penhale & newbridge newsletter september 2020 · have also been fantastic – thank you, for...

Penhale & Newbridge Newsletter September 2020

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Message from Mrs Webb

Dear Parents,

This has been the strangest start to a school year that I have ever experienced but everyone has been so

amazing. The children have come into school with beaming smiles and have appeared to be genuinely

pleased to be back. The staff in both schools have been working tirelessly to ensure school is as safe as

possible for everyone and that children settle quickly into the new routines. You as parents and carers

have also been fantastic – thank you, for your understanding when things don’t quite go to plan and for

your kind words of encouragement and support – they really do mean a lot to us. We are all doing our

best to get things right in these strange times and we are constantly reviewing our systems to help us

improve.

Our ‘love of learning’ week has been a great success this week, helping to settle the children back into

routine and redevelop their enthusiasm, confidence and stamina. There has been a whole range of

different learning happening from all across the curriculum areas. I have had children running up to me all

week to tell me about their learning, from retelling ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ in Year 1 to pendulum

painting in Year 6.

Once again, thank you for keeping to the new rules – by working together we can keep the schools as safe

as possible for the whole school community.

Best wishes

Mrs A Webb

Headteacher

Attendance every day matters A reminder to parents/carers to ensure that the schools have the most up-to-date contact details in case

of an emergency. We have been having issues with outdated contact information recently and this could

be to the detriment of your child.

Good school attendance is strongly linked to attainment. Everyday at school provides your child with the

building blocks that form their education. When days of school are missed, gaps begin to develop in their

learning and children begin to fall behind.

Please note the following guidelines regarding attendance: Phone or email school by 9am on the first day of absence Respond quickly to text messages requesting confirmation of absence Make medical/dental appointments out of school hours Do not book holidays in term time- the school WILL NOT authorise holidays, barring exceptional

circumstances If for any reason you do need to request a leave of absence from school for your child/ren, a leave of absence form can be collected from the office. Please note that this form must be returned to the office 10 days before the planned absence in order to give the school time to process it correctly.


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Penhale News

Penhale Lunches Give the school lunches a try. It is also free, nutritionally balanced and you don’t have to make a packed lunch every day - win win! It is not like when we were at school, our lunchtime supervisors gently encourage children to eat but no one has to clear their plate if they don’t like it. Please contact the school office for a from to register for free school meals

Social Distancing

We would like to thank you all for your patience at the start and end of the day when dropping off and

collecting your children. Every day has become easier and more efficient as everybody became used to the

new systems. In the light of new government guidance this week regarding social gatherings of no more

than 6, we need to ask that all parents maintain social distance at the gates. Orange markers have been

painted on the pavement to support this and we urge you to help keep everybody safe and follow the

government guidance of keeping a distance of 1m+.

Please make sure you stick to your child’s arrival and collection time to avoid congestion at the school gates.

Breakfast Club Breakfast club is available every weekday at both Penhale and Newbridge. Breakfast club starts at 8am

and cost £2 per session. To book your child in, or for more information, please contact the school office.

Penhale: 0333 360 2185

Newbridge: 0333 360 2190

Peanut Free Schools We have number children who have servere, potentially life threatening nut allergies.

Not only are they allergic to nuts they cannot tolerate having any substance with nuts in. Please ensure your

child does not bring any nuts or food items to school that have nuts as a listed ingredient.


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Newbridge News

Newbridge Home Learning

We always appreciate the support that you give your children with home learning. We are in the process of

updating the way we set weekly home learning so home learning in books will not be sent home at the

moment; more information will be sent out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please read regularly

with your child, encourage them to complete reading record activities and continue to practise times tables

using Times Tables Rockstars.

Newbridge PE Kit

Please ensure that your child has a PE kit in school on their PE day.

Year 3: Monday and Thursday

Year 4: 4D Monday and Thursday, 4T and 4P Tuesday and Thursday, 4L and 4S Wednesday and Thursday

Year 5: Wednesday and Friday

Year 6: Need a PE kit every day.

Water bottle Please provide your child with a named water bottle for school. We encourage children to drink frequently

throughout the day.

Additionally, please make sure you fill bottles with water only - squash and other flavoured drinks are not

allowed.

Break time Snack

As a healthy school, we encourage children to eat healthy snacks at break. The school tuck shop offers a

range of cereal bars at a cost of 30p each. If you are providing your child with a snack from home please

ensure it is healthy e.g. fruit, cereal bars, raisins, yoghurt-coated raisins etc. Please do not send in crisps,

chocolate, crackers or cake for break.


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What have we been learning?

Year 1 In Year 1 this week, the children have been enjoying acting out "We are going on a Bear Hunt" in various

forms inside the classroom and outside. They enjoyed making their own scenes from the bear hunt story and

we have displayed them in the classroom.

Excellent decorating children, these are amazing!

Year 2

Year 2 have been having a wonderful time this past few days for our Fairy tales and Fables topic.

We have had lots of different fairy tale tasks to complete.

Some activities include, building a bridge for the Gingerbread Man, cracking the code for Mr Wolf, creating

stand up fairy tale characters, porridge tasting and much more!

We are very proud of the way Year 2 have settled back into school.

Nursery What a fantastic first week we have had in nursery! All the children

have loved exploring their new environment and making new friends.

We have been singing lots of nursery rhymes. One of our favourites

is Incy Wincy Spider. If you have a child in nursery, ask them to show

you the actions we have learnt. We look forward to having more

fun next week!


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Year 3

Year 3 have been having a fantastic time learning about famous inventors. We looked at designs by

Leonardo Da Vinci and created our own ambitious inventions, we did some research for the Wright

Brothers about which paper plane design flies the best and we have been inspired by Isambard

Kingdom Brunel to build bridges! Some of our bridges managed to hold up to 500g without falling

down.

T Year 4

This week we have had a love of learning week - learning all about Predators in Year 4. We made

masks of animals and created our own food chains. We also talked about their habitats and did some

leaf rubbing Artwork. We have also been reading Roald Dahls Fantastic Mr Fox and will be creating our

very own predators by the end of the week!


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T Year 5

Year 5 have had a fantastic start to the year. We have been reminding ourselves of how to stay safe under

the new circumstances and the children have adapted brilliantly. They have settled well into their new

classes and all of the adults have been very impressed with their positive attitudes and sensible

behaviour.

We have launched back into our ‘love of learning’ by learning about the ocean. We had a morning full of

craft activities to make our classrooms look a little bit more exciting!

We have been making suncatcher jellyfish, a gigantic octopus, a shipwreck and lots of paper plate turtles

to brighten up the room!

Year 6

This week in year 6, it has been our love of learning

week. Our topic this week has been forces – which we

have loved! Every day, we have participated in science

experiments which have all linked to our topic. In our

first experiment, we had to spin a bottle over our

heads, we did this to show how centripetal force acts

on the water in the bottle. In our second experiment,

we looked at the forces that act on a pendulum, which

we then applied to our artwork. We hung a cup (with a

hole at the bottom) full of paint on a string and swung

it, which then created beautiful patterns on the paper

below. We have had such a fun week and look forward

to the rest of the year.

Lea and Zarah.

penhale & newbridge newsletter september 2020 · have also been fantastic – thank you, for...

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