Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear all families,

I hope you all had a great half-term break and were able to enjoy the sunny weather. The temperatures are rising! Please ensure your children come to school with a water bottle, a hat and have applied sun cream. If sun cream needs reapplying at lunchtime children will need to do this themselves and use their own cream. 

Walking around the school this morning seeing so many families sharing the children's books was wonderful. There was a fantastic atmosphere - if felt very calm and there were lots of very proud children and adults. Your children have worked so hard during the year.

Thank you to all those who attended the PSHE/RSE parent workshops on Wednesday. The slides are here. They clearly show what your children will be learning in the 'Changing Me' unit this term. If you have any questions do contact your child's class teacher or drop me an email. 

This term is a busy one!  Next week, our Year 1 children will be taking the Phonics Screen Check and Year 4 the Multiplication Check, both are statutory assessments and the PTA summer fair is on Saturday 17th June (please see below for more information). Later in the term, we have Barnes Literary Festival; STEM week (see below); the festival of sport events and the Year 6 performance, to name just a few! The dates for these are all on the website, so please do check them.

There is a real air of excitement around the school for the music talent competition. I am very much looking forward to seeing the children perform. If you have any questions on this please contact your class teacher.

As always, please do speak to me on the gate in the morning or email me if you have any concerns or questions. I am always happy to hear your feedback.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Parent Talk- Monday 19^th June

This will be on  Executive Functioning, delivered by one of our attached Educational Psychologists, Minoushe Grant. These skills are a key part of our learning and regulation toolkit. Executive functioning skills facilitate the behaviours required to plan and achieve goals. The fundamental skills related to executive function include proficiency in adaptable thinking, planning, self-monitoring, self-control, working memory, time management, and organisation. If you would like to attend, please sign up using the Eventbrite link below.

Attendance

The attendance is a bit lower this week than it was last half term. A reminder that term time holidays are not authorised and this really impacts the children's education. Well done to Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 for all having their attendance above our target of 96% A particular well done to Year 4! Keep it up!

- Alice McArdle, Assistant Headteacher

Safeguarding

Water safety: With summer here we want to share with you some charities that work to help reduce the risk of drowning. Here are some helpful resources.

https://capt.org.uk/drowning/

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/safety-on-our-waterways/water-safety-for-teenagers-and-young-people

Mobile Phones: We strongly advise that if you are buying a mobile phone for your child, that you buy a basic phone without Internet access or a camera. We have had several of incidents of children accessing inappropriate content via their smart phone during the year. It is extremely difficult to monitor these phones  and we would strongly encourage this.

Wellbeing at The Vineyard

This week, The Vineyard will be running smileforfive as part of ‘joyful June’. A month to celebrate accessible wellbeing strategies that raise our mood, connect us with others and boost our confidence.

Children can wear their smileforfive badges to school. If any children would like to buy new ones, they can be purchased in cash from the school office from Wednesday 14th.

Ms Reilly, who is a trained mindfulness teacher, will be running mindfulness sessions, including the ‘smile workshop,’ this half term to each class from Reception to Year 6 as part of ‘joyful June’.