IPC

This term has started with the launch of the new IPC curriculum in all year groups. Classes are carrying out their entry points of the new topics and classrooms are being transformed into new learning environments.

This term each class will cover the following:-

Year 1-Sensational

Year 2-We are what we eat

Year 3-Footprints from the past

Year 4-Active Planet and Brainwaves

Year 5-Building a village

Year 6-Here and now, there and then

Year 1- Mars- Sensational

Year 3 – Andromeda

The children were making paper-mâché dinosaur bones and eggs and were also being paleontologists and trying to excavate dinosaur toys buried in plaster of Paris.

Year 6- Here and now there and then.

(Posted by Mrs Green)

Welcome back to a new year at Wrotham Road Primary School, I hope you all had a wonderful summer and managed (despite the grey skies) to have an enjoyable time with your children.

As we start the new year and welcome all our new children, we also welcome a few new members of staff: Mrs Jess Wanmer and Mr Andrew Barlow who join our Year 5 teaching staff, while Mrs Eleanor Denton returns to us from her maternity leave. Unfortunately Mr Lee Sheehan is still unwell and unable to return to us and we wish him a speedy recovery. The Year 5 meet the teacher session that did not take place last term will now be on Friday 14^th September at 3.30 in the Year 5 classrooms.

You will all be receiving the new class curriculum letters from your child’s teacher in the next couple of weeks, this will layout what will be covered over the next term and also inform you about the new IPC topics they will be covering. A list of important dates will also be attached too.

I’m really looking forward to a very positive year with all children arriving at school punctually everyday, in appropriate school uniform and being collected on time each day. The weather forecast looks to be fine for the next week at least, so I hope many of you take this opportunity to walk your children to school and help us reduce unnecessary congestion around the local streets.

Once again, welcome back and I look forward to working in partnership with you over the coming year.

Kindest regard,

Sarah Green

Dates :-

11+- Wednesday 12^th September and Thursday 13th September

PGL - Residential Year 6. 24^th September till 28^th September

Meet the teacher

The children find out their new classes today. After school parents are invited in to spend a brief amount of time in their child's new class, meeting the teacher and finding out about expectations and some of the work to be covered next year.
Each teacher will be giving a 15 minute talk at 3.40, and then again at 4.05pm to give parents with more than one child to visit different classrooms.
Year 5 parent talks will take place in September.

Meetings next week.

A reminder that next Monday, straight after school, there is a meeting in the Main Hall only for Y5 parents whose children are considering sitting the 11+ test in September. We will not be discussing Secondary applications at this meeting. We will hold another meeting in September to inform parents of that process.

Also next week we have our Parent Forum in the Hall on Wednesday at 5pm.
We will be explaining a little about our new International Primary Curriculum that we will launch fully in September, there will also be a chance for parents to look at the units of work that their children will be studying.
As with all Parent Forums there will also be a chance for parents to ask any questions and raise issues around school policy and practice. Although please remember that any specific issues around individual staff, parents or pupils should be addressed with Mrs Green or myself in confidence.

Finally next week we have the PTA Bhangra Night at 6pm on Friday, get your tickets now! £2 for Adults, £1 for children.

Hope to see you there!

Petr Horacek's Blog

After our fantastic visit from Czech Author/Illustrator Petr Horacek, he posted his thoughts of the day and some photos on his own blog:

http://www.petrhoracek.co.uk/blog/

Busy Term Ahead

Lots going on this term, as there always is! The next 5 weeks and 4 days will fly by!

Dates will be confirmed with you all shortly for Sports Days, Summer Shows, Talent Shows, Leaver's Assemblies etc.

As part of the Kent PRIDE Awards we will be nominating 60 children to receive a certificate for their demonstration of the PRIDE Values which are:

Personal Excellence
Respect & Friendship
Inspiration
Determination & Courage
Equality

In addition there will be Bronze, Silver and Gold Medallists chosen from both KS1 and KS2, with the two Gold Medal winners being invited to have their photo taken holding the Olympic Torch when it passes through Gravesend on the 20th July!!
A fantastic, once in a lifetime opportunity!

Our Cricket team are in action on Thursday afternoon at the Bat and Ball, competing to regain their 2010 title of Champions of Gravesham.

Next Monday after school I will hold a meeting for any Y5 parents whose children are considering entering the 11+ test in September- a separate letter and leaflet should be coming home tonight.

Our PTA Bhangra Night is taking place on June 22nd, please come along and support.

Oh, and the Book Fair arrives soon, look out for posters around school for more details.

I told you there was lots going on!

Jubilee Celebrations

Thanks to all who came along and made our Jubilee celebrations truly memorable. I'm sure you'll all agree that the children were wonderful and made it a great, fun afternoon. We hope to share some photos soon via the website.

Eco Cart Video

Eco Cart Race Day

On Sunday our Eco Cart team competed against 23 other teams in an all day event at BAE Rochester. Our team have been working since early 2012 developing and building our cart made largely from recycled materials. We took part in 6 heats and performed extremely well finishing 2nd twice, 3rd twice and 5th twice.
A huge well done to all the drivers, pit crew and helpers. Thanks so much for all the support our parents gave, a special well done to Mrs Phillips and Mrs Robson for organising the team. Thanks also to our engineer Wes who was unable to make race day. Finally, a very special thank you to Mr Gill for stepping in at the last minute as our starter.
The competition is definitely a learning curve, and we improved vastly on our results from last year as we learnt how to squeeze a few extra mph from the Eco Cart. We're looking forward to next year already!!!

PTA Quiz Night

The PTA quiz night on Friday was very well attended and a great deal of fun was had by all who came. Thank you so much to our hard-working PTA for organising this event, a special thanks to Mr Page for being a most excellent quizmaster.
The event raised £185 for PTA funds.
Hope to see many of you at the next event.

Collaboration with Rosherville

We are very proud that Wrotham Road has been recognised as a very successful school, both by Ofsted through our inspection last summer, and by the Local Education Authority. The school has already shared this success by contributing to the development of other local schools through sharing of expertise and best practice by the Senior Management Team and other teachers. 

The Local Education Authority has recently asked for the school to be closely involved in supporting another local school (Rosherville). The Governors have met, discussed the proposal and have agreed that Mr Hovey will act as Executive Headteacher for both Wrotham Road and Rosherville schools for a temporary period of 1 year starting in September. He will have the strategic overview of both schools and will be splitting his time between the two sites, but due to the nature of issues that need addressing in the other school he will initially be spending slightly more time there, with 3 days a week at Rosherville. Both schools will continue as separate schools run by separate Governing Bodies and the arrangement will be closely monitored by both Governing Bodies and the Local Authority.

Mrs Green, will assume a new role as Head of School here at Wrotham Road and will have responsibility for the day-to day running of the school when Mr Hovey is not here. However, Mr Hovey will still be available at Wrotham Road during parent evenings and other school events, as well as being available at times during every week.

The ethos of our school and the drive for continual improvement will remain unchanged.  We are pleased that there will be sharing of best practice by staff from both schools and think that this will be another opportunity for Wrotham Road to develop and for its pupils to benefit.

The Governors believe that the school has the capacity to support another school in this way through sharing the knowledge, expertise and vision that has helped Wrotham Road become the excellent school it is.

There will be a Parents’ Forum meeting on Wednesday 20^th June, 5pm in the main hall at which we will be happy to answer any questions you may have or if you wish to speak to Mr Hovey or Mrs Green please feel free to make an appointment via the School Office.

Ann Walker

Chair of Governors

Kent Children's University

There have been a few delays on issuing the latest batch of passports but they should all be with children now.

This Thursday if children bring their passports to me I will update any stamps from school clubs over the last few weeks.

However, please remember that children can only be issued stamps by clubs and venues that are affiliated to the scheme. I’m afraid I can only give stamps for clubs attended here at Wrotham Road (excluding Breakfast and After School Club).

If you wish your child to gain stamps from other out of school activities such as swimming, Brownies, Cubs, ballet etc then these clubs must affiliate. You can suggest to those club leaders that they contact emma.jenkins@kent.gov.uk who can then go through the affiliation process with them.

We now have enough stamps for all our clubs so children can take their passport to each club they attend in school and collect their stamps then and there. Please remind them if they have a club to take their passport with them.

Some parents had also mentioned that during recent visits to places such as Chatham Dockyard and Leeds Castle (which are affiliated) the staff were unaware of the scheme. I can only assume this was due to new or temp employees who hadn’t been properly informed. KCU have been in touch with such venues to ensure all staff know about the scheme.

Brian Moses Visit

We had a great day today as Brian Moses spent the day with the children. Brian has had over 200 children's poetry books published and visits many schools to perform them with percussive accompaniments.

The children really enjoyed such titles as Walking With My Iguana, Animal Pants and The Budgie Likes To Boogie. Many children left with signed books and all left with great memories.

A huge thank you to the PTA who continue to contribute to our series of inspirational visitors so we can offer it to all children at no cost.

Website

Our new website has just gone live, please check it out at : www.wrothamroadprimary.co.uk

There will be lots more content added over the coming weeks, but it's already looking very impressive.

The Garden

A huge thank you to all of you who have helped develop our allotment over the last couple of years, it really is starting to look fabulous. Many children are already using it regularly and now it is nearly finished most will get many opportunities, especially as the weather improves.
If you would like to help in any way please let us know via the school office.

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 5 at Wrotham Road Primary School, I trust you all had a lovely restful break and didn’t eat too much chocolate!

It was great to see many of you at the weekend lining the streets for the Vaisakhi parade, the children who joined in looked wonderful and really enjoyed the day.

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Craig Stone who starts with us today in a newly created role of Learning Mentor. Craig will be working closely with a number of carefully targeted children offering specific support with their learning. He will work alongside Niki Kellam (our Family Liaison Officer).

I’d also like to welcome Mr Sheehan back, as many of you know he has been unwell for quite some time and will be ‘eased back in gently’! As Andromeda class are now very well settled with Miss White, she will continue as the class teacher for the foreseeable future so as to avoid further upheaval.

Mr Sheehan will initially be on a reduced timetable to enable him to get up to speed on developments at the school that have taken place in his absence. We are glad to see him back, as I’m sure the children will be.

Our new website is nearly ready to launch, just a few minor tweaks and it’ll be available for all to use. 

Diary dates will be published shortly, but in the meantime we are looking for any volunteers who can free anything from 30mins or more this Saturday from 9am to help us do some work on our allotment for the children to use. See flyers around the school for more details.

As always, thank you to most parents who avoid taking any holiday during term time, I hope by July we’ll see really improved overall attendance figures for the school.