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Ingoldsby Update MARCH 2022

Another term has hurtled by and I am so proud of the effort and ambition of so many of our wonderful pupils. We have had another busy term. Here are some of the highlights.

Our pupils are demonstrating the values of our enrichment programme curriculum. We encourage children and adults to:

  • Develop a culture where we take appropriate risks
  • Enable people to work together, in order to achieve more than we could on our own
  • Be proud of our community, our school, our achievements and our peers
  • Show respect for others
  • Build confidence in presentation and performance
  • Express ideas in a creative way
  • Develop healthy habits for life
Performing our solo dance.

Our year 5 and 6 pupils showed amazing dedication and teamwork (not to mention the skill!) at the opera on Friday night. Every pupil was fabulous and showed confidence, professionalism and ability to commit to the group.

A cracking performance!

After taking part in a netball master class the children were buzzing with excitement for the winter cup. Arriving back at school, they were so excited to tell me that they beat Hogsthorpe 11-0! Well done to the fabulous Mrs Bland who was their biggest cheerleader. Mr Green called me that evening absolutely buzzing with pride. The netball team came second! Small but mighty indeed!

KS1 and reception pupils were able to handle a snake.

Falcons and Red Kites had a fabulous day at Woodside Wildlife and Falconry Park. It is lovely to see curiosity, confidence and such respectful handling of the animals.

Apologies if we have missed anyone, absence due to Covid has been high! More photos to come!

This Easter, the dance club/ Joseph choir are performing at St Wulfram's church. What dedication! If you have tickets to watch, take your tissues!!

Year 6 had the opportunity to watch Oliver at Charles Read Academy Trust.

We wore amazing, unique socks on World Down Syndrome Day.

PE at Ingoldsby

As soon as children arrive at Ingoldsby, we focus on supporting children to secure competency of the fundamentals of movement.

When pupils miss out on these important developmental milestones, you might find that they have more accidents when playing or avoid sports. It's important that children then have more opportunity to play outside, join sports clubs and be active.

Each lesson is designed so that pupils develop specific skills, then rules and procedures for a sport then experience joining in a match or game.

Make the most of all opportunities we offer by encouraging your child to join sports or dance clubs after school!

House keeping- please ensure pupils have the correct kit and a PE bag in school.

Update to Covid-19 advice

If a pupil or staff member develops symptoms or has had a positive test result, then they should remain at home and follow the national guidance.

Pupils should return to school as soon as they can, in line with the guidance for People living with Covid-19 and their contacts. This can be accessed via the link above.

Staff in schools are now not expected to continue taking part in regular asymptomatic testing. If a pupil or staff member does display symptoms, they should book in a PCR test and isolate until the result is received.

Every day at school counts!

We are more aware than ever of the importance of being in school everyday that you can. At Ingoldsby, we know that illnesses do happen and that Covid-19 certainly hasn't gone away but we want to support families where we can, if and when absence becomes a problem.

Attendance calculations now include Covid-19 absence so the figure that you see on your app are the correct percentage! I have also looked at calculations with Covid-19 taken out in order to gauge which families may need more support from us as a school.

Across the country, schools have found that some new challenges have emerged since the start of the autumn term 2021. These include:

  • Higher-than-usual numbers of pupils with non-COVID-related illnesses
  • Families that went to red-list countries in the summer to visit family then did not return at the start of term because of the cost of isolating in hotels, or could not afford the flights back
  • Families who say that they have not had a holiday for a long time, so take a holiday, or a previously cancelled holiday, in term time (though some schools are reporting fewer than normal term-time holidays)
  • Parents keeping children home unnecessarily because of proximity to COVID – a relative or another child in a separate class testing positive, for example – and finding it hard to move on from the ‘bubble–isolation mentality’
  • Families isolating before a family event, such as a wedding or a holiday
  • Pupils attending sporadically because of disaffection following the national lockdowns

Some observations and trends we have seen:

  • Where pupils have high levels of absence, catch up has been slower.
  • Where children didn't access online teaching during the lockdown, learning gaps are much wider.

So what can we do?

  • Ensure that your child attends everyday that they can. Talk to us if there are ongoing medical concerns.
  • Remind your child completes their home learning. Make this part of the daily routine. If your child is finding work too hard or too easy, discuss with their teacher so we can look at how this relates to school work.
  • Attend parent progress meetings, reviews and information events.
  • Get in touch if you need advice or support. We can demonstrate reading strategies, help with IT and share what we are doing in school.

Home Learning

  • We have paid for the TT Rockstars app for pupils in y2 and up. This is to promote engagement and increase the speed and accuracy needed for Maths. Daily practice is quick and targeted, personalised to the individual child and gives the teacher feedback.
  • We are reverting to paper reading diaries. These are on order and will be shared with pupils as soon as they arrive in school. Children are expected to read 5 x weekly.
  • Practice spellings from year 1
  • As children get older we may post additional work and challenges for them on Google Classroom.
  • Children taking the 11+ and attending club have access to Atom Learning for home practice and tuition.

We have chosen this approach to homework as we feel that practising the basics have the most impact, the tasks can be completed independently (once children are in a routine), and teachers are not spending time that could be spent teaching, printing out lots of paper and marking.

Parental engagement has a large and positive impact on children’s learning. This was the single most important finding from a recent and authoritative review of the evidence. (DfE)

In June, Y4 pupils will sit the multiplication check.

Learning tables makes the maths in year 5 and 6 accessible. This check shows us how ready pupils are for year 5 maths, where gaps are and what extra work is needed.

TT Rockstars will help prepare for this check.

11+ Reminder- Last day to sign up is tomorrow for those parents who wish their child to take part in the tests for 2023 admissions.

General tips for parents from the Bond website

Verbal reasoning is not taught as part of the National Curriculum in state schools so it’s important to practise these kinds of questions at home. This will build your child’s confidence and help familiarise them with a style of testing that they won’t experience at school.

Here are some ideas for you to try at home in order to help your child prepare for their verbal reasoning 11+ exam.

Year 4 – check up on basic skills during the summer term and use the summer holidays to develop logical thinking and problem solving skills.

  • Play word games such as Scrabble® and complete crosswords to improve your child’s word knowledge
  • Play dictionary games and encourage your child to create anagrams to improve their word sorting skills and test their knowledge of the alphabet
  • Use logic puzzle books and complete numerical problems such as Sudoku to test verbal and numerical logic
  • Use tile shape patterns and jigsaw puzzles, either real or online, to help your child recognise patterns and shapes
  • Play spot the difference games to reinforce their visual understanding

Year 5 – this is the time to start regular 11+ revision and practice. Support your child by:

  • Establishing a regular weekly routine for practice – little and often is usually best
  • Playing word games to further develop their knowledge of vocabulary and synonyms, as well as their logical thinking skills. Suggest a word to your child and ask them to find a word that is opposite then similar to it, or a game where you suggest a pair of words and your child tried to find the common link.
  • Establishing a regular weekly routine for practice – little and often is usually best
  • Ensuring they work through some test papers to get used to both the question types and the exam timings

We will set activities through Atom Learning for those who attend the club or wish to practice at home.

We teach online safety at the start of every computing unit and within PSHE. As part of safer internet day, this week we have encouraged further discussion around staying safe online.

Online gaming is hugely popular with children and young people.

Research conducted by OFCOM shows that gaming is still one of the top activities enjoyed by 5-16 year olds online, with many of them gaming via mobile devices and going online using their games console.

Online safety advice applies to online gaming as risks can be present in the game’s content and chat features.

Conversation starters:

What do you enjoy about online gaming? What benefits does it have for you?

Do you think online gaming can ever have a negative impact on us?

What happens when you’ve been playing online games for too long? What happens to your body, to your mood, and to your device?

What would you do if something ever worried or annoyed you within a game? How would you support others?

Who could you talk to if you were worried about anything within an online game?

We say goodbye to Mr Coates and Ms Fearnley, our student teachers, and wish them luck on their final placements next term.

Miss Gray is rejoining us for her final placement next term alongside Ms Fletcher who is beginning her training in KS1.

We look forward to welcoming pupils back on Tuesday 19th April.

  • 31st April- last day to sign up to take the 11+ (current y5s)
  • 1st April- Last day of term and non school uniform with donations for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal
  • 25th April- School photos
  • 27th April- Those who have booked guitar lessons, these start on this date.
  • 2nd May is a bank holiday
  • 9th May - Year 6 SATS

Happy Easter!

from Mel Capes and all of the Team

Credits:

Created with images by kareni - "tulips flowers garden" • ChrisVanLennepPhoto - "Netball Net Hoop Pole Outdoors" • Happyphotons - "Coronavirus theme background. Multi-colored glowing viral agents. Selective focus." • Olichel - "game remote gamer"