Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear all families,

The children in Reception are extremely brave. This week they have been holding tarantulas, giant snails, snakes and millipedes. We were very lucky to have a visit from Zoolab which was made possible as a result of financial donations by the families in reception. I am sure that this visit will form a lasting memory for all the children.

On Monday, Antony Cook (chair of governors) and Nicola Rossington (parent governor), introduced themselves to the children in Key Stage Two during assembly. They asked the children about how they keep themselves safe at school and for one thing they would like change if they had the chance. We had some very interesting answers to the second question.

We have extended our celebration assembly on Fridays to include messages from our kindness ambassadors, who are nominated children from each class. Their job is to support children at break and lunchtime. They are noticing children who are doing kind things and sharing these in assembly, so we can share different ways of being kind.

We hope to see many of you at the PTA Coronation party next Friday at 3.15pm.

I hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Attendance

The attendance is looking much better this week. Well done to Year 2, 3 and 4 for brilliant attendance this week! 

Just a reminder that any absences without medical proof are unauthorised. We have noticed lots of children absent today ahead of the bank holiday weekend and without proof, their absence is unauthorised. 

Miss McArdle - Assistant Headteacher

Teaching and learning

Reading

This week, we looked at a variety of reading strategies that children rely on when they are stuck on a word. In particular, we focused on echo reading whereby children repeat back words/phrase and or sentences after hearing an adult read the word/phrase or sentence out loud. This especially supports children in expressing themselves when reading, requiring them to refer to how a character is feeling and/or the emotion depicted in that part of the story. In addition, using inflection for questions marks and raising their voice for a exclamation mark shows that children are able to understand the punctuation to help them comprehend what is happening in the reading. Why not try this at home? Please discuss punctuation over the weekend with your children when reading together and see what they know when it comes to a full-stop, comma, question mark and exclamation mark. Try modelling how your voice changes depending on the punctuation and/or emotion within the story.

Ms Laura Reilly Assistant Headteacher

Donations to Friends of the Vineyard (FoV) Fund

Thank you so much to those who have already donated money to our FoV fund. So far we received £1,270 in total donations plus £201 from gift aid!

Donations for benches

Thank you to all who donated money, so we could buy benches and tables for the children to use at playtimes. Some still need constructing but will be in operation very soon. 

Vineyard Recommended Reads!

We hope you enjoyed the first instalment of Vineyard recommended reads. Today we have our first section completed by a pupil. If your child (of any year group) would like to participate in this section of the newsletter please can they speak to Mr Jones in 6 Garnet class. 

Raffi in 6 Garnet recommends: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy

Reading Age: years 5 - 6+ 

Genre: mystery & fantasy.

The Skulduggery Pleasant series is an amazing book series. It’s full of action and suspense and is a great way for children to explore this genre of books. The book is about a detective called Valkyrie Cain and her mentor Skulduggery Pleasant as they try to defeat evil forces on Earth.

If you fall in love with the first book like I did there are 17 books in the series for you to explore (I am currently on the 7th)! 

Mr Jones, reading lead

Safeguarding

Edibles are sweets which have been infused with cannabis. These are on our streets and in the local secondary schools. Please can you remind your children that they should never accept sweets or anything from someone they don't know.

For further information this website might be useful.

Year 4 Parent Talk Today

Thank you to the families who attended the Multiplication Check talk led by Mr Jackson today. Here are the slides so if you did miss the session, please do read through the slides and ask Mr Jackson if you have any questions. 

Junior Maths Challenge

This week, 67 children from Year 5 and Year 6, and one ambitious child from Year 3 took part in the Junior Maths Challenge. This exciting challenge was designed to get children to think and use their maths knowledge in interesting ways​. We hope that all who took part enjoyed the experience and will continue to use and develop their problem-solving skills. A huge well done to ​all participants, and we look forward to our next mathematical challenge in June for Years 2, 3 and 4.

Mr Jackson, maths lead

A message from the school council - date change due to teacher strike - Thursday 25th May 

CREATE -A- COPTER

On behalf of London’s Air Ambulance Charity, the Student Council need YOUR help. As a school, we are raising money for this charity, to help them buy 2 new helicopters. We are having an exhibition!

You only need £1 to enter! 

Your job is to create a model helicopter! You can create anything: paint a helicopter, make one out of junk, make one out of lego or even bake a helicopter cake! The date of the exhibition will be Thursday 25th May in the library after school. So get creating and fundraising! We can’t wait to see your amazing helicopters!  

Our fundraising page is here.