Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear families,

We've had a great start to the term. The children look very smart in their school and PE uniform. We are also at a point where most children in KS1 are bringing a book bag to school. Thank you very much for your continued support with this.

Next Wednesday is our Launching The Vineyard Vision evening, at 7pm. I hope you can come along, have a glass of something to drink (thank you, PTA) and join in our workshop. 

I am sure you will have picked up from the 'meet the teacher' meetings this week that we are having a huge push on reading at home. This is the most valuable homework you can do with your child, and once it becomes routine, it can become very enjoyable! The expectation is that the adult, who reads with the child, fills in a short comment in the reading record books, five times a week. For older children, even though they may read more independently, we ask that families spend a short amount of time discussing with their child what they've been reading. This will enable the adult to complete the reading record. If you have any questions, Mr Jones will be happy to help. He can be contacted via year5@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk.

If you ever have a question or a concern you would like to raise, please speak to me or another member of the senior leadership team at the gate or email me. I am always happy to hear from our families.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Frances

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

How to use the learning bulletins

Going forward, the learning bulletins will be shared at the end of each half-term ready for the beginning of the following term. These contain all the key knowledge and skills that the children will be learning in their next half-term. We hope this will give families an opportunity to look through the topics the children will be covering, together. This can act as a conversation starter around topics your child might like to research further, before starting the topic in school or during the holiday, and your local library will be a great starting point to support this. In addition, if you want to research the topics online, here are some recommended educational websites that you could explore with your child too:

BookTrust illustration classes, ‘read-alongs’, games and quizzes

The National Geographic with information on a whole host of subject areas including the environment, space, animals and world music

BBC Bitesize daily lessons for all ages in core subjects such as English and maths, as well as thousands of free quizzes

NASA For Kids  a great variety of games and craft activities for younger children to enjoy

Natural History Museum games and fact files linked with current exhibitions

Tate Kids an abundance of information about the life and works of a variety of different painters and sculptors

DK Find Out a great learning hub covering 14 main subject areas

We recommend printing the learning bulletin and popping it somewhere in your home that can be seen by all the family.

Learning bulletins

Reception   Year 1   Year 2   Year 3   Year 4   Year 5   Year 6

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

Our Diversity Trees

Since the start of the new term, teachers and children have spent time sharing and learning about each other. We have read a book called 'People Need People' by Benjamin Zephaniah. This has led to interesting conversations about how we care for each other and how we celebrate uniqueness and equal value. In response to this, each class has displayed a tree of celebration that includes a leaf decorated by each child, showing who they love, their languages, flags they identify and other important things in their lives.

Miss Sanchez

Racial Justice Lead 

Music at The Vineyard

Our new instrumental school is up and running, and we delivered 44 lessons in violin, cello, piano and flute to 50 children this week. Thank you for all the support as we get this new venture off the ground! Look out for updates as we add new teachers in the coming weeks.

If you have registered interest in lessons, but not heard anything back, please check your junk email in the first instance. Contact Cath on music@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk for any feedback or queries.

Rocksteady - launches next week!

Rocksteady launches on Monday via an assembly to all children. Sessions will be offered to groups of up to 9 children in mixed year groups. You may already have seen it as an extracurricular option on Friday mornings but it will also be available as an "instrumental" lesson during school hours. Sign ups will be handled directly via Rocksteady.

Attendance

Well done to KS2 for all achieving above 96% - our school target.

Punctuality

Please note the registers are taken at 8.45am. If your child arrives after this time, they are marked as late and miss valuable minutes of learning. Well done to Amber class - no lates this week!

Frances Bracegirdle - headteacher

School Uniform

We want the children at The Vineyard to feel proud to be part of our school and to show pride in their uniform. With that in mind, we would appreciate your support in ensuring your child is wearing the correct uniform each day – both school and PE.

We understand that school clothing can be expensive for families, so we are only asking that the children’s school jumpers and PE t-shirts have The Vineyard logo and other clothing can be plain.

See photos below for correct school uniform for every day and PE days. More details in the uniform policy