Caring Curious Courageous

Enabling all children to learn and grow

Dear families,

As I write the final newsletter of the term and 2023, there is a real buzz in the air which might be connected to the fact that Father Christmas is paying a visit today. Thank you to the PTA and their helpers for organising this for our youngest children.

The KS2 carol concerts at St Matthias' church were all wonderful and each one slightly different depending on the talents in the year groups. Each one started with a solo performance of Walking in the Air sung by: Nina, Aaryan or Freda and Lily. There were children playing the piano, flute, strings and percussion. Fletcher and Sophia accompanied the year 5 concert on the piano and Maya played a couple of carols in year 6. Year 3 took the role of reading the readings and all the children sang beautifully. Thank you to all the families that joined us for these. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

A group of children from years 3&4 accompanied Miss McArdle and I for a trip to The Alligator's Mouth bookshop. They all chose a book for the library. Despite the rain starting as we left school, it was a great trip which we all enjoyed.

Next week, lessons will continue, KS1 will be performing 'Whoops A Daisy Angel' and on Tuesday the school dinner will be a traditional Christmas dinner. The children are invited to wear their festive jumpers on Tuesday.

If I don't see you, I would like to wish all families that celebrate Christmas a very happy Christmas and for everyone else, I hope you have a good holiday.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

Frances Bracegirdle

Headteacher - headteacher@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk

Safeguarding

Please can we remind all families that stopping cars on the zig-zag lines is against the highway code and is unsafe. Please find a safe place to park your car and walk your child into school. We would recommend parking away from school and taking a small walk. 

Miss McArdle, Assistant headteacher

Lost Property

The last day for collection of lost property is Thursday, 21st December. After that date, all water bottles and packed lunch boxes will be destroyed, clean uniform items will be passed to PTA for sale and the rest taken to a charity shop.

Please mark all uniform with a permanent marker. 

Attendance

Well done to all the year groups getting above 96%! We have noticed a dip in the attendance this week. A reminder that all holidays in term time are unauthorised. From January, we will be introducing fixed penalty notices where fines will be implemented for term-time holidays. 

Miss McArdle- Assistant Headteacher 

Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard

As part of teachers' continued professional development, this week we have been looking at empowering children to talk scientifically. We believe that a child’s ability to talk about science, using the key words and applying these to observations in and outside of school means that children are able to deepen their understanding, get excited about the relevance of science in their own lives and embed the learning into their long term memory. This is supported by recent research carried out by the Education Endowment Foundation who have outlined the importance of focusing particularly on words that have another meaning in everyday life, like attract, repel, pole and force and teaching words that are common across several areas of science, as well as those that are specific to a particular topic. The recommendation encourages creating opportunities for repeated engagement with and use of these new words over time, suggesting building in opportunities to reinforce pupils’ science-specific vocabulary through spoken language, reading and writing.

Suggestions for families to support this at home:

• Look at the science curriculum on our school website
• Identify the science topic your child is focusing on this half term
• Select a new word from key vocabulary to discuss each week
• Use your local library and the school library to take a science book out on this topic and read together as a family

Phonics Screening Check Talk

Thank you to those families that joined our Phonics Screening Check talk this week. As promised, here are the slides. Any questions on how to support your child with their phonics learning, please ask your child’s class teacher or send an email tandl@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk.

Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster 

Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning

Report from the Governors - Autumn term 2023

The Autumn term is a very busy one for governors with a full cycle of meetings in both half-terms.  We also had the added focus of the Ofsted visit and a group of governors met with the Ofsted inspectors when they visited the school.  Antony Cook, our Chair of Governors, has written to you separately on the outcome of the inspection.  We were delighted with the positive feedback to the Ofsted inspectors on their Parent View survey and compared the messages with our own survey back in the summer.  We will be writing to parents on the actions the school has taken in response to the survey next term. 

One of governors’ responsibilities is to review the school’s annual appraisal process.  Governors approved the school’s Pay Policy and Appraisal Policy in September and the Pay Committee met this half-term to make sure that the school has followed these policies.

Governors discussed the successful introduction of GEMS class and the additional demands on the SENCO and team.  The Resources Committee is looking at the utilisation of the school site and examined potential options for the development of the school field – whether this is levelling, fitting drainage and then re-seeding or then installing a multi-use games area for part of the area.  The sports teacher will visit other schools to clarify exactly what we need.  We are also exploring opportunities to share facilities.

We are excited to welcome Amy Reilly, a Year 2 teacher and KS1 phase lead, as an Associate Governor.  Amy will support the School Development & Pupils Committee.  This Committee is meeting next week and will discuss the school’s year group assessment data so far this academic year.  Governors will ensure that all groups of pupils (eg, boys, girls, those with SEND, multilingual speakers, those who are more disadvantaged) make good progress.

We hope that all our families enjoy the winter break and wish you a happy 2024!

PTA News