Welcome to the very first newsletter from Garden Village Primary Academy.

The vision for Garden Village Primary Academy is ‘Soaring to Excellence’, excellence for the children, the staff, the parents, the school site and links with the wider community. In May 2024, we successfully completed the Ofsted Pre-registration Inspection with the HMI and are now actively planning and preparing for the opening of the school on 3^rd September 2024.

Over the past two weeks, Mrs Hand and I have had the privilege of visiting many of the new Reception children in their pre-school settings. It has been wonderful to meet the children, learn about their interests and excitement about starting school. The children sang to us, allowed us to engage in their play inside and outside; Mrs Hand also had her hair styled by a group of pre-school hair stylers! We are now looking forward to the home visits where we can meet the children again and yourselves. On Wednesday 28^th and Thursday 29^th August, you are invited to a ‘Stay and Play’ session with your child in the morning. A Form to select a time will be emailed separately. There will also be an open evening for the Community to visit GVPA between 3pm-7pm on August 28^th.

Tomlinson’s, the builders, are working incredibly hard to meet the July handover deadline and everything is on track. The utilities are now in, pathways are being laid and even carpets have been fitted to the first floor classrooms. The interior decoration looks amazing!

Thank you to everyone who has responded to the request for information regarding your child’s favourite meals. At Garden Village Primary Academy, every child is entitled to a universal free school dinner so every child will be provided with a school lunch. In the morning, your child will receive a piece of fruit and a drink of milk during their Reception year. Additional snacks, such as pancakes, a slice of toast, crumpets and fruit juice can be purchased; details regarding this to follow shortly. Please remember to check to see if you qualify for additional funding and food vouchers during the school holidays: Apply online - Free School Meals - Staffordshire County Council.

The internal décor of GVPA has been carefully selected to compliment the former and current setting of the wider estate. In line with this, we would like you to vote for the names of the classrooms.  Please speak to your child and decide as a family whether you would like the class names to be tree or birds of prey themed. You can submit your vote using this link: https://forms.office.com/e/Zkhy5UHTEB

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum is currently being written and resources ordered. Miss Matthews has been busy selecting the resources for the new Reception classroom using the information that we have gathered from the nursery/pre-school visits about what your child’s interests are. Here is a preview of the design for the school library.

Information about being “school ready” will be shared during the home visits.

This week, Mrs Hand and I had a wonderful hour visiting Tamworth Bowling Club. We were blown away with the facilities and started to make some great links with the club for bowling opportunities for the children. We even had a go…. I definitely need more practice!

Telephone: 01827 214630

Office Email: office@gardenvillage.fierte.org

Headteacher / SENCO: headteacher@gardenvillage.fierte.org