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Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Friday 15th September 2023 

Dear all families,

As we come to the end of our first full week of term, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to you all. It is not every week (thank goodness) that you receive an urgent message to collect your child from school due to a lack of water. I was very impressed with the speed that the children were collected and appreciate the huge efforts that some of you will have gone to, to make this happen - thank you!

The children have settled back to school well, the learning is underway and the books have been started. There has been a focus on presentation in all the classrooms, and I am very pleased to say that the books I have seen have been very impressive. I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our new families and children who have joined The Vineyard. 

During our first assembly on Monday, the focus was on our value 'caring'. We talked about how the adults' most important job is to keep the children safe because we care about them. Also, how the children can show all adults and each other that they care by showing kindness and good manners. 

A few families mentioned in the parent survey last term that they would like to know more about what their child is learning at school. Last year, we increased the number of opportunities families were invited in to school to look at their child's books, which will continue this year. We are also introducing a half-termly learning bulletin. These will include the key knowledge and vocabulary the children will learn in each curriculum area. Autumn 1 will be out next Friday.

Please do keep an eye on the website calendar and the dates at the end of the newsletter. One date to note is the Pyjama reading day next Friday 22nd September. Mr Jones is launching this in assembly on Monday.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk


Communication 

If you did not receive a text message on Wednesday to inform you about the school closure, please contact the office as soon as possible.

Please ensure the office have at least three people's contact details on your child's records. It is vital that we can quickly contact every family in an emergency.

The school is having a few email issues. Please check your spam mailbox and follow up with the school if you don't receive a response to an email that you have sent.

ISEB tests for 11+ entrance exams 2023/24

We will be hosting the ISEB tests on 11th November at 9am. Families can register their child now.

All the information can be found here: https://info.iseb.co.uk/cpt-parents-guardians The fee will be £150. If you are interested, please ensure you have set everything up on ISEB nearer the time and email me. We will be adding your fee to Schoolmoney soon.

Miss McArdle- Assistant Headteacher 


Music Tuition

Totally RAD are coming to The Vineyard School!

RAD believe that whatever the skill level or budget, all children deserve access to exceptional music tuition.

Our highly skilled network of professional musicians provide next-level tuition for the next generation of talent, no matter the location, budget or capability.

Provided on-site at school, and at a highly-competitive rate; with RAD, students can experience expert music tuition that helps them sharpen skills, express creativity, and dream BIG, with no disruption or stress – all from the very best in the business.

For more information, and to sign-up your child to RAD lessons, just use the following link; we’ll do the rest.

SIGN ME UP

Miss Bracegirdle


Teaching and learning

Developing effective talk partners in the classroom

Research shows that spending more class time on meaningful dialogue that encourages pupils to reason, discuss, speculate, argue and explain, rather than simply give the expected answers can boost primary pupils' outcomes. The ability to communicate effectively is an essential ingredient to both success in school and beyond.

The staff CPD (continued professional development) session this week was focused on how to develop effective talk partners by encouraging children to take the role of 'listener' and 'speaker'.  Children will be encouraged to use the key vocabulary highlighted for the lesson and be given sentence stems to support those who would benefit from a place to start their talking. This technique also helps the teacher assess whether children have completely understood the learning for that lesson.

Here are some sentence stems you could try out at home when having a discussion:

  • I think      
  • I believe         
  • I prefer                
  • I feel                     
  • I agree because           
  • I disagree because          
  • This is because                          
  • In my opinion

Ms Reilly & Mrs Dempster- AHT Teaching & Learning


Meet the teacher

Thank you for attending the meet the teacher sessions this week (Y6 next Monday and Onyx Thursday 21st). Please find the links to the sideshows here:

Year 1, Year 2, Year 4, Year 5

Year 3 has been rescheduled to 22.09.23 at 2.45pm.

Applying to Secondary School 

Please find the AfC transfer to secondary school presentation here. You will find links to the Richmond's Secondary Schools guide and Richmond schools' brochure.

If you have any questions please email richmond.admissions@

achievingforchildren.org.uk for support.


Fundraising Success!

Well done to Uma, Layla and Gia who raised and incredible £310.85 through their cake and ice lolly sale last time. The money was sent to Home-Start RKH who are very pleased and thankful for the donation.

Coffee Morning for SEND families

We are hosting a coffee morning for families with children who have special educational needs. You have received an email inviting you along.

Thursday 21st September at 2.30pm.

Please come along if you can.


Attendance

Year 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 have made an  excellent start to the year smashing our target of 96% - well done!

Miss McArdle- Assistant Headteacher 


Developing the love of reading at school

The library is now going to be used for reading only at lunchtimes, and a sprinkling of chess! So far this has been very popular, and it will also help our drive to foster the love of reading across the school. Any child is welcome to visit the library at anytime during lunch.

Family reading time

The library is open for families to use after school on Thursday evenings between 3.15 and 4.30pm. Please do come along and enjoy some stories as a family - all welcome.

 


14 Sep 2023
Vineyard Recommended Reads
Looking for something to read? 
Read more

Considerate parking

Please be thoughtful about where you park while you are dropping off and picking up at school. This week, one of our families blocked a resident's driveway. That resident has called the council to ask for more parking attendants to patrol during these times.


PTA News

Come and be a class rep!

New year, new opportunity to shine as a class rep!
 
What do you need to do as a class rep:
- In general, you will be the guardian angel for your class community, being the main link between parents and PTA, also acting as an extra line of communication between the teacher and parents/carers, for example by passing on messages about school trips and events.
- You are the main point of contact for new parents/carers and welcome them to the class/year group.
- You are kindly asked to pass on information from the PTA to other parents about events and initiatives, and to be active, supportive and positive about the PTA activities. You are also expected to encourage and coordinate volunteers from your class to help with fundraising activities.
- You can organise informal social activities for parents and families in your child’s class, ranging from coffee mornings to end-of-year parties.
- You are leading the money collection for your teachers' Christmas and year end gift collection.

This is a great way to be informed about the school, while you can be part of a very supportive and fun class rep network.

Please message pta@vineyardpta.org if you are interested.  

PTA AGM and new committee wanted

We would like to invite every parent and carer of the Vineyard to join us for the next AGM on the 27th September 2023 at 7pm, in the school’s big hall.

According to the Vineyard PTA’s constitution the existing committee has to resign, and the members (which is all of you, parents, carers and teachers) will need to elect a new committee. We will also be discussing the financials, fundraising and events for the past year and ideas for the upcoming year.

As a reminder, the PTA is a registered charity and cannot function if we don’t have a committee, which consists of at least 3 members in the below core roles:

CHAIR(S) - someone(s) to lead the committee and make strategic decisions

TREASURER(S) - someone(s) who has some financial/accounting sense and could be a strict gatekeeper of the money movements, also creating our annual report. This role requires very little day-to-day involvement.

SECRETARY - admin support to the committee, overseeing communication channels

Please consider nominating yourself for either of these roles and email us at pta@vineyardpta.org if you are happy to step up (or need help to decide). It can be as little or as much work as you can/want to put into. Cath and Zsofia are both stepping down this year due to other commitments and to give the opportunity to others to form the PTA, but will be supporting the new committee as much and as long as it is needed.

We will be seeking volunteer members in many different areas - if you have an hour a week or an hour a month to offer to us, and whether you have skills in putting up a shelf, do a bunting, create a partnership strategy or just pick up stuff for us now and then.


14 Sep 2023
UKS2 News
Come and find out what UKS2 have been up to. 
Read more
14 Sep 2023
LKS2 News
Please enter an introduction for your news story here.
Read more
14 Sep 2023
KS1 News
Come and find out what KS1 have been up to here!
Read more
14 Sep 2023
Reception News
A very big week for Reception!
Read more
14 Sep 2023
Music News
Welcome back to school! Here’s to another year of music at The Vineyard
Read more

Y6 Meet the Teacher
2:45pm – 3:15pm
18
September
Prospective Parent Tour
9:30am – 10:30am
19
September
Full Governing Body Meeting
6:00pm – 8:00pm
19
September
SEND parent coffee afternoon
2:30pm – 3:30pm
21
September
Pyjama reading day
All Day
22
September
Individual and sibling photos
All Day
27
September
Resources Governor Committee
7:45am – 9:00am
27
September
PTA AGM
7:00pm – 8:00pm
27
September
Parent Volunteer Training
9:15am – 9:30am
29
September
New Families Coffee Morning
9:15am – 10:15am
06
October
Launching the PSHE and science curriculum to parents
2:15pm – 3:15pm
06
October
Garnet Class Assembly
9:00am – 9:15am
10
October
SDP Governor Committee
6:00pm – 7:00pm
10
October
Jet Class Assembly
9:00am – 9:15am
11
October
Kyanite Class Assembly
9:00am – 9:15am
12
October