Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear Families,

I hope you have had a good couple of weeks. It has been as busy as ever at school. This week, we were delighted to see so many of you at our two family workshops: one to launch our new snack policy, and the other to introduce Bourne Education Trust to everyone.

Next week, we invite you to join us for the Vineyard Vision 2025-26 workshop. This will take place online at 7pm on Wednesday, 1st October. Please join using this link.

In this newsletter, you will find important information about life at school, including:

• Why home learning is important and what it can include
• Celebrating diversity at The Vineyard
• Safeguarding survey for you to complete as part of our safeguarding review
• An invitation to support our Harvest Assembly

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Good luck to the Red Roses in the Women’s World Cup final!

Best wishes,
Frances

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

School gates – opening and closing times

Please note that the main gate opens at 8.35 and closes at 8.45.

For our families who have reception aged children only (4-5 year olds) – Palmerston Gate opens at 8.35 and closes at 8.45.

Safeguarding

This week The Vineyard had a safeguarding audit. Emma Clarke from AfC commented on how the school had a good feeling. Everyone seemed happy; the children said they felt safe and knew who to talk to if they had a worry. 

Emma Clarke has asked if families can complete this survey by Friday 3rd October.

We have also created a Mobile Phone Policy which can be found here. We would encourage all families to read this and talk to their children about it, if they have a phone. 

Miss McArdle, Assistant Headteacher

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

Home learning is an important extension of school learning, helping children to build good study habits and deepen their understanding. Homework for all pupils includes reading and spelling/phonics, with Year 5 and 6 also having a weekly maths task. You can find our updated policy here.

There is also a great opportunity for families to engage further with their child’s home learning—whether by discussing what they’ve learned over dinner or on the journey home, by visiting the local library to explore books on related topics, or by planning a family outing linked to one of their topics.

Reading remains the top priority for all children, and making time to talk about, and share books together can make it even more meaningful and enjoyable for your child. Research says reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ level of education. It has been proved that children who leave primary as strong readers go on to have more academic success and better career outcomes. This is why we value reading so highly at The Vineyard and why daily reading is the key part of homework.  

In our updated home learning policy, we have added some suggestions of useful resources that families might find useful if they are looking for some further practice for their child.

Useful Resources to Support Home Learning 

CGP (workbooks and revision guides) https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/all-products 

Oxford Owl (activity ideas, e-library) https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/

BBC Bitesize https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary 

Scholastic Home Learning https://www.scholastic.co.uk/learn-at-home 

Big Little Foxes (phonics) https://www.youtube.com/c/littlebigfoxes 

Writing Repeater (handwriting practice) https://edu-tools.github.io/ 

Schofield and Sims (workbooks and revision guides) https://www.schofieldandsims.co.uk/ 

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

The Mental Health Support Team, Purple Elephant and Young Carers will all be joining us. Please do come along if you would like to find out more or have any questions. All families welcome. 

Miss McArdle & Mrs Reilly – Assistant Headteachers

Celebrating Diversity Displays Around the School

We are proud to share our beautiful hot air balloon display, created by all the children to celebrate the rich diversity within our school community. Each child designed a flag representing their heritage, background, or identity, which has been added to the balloon – a powerful symbol of unity and togetherness. Just like a hot air balloon rises when all parts work together, our school is lifted by the unique contributions of every child. We hope you will get the chance to spot these around school at some point!

Black History Month – Celebrating Together

As a school, we are committed to celebrating Black history throughout the year as part of our curriculum. In addition to this ongoing work, we’re excited to be taking part in Black History Month this October with a range of meaningful and inspiring activities. Under the theme “Standing Firm in Power and Pride,” children across the school will explore the lives and achievements of influential Black figures through stories, research, art, and discussion. Key stage 2 pupils will research leaders, pioneers, and activists, create portraits, and present their findings in assemblies, while Key stage 1 and Reception aged children will enjoy stories and conversations celebrating Black heritage. We’ll also launch the month with a whole-school assembly, re-sharing the word heritage and understanding it’s meaning, and finish with a special performance workshop in early November. We look forward to celebrating together and continuing these important conversations throughout the year.

Steph Sanchez

Racial Justice Lead 

Help Needed for our Harvest Assembly - Tuesday 21st October

We are looking forward to celebrating Harvest festival again this year with special assemblies on Tuesday 21st October. It is a time to be especially thankful for the food we have and to celebrate kindness.  We would love help with our assemblies and invite any parents/carers to get in touch if they are interested. For example it could be to share a story about harvest and your traditions or to talk about a crop and how it is harvested. Please email us at info@ with the subject line "FAO RE Leads Harvest Festival." 

Mrs Brindley and Miss Rahman