What a fabulous first half term we have had at St Margaret's. We welcomed our new Reception class who have settled in brilliantly, exploring, investigating and making new friends.
Spending time in all the classrooms, it's great to see how quickly the children across the school have settled into a new year of learning, demonstrating all those values which make the St Margaret's children stand out.
Thank you all for your continued support in ensuring that all your children are able to flourish in school.
Please enjoy taking a peek through our newsletter at just a few of the things happening in school this half term.
Staff News
At the end of the Autumn term Mrs Taylor will be leaving St Margaret's as she embarks on a new and exciting challenge. In the new year she will be taking a lead in setting up an independent specialist provision to help more children access education and thrive in school; an area she is particularly passionate about. Mrs Taylor has been associated with St Margaret's for many years and over the last three years has superbly taught Year 3. Whilst we are sad to see her leave we are excited about what the future will hold for her and the difference she will make for many families in the future.
Over the coming weeks we will outline what the staffing arrangements will be in January 2023 to ensure we continue to build upon the progress Year 3 have made with Mrs Taylor.
Governor News and Welcome
Welcome to the new academic year on behalf of all the governors at St Margaret’s. We would like to extend a warm welcome to all the new children and families who joined us at the beginning of term. It was a joy to watch the very youngest children join the whole school assembled on the playground for a 2 minute’s silence to remember the life of Queen Elizabeth 11. They had only been in school a few days, but the reception children were so well behaved and respectful.
St Margaret’s currently has 11 governors. We have parent governors, staff governors and Foundation governors (people connected with the churches in Stoke Golding). All the governors have different backgrounds and experience, but we work closely with senior leaders in school to fulfil our responsibilities. These include making sure that the school’s Christian ethos underpins all aspects of school life, ensuring high educational standards are set and achieved and making sure the school’s budget is well spent.
Whilst governors are responsible for strategic and long-term decisions about the school, we do not manage it. All the day-to-day decisions for the running of the school are undertaken by Mr Watson, Miss Steele and the staff.
We spend time at the school asking questions, meeting teachers, talking to children and holding formal meetings with senior leaders. This term governors have talked to children about the school’s vision, ‘The roots to grow and the wings to fly’, joined a meeting with the newly formed Collective Worship team, reviewed R.E teaching & learning, reviewed the extra- curricular activities currently on offer and audited the school’s safeguarding practices. We want St Margaret’s to be the best possible place for your children to grow and flourish, achieving their very best.
Wishing you all a happy and relaxing half term holiday.
Sheila Grice (Chair of Governors, on behalf of St Margaret’s Governing Body)
One of the greatest gifts you can give your child...
There can be few things as powerful as regularly reading to your child. It has astonishing benefits for children: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. Giving a child time and full attention when reading them a story tells them they matter. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves their sleeping patterns. Yet, national statistics show that only 44% of parents read daily to their children between the ages of 5 and 7yrs, with it further reducing as their children get older. These statistics shocked us a little at St. Margaret's and we wanted to take a moment to remind parents about the importance of them reading for pleasure with their children at home.
You can read to your child as well as them reading to you. This is a great way to allow your child to access more advanced texts which then can develop discussion around language, plot and overall enjoyment of narratives. It is important that as our children are 'learning to read' they also have lots of opportunities to read for pleasure. That is why in KS1, we send home a phonics book to help children learn to read as well as a book to enjoy reading for pleasure. In KS2 we encourage our children to choose texts from the library for enjoyment alongside our school 100 book challenge.
Reading is a great habit. A habit which not only will aid your child academically, but will also aid your child's enjoyment and wellbeing. Like all habits, it needs repetition and regularity to establish itself. Because it needs quiet time, and our lives today are very short of this, parents need to create it for their children. This means consciously making time and keeping interruptions to a minimum.
The earlier parents can start a reading routine and culture at home the better, as it allows the maximum time for their child to grow up with reading and for the love to take root, grow and become part of their life. And what an enriched life that will be. If you need any guidance about the books your child would enjoy reading for pleasure at home, please speak to your child's class teacher.
Harvest
Chris from Hinckley Foodbank visited school as we began to think about our own harvest festivals. He talked to the children about how any donations from school made to the Hinckley Foodbank would mean that they could pack up many more 3 day food parcels for families struggling to put food on the table. We (and they) have been absolutely blown away by your generosity in donating gifts. Hinckley food bank were incredibly touched by the amount of donations and the difference they would make.
Thank you!
Harvest Festival
Whilst the children continued to reflect and think about their donations to the food bank, they also prepared to deliver the harvest worship in church.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 loved performing for their parents in the KS1 harvest.
Whilst Year 4 were brilliant in sharing the importance of harvest with KS2 and the year 4 parents.
How fabulous it is to be back in church and celebrating with you all!
Reception
We welcomed 27 new children into our reception class this year. We are extremely proud of how quickly they have settled in, adapting to the routines of school, whilst learning about what makes St Margaret's children so special. They are demonstrating what super friends they are to each other, supporting each other and persevering, whilst helping each other to make good choices and to always be kind. What a joy they all are - they make us all smile and laugh every day!
Take a look at some of the learning through play that has taken place already this term.
Year 2
Year 2 have been exploring the different microhabitats that can be found in our school grounds. They did close looking through magnifying glasses and made notes of what creatures they discovered as well as describing what the microhabitat was like. We have some budding scientists in the making.
The children have been learning about instruction texts linked to our English topic 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' and followed some instructions to create their own tiger masks. They then had to write the instructions using imperative verbs because Mrs Newark lost the instructions.
During lunchtime, Dima has been utilising the different activities organised for the children and he has spent a lot of time creating models out of the construction kits. He made a car that moves and had a boot that was hinged and opened.
Year 4
Year 4 took part in a Roman themed day this half term. They learnt all about the expanding Roman Empire, why Emperor Claudius wanted to invade Britain and how and why the Roman army were so infamous. They made and decorated Roman shields and took part in some army training, before meeting Boudicca and hearing her empowering speech. We heard how badly the Romans had treated her since the death of her husband, how her and her Celtic army outnumbered the Roman soldiers almost 20-1 and how determined they were to win back their land! But Year 4 did a great job defending themselves against the Celts in a Roman tortoise (testudo) and they successfully managed to defeat Boudicca and conquer Britain. Well done Year 4!
Year 5
Year 5 have had an ‘out of this world’ trip to the Space Centre in Leicester. Whilst there, the children were able to explore 6 different interactive galaxies. In the ‘Home’ area, they looked at satellites and our impact on our planet. The Rocket Tower, home to the Blue Streak and Thor Able Rockets, was a steep climb at 42 metres high. Next was ‘Into Space’ where the children took a tour into space before coming face to face with astronauts, spacesuits and ‘flew’ their own rocket. The Space Oddities gallery showcased some hidden treasures, including a piece of moon rock and then we got to explore our Solar System and find out more about the planets. Lots of children enjoyed ‘The Universe’ and crawling through ‘the wormhole’ but one of the favourites of the day was definitely the planetarium. We sat back and enjoyed a tour of the night sky, the constellations and zoomed out of our galaxy and contemplated life beyond our Solar System! Everyone had a great day!
Red Ridge
Year 5 and 6 started the academic year with a fabulous residential trip to the Red Ridge centre in Wales. The children enjoyed a week of outward bounds activities and were wonderful ambassadors for our school. They had the opportunity to take part in rock climbing, abseiling, caving and kayaking. The children showed our school values of perseverance, friendship and thankfulness throughout the week and were a pleasure to take away. A big thank you to all the St. Margaret's staff who gave up a week of their own to take the children. We have been visiting the Red Ridge centre for many years as a school and have already provisionally booked the trip for our year 5 and 6s of 2024!
Cross Country
This term, we have had two fabulous cross country events and it has been great to see our cross country team growing! Our first event, at Prestwold, was very early on in the term but we had some eager racers turn out for it. It was great to even see some Year 5 and 6 children make it despite having only returned from residential the night before! This month, we have had a more local race in Groby, where we had a super number of new runners join the team. All the children have shown super perseverance and a huge level of enjoyment. Well done to all of our runners - you should be proud of your efforts!