this incredible diversity gives our children the opportunity to learn so much about each others lives, cultures and beliefs - as always focusing on the Gospel values that bind us.

Headteacher’s Awards

Reception -

• Lilanna for working hard to do her home learning enthusiastically.
• Nicole for doing some amazing writing and for using phonic resources to help her.

Year 1 -  

• Lily B - For being an amazing support to her friends in class and helping them during a science lesson.
• Kamil - For continuing to complete lots of work at home even when he is finding it hard to motivate himself and producing a fantastic boat out of playdough linked to our story of Mr Gumpy’s outing, brilliant detail!

Year 2 -  

• Matty - For making his own picture of Starry Night by Van Gogh.
• Kevin - For working so hard to improve his comprehension skills when reading and for showing an interest in reading non-fiction books.
• Ralf - For his confidence to read aloud  to the children in class.
• Hadi - For trying so hard to engage in our home learning.

Year 3 - 

• Frankie- For joining in with all of Mrs Miller’s phonics lessons on Zoom. Fantastic work!
• Joey- For always completing his home learning and sharing photos of his work with us on Google Classroom. 
• Gavin- For a fantastic improvement in his presentation. Gavin has written a brilliant poem using interesting vocabulary to describe his magic unicorn. 

Year 4 -

• Miley- For completing and sharing a range of home learning work including: beautifully presented maths, fantastic illustrations for wider curriculum activities and for always connecting with her friends and teachers on zoom meetings. 

Year 5 -  

• Gracie - for asking for help when she needed it, for listening to the advice and then using that to solve her fractions problems.
• Marley - for his enthusiastic return to the google classroom and his focus on seeing things through. 
• Deniro and Reggie for independently producing amazing animal fact files.

Year 6

• Ruby and Jayden - for independently producing amazing animal fact files. 
• Anastasia  - for always being so diligent with her learning. She sets the best example of hard work and focus to all her classmates.
• Emmanuel - for consistent engagement, both on zoom and the Google classroom. He takes onboard feedback and is communicating well - great job!

Dates for Diaries

• End of Term 3 - Friday 12 February 2021.
• Term 4 - Monday 22 February 2021 to Thursday 1 April 2021.
• World Book Day - Thursday 4th March
• Term 5 - Monday 19 April 2021 to Friday 28 May 2021.
• Term 6 - Monday 7 June 2021 to Wednesday 21 July 2021. 

Yours sincerely

Matt Condon

Headteacher