Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear all families,

It is that wonderful time of the year again when the corridors are filled with the sounds of children practising for nativity plays and Christmas concerts. Please check the dates below and the calendar on the website to find out when your child is taking part - it will be lovely to see as many of you as possible to share this special time of year. The PTA are working hard to organise the Christmas Craft Market. Thank you to all who donated items today.

As part of our diversity work, we have been inviting families to come and talk to the children about the festivals they celebrate at home. So far, in assemblies, we have learnt about Diwali. Next is Hanukkah, in a few weeks time. Please do contact tandl@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk if you would like to get involved too!

It has also been great to see so many families this week attending the family teacher meetings. I hope you have found them useful and have some clear next steps to support your children at home. If you haven't arranged an appointment yet, please contact your class teacher via the year group email address. These meetings play an invaluable role in your child’s education.

We are very proud of the hard work and commitment of our year 6 girls football team and our cross-country team, when taking part in borough competitions this week. They were true ambassadors of The Vineyard. Their behaviour and attitude was exemplary – a fantastic effort!

Thank you to all who attended the nutrition committee meeting last Friday. It is always useful to hear from a wide group of people so we can keep improving our school lunch offer.  Families have been joining their children for lunch over the term and have found a large majority of the meals to be balanced and tasty. We will resume the lunch hall invitation after the holiday.

I would also like to thank you for sending your children in with packed lunches on Wednesday. Luckily, the fault was easy to fix and we were able to resume service on Thursday.

Next week we are celebrating anti-bullying week. On Monday, the children will all attend a workshop delivered by Openview Education. We are finishing the week with Odd Socks Day, which is about celebrating our differences and being proud of our individuality.

If you ever have anything you would like to discuss, please grab me at the gate or email me. Nothing is too small.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Safeguarding

We have updated the safeguarding page on the website. Please take some time to have a look. We have added some information about water safety and dog safety which might be worth sharing with your children.

Miss McArdle - Assistant Headteacher 

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

This term, our RE Lead has been developing a bespoke RE curriculum for The Vineyard children that celebrates and reflects on the diversity of cultures and religions at our school. This will be launched in January, and we look forward to sharing this curriculum at a parent workshop in the Spring term (date soon to follow).

We are very proud of the high ambition and hard work that our subject leads have put into developing our curriculum to ensure it meets the National Curriculum guidelines and provides the scaffold, stretch and challenge that The Vineyard Children need to fully secure the knowledge and understanding that will see them enter secondary school empowered and confident.

Now our bespoke curriculum is almost fully adapted for our children, we can shift the focus onto adapting the delivery within lesson design and assessment for learning, enhancing the teaching through further CPD on adaptive teaching methods. We are really excited about our next chapter of growth and look forward to sharing our teaching and learning approaches going forward in the Spring term at a family workshop.

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

Have you grown out of your jumper? Would you like to buy a new one? Are you ready for Christmas jumper day at school on Wednesday 20th December?

Christmas Nativities and Concerts

We are very excited to welcome you to our upcoming festive concerts. Please note that we can offer two audience spaces per child for any performance. This is due to venue capacity. Thank you for your cooperation in this. Key Stage 2 children are learning a song during which they can wear sunglasses (I’m sure many of your children may have already told you about this!). If you are happy for your child(ren) to bring in some sunglasses, please can they bring them into school on their concert day. The concert dates can all be found in the music newsletter and on the school website/calendar. Key Stage 2 children will wear their school uniforms in St. Matthias Church and Key Stage 1 children can wear a Christmas jumper with their school uniform for their performances in the school hall.

Attendance

Well done to all the classes who achieved over 96% attendance this week.

A big shout-out to year 4 for having the highest attendance.

Ruby class enjoyed the first pizza party today as a reward for 6 weeks with no lates.

Miss McArdle - Assistant Headteacher 

PTA News