Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear families,

Year 6 kicked off the class assemblies this week and did a brilliant job at sorting lost zoo animals into their correct animal group by classifying them using their knowledge of mammals, insects, amphibians, as well as other classification groups. I was very impressed with the scientific vocabulary they have learnt and are able to use correctly.

The school trips are up and running. Year 4 headed off to the Wetlands centre to enhance their learning in both science and geography. This trip brought their learning about living things and biomes to life, which will help the key knowledge stick to their long-term memory. Thank you to all who have made their financial contributions so that such experiences can continue to happen. If you have not managed to yet, please click here to find out more about how you can support. On Thursday afternoon we were visited by the author Cressida Cowell. The children loved her stories and many are excited to read her books.

Thank you to all who came to the PTA AGM, which took place on Wednesday. The committee has been elected, and they are very keen to hear from our school community about fundraising initiatives and ways to ensure a true community spirit at The Vineyard. They would love your help to organise events, both big and small.

Next Tuesday, between 8.45 and 9.15am, the classrooms will be open for you to visit. The children will love showing you the work they have done so far this year. If you can stay for the 'behaviour for learning' workshop (9.15-9.45), then you will find out about our approach to ensuring all children are engaged in the learning in our classrooms.

Please remember, if you ever want to ask a question or chat about a concern, to speak to a member of the team at the gate in the morning or drop me an email.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Frances

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

Thank you to all those families that were able to attend our 'Launching The Vineyard Vision' event, either virtually or face to face. It was wonderful to be able to share all of our fantastic achievements from the last academic year and all of our aims for 2024-25. Please click the image below to read the slides. 

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

Black History 

As part of Black History Month, we will be responding to this year's theme of "Reclaiming Narratives" and in an assembly next week, the children will be honouring the life of an engineer who is an inspiring hero in her community from Kenya, Nzambi Matee. Teachers will take time next week to explore this hero's life. We will also have a whole school assembly where we discuss how diversity and inclusion is a priority at our school and class assemblies to share the Great Big Live Assembly for Black History Month. This will be held by BAFTA-nominated Children's BBC presenter Gemma Hunt, BAFTA-winning 12 year old presenter Jeriah Kibusi and award-winning diversity author, Dr Krish Kandiah OBE, who will be hosting an exciting event talking about Black leaders from around the world and learn about practical things to help make a difference in our communities.

As a school, we feel passionate that celebrating Black history and diversity is not only a short-term focus, but through our curriculum, books and children's experiences, we recognise the need to share the narratives of Black History and culture. Some examples include, Year 2 reading about Mae Jemison's life, inspiring children to persevere in their dreams and support their learning of Space in science lessons, Year 5 read 'Hidden Figures' and write letters to a college who are impacted by segregation. 

We look forward to launching and sharing with the Vineyard families our Racial Justice action plan in a family workshop on the 22^nd of November. More information to follow.

Steph Sanchez

Racial Justice Lead 

Attendance

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

Punctuality

A considerable number of children arrive late for school in the morning. Please can I remind you that the registers are taken at 8.45am, so anyone arriving after this time is marked as late. The first lesson of the day is often phonics or reading, both of which are one of the most important lessons in primary school.

Frances Bracegirdle - headteacher

Reminder: The Vineyard SEND Coffee Morning on Wednesday 16^th October at 9am

On Wednesday 16th October at 9.00-9.30am, Mrs Qualter and Miss Jackson, our school SENcos, are hosting a coffee morning in the library at The Vineyard School. This is a great opportunity to meet the Inclusion Team and find out how you can access their support as well as to meet other parents.

If you would like to attend this coffee morning, please sign up using the link.

Calling all writers! Exciting borough competition opens with prizes to be won!

To support the school's focus on writing this year, we are promoting Arts Richmond's Young Writers' Festival 2024-25. Their competition is open to all who live or go to school in the borough. They are offering a fantastic chance to showcase your writing skills in any form: stories, poems, plays, song lyrics etc.

The theme for this year's competition is 'changes' and this can be interpreted in any way you choose! 

Shortlisted entrants will be special guests at an evening celebration in March 2025 and there are prizes for all winning entries. 

The rules are: 

1. Maximum of 500 words or 25 lines for a poem

2. Deadline is Friday 6th December 2024

3. All entries must be typed (handwritten entries will be disqualified)

4. Strictly one entry per writer

5. Do not write your name on your piece (or it will be disqualified)

6. Age categories are: 'Year 4 and under' and 'Years 5 and 6'

More information can be found here.