Latest News

Learning to Learn & the Best of British

Our teacher training day will be spent with colleagues from Lemington Riverside and Waverley Primary Schools. Our teachers will be thinking about 'learning to learn' and begin to emphasise the need to become lifelong learners. Our teachers will be thinking of ways to develop our understanding of how we learn.

As children move through our school we not only want them to be immersed in the ‘new’ formal curriculum but we also want to see them become increasingly aware of their ability to learn; we cannot know what knowledge will be most needed in the future and therefore we should try to encourage pupils to love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.

We believe that ‘learning to learn' is a process of discovery about learning that enables learners to learn more effectively and so become learners for life. At its heart is the belief that learning is learnable.

At our school we therefore offer pupils an awareness of the 5Rs of lifelong learning through our curriculum planning and day to day lessons. The 5Rs of learning are:
 

1. Readiness - this shows in your motivation, curiosity, the belief that you can achieve and that you deserve to be successful.
2. Resourcefulness - characterised by learning with and from others, learning creatively in different ways, being flexible, applying what you have learned.
3. Resilience - this shows in keeping going, learning under stress, and managing your feelings about learning and the people you are learning with.
4. Responsibility - this shows in your self-awareness in learning, taking ownership of your learning, and being able to learn alongside others.
5. Reflection - this shows in looking back, improving your learning and performance, and practising.

We aim to develop the 5Rs in all our pupils so that they can and will continue learning effectively throughout their lives.


British Values
 
This term and in the future we are also thinking about what we consider to be British values and how we make children aware of these values within their curriculum work. At Newburn Manor Primary School these values are reinforced regularly - they are:
 

• democracy
• the rule of law
• individual liberty
• mutual respect
• tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

 
At Newburn Manor Primary School we actively promote these values through our curriculum, school ethos and effective role models.

 

Please collect your child from school by 1.30 pm.  Have a very Merry Christmas from all of the staff and pupils at Newburn Manor Primary School and a Happy New Year.

Please join us for carols at church on Friday Morning.  Service starts at 9.45 am.  Coffee afterwards at school.

We're really looking forward to erecting our new henhouse next Tuesday, 25 November 2014 and welcoming our new hens!  Many thanks to our friends from the fantastic Hen Power project who have been supporting us in this new venture.  To find out more about Hen Power please see this external link: http://www.programsforelderly.com/social-henpower-initiative-equal-arts.php

Tickets for this event are £3 each and are available now, before and after school, from the school office, school yard or Mrs McFadyen. Entrance fee includes juice, hotdog, crisps and a mix-up. There will also be a 'spooky room' to visit if children so wish! We request that children from Reception Class are accompanied at the disco by an adult, although older children are welcome to stay unaccompanied.  This event has been organised by Newburn Manor Primary PTFA Group.

Please come to our Harvest Celebration this Wednesday, 15 October 2014.  We will have assemblies at 10.00 am and 2.00 pm. If possible we would like parents of Years 3 - 6 to attend in the morning and Reception - Year 2 parents in the afternoon. Please arrive no later than 5 minutes before the performance as we will be unable to admit anyone once the children are seated. We will be very grateful for donations of fresh or tinned produce, in order that we can make up small food parcels to deliver to local senior citizens nominated by our pupils.

The proposed strike action by local government and school support staff workers, due to take place on Tuesday, 14 October 2014, has been called off by the unions involved.  The school will therefore open as usual on that day.

We may be closed on Tuesday, 14 October as Unison, Unite and GMB have agreed to strike. This affects support staff in school. We have been advised by the unions that they are in negotiations and may call off the strike. We will let you know by text message as soon as we know the answer. We suggest in the meantime that alternative arrangements are made for childcare in the eventuality of strike action.

We are well underway with another academic year now and I welcome our children and families back to school. I want to particularly welcome our new children and families in Reception and in various classes throughout the school.

The children look so smart in their uniform; we really appreciate your support in ensuring your child has the correct uniform, shoes and equipment.

Last year we had our best overall attendance ever and we hope to make it even better this year; though we are off to a flying start! Fewer families are taking holidays in term time and this makes a big difference to our attendance figures - that and the mild winter we had last year.  I know that it is very difficult for some families not to take holidays in term time, however, due to a change in government legislation I am unable to authorise this absence.

We are currently waiting for some updates to our website and these should be completed soon. There will be a section for achievers of the week; these are the children who amongst other things will receive an ACE badge for Attitude, Commitment or Effort.  This could be for any aspect of school life; as usual we don’t just reward academic achievement.  Please continue to send in the medals, trophies and certificates the children receive in their clubs as we like to acknowledge the effort and hard work our children put into achieving these. We are having a rest from class medals this year as some of the children had lost interest in them.

We were sorry to see our Year 6 pupils leave us in July though they seem to have settled well in their new schools and we wish them well.  You might be interested in our key stage 2 results:

Number of pupils in Year 6: 30
 

LEVEL	OVERALL RWM	READ	WRITE	MATHS	SPAG
4+	93%	100%	97%	93%	87%
4B+	80%	97%	97%	80%	87%
5+	23%	46%	27%	37%	47%
6+	0%	0%	13%	0%	0%
2 LEVEL PROGRESS	100%	100%	100%	100%	0%
3 LEVEL PROGRESS	10%	46%	33% 10% 4LP	37%	0%

We are particularly pleased that all children made expected (2 levels) progress in all subjects and a considerable number made better than expected progress from Key stage 1 (Year2).
If you would like to discuss any aspect of our expectations and approach to National Tests in Year 6, or even an explanation of what our results show, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Mrs Tait.

We have lots of things planned for this year and you will find a list of dates for this term on the website in the calendar section. Your child’s teacher will contact you soon about parent consultation sessions on the evenings of 6^th and 8^th October.

Finally, please help your child to remember PE kit and reading book. If you need any support or information from our Family Support Officer, Julie Ions, do not hesitate to contact us.
I am looking forward to another great year with our children. Thank you again for your continued support.

We hope all of the children have enjoyed their first week back at school as much as we have! Pupils have settled in really well and the new academic year is off to a flying start!