Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear all families,

It has been a quieter week in school following our Ofsted inspection. The staff enjoyed an evening celebrating on Friday – thank you very much for the generous collection our families made.

Mental health is a huge focus in schools at the moment, both for children and staff. In the staff meeting this week, staff discussed what mental health means and brainstormed the things we can do to support our own mental health. We will also be doing this with the children in the next few weeks, when they will take part in a survey which will inform us of our next steps.

'Smile for Five' was a great success and the children are carrying on with the initiative, sharing warm smiles in our corridors and classrooms. The challenge was to share 5 smiles a day with a passer-by in school. All the teachers have found that this has had a positive impact in their classrooms. We are now officially a 'Smile for Five' certified school. We hope this makes its way into your homes, and you can discuss this challenge with your children. For evidence-based research on the science behind our smiles, please use this link.

Smiling Minds is a Mental Health charity that many of our borough psychologists recommend families to use if they wish to practice mindfulness at home. They provide an easy-to-use app, which you can download for free onto your phone. Simply find a quiet place to sit and rest, press play and close your eyes. They last from 2 to 10+ minutes and are adapted for the age of your child/ren. Smiling minds website will explain more.

Finally, I am sorry we had to cancel the flu vaccinations last week. We have rearranged them for December 11th.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Books Bags in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2

We have asked that your child brings a navy book bag to school instead of a rucksack.

Why?

This is because we are unable to store rucksacks. In all three year groups the children’s bags are stored in large plastic boxes and there is not enough space to store rucksacks. Slim book bags fit perfectly into the plastic boxes and the children can access them easily.

Your children need to bring a water bottle, their reading folder and spare underwear, if they are in Reception, to school each day and do not need a larger bag.

The book bag does not need to have The Vineyard logo and The Vineyard rucksacks are too large.

If you have any concerns or questions about this, please email Mrs Dempster using tandl@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Safeguarding

Keeping children safe online with Peter Cowley, Achieving for Children’s Former Online Safety Adviser - 28th November, 8pm

Peter will be talking about online safety. He will specifically address topics to help parents understand the current and emerging risks online and support their children through them. You may be aware that a recent report from the Children’s Commissioner found that by age 13, half of children have seen online pornography. I highly recommend you attend this meeting if you can. Book here. 

Community Book Gifting

As you know, we really enjoy reading at the Vineyard and I hope to be able to pass that onto others less fortunate than ourselves, and the Book Project can help us do that. If you feel you can donate a few books, please bring them to school next week and pop them into the library box at reception. These can only be fiction books and must be in good condition as they will be gifted to the children that receive them. Please see a little more information in the links below, and THANK YOU in advance for your help and generosity.

Nicola, Librarian. 

https://childrensbookproject.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddmCiB_9hlQ

Improving Road Safety

Since autumn 2022, we have been working with the council on improvements to road safety outside our school. Based on responses received from the first consultation, the council is now re consultating on the following:

• The zebra crossing creates confusion and congestion at peak school times;

• A lollipop person/traffic signals should be considered rather than a zebra crossing;

• Loss of parking and poor parent parking;

• The island at the junction of Friars Stiles Road/Richmond Hill is well-used.

Please see the proposed road plan here and you can give your views by emailing the council at trafficandengineering@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk quoting 10013441

School Uniform Black Friday Offer

Please find attached this year's "Black Friday Offer" for your parents, which will give them 15% off School Uniform/Bags etc. 

Can we ask you to circulate this information to your parents as we would hate for them to miss out on our offer as currently not all parents are registered with us.

Please also make them aware that the offer starts on Friday 24^th of the month until Monday 27th and will not be available until that date.

01923 655922 | www.mapac.com | tracey@mapac.net

See our complete uniform range

MUFTI (own clothes) DAY - Friday 24th November

Children can wear their own clothes next Friday in exchange for donations to the Christmas Market. We are looking for donations of:

• Mince pies

• Pom-Bears

• Kids’ juice cartons

Please ensure that all items are nut free and have a use by date after 2nd December.

Thank you!

Odd Socks Day

Next week is Anti Bullying Week across the UK, and we will celebrate through Odd Socks Day on Friday 1st December. All the children need to do is wear odd socks! It’s an opportunity to encourage our children to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique.

PTA News