INAPrimaryNewsletter

26 February 2016

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AnnouncementsHigh Attainers – Parent WorkshopIt was great to see so many parents at the workshop this week. Packs of support materials and suggestions on how to help your child at home were given out and are available on request from the main reception area. Thank you for your continued support!

>>> NewsDear Parents and Carers,

As we break up for the half term, I hope that you al l enjoy a wonderful holiday. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 22nd February!

With best wishes,

Rachel Macfarlane,

Principal

Safeguarding ChildrenAs part of their curriculum, the children learn how to keep themselves safe. The following website has been set up by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to offer parents and schools advice on how to raise safeguarding awareness with children. There is a notable section called ‘The Underwear Rule’ which is of particular support and guidance to parents. The website also offers advice regarding ‘online safety’ and how to obtain support or advice regarding the safeguarding of children.

www.nspcc.org.uk

At INA we have a number of trained staff who are designated to respond to any child protection concerns and to liaise with social services:Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Jo Spencer Vice PrincipalDeputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) Tam Broadway Primary HeadteacherDesignated Child Protection Officer for primary: Heather Rayner Primary Office Manager The INA Safeguarding policy, Child Protection policy and other related policies can be found on the Academy’s website.

Message from the Reception TeachersCould you please send in a baby picture approximately 6 x 4” of your child which can be stuck into their literacy books as part of their ‘Growing’ topic this half term. Please ask your child to write their name and class on the back of it.

Handwriting We are currently having a big push with our handwriting across both Year 1 and Reception. To support your child at home, we ask that you encourage them to write as often and for as many different reasons as possible. This could be helping with the shopping list, writing a letter to a friend or relative, writing out invites to a party, writing about their day or writing down instructions for playing a game etc.

We want the children to take pride in their writing, taking care to try and keep their writing on the line, and neat, working hard on the size of their letters. Every day we remind the children to make sure they use a capital letter for the start of a sentence, and for names of people, places and days of the week and to remember to use a small full stop at the end. Some Year 1 pupils should be encouraged to use question marks and exclamation marks when appropriate and to focus on the accuracy of their spellings.

Message from the Year 1 TeachersLots of the children are coming to school with lace up shoes at the moment; if your child is wearing lace up shoes please can you teach them how to tie them up independently!

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>>> News

Composer of the FortnightFor the next week we will be listening to and learning about Anoushka Shankar as our Composer of the Fortnight. As a suggested activity to support at home, you could gather some facts about Shankar in preparation for the coming weeks. Information can also be found on the following youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CnhcGpmH9Y&list=RD8CnhcGpmH9Y#t=72

Tapestry

Please continue to upload and share any great learning moments with your child at home. It is important that your child’s work includes learning steps from home and school to demonstrate their understanding and development. I am sure you will have some great moments to journal during the half term break. To gain a better understanding of the Early Learning Goals, they are available for you to view on the school website under the Community Tab and Parents Resources.

We have enjoyed a busy first week back after the half term break and the children have shown their excitement in starting their new topics and enrichment clubs this week. This is a short half term but a busy one, so please do check the various key dates below as some dates involve an early closure of the Primary. A parent information sheet has been put into your child’s book bag to help you with ideas on how to support this half term along with information about the topic and what will be covered.

Tam Broadway, Head of Primary

Notice Regarding Breakfast Club and After School Club

Can I please remind you that payment must be made in advance when booking a place for your child to attend either breakfast club or after school club. If you are having any difficulties with your booking, please contact Ms Rayner in the reception office. Thank you.

High Attainers – Parent Workshop

It was great to see so many parents at the workshop this week. Packs of support materials and suggestions on how to help your child at home were given out and are available on request from the main reception area. Thank you for your continued support!

Congratulations Ms AliOn Friday 12th February over 2,000 Ark colleagues from

our network of 34 schools got together in Westminster to learn collaboratively and share ideas. The event also presented us with the opportunity to recognise the hard

work and dedication of some of the staff across the network at an awards ceremony. I am very proud to

announce that Ms Ali was awarded ‘Primary Teaching Assistant - Excellent Teaching Award’ across the whole

primary phase. Very well deserved Ms Ali – Isaac Newton are all very proud of you and the work you do

with our children every day!

Ms Ali receiving her award from Lucy Heller, the CEO for Ark Schools

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Praise and RecognitionClass AmbassadorsEvery half term we award two children from each class the honour of being the class ambassador. Each class teacher has chosen two children from their class to represent them over the course of the half term to welcome visitors to their class and explain some of their learning to them along with helping the staff with other special jobs. A purple pin badge will be presented to the children in assembly which will need to be worn on their uniform every day. Certificates will be given to the children who have represented their class last half term and we thank them for their work in their role.

Well done and congratulations to the following pupils for this half term:

Curie Class – Riya Patel & Yaqoob

Maxwell Class –Prajin Athithiya Raja & Inaaya Islam

Newton Class – Maryam Nawaz & Zayn Miah

Britten Class – Zaynul Bagwan & Kayaan Khan

Fitzgerald Class – Gurkirpa Hunjan & Frank Krupski

Glennie Class – Ayaan Hussain Riaz & Maryam Chowdhury

World Book Day – Thursday 3rd March

World Book Day takes place on Thursday 3rd March and to celebrate the day we would like everyone to dress up as a book character for the day. This may be the time when all those super heroes and princess costumes make their way into the classroom for the day. Please pay your child's class teacher by Tuesday.

Pupils and teachers across the whole Academy will be taking part; we ask that every child pays a £1 contribution which will go towards the buying of new library books.

The children can wear a bought or home-made costume. Costumes can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish, however we must stress that the costume still needs to be practical enough for your child to participate in their everyday learning. It is important that your child is able to explain their character and who they are meant to be.

Small prizes will be given to the most interesting or inventive characters on the day and a World Book Voucher will be given to every child to the value £1. The voucher can be used against the cost of a more expensive book at most leading book stores or be directly exchanged for a pre- selected number of books chosen for World Book Day, also available at leading book stores. For further information regarding the use of the vouchers and the books on offer, please visit the following website.

http://worldbookday.com/books/

We look forward to meeting our fantastic book characters next week.

Learning this Week

Ms Mark brought in some exciting role-play costumes this week.

The Reception children having fun in the Garden Centre role-play area this week as part of their new ‘Growing’ topic. Their classrooms look blooming lovely!

Pay LeadersThis term we have been working hard to improve the quality of lunchtime play for the children. Part of this has involved making sure more games equipment is available for the children to play with each day. One of the huge benefits of being an all-through school is having the Secondary students just next door, so we have been lucky in recruiting some helping hands. Every day two or three Year 10 Play Leaders from the Secondary school help the children learn new games and ensure every child is included. It was lovely to go round the playground this week and see so many children engaged and playing in such great games.

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Every week each teacher chooses two children from their class to receive a certificate in assembly, one in recognition of a child demonstrating our BRIDGES habit of the

week, and the other in recognition of a pupil’s academic effort throughout the week.

Well done to the following children, who have been recognised this week!

Curie Class:

Cameron Palmer – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always putting his thumb patiently on his chest before sharing his ideas!)

Keira Chana – Scholar of the Week (for using her Fred Fingers to write words in phonics!)

Maxwell Class:

Aariz Chaudhry – Headteacher’s Habits Award (for always keeping his ‘magnet eyes’ and ‘listening ears’ on!)

Mohammadou Sillah Marega – Scholar of the Week (for working hard with his sounds to blend and write words!)

Newton Class:

Zara Daykin – Headteacher’ Habits Award (for working hard during numeracy with her partner!)

Maryam Nawaz – Scholar of the Week (for great writing in literacy!)

Britten Class:

Ibrahim Ijaz – Headteacher’ Habits Award (for working independently throughout all of his lessons and organising his table to help other children!)

Khyra Maynard – Scholar of the Week (for working really hard in literacy and organising her group whilst emphasing the use of questions marks!)

Fitzgerald Class:

Khadijah Bukhari – Headteacher’ Habits Award (for being a hard working independent learner!)

Jeevat Palray – Scholar of the Week (for brilliant writing focussing on capital letters!)

Glennie Class:

Rhea Thirumal – Headteacher’ Habits Award (for always walking around the school very sensibly and looking very smart!)

Zakariyah Masters – Scholar of the Week (for fantastic explanations in maths about tens and ones changing when we add 1 or 10!)

The following pupils have received 25 or more merits since September for making good choices and moving up to gold on the class ‘good choice chart’ – this is fantastic achievement. A special ‘bronze’ certificate will be presented during the Celebration and Awards Assembly

Hannah Nakuda CurieMariam Chowdhury GlennieAyaan Hussain Riaz GlennieZaina Hussain FitzgeraldZahraa Aamanee Fitzgerald Zairah Ali Glennie

Headteacher’s LunchWell done to the following pupils that have

been nominated for the Headteacher’s Lunch next week on Thursday 3rd

March, an invitation will be given to the children during our Celebration and Awards

Assembly:

Mohammad Akbar Hussain CurieAliyah Khan CurieSarrinah Begum MaxwellKareem Al Khouli NewtonKisa Fatima BrittenSabah Akram FitzgeraldMaryam Umerji Glennie

Prim

ary Praise and R

ecognition

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Regular attendance is a crucial factor in students’ educational development and ability to achieve their full potential.

At Isaac Newton Academy every student is set the target of 100% attendance.

The class with the highest attendance at the end of every week is awarded the attendance trophy during Friday’s Award & Recognition assembly.

Curie 96.7%

Maxwell 99%

Newton 96.2%

Overall Attendance: 98.1%

Congratulations to Glennie class, who are the winners for this week with 100% and earned themselves some extra play.

National average attendance for primary schools is 96.1%

It is important that the children attend school every day and do not miss any learning. Thank you for your support in ensuring your child is at school every day. We always strive for 100%.

Britten 98.1%

Fitzgerald 98.5%

Glennie 100%

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"We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” Isaac Newton BRIDGES are habits of mind or learning characteristics that develop a pupil's character and learning power and enable him/her to grow into a well-rounded individual and resilient learner.

There are seven BRIDGES habits that we will be working on, which will rotate on a weekly cycle throughout the year. The BRIDGES habit of the week will always be introduced at the beginning of the week during the Monday assembly and reinforced throughout the week across the curriculum. Each class teacher will award a certificate to a pupil that they feel has demonstrated the BRIDGES focus for the week.

Each week we will update you on the BRIDGES habit that will be introduced in the coming week and offer some top tips on how to reinforce the habit at home too. Please also refer to the Primary BRIDGES wheel above

Week commencing 29th February– BraveryAt School:

• Weencouragethechildrentotrynewthingsandexperimenteveryday,whetheritis a food that they have not tried before or new activities that they may not normally choose during the afternoon sessions. • Wealwaysencouragethechildrentohavecouragewhentheyfalloverandhurt themselves and to remain as calm as possible while we help them. • Weaimforallpupilstodemonstratetheirleadershipskillsbyhelpingothers,being smart in their appearance, being kind, having good manners and generally demonstrating all their BRIDGES characteristics. • Weencouragesomeofthequieterpupilstohavethecouragetosharetheirideasin class and to work with optimism and develop a real ‘can do’ attitude.

At Home:

Encourage your child to try as many different things as possible – whether it is food, different enrichment clubs etc. It is important that the pupils are able to try things without worrying about getting it wrong. Help remind your child at home about being smart in their appearance and role-modelling good behaviour through their leadership skills.

Tam Broadway, Head of Primary

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Key Dates for the Spring Term 2016: Primary

Future Key Dates for Spring TermWorld Book Day – Thursday 3rd March

Curie Class Assembly (Curie Class Parents Invited) – Friday 11th March 3.00pm

Primary Reports Sent Home – Friday 18th March

Parent Progress Meetings – Tuesday 22nd March

Celebration and Awards Assembly – Thursday24th March – Times TBC

Last Day of Term – Thursday 24th March – 12.15pm Finish

Future Key Dates for Summer TermBack to School – Monday 11th April

Maxwell Class Assembly (Maxwell Class Parents Invited) – Friday 13th May 3.00pm

Bank Holiday – Monday 2nd May

Coffee Morning with the Head of Primary – Friday 20th May 9.00-10.00am

Half Term Break – Friday 27th May

Back to School – Monday 6th June

Newton Class Assembly (Newton Class Parents Invited) – Friday 17th June 3.00pm

Staff Inset Days – School Closed Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th June

Staff Inset Day – Friday 8th July

Coffee Morning with the Head of Primary – Tuesday 12th July 9.00-10.00am

Reports Sent Home – Friday 15th July

Parent Progress Meetings – Tuesday 19th July

Celebration and Awards Assembly – Wednesday20th July – Times TBC

Last Day of Term – Wednesday 20th July – 12.15pm Finish

Selling of School Uniform – Friday 22nd July