Garden Village
Primary Academy
Newsletter

Issue No. 7

15th November 2024

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Headteacher's Message

Welcome back to Autumn Term Two. We are delighted to see how every child has returned to school refreshed and excited about the next stage in their learning journey.

Our attendance continues to be fantastic, 97.5%. Thank you for your support ensuring your child is on time and attends daily - every lesson counts!

This term is the season of many festivals and celebrations. Here is just a snippet of the wonderful learning that has happened over the last two weeks.

Drawing Club

Last week, Miss Matthews chose one of the children’s favourite stories as the stimulus for Drawing Club – Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson: Room on the Broom - BBC iPlayer. The children thoroughly enjoyed joining in with the repetitive phrases and rhyming words and using the challenge word - ‘magnificent’ in their writing and conversations. Mrs Burke was delighted to see so many of the children labelling their drawings using their phonic knowledge.

This week the children have read the Magic Porridge Pot. Drawing Club challenges included writing a guest list for a party and even inventing some new magic spells!

Please remember that there is an Early Writing workshop on 20th November at 6:00pm.

Little Wandle - Phonics and Reading

We are continuing to make amazing progress in our Little Wandle phonic sessions. Mr Hand and Mrs Burke came to watch a lesson last week. Some children read their new phonic book too, independently blending new words, and some children are even starting to read fluently. Every child really enjoys their daily phonic and reading lessons. Last week, Miss Matthews even made a fun game in the outside provision using the squirty water bottles to help us read our tricky words!

Maths

In mathematics, we have been learning about circles and triangles. First, we sorted circles and triangles into sets. Then we used our new knowledge and vocabulary about these shapes to imitate the artwork of the famous Russian artist – Kandinsky and talk about it.

In our number learning, we have been learning about numbers 4 and 5. Miss Matthews invited us to a party where we applied our knowledge of these numbers. We can even say what is one more and/or one less than these numbers.

Bonfire Baking

Remember, remember the 5^th of November… at Garden Village we did because Miss Matthews helped us to make and bake firework biscuits just like Pip makes for us! Our favourite part was getting our fingers sticky when we rubbed the butter into the flour; we then sprinkled the sparkles on the top. The children said they tasted yummy!

Diwali

We have also been learning about Diwali – the festival of light. After reading the story of Dipal’s Diwali, we used various materials to create Rangoli patterns. For many, this was totally new learning. Mrs Guild also helped us to make a diva lamp out of clay. In dance, we learnt some simple movements to tell the story of Diwali.

Remembrance

During the week leading up to the 11^{th of} November, we remembered the brave people who helped us in the past and the brave people who help us today. It was wonderful to see so many children buy and wear a poppy. Last Friday, we had a joint art class with the Nursery children to recreate a poppy display based in Flanders Fields.

Thank you for supporting the British Legion Poppy Appeal.

Fire Engine Visit

On Tuesday 12^th November, Belgrave fire crew brought their fire-engine to GVPA for the Reception and Nursery children to learn about supporting their knowledge of ‘people who help us’. The excitement when the fire-engine drove alongside our classroom, parked in our playground flashing its lights and sirens, was incredible. The crew helped the children hold and spray one of the hoses and every child got to sit in the vehicle and try on a helmet. It was a memorable moment for every child and staff too!

After, we were so inspired, we drew these pictures immediately and gave them to the White Watch fire crew to take back to the station.

Anti-Bullying Week – RESPECT

This week across the country, it is anti-bullying week and the theme this year is – Respect. Respect is one of our Golden Virtues at Garden Village. This week we have focussed on having respect for each other and our school.

The children at Garden Village are developing a wonderful sense of kindness. Throughout the week, they have been applying the key messages from the assembly...

Children in Need

Today was our first experience of supporting the charity Children in Need; we had so much fun raising money for this charity. Thank you for the kind donations. The Just Giving fundraising page will remain open until Monday - just click on the QR code to access it.

Thank you, Pip, for our delicious Pudsey Bear biscuits.

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Message from the Fierte Trust Special Needs Co-ordinator

National Challenges for Special Educational Needs and Impact on Schools

You may have recently been made aware of the news reports highlighting the challenges of the Special Educational Needs provision in England. The National Audit Office (NAO), which is the government’s spending watchdog, recently published a report which argued that many view the special needs education in England as broken and that a whole system of reform is needed. This links to a significant rise of children registered in England with special educational needs (SEN).

Some of the key challenges that parents and schools are facing are related to accessing professional help and support; delays in waiting for specialist assessments and Educational Health and Care Plans (EHCP’s) and the lack of Special Educational Provision.

In all schools across the Fierte Multi-Academy Trust teachers are working hard to support the special educational needs of children against these challenging circumstances. We understand that for many parents it can be incredibly frustrating having to wait for support for your child especially from outside agencies. We are committed to continuing to work in partnership with parents in seeking to support all children and hope that parents can be aware of the limitations that schools are facing which are outside our control.

For further information on this please either contact your SENDCO at your school or contact the Trust Inclusion Leader at inclusionleader@fierte.org

Tamworth Community Update

Dates for your Diary

20th November - Early Writing Parent Workshop

19th and 21st November - Reception 2025 Open Morning (Reception 2025 parents)

22nd November - SEND Individual Learning Plan Review and Target Setting

6th December - Ash End Farm Christmas Nativity Trip

10th and 11th December - Christmas Nativity

12th December - Christmas Jumper Day (Save the Children)

18th December - Christmas Dinner Day

20th December - Christmas Party Day and Last Day of Term

Garden Village Primary Academy News

07 Oct 2024

Reception 2025-26 Open Days and Evenings

Garden Village Primary Academy would like to invite the parents and carers of children who are looking for a Reception class place for September 2025.