Well done for braving the cold weather this week, thankfully it is likely to be a bit warmer in the coming days albeit wetter! Year 2 had a wonderful trip to St Paul's learning more about the Great Fire of London - one of my favourite learning topics!
Reading has been a focus this week in our assemblies, discussing whether real books or e-books are preferred. Mrs Rautenbach also delivered our first reading cafe to year 2 parents and I was delighted to see how well-supported the session was and I sincerely hope you found it useful to help you at home to encourage and enjoy the reading experience with your child. I also attended the Bromley Headteacher's Conference and listened to a presentation about AI in education and what the future holds. The one thing that is still very much needed is the ability to read and explain what you would like it to do. Year 3 parents have the chance to attend the reading cafe next Tuesday at 2:30 in the canteen. Please do join us if you can.
Attendance remains a key priority for us as a school and I am pleased to see it improving. I introduced our new Attendance World Cup in assembly and the winning class will get a free school trip. Sometimes percentages can be misunderstood but a two-week holiday in term time means that your child will have missed 50 hours of learning new things and not everything is repeated. Having broken attendance (a day off every week or fortnight) means five hours of missed learning but they will also struggle to understand the work they do when they return because our lessons are taught in progressive sequences. The National data on poor attendance and the direct link to lower school results and even lower engagement with the world or work is very clear to see. Let us all help our children to get into good habits on school attendance.
Our club attendance dropped over the Autumn term but we do now have new options for Futsal and Karate. Please do support the clubs as with low attendance they won't continue. If payments are a struggle but you would like to attend, please contact us and we will see how we can help. Being part of extracurricular activity also has a positive impact on school outcomes just like attendance.
Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
