Encourage each other and build each other up
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Nurturing the infinite worth of every person through love, respect, perseverance, honesty and forgiveness
Message from the Head...
At the point of writing this newsletter, the children are busy celebrating the end of Mental Health Awareness Week, wearing what makes them happy and taking part in different wellbeing activities in their Value Families. It's been lovely to see all the Value Families back together showing love and respect towards each other. It's certainly been another busy term...Young Voices Concert, collective worship with Rev Denise and Leah from the Lighthouse Trust, Bikeability, a Netball Competition, an Invasion Competition, FOIS Disco, PDET Maths Enrichment Day, Safer Internet Day and Mental Health Awareness Week. Not to mention all the exciting learning units the children have completed this term. At the end of each half term, it's always a special point in the year to reflect on all these positive achievements and to say thank you to all of Team Isham and parents for the continued support. Isham Primary is truly a special place to be. Every visitor always comments on the calm learning environment, how the children have a passion for learning, understand and model our school values and how the singing really does lift the spirits. I'd like to say a special thank you to Team Isham who work so hard ensuring our children really have a wonderful learning journey. I hope you all have a restful half-term break and we look forward to welcoming the children back on Monday 20th February. Encourage each other and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
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Pupil Achievement - Teacher Awards
EYFS/Reception - Ashley - for working super hard at reading.
Year 1 - Leonor - for beautiful handwriting in all her work.
Year 2 - Fischer - for trying really hard in maths morning work.
Year 3 - Alfie - for great recall of mathematical language and fantastic engagement in all learning.
Year 4 - Spencer - for fantastic engagement on all learning and great discussions in Science.
Year 5 - Olivia - for excellent contribution in all subjects.
Year 6 - Oscar - for fantastic use of pathetic fallacy and suspense features.
Parking at School
We have a voluntary one-way system during drop-off and pick-up times. We politely ask that parents enter down Church Street and then follow the road up and out through Middle Street.
Please do not drop-off children outside the school gate in the middle of the road as this is unsafe/dangerous and also blocks the road for other road users.
Please be careful and considerate to pedestrians when driving down Church Street at drop-off/pick-up. Please do not mount the pavements and be mindful of your speed.
Parents can park in a number of places around school:
- The Sorrels
- Fairfield Road
- At the bottom of Church Street, near The Lilacs
- In the Lilacs car park
- On the opposite side of the road to school, against the wall, on Church Street, not opposite zigzags
Please park considerately, please do not block driveways, park on pavement/corners/zigzags/staff car park entrance.
Thank you for your support in keeping everyone safe.
Reporting your child's absence
Please do not email your child's teacher to report an absence. All absences need to be phoned to the school office which is open from 8.30am. We are looking into updating our system with a voicemail system if you ring in earlier! We'll keep you posted when we get this system in place.
Doctor's/Dentist Appointments - We are now required to see evidence of all medical appointments, this can be a text message, email or letter.
Lateness - If you are late dropping your child off to school, please make sure they are safely handed over onto the school premises - please do not leave them to walk down the road and through the gate unattended.
Attendance
Poor punctuality can lead to your child…
● Feeling embarrassed in front of their friends
● Missing the beginning of vital lessons making them fall behind
● Missing important instructions for the rest of the school day
● Learning bad habits which could affect their employability in the future.
Please work with us to provide your child with the best chances of learning by ensuring that they are in school every day and on
School Uniform
School PE Kit - Please go to our school website for the school PE kit expectations: https://www.ishamprimary.org.uk/policies-documents/ The PE kit for both girls and boys is a black sports t-shirt, black shorts or skorts, bottle green hoody, trainers and black tracksuit bottoms.
Trainers - Trainers are to be worn for PE and brought in for non-PE days so they can safely complete the daily mile. Children should not be coming to school in trainers and wearing them for the school day.
Nail Varnish - As part of our school uniform policy, children should not be coming to school wearing nail varnish.
Coats - Please remember to send your child in with a coat every day, thank you.
Name Labels - Please label all clothes, lunch boxes, drinks bottles, etc so if (when) it gets lost it can be easily returned to your child.
The Stickins labels can be purchased from https://www.stikins.co.uk/name-labels/ you just need to enter our code 10571 at the check out where it says school code
The Stamptastic labelling stamp can be accessed from https://bit.ly/STAMPNN141HD and our PTA code is NN141HD
Our Safeguarding Vision
Isham CE Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children. Our school has a child centred and co-ordinated approach to safeguarding. Consequently, safeguarding and child protection is at the forefront of everything we do. We ensure systems are in place that are well promoted, easily understood and easily accessible for children to confidently report any form of abuse or neglect, knowing their concerns will be treated seriously, and knowing they can safely express their views and give feedback.
Our Designated Safeguarding Leads
If you believe that a child in our school may be at risk, please talk to the Designated Safeguarding Lead or one of the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads. These are:
Miss Alexandra Price (Headteacher and Lead DSL) - a.price@isham.pdet.org.uk
Mrs Helen Hughes (Deputy Safeguarding Lead) - h.hughes@isham.pdet.org.uk
If you are worried about a child outside of school time, you can call the local Multi Agency Support Hub (MASH) for advice (anonymously if needs be) on 0300 126 7000 (option 1).
Isham's Wellbeing Team
Mrs Kraftl: I am currently undertaking a six month course to become a fully-trained Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA). This is a nationally recognised role which will enable me to develop and deliver individualised support programmes for children at school. By recognising that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are addressed, my training will enable me to support children in school to understand and regulate their own emotions whilst also respecting the feelings of those around them. Interventions may include topics such as self-esteem, resilience, recognising and managing feelings and friendship skills.
Miss Sturgess: I have recently gained the status of ‘Mental Health Champion,’ after completing a Youth Mental Health First Aid course. It was very insightful and allowed me to gain a deeper sense of what the term ‘mental health’ means. I found learning about the effects of serotonin and dopamine on children and young people fascinating, and now feel much more confident in my abilities to support those who are struggling with their mental health.
Ms Tattersdale: Last week, Miss Sturgess and I attended a one-day training course run by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England. We have First Aiders who give immediate assistance to someone experiencing physical illness or injury, so why not Mental First Aiders who can provide basic care to someone experiencing a mental health issue, before more expert help can be obtained? The course gave me more confidence to recognise a child, adolescent or adult who may be suffering with their mental health and how I can approach them with kindness and listen non-judgementally. The course also helps us to be champions for good mental health, so it was well timed just before we mark Mental Health Week in school!
Mental Health Awareness Week
Children's Mental Health Week: 6th February - 10th February Let’s Connect is about making meaningful connections for all, during Children’s Mental Health Week – and beyond. People thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing.
When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing. And when our need for rewarding social connections is not met, we can sometimes feel isolated and lonely – which can have a negative impact on our mental health.
For Children’s Mental Health Week 2023, we’re encouraging people to connect with others in healthy, rewarding and meaningful ways.
Please watch this video for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb8SDnS-M_M
EYFS: EYFS have been exploring how they and others show their emotions. We looked at lots of photos of people and tried to guess how they were feeling from the expressions on their faces. We sang our own version of “If you’re happy and you know it” but changed each verse to a different emotion, with the children coming up with voices and actions for each one - lots of growling and stamping of feet for ‘angry’! All week we have been filling up our bottle of happiness - a large bottle drawn on paper that the children have been adding drawings and words to (Mrs Hughes added a photo of the Disneyland castle!)
Year 1 & 2: On Monday, Year One and Two had a day focused on children's mental health. To begin, we enjoyed an assembly which celebrated the connections that unite us, as a class, a school, and as part of wider society. In our classroom, we named and described many different emotions, considering the colour each of these might be, and how we react when confronted with them. The children enjoyed reading the book 'Bottled' by Tom and Joe Brassington, which encourages children to share their feelings.
Year 3 & 4: We began our day by considering the question 'what is mental health?'. Children worked in groups to think about how we could define this. We compared mental health and physical health and children reflected on that fact that we cannot always see someone's mental health and that why sometimes its tricky to understand how someone is feeling. We then discussed what we can do to promote a positive mental health and who our trusted people are to share our emotions. We explored the front cover of the book bottled and children considered what the bottle could represent and how this links to our emotions.
Following predicting what the book would be about, children considered different emotions we can feel and we began to explore what they look like. Children created beautiful representations of different emotions in watercolours in their own bottle.
Children then worked in groups to create a piece of writing about an emotion. We considered what does this emotion look like? What does it taste like? What animal could you compare it to? Children created some lovely reflective work during this session
Year 5 & 6: Throughout the week, Year 5/6 have enhanced their knowledge and understanding of mental health through a variation of activities and reflection time. To start off the week, we used a stimulus book 'Bottled', to hook and engage the children. This book represents how feelings can be bottled up and conveys the consequences of when the bottle becomes too full or heavy. The children really enjoyed discussing and analysing the meaning of this book and how it relates to us in many ways. Year 5/6 really excelled as they applied their reading comprehension skills to deep dive into each meaning within the text. Furthermore, to coincide with this year's theme 'Lets Connect', we also considered ways in which we are connected to each other and created a display to show this off. Alongside this, we have participated in PE related activities focusing on working as a team and being joined as one. In addition, we have explored a range of writing styles to describe feelings and emotions, thinking of metaphors and personification to describe them. This has been really effective in allowing the children to synthesise their knowledge and understanding of feelings and what these look like. Overall, we have had a very meaningful week to contribute to the mental health week focus.
Calling all artists! We are holding an art competition again this February, with a prize for each class. All art work will be judged by local artist Louise Berrill.
Your piece of work can be any type of visual art - painting, drawing, sculpture, collage etc. Please bring your entries into school by Friday 24th February. All entries will be available to view in the school hall and winners will be announced on Monday 27th February.
Time to get creative!
World Book Day - Thursday 2nd March
World Book Day Mission: In the UK, nearly 400,000 children don’t have a book of their own. Having access to books and developing a love of reading for pleasure is vital for a child’s future. Our vision is to see more children, from all backgrounds, developing a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and benefitting from the improved life chances this brings them. By making a donation or raising funds for World Book Day, you can help us change lives through a love of books and shared reading.
On World Book Day, Thursday 2nd March, we are inviting children to come to school as their favourite book character. We kindly ask for £1 donations so we can purchase some new books for the children.
Book in a Box Competition is back!
To celebrate our love of books, we are asking children to create their own 'book in a box' based on their favourite book. Please could entries be handed in by Friday 3rd March and the winners will be announced on Monday 6th March. We look forward to your creations!
To confirm, since October 22, the PE curriculum has been remodelled and we have moved to REAL PE. Real PE is a unique, child-centred approach that transforms how we teach PE to include, challenge and support every child. Real PE provides a flexible and progressive whole school curriculum from EYFS to Year 6 and the progression of skills is aligned to the National Curriculum. Real PE focuses on the development of agility, balance and co-ordination, healthy competition and co-operative learning through a unique approach to teaching and learning. Isham is currently working with two leading PE schools within the Trust and further training with Real PE specialists. To complement the fundamental skills taught within Real PE, we have also remodlled our resources to ensure children also have games, dance and gymnastics.
With respect to competitions, we have been able to access a selection through a sports partnership. However, this has proven difficult when venues and dates have been changed last minute. I have raised our concerns regarding the timings of competitions and venues as it impacts our ability to access them. Unfortunately, we do not have a school mini-bus and being able to book transport back from a venue is near impossible when transport is booked out for the secondary school runs. Therefore, we do rely on parents to help pick up or drop off children and appreciate this can be difficult. We are seeking to join a different sports partnership in the next academic year.
This year's Safer Internet Day took place on Tuesday, 7 February 2023. Significantly, it was the 20th edition of the campaign. Over the years, Safer Internet Day has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar. Starting as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005, Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone and is now celebrated in approximately 180 countries and territories worldwide. From cyberbullying to social networking to digital identity, each year Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and current concerns.
With a theme of "Together for a better internet", today calls upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.
As part of Safer Internet Day, we learned about how to stay safe online, including knowing who our trusted adults are, and what is unacceptable behaviour. Many of the children could recall times they'd seen influential people online, often on videos. We noted how these can be both positive and negative experiences, and, if negative, to tell a grownup.
National Online Safety release a weekly guide, #Wake up Wednesday and aim to cover all major social media platforms, apps and issues that children encounter online. This aims to help empower parents with the knowledge to protect their children from the dangers of the internet.
Technology changes at such a rapid pace that it can be hard to keep up with the latest trends. The resources below are an invaluable way of making sure you know as much as your children. You are the first line of defence in keeping your children safe online – our aim is to encourage and support you to become involved in this process so that they are receiving the best protection they can – you can’t eliminate the dangers but you can reduce them!
Please click on the button below:
Parents Evening - 20th & 22nd February 2023
We will be holding a face-to-face Parents Evening on Monday 20th February between 3:30pm - 6:30pm and also on Wednesday 22nd February between 3:30pm - 6:30pm.
To book a parent evening slot with your child’s teacher, please log in at: https://isham.schoolcloud.co.uk/
You will need to log in as the parent who is named as first contact on your child’s school record. If you experience any login access issues, please get in touch with us promptly as appointments do fill quickly. Bookings will close on 19th February at 7:00pm.
Once booked, you will receive an email to confirm your appointment.
We are building our Twitter profile and community this year. Please follow us on @IshamPrimary
A Message from FOIS
FOIS Valentines Disco - Wednesday 8th February
All the children had a fabulous parttyyyyyyy time at the Valentine's Disco! They all looked fab and it was such an enjoyable evening! A special thank you goes to Laura, Louise, Emma. Sarah and Nina for helping with all the refreshments and the organising of the event!
Useful Links for FOIS fundraising extras:
Amazon Smile – on app on website go to settings and follow the instructions to sign up to smile and register with Friends of Isham school then every time you make an amazon purchase they contribute to our charity. Click link for details https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=17337655031&ref=smi_em_disb_mhtp&ref_=pe_4117511_723030001&pldnSite=1
Easy fundraising – sign up via their website www.easyfundraising.org.uk and search/register to support Isham CEVA School – Kettering or follow the link: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ishamprimary/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_medium=clipboard&utm_content=rm-cpl
Stikins Labels - Name Labels For School Clothes. Stick On Name Labels: Stikins. When ordering name labels please use the School Fundraising number 10571 (Isham C of E Primary School) https://www.stikins.co.uk/
Stamptastic – Name stamps for labelling. All purchase give donation to FOIS if you need to enter the PTA code (usually for deluxe packages) it us NN141HD https://bit.ly/STAMPNN141HD
Follow us on Facebook or email us on Fois@ishamprimary.org.uk
Please 'like' our Facebook page as this will keep you up to date on all events: https://www.facebook.com/FOIS-Friends-of-Isham-School-176690376296486/
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Local Community Links: The Isham Quiz
Look out for the Isham Quiz £2.00 each. Sold in support of Isham's defibrillator, which is situated outside the Isham Village Hall. The quiz is available from The Lilac's, Isham School and various Isham society groups. Please contac Kim 07901936041 or Mandy 07799566579. Please support your defibrillator for ongoing insurance and replacements.
Reflection Time...
This week we had two special visits from Rev Denise who discussed with the children how to practice feeling content. This was linked to Philippians 4:11-13. We also had a lovely visit from Leah in the Lighthouse Trust who shared a story linked to our school value of perseverance. The children also listened to the 'The Walls Fall Down: The Battle of Jericho - Joshua 6".
Collective Worship Songs
For musical collective worship, Mr Hole has been recapping on Shine Jesus Shine, God is Good, Lord of the Dance, When I needed a Neighbour, Ask Seek Knock and My Lighthouse.
Dates for your diary
Please look at the calendar on our website to see further ahead: https://www.ishamprimary.org.uk/diary/grid/2021/11/
- Friday 10th February - Last Day of Term
- Monday 20th February - School re-opens to pupils
- Monday 20th February - Parents Evening 3:30pm - 6:30pm - All Year Groups
- Wednesday 22nd February - Parents Evening 3:30pm - 6:30pm - All Year Groups
- Friday 24th February - Final day to submit your Artwork into The Great Isham School Art Competition 2023
- Thursday 2nd March - World Book Day - (Children to dress up as their favourite book character)
- Tuesday 21st March - FOIS Sponsored Event - Sponsored Bounce - More info to follow
- Thursday 30th March - Church Easter Service - 2pm start - all parents invited
- Thursday 30th March - Last Day of Term
- Friday 31st March - Teacher Training Day - School Closed to Pupils
- Monday 17th April - School Re-opens to Pupils
- Monday 1st May - Bank Holiday (School Closed to Pupils)
- Monday 8th May - Bank Holiday (School Closed to Pupils)
- Wednesday 17th May - Celebration of King Charles Coronation 2pm - picnic in the playground
- Saturday 20th May - May Day Gala
- Friday 26th May - Last Day of Term
- Monday 5th June - School Re-opens to Pupils
- Thursday 8th June - Class Photos (no sibling photos)
- Friday 7th July - Whole School Beach Trip! (more info to follow)
- Friday 21st July - Last Day of Term
Credits:
Created with images by etonastenka - "Confetti scattered on the light blue background. Bright dots on the background." • tonktiti - "Close up woman hand hold using smart phone on outdoor park street background." • OSORIOartist - "Desk and chairs in classroom" • dizain - "Wellness apple word cloud with marker, health concept background" • dragonstock - "Woman Holding Paper" • Philip Steury - "Row Of Messy Colorful Paint Brushes And Containers On Isolated White Background - Creativity Concept" • LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS - "Kids holding colorful books near faces isolated on white, banner" • nateejindakum - "Silhouette action sport outdoors of diversity of kids having fun playing soccer football for exercise in community rural area under the twilight sunset sky." • Rawpixel.com - "Social Networking Concept Birds" • Quality Stock Arts - "blur fast moving high speed road business perform concept" • Naypong Studio - "Sports Equipment on wooden background" • somemeans - "Man hand holds musical note treble clef and notes background. Music education concept." • rawpixel - "untitled image"