Fulbourn Primary School
Dare to Discover
Friday 4th December 2020
Newsletter – 4th December 2020
Sherwood news
We are delighted to announce that Mrs Bamber will be returning to teach Sherwood Class with Miss Crowe after Christmas. She will be in school on Thursday 10th December to meet/re-acquaint herself with the class. Miss Crowe will continue to teach Mon-Weds, and Mrs Bamber will teach Thurs-Fri.
We are also delighted to announce that Mrs Jarman has exciting news to share –she is expecting her third child next year. She will be hugely missed by Sherwood Class and the whole school, but we are very much looking forward to meeting the new addition in the Spring!
Our Virtual Community
We wanted to thank all of the parents that took the time to join us at our first virtual community Headteacher meeting. We will now be organising these for the end of every month and will aim to have some of the sessions as live drop-in sessions where we can respond directly to parental queries about the strategic direction of the school.
In Wednesday's event, we shared the aims for the development of our school that have come from the wonderful ‘Dreams’ gathered from the community. The aims are:
To ensure our learning environment and resourcing facilitates creative development.
The dreams suggestions were:
1. Pond and allotment areas back in use and forest school learning developed.
2. A sustainable plan for the upkeep of these areas.
3. Curriculum reflecting the environment with appropriate resources.
4. Reflection spaces.
To ensure our pupils leave with a well-rounded approach to life and learning by adopting a relational ethos, focusing on pupil well-being and embracing their talents.
The dreams suggestions were:
1. Re-write our behaviour policy to be less sanction / reward based and more strongly built on relationships.
2. Focus on well-being at the heart of the curriculum, knowing that improved academic outcomes will come about as a result of this.
3. Reinstate Peer Mediators and other opportunities for children to work across year groups, with older children supporting younger members of the community.
To develop pupils' ability to self-regulate and embrace learning opportunities in a range of contexts.
The dreams suggestions were:
1. Utilise talents and skills of staff and the community in order to deliver a broader range of learning experiences.
2. Increase community involvement with learning.
3. Careers days and special events.
4. Develop a dual learning curriculum that encourages reflective learners.
We are so thankful to work with such a supportive community and look forward to involving as many of you as possible more directly with the success of the school. Look out for our community curriculum activities on Seesaw which will be coming in the new year!
Claire Pickard and Beci McCaughran
Flu Vaccinations
Thank you to those who have registered for the children’s flu vaccinations. As you know, they will be happening on Tuesday 8th of December in school.
Cold, Wet Weather
While the snow this morning looked quite pretty and I’m sure was good fun for snowball fights and snowmen, we have had quite a lot of children in school with cold and soggy feet, socks, tights and shoes. Please do ensure that children have suitable footwear for the weather and you may wish to put spare socks in the bottom of their bags.
Staff Christmas Gifts
The festive season is approaching and we have had questions from some families about bringing in gifts for staff. With the current COVID restrictions, accepting gifts via The Office or children’s bags is not appropriate. What we certainly would encourage are personal messages of thanks to members of staff shared via your child’s SeeSaw account. We really appreciate the sentiment and if you feel really compelled to share a gift with a member of staff then you could make a donation to our staff well-being fund. This is being set up to promote the wellbeing of all staff and any money would be spent on items to benefit the whole staff body e.g. sprucing up the staff rooms, chocolate biscuits for break time etc. An option to donate to the staff fund will be added to MCAS if you would like to contribute.
Christmas Cards
We know how much the children enjoying sharing cards with each other. Children are welcome to bring cards in for their classmates. Please ensure children bring them in by Tuesday 15th at the latest. Cards will be quarantined and then distributed on the last day of term. Unfortunately, children will not be able to bring in cards for children in other classes.
Christmas Lunch
‘Tis the festive season! Our Christmas lunch will take place on Friday 18th December. Children will be eating the special lunch in their classrooms as usual.
KS1 children (R-Y1-Y2): We will automatically allocate a special lunch to your child. If you do not want your child to have the special lunch please email the office on office@fulbourn.cambs.sch.uk, indicating your child’s name and telling us that they DON’T want the lunch.
KS2 children (Y3-Y6): We will not automatically allocate the lunch to your child. If your child would like a special lunch please email the office office@fulbourn.cambs.sch.uk, indicating your child’s name and telling us that they DO want the lunch. The cost of the meal (£2.40) will come out of your child’s dinner money balance, if you need to top it up, please pay online using My Child At School.
Please reply by Thursday 10th December. The kitchen need to know numbers in advance and we may not be able to make changes on the day.
The Nights Are Closing In
It’s getting darker earlier! Some of our year 5 and year 6 children are cycling home. Please do make sure they have adequate lights on their bikes.
Covid-19 High Tier
Since the 2nd of December, Fulbourn is now in Tier 2 – High Tier.
The poster below has been produced by the government and shows the current restrictions.
PTfA Update
Upcoming events:
TONIGHT!!!! Virtual Quiz: There has been a wonderful response to the Virtual Quiz with lots of teams registered to take part. We are looking forward to seeing you for this virtual session of friendly competition and silliness.
18th December: Christmas Jumper day. No cash donation requested but if you find you have a few ££ to spare please do feel free to donate via either of the JustGiving links below – every little helps!
Thank you……
….to everyone who battled the elements to drop off a donation to the Bag2School scheme. You have helped to raise £51! This is less than in previous years but still a wonderful effort given the Covid restrictions and awful weather.
Ways to support fundraising:
If you have started your Christmas shopping, the following websites enable you to select Fulbourn Primary PTfA as your charity and a percentage of your spend directly to the PTfA:
Easy Fundraising (https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fulbournprimaryptfa/)
AmazonSmile (https://smile.amazon.co.uk)
Our library appeal fundraising page is still open – JustGiving donation page here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/fulbournprimarylibraryappeal
The iPad appeal fundraising page is still open – JustGiving donation page here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fulbournschool
Cambridgeshire Constabulary Children and Young People team
Please find attached the December Safer Schools newsletter, which contains some key messages and advice for you and your family to keep safe during this festive season.
Covid impact questionnaire
Psychological Impact of COVID-19
Researchers from a collaboration group would like to invite you to take part in a short questionnaire exploring the psychological impact of the coronavirus, its effect on our emotions, behaviour and wellbeing.
The aim is to better understand how the coronavirus pandemic and resultant restrictions/lockdown are affecting our day to day lifestyle. We hope to find out what is helpful for people during this time and also what may be causing some people to be affected more than others in terms of their wellbeing.
Anyone over the age of 16 able to complete this online questionnaire can take part.
It is up to you to decide whether to take part or not. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time, without giving a reason and without consequence. You also do not have to answer any questions you don’t want to, you can just skip them.
Please say you heard about the study from Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Want to find out more? Just click on this link: bit.ly link