Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear all families,

It was lovely to meet many of our new families this morning at our 'new to The Vineyard coffee morning'. We will be planning more of these, so please do look out for the dates.

Our workshop, this afternoon, which launched the PSHE (personal, social and health education) and science curriculums, was well attended. The links to both presentations are here: PSHE, science. Thank you to Mrs Thompson and Miss Sanchez for all their hard work in ensuring that both curricula fit the needs of The Vineyard children whilst meeting our statutory duties in what we have to teach.

Next Friday there is an opportunity for children to show their families their books. Following this, Mr Jones will be running a reading workshop from 9.15-9.45am in the hall. I would encourage you to join this if you can to find out more about our approach to reading at school. It is so important that, as adults, we model good reading habits for our children to help them develop a love of reading. Research overwhelmingly says that academic success is linked to reading and vocabulary acquisition pre and during primary school.

Please read the information below on outdoor learning at The Vineyard, poetry day and our recommended reads. 

As always, if you have any concerns or questions, please do get in contact with me. We are a partnership, and it is important that you feel able to reach out if you would like to - I may be able to help!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Safeguarding

This week I have spoken with the children about bullying. We discussed how bullying is not an isolated incident but when it happens over and over again. We also talked about how we need to speak to a trusted adult if we feel we are being bullied or if we see someone else being bullied. 

- Miss McArdle, Safeguarding Lead

National Poetry Day 2023 

This week, all classes marked National Poetry Day by bookending the day to celebrate and share poetry. Younger children enjoyed a seasonal nature poem, Conkers. This was brought to life for EYFS children with a tray of conkers that they were encouraged to handle.

Children from Years 3 - 6 looked at a specially-selected poems on this year's theme, Refuge. Years 3 and 4 looked at Kate Wakeling's My Treasures, which reflects on the pleasure and sense of comfort that comes from familiar, yet precious, discovered items : https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poem/my-treasures/ Years 5 and 6 looked at a challenging, impactful poem, Brian Bilston's Refugees: https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poem/refugees-2/ It was a great moment when the children realised the point the poem was making. 

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

Black History Month

This week we have been celebrating black history month within our classroom book corners and in our school library. Children have been choosing books from a diverse range of authors, learning about different cultures from around the world, including the festivals celebrated, the food eaten and the languages spoken. As part of black history month, teachers are reading diverse and representative books during our reading for pleasure time. If your child has any books at home that they feel are connected to their culture/heritage, please feel free to bring them into school, so their class teacher can temporarily share them and include them in our book corner for children to choose to read during this time.

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

Emails to school

We are still experiencing some issues with the emails we are sending. If you don't receive a reply, please check your junk boxes. If you haven't heard anything from school, then please do contact the school.

This is a problem experienced by other schools and Microsoft are working on solving the situations.

A message from Lindi Louw, School Travel Advisor for Richmond

The council has been working with Kings House School to improve the coach facilities and visibility of the school. As part of these works, gateways with buildouts have been proposed near Peldon Passage and Marchmont Road.

A while back we did receive a letter from a local pupil asking for better crossing facilities at Kings Road for pupils walking to the local primary schools either side.

Please can you share this consultation link with your school community. Engineers have confirmed the deadline for making comments has been extended to 20th October 2023 (the webpage is due to be updated to reflect that extension shortly).

PTA News