'We Will Remember Them!'
Head Teacher Newsletter - Friday 18th November 2022
Let all that you do be done in love - Corinthians 16:14
A heartfelt Week
It's been a hugely heartfelt week, most notably due to the theme of Remembrance and our involvement with our local Royal British Legion (RBL) residents. I have to say, this is such an important event in our curriculum calendar and it is one that is a firm fixture in our vision for creating a values-based education. The morning involved a sensitive exploration of the Armistice with the main concept and contemplation resting on the white poppy and its significance of peace. By 11 am we all stood, alongside the Haughley Green soldiers, paying our respects and placing a poppy on a soldier. A beautiful service was held by Alison Roberts and our Year 6 pupils read a variety of emotive poems with poise, confidence and sensitivity. Our lunchtime involved our local RBL members being served a scrummy roast dinner, cooked by our fantastic Head of Kitchen, Kim and served up by our respectful Year 6 cohort. The afternoon concluded with pupils taking up a creative challenge of representing their learning via mixed media art. It was certainly a time to 'Remember' and an event to remember. I'd like to say a huge thank you for all your support these past weeks by either buying a poppy (or poppy merchandise), attending the service and/or supporting your child with learning about Remembrance. I am thrilled to announce that we raised a record-breaking £150 this year. Well done and thank you, all!
This week has marked the beginning of Anti-bullying Week - this year, we have decided to work with the NSPCC to deliver their renowned 'Speak Out Safe' Campaign. On Friday 25th November, we will be learning about our right to speak out, abuse (in an age-appropriate manner), emotions, human rights, safety, empathy, Childline and conflict resolution. Years 5 and 6 will be working with the NSPCC team themselves. Please see our knowledge organiser (below) for an overview of the day. Please also see a letter to you all with further background guidance.
One final note on anti-bullying - we are ever-aware of the technological world that evolves at an exponential rate - in particular, the growing use of social media by children. I am afraid to say 'It's a No for Us' when considering children...I need to be clear with you all that any social media usage such as WhatsApp is not endorsed by the school. We are aware of many children using this platform at school and I have to be honest, it serves very little value and regularly causes our children and the school grievances. It is becoming increasingly common that children are being exposed to adult themes, language and content; all of which are rarely understood; often leading to distorted understandings. We have had several parents of late comment that their child has been involved in unkind messaging or that they are hearing concerning words or seeing concerning content - the answer - stop them from using over-age social media platforms. Whilst we are here to support you in any way we can, it is your responsibility as a parent!
Have a great weekend!
Mr Francksen
Diary Dates
November
- Monday 21st - St Edmunds Day Flag Raising
- Friday 25th - NSPCC 'Speak Out' Event
December
- Thursday 1st December - U11 Dodgeball Festival
- Tuesday 6th - U9 Dodgeball
- Thursday 8th - Christmas Jumper Day
- Thursday 8th - Rock Steady Concert
- Thursday 15th - Nativity
- Friday 16th - Last Day of Term
Twitter Weekly...
School Development
Miss Faiers also took our support staff to a trust conference based on high-quality maths teaching and support. All of our staff enjoyed this event and found it to be very insightful and beneficial. Please do ask your child about how they learn in maths and why manipulatives are so important for all learners.
Curriculum on a Page
This week, our subject update is maths!
Here is a little update on Crawford’s maths journey so far this year.
Curriculum
This year we are following White Rose Maths schemes of learning which are designed to adopt a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of maths. The approach has number at the heart. A significant amount of time is spent reinforcing number in order to build competency and ensure children can confidently access the rest of the curriculum. Research shows that all children, when introduced to a new concept, should have the opportunity to build competency by following the CPA approach.
Lessons
Our focus in class this term has been securing our understanding of number and place value.
The children have been learning how to represent numbers in lots of different ways and are becoming more confident with partitioning numbers into tens and ones in KS1 and moving up to 100’s and 1000’s in KS2. We are encouraging children to use physical resources in every lesson to help their understanding of maths. There are lots of activities at home you could do with your child to support this such as counting items of shopping, adding amounts of money, measuring and reading scales when cooking.
Times tables
Our relaunch of Times Table Rock Stars and Numbots was a huge success! The children were so enthusiastic and we had such a wonderful day immersing ourselves in numbers. The children tried lots of exciting games and activities to help them learn number facts and times tables.
Having a confident understanding of number/times table facts will significantly help children’s ability to access the maths curriculum. Fluent recall of these will be essential when solving more challenging problems and calculation methods. Please help encourage your child to practise their number facts and times tables - little and often! Songs, rhymes, snappy recall as well as access to TTRS and numbots at home.
Our aim this year is to promote a positive and resilient attitude towards maths at Crawford’s, thank you for your support.
Cog of the Week
Notices
Lottie is a very friendly, soft and well-natured Cockapoo. She's recently made a few visits with me and she, alongside the children and staff, has thoroughly enjoyed herself.
There is an overwhelming body of research supporting the inclusion of animals at school, in particular, dogs; children can benefit educationally and emotionally, increase their understanding of responsibility and develop empathy and nurturing skills through contact with a dog. In addition to these benefits, children take great enjoyment from interaction with a dog.
Lottie will continue to spend some time at school (usually on a Friday), therefore, please don't be alarmed if you see her following me around.
Our risk assessment for Lottie (attached below) sets out further reasons why the school feels it will be beneficial to have a school dog, alongside the associated risks.
Cost of Living Support
There are lots of reasons why people may be in hardship and if you are eligible, we can provide financial help.
The scheme is not intended as emergency support and only one application can be made per household. LWAS is not intended as long-term support. The quickest way to make an application is via the webform, using your smartphone, tablet or computer. If you have all the information required to make an application the webform will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
To make an application and find out whether you are eligible for support, please visit the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme webpage.
In the event you are not eligible, but would like to read more information about other support available, please visit Cost of living support | Suffolk County Council
Reminders...
Healthy Snacks
Please ensure your child has a healthy snack in school to have at break time - e.g., a piece of fruit, carrot sticks, muesli bar, yoghurt tube. No chocolate bars or crisps please, and nothing containing peanuts.
Younger children (YR to Y2) have fruit or vegetables provided by the School Fruit & Veg Scheme.
Please note, that any snacks brought in to school will be collected by the Class Teacher and handed out at break time. Therefore, please can you ensure that any tubs, bags, etc are named.
Allergy Awareness - Nut Free School
We are an allergy-aware school and would like to remind all families that there may be pupils in school with a nut allergy. If a child with a nut allergy comes into contact with nuts, or with a pupil who has eaten nuts, then this could lead to an anaphylactic reaction. Anaphylaxis is a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to a trigger such as an allergy.
Because of this, the school cannot accept products containing nuts to be provided in lunch boxes or for eating at other times.
Flyers
Safeguarding & Wellbeing
It's a NO to social media from us!
It is almost inevitable, in this day and age, that sooner or later our children will ask for a phone. We all love our phones! For many parents, it’s a handy way of checking where children are as they start to venture outside of the home independently. But in turn, this brings the anxiety of social media. As parents, we can feel pressured into allowing our children to have Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram so that they don't feel isolated from their peers. These social media platforms are for children aged 13 years and over. Despite all the positive aspects of social media, there is still an abundance of risk factors, such as privacy endangerment, exploitation and online harassment. All these negatives make social platforms a dangerous place for children under 13 years old. As a school, we find it very difficult to support children with the negative fallout of social media that has occurred outside of school. We strongly recommend that primary school children do not have access to social media.
For more information follow this link.
NSPCC Social Media advice
Children and young people use many different social media apps and sites. The most popular are Facebook and Instagram, with many others such as Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter.
There are lots of benefits to social networking. They can allow users to stay connected with friends and family. They can also learn many different things, from make-up or gaming tutorials to making slime, or how to create their own videos.
Like most things, there can be negatives too. For children and young people, there are risks that you should be aware of, to help keep your child safe on social media.
Communications Flow chart
Updated Policies
N/A
Remember...you can see the full termly calendar, here, or on the school website.
About Us
Email: admin@crawfordsprimary.suffolk.sch.uk
Website: https://www.crawfordsprimaryschool.com/
Location: Haughley, Stowmarket IP14 3QZ, UK
Phone: 01449673253
Twitter: @CrawPSchl