Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear Vineyard Families,

Another busy week at school! Starting with the PTA's VineYARD event last Saturday. It really was a wonderful event with many children running stalls, which were selling all sorts of items, such as toys, books, bracelets, hair accessories and cakes. There were also opportunities to have your nails painted or to have a temporary tattoo!  We certainly have some very entrepreneurial children at school. They learnt skills such as: selling, advertising and how to negotiate - I definitely heard some bartering taking place.

Thank you to Mrs Thompson for leading a very informative family workshop on our Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) programme that will be taught in summer 2. We will include the link to the presentation and various resources in next week's newsletter.

I know our wonderful grounds are very tempting to play on at the end of the day, but unfortunately, this is not something we can allow. This is because we have many clubs running after school, which use the space. We are responsible for those children, and it becomes difficult to monitor them, if there are other children playing on the grounds. I ask that you leave promptly at the end of the school day. Please can you remind your children that no balls should be played with at this time either. Thank you for your understanding and support with this.

Lastly, we would love to see our Vineyard families at the May Fair on Saturday 11th on Richmond Green - please come over and visit our stall. In support, some of our year 6 children are making smoothies using a smoothie bike. It would also be great if you could come along with some home-made cakes for us to sell too! 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and don't forget the school is closed on Bank Holiday, Monday 6th May.

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Attendance

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

I understand that sometimes urgent appointments need to be made for the dentist and the doctor. If at all possible, please make appointments outside the school day especially non-urgent ones. 

Punctuality

Well done to GEMs for arriving at school on time every day!

Frances Bracegirdle

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

The Importance of Reading 

Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation between reading proficiency and academic success. Children who read regularly tend to perform better in school, which is why cultivating a love for reading at a young age creates a life-long habit of learning and personal growth. Children who enjoy reading are more likely to continue reading into adulthood, enriching their lives and expanding their horizons. There are also clear benefits to sharing a book together – hearing your child read and reading to your child. It fosters strong bonds between parents and children. Shared reading experiences create opportunities to have meaningful conversations, improve reading skills, develop language acquisition and encourage a positive attitude towards learning.

How to help at home:

• Make time each day to hear your child read
• Read interesting books to your child
• Let your child see you reading
• Provide different genre of books for your child to read
• Record daily reading in their reading record
• Discuss stories using ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions
• Talk about unfamiliar words and their meaning

Thank you to all who have donated books to our library. We are now at capacity, so we don't need any more during the summer term. Thank you.

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

Multi-lingual Learner Support - Word Mats 

Understanding vocabulary is key to accessing lessons. Without an understanding of the words used, vocabulary becomes a barrier to learning for some children. To help combat this, we are focusing on ways to promote the learning of new vocabulary. This half-term, teachers will be sending home word mats for those children who may benefit. At the moment, we have identified geography and science as foci due to the 'word-rich' demands of these disciplines. 

Amy Reilly

Multi-lingual Lead

Earth Day Competition Winners

We were inundated with entries for this poster competition, and we were so impressed with the quality of the work produced by the children across the school. There is clearly a lot of passion for protecting the planet in our Vineyard community!

After much deliberation, the competition winners are…

EYFS: Willoughby Gough 

KS1: Alice Bouverat and Isla Tomas 

LKS2: Oliver Collins 

UKS2: Athena Leung and Elizabeth Parker

These fantastic posters will be displayed around the school to encourage us to use less plastic. Congratulations to the winners!

Photo consent

Thank you for completing the previous data update form. However, we have had to revise the options on the photo consent section due to feedback from families and amendments on safeguarding procedures. We would kindly ask you to complete the updated photo consent form here.

If the form is not completed and returned to us by 24th May, we will assume your consent to use photos and videos has been given.

PTA News