Junior Department News

 

KS2 Swimming – Year 5 take up the baton

This will be the last week of Year 6’s current swimming lessons. 

As of the first week after the half-term break, Year 5 will begin their half-term’s worth of lessons (starting Friday 24^th February).

Year 6 will still have P.E on a Friday, so the children in Years 5 and 6 should please come to school in their uniform and bring their P.E. kits with them.

Year 5 children will require appropriate swimming attire – namely trunks or above-knee-height shorts for the boys and swimming costumes for the girls – as well as swimming hats and towels.

Please note that as a result Year 5 may well return to school slightly later than usual on Fridays due to the time required to return from the swimming pool.

Fabulous 5-a-side Football Fixture!

A squad of eight of our finest young footballers (from Year 5 and below) will soon be selected for the forthcoming 5-a-side indoor football fixture at Quinton House School, which is due to take place on Tuesday 21^st February during the school day. 

More information about this will follow shortly, but we wish the squad the very best of luck and hope that they enjoy the day thoroughly! 

 

Parents and Guardians Evening – Thursday 9^th February, 15:15-18:30

We are very much looking forward to meeting with you next Thursday evening and welcome the opportunity to share in the progress of your children.

If you have not already arranged your appointment, please do so as quickly as possible via your child’s Class Teacher, or the preference slips which are being sent out this week, and our staff will seek to allocate and confirm your time as soon as possible (by the end of Tuesday 07.02.12. at the latest).

Please note that each appointment is due to last 10 minutes and that, so as to facilitate the smooth running of the evening:

• Extended discussions will have to be continued at a later, mutually-convenient time.
• Prefects and Prefects-to-be in Year 6 are asked to attend in best support of the teachers and the parents and guardians attending.

As well as providing an invaluable opportunity for a dialogue between Staff and Parents and Guardians, you can also expect discussions to focus, although not exclusively, upon:

• Current attainment levels, targets and expectations, especially within the CORE subjects of English, Maths. and Science.
• Overall class contribution and behaviour.

Please also note that, due to this event, all of the extra-curricular clubs will be cancelled for the evening and the Tea-Time club will be placed in the dining hall.

 

Thank you.

Assessment Weeks are here again...

As with the weeks leading up to half-term, during the next few days your child may well be sitting several informal assessments so that their teachers may best determine their current progress. 

As I have explained before, please do not see this as a cause for concern or anxiety, but more a vital part of their ongoing development.

We ‘track’ the learning progress of each child in each academic subject throughout the year, with a view to ensuring that we are best placed to inform the children, their teachers and you their parents and guardians how they are doing, where they are aiming for and the best next steps available to get them there. 

This judgement, made each half-term for the Core Subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and ICT, and each term for the remaining subjects, is informed by both the results of the forthcoming assessments and their overall contributions to their class work.

Here our focus is on each child’s progress (their learning in action) and a one-off test can only give us a partial indication of their ongoing learning development. 

The results of this tracking will form the basis of the forthcoming End of Term Grade Reports.

Mulinder’s Mondays

‘Mulinder’s Mondays’ were recently created to enable Mr. Mulinder to spend some quality time listening and talking to the students about THEIR school. 

This is very much an opportunity, with breakfast provided, for each child to feel that they have a voice and to discuss their evolving likes and dislikes with their Head teacher.

We are aware that some children have been disappointed that they have not been invited to ‘Mulinder’s Mondays’ but that other members of the class have.  I would like to explain that EVERY child will be invited but the allocation is in register order on the class lists and we are focusing on one year group each week on a running cycle.  This means that at least six children from each year group will have been seen in the first term rather than all children from just one year group.

We are naturally delighted that ‘Mulinder’s Mondays’ have been successful and that the children are so eager to come.  Long may this excellent opportunity continue.

‘Healthy’ Snacks Reminder

Please note that children wishing to bring in break time snacks should ensure that these are healthy and nutritious so that we may continue to act in line with the school’s ‘Healthy Eating Status’. 

Children bringing in confectionery, crisps, pizza slices etc. may well be asked to keep such snacks in their bags until they return home and, for the remainder of this term, will be offered a piece of fruit and a fruit juice as an alternative for that day.

Electronic Items and Gadgets Reminder

Please also note that children are not encouraged or permitted to bring expensive items with them to school on any day, including Fridays for Golden Time. 

Such costly items, which include but are not limited to: mobile phones, iPods, Nintendo DSs etc., may well be misplaced or damaged at school.  Please therefore ensure that such items are not brought to school.

Perfect Prefects!

I am delighted to share with you our current, ever-evolving group of Prep. School Prefects. 

The following children, as aspiring and exemplary role models in terms of their academic and personal conduct and appearance, have been selected by the staff to assist in sustaining and embellishing the high standards and expectations of the school:

Safah Ramzan

Moiz Dean

Harjot Minhas

Rubin Attalia

Uzair Kohya

Sufyaan Akhtar

Usaamah Patel

Aryaman Solanki

Luke Roberts

Qasim Ali

Ayomide Lawal

Jordan Sargeant

Obinna Ezekwe

As well as assuming certain positions of responsibility during the school day, the prefects will also assist with key school events (as so many of them so professionally demonstrated at last half-term’s Parents and Guardians’ Evening) and remain our ‘go to’ children in terms of raising and seeking to resolve ongoing challenges that arise during the term.

Congratulations to all of these Prefects and I very much hope that they will be joined by some of the other children in Year 6 very soon!

School Council

Along similar lines, I am also very pleased to announce this year’s Prep. School Junior Council: 

Class 3CM	Zarina Ahmed and Adam Butt
Class 3ZQ	Kevin Grieff and Jai Makwana
Class 4SD	Esther Keane and Dilan Patel
Class 4BM	Zen Singh and Jeevan Sian
Class 5KB	Cristian Santos and Mohammed Surfaraz
Class 5CG	Arran Gill and Uwais Edris
Class 6AC	Harjot Minhas and Obinna Ezekwe
Class 6ZW	Ayomide Lawal and Siraj Khan

 

 

 

 

Voted for by their classmates as a constant representative for their views, and inspirationally led by Mrs. Draycott, these members will meet each fortnight.

Their aim is to raise, debate and resolve ways in which the school can continue to improve the education and experience of each of the children in our care.

Such meetings are a vital part of the functioning of the school and the children are often excellent at constructively and insightfully tackling the challenges and ideas raised.  I look forward to even more of the same throughout the coming school year! 

Winter Fete – Friday 16^th December 2:00 – 4:00 pm

We are pleased to inform you that our Winter Fete this year is going to be on Friday, 16th

December from 14:00-16:00. 

Consequently, we would like to ask for your help this year through your kindly donation of prizes for our stalls.

We have decided to have a Donation day on the 8^th December and we would be grateful if your child could please bring in a donation.

We would appreciate it if each year group could bring in the following:-

Year 1              Toiletries

Year 2              Crisps

Year 3              Juice

Year 4              Toiletries

Year 5              Juice

Year 6              Chocolates or sweets

Please note this is also a non-uniform day.  If your child wishes to come to school in non-uniform a voluntary donation of £1 would be kindly accepted.

We would also like to take this opportunity to celebrate our cultural diversity by having a ‘World Food Court’ and your generosity in providing food items here would also be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you for your help with this celebration and we look forward to seeing you at the Fete.

The activities will be open to all (however, if you would like to run a stall of your own there will be a charge of £10).

4BM - Mrs. Khan’s Absence

In the continued and unfortunate absence of Mrs. Khan, Mr. Mearhart currently assumes the role of Acting Head of Prep. School. 

In order for this role to be performed, 4BM will be taught by another teacher, Ms. Elzbieta Stepnowska, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings only. 

Mr. Mearhart will still teach all but the weekly test lessons of the Core Subjects of English and Maths. to 4BM.

Christmas Postbox!

Finally, please note that the Cranbrook Christmas Postbox will be open and ready for use from1^st-16^th December for staff and students.

The postbox will be located in the Reception Area and cards will be sorted each afternoon, so children are to please use this service to distribute their internal cards if they wish to do so.

Prep. School students will have their cards delivered directly to their classes.

Please ensure that the children are aware that all cards must have the first name and surname of the person they are sending a card to as well as the class or year group that the person is in so as to prevent any misplacing of the post.

Last post will be at 11:00 on Friday 16^th December.  Unfortunately any cards that are posted into the post box after this time will not be distributed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this key information.

 Sincere regards,

 

Mr. Ben Mearhart        

Head of Juniors

 Homework Planners 

The children’s Homework planners remain vital to our ongoing communication with you.  While more general communication will be made through Parentmail and the school website, the planners are one of the most effective means of conversing with our class teachers.  Communicating through e-mail is less effective as the majority of the teaching day is rightly spent with the children, plus our intention is that the children take increasing responsibility for the organisation of their day through the use of their Homework planners.

With this in mind, the children will be instructed to record homework and key school information each day in their planner. 

• From this point on, class teachers will initial each entry to confirm the clarity and accuracy of the recording. 
• Please then initial the entry yourselves to indicate that the homework has been completed or the relevant message received. 
• If it is not possible for your child to complete the homework, please write a brief explanatory note to confirm this. 

 Here the key is for the children to ensure that their planner is shown to you and initialled each night.

The completion of homework is vitally important to the ongoing development of each of the children.  Therefore, and so as to reinforce this importance: 

• Failure to complete homework, to have planner entries initialled or to obtain explanatory notes for incomplete homework will result in one disciplinary record.
• Two disciplinary records will result in a detention (missed playtime) and a letter will be sent home to you explaining this.   
• Naturally, children with explanatory notes in their planners will not receive a disciplinary record as we fully appreciate that there are occasions when it is not always possible for homework to be completed.

Thank you in advance for your support with these crucial measures and I hope we can all instantly and continually benefit from the enhanced quality of communication they hope to bring. 

Extra-Curricular Clubs 

This school year we have more clubs, lasting for a longer period of time, than ever before for either of the former schools.  It is an ambitious and exciting commitment to continue to best serve your children.  With this in mind, this term the Year 6 children have been prioritised for the Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning clubs; both of which are, understandably, very much in demand.  

My apologies therefore for those children who have had to chose alternative clubs for this term so as to accommodate this priority following the later submission of some application forms.  However, for the next terms club places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis for all year groups.  

Thank you for your time in reading this information and for the swiftness and clarity with which so many of you have returned the information recently requested, namely Extra-Curricular club preferences and off-site P.E. lessons consent forms. 

Sincere regards, 

Mr. Mearhart

Head of Juniors