Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear families,

I hope you all had a lovely half term holiday - it definitely feels like spring is on its way. 

The children have come back excited for the new term. The desire, by some, to be first in the classroom is inspiring. They have started their new topics in history, R.E. (religious education) and design and technology. Please look out for the learning bulletins, which will be in the newsletter next Friday, as they will inform you about the knowledge your child will be learning in each subject over this half term.

You will have seen the exciting development of our Amphitheatre in the year 3&4 playground. Thank you to the PTA for all their fundrasing which has enabled the school to go ahead with the project and will finish the development of the slope. I am looking forward to seeing the children playing in once it is finished - lots of scope for imaginative role play.

Next week, we have the family teacher meetings and you should have all been invited to make an appointment to meet your child's classteacher. Email the office if you haven't seen your invite.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Attendance

Well done to all the year groups getting above 96%!! 

Punctuality

The number of lates is generally looking much better, thank you for your support with this. Well done to Emerald and Sapphire class who will have got a pizza slice added to their chart. Hopefully we will have some pizza parties this half term!

Please ensure that if you drop your child late to school that you walk them to the school office to sign in. They should not be left unattended by an adult. 

Miss McArdle- Assistant Headteacher 

Photo Consent

As part of our ongoing attempts to ensure communication between home and school remains clear and consistent we require an information update for your child. It is very important that you complete the form by Wed 28^th Feb. If the form is not completed and returned to us, we will assume your consent to use photos and videos has been given.

Bake Sale Before Half Term

A big thank you to Emerald class families for donating lots of cakes to the cake sale. A child from Emerald class wanted to raise money for NSPCC and we were all amazed to find out we had raised £617!! Thank you to everyone who helped with baking/on the stall/buying and eating the cakes. 

On Saturday 2 March 9:30-11:00 the school playground will be open as part of the Open Schools Fund

Ms Foster will open the lower playground for ‘wheel’ based activities. Children and adults should bring their own bikes, scooters, skateboards, inline skates.

Two Dino bikes will be available for use and weather permitting some ramps for skateboards and bikes will be out.

Alongside the ‘wheels’ a table tennis coach from the Graham Spicer Academy (she already visited us one lunchtime) will be in the learning garden offering adhoc Table Tennis coaching. There will be some equipment available to borrow but you may also bring your own.

Depending on popularity we will rotate time on the tables. Again adults are welcome to join in too!

Moving forwards the Table Tennis (not wheels) will continue every Saturday 9:30-11:00 in the learning garden up until the Summer holidays.

The Open Playground is not a drop off activity. Each child must be directly supervised by an adult on site. The staff are on site to facilitate the play, safeguard, and administer simple first aid.

Open Playground is an opportunity for our Vineyard community to enjoy our ever developing grounds. If you have ideas or suggestions on how this project can develop in the future have your say here.

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard- Feedback and marking

Following our family workshop on feedback and marking last half term, we would like to share the feedback keys used in class with the children. Central to our approach is that teachers feedback and mark alongside children within the writing and maths lesson so that it is live and in the moment and therefore, most effective. For those that need to revisit  the learning through their marking the next day, this is also carried out alongside their class teacher. We also strongly encourage and empower the children to mark their work themselves through self-editing in green pen. This way, children are taught to become masters of their own writing and within maths, evaluate whether the approach they took to a maths question is the most efficient one. Great green highlighters celebrate standout pieces of work and think pink highlighters are used to challenge and/or raise a question by the teachers.

Feedback keys:

• EYFS
• KS1 Year 1
• KS1 Year 2
• KS2

We hope you find this helpful when you look at your children’s books next week.

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

PTA News