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B Cador: November 2017

We're all very busy in school with our learning and contemplating the arrival of Christmas and all the fun and busyness that the festive season brings.

WINTERY DAYS ~ CLOTHING
As we have seen in recent days, this time of year brings cold, wet and dark days and early dark nights. Please ensure your child comes to school with coat, hat and gloves and, if walking home, ensure they are visible to car drivers. We want everyone to stay warm, dry and safe!

TEACHING AND LEARNING
Our curriculum theme this term is Time Travellers and we are all exploring the past. Do talk to our Y1 and 2 children about the Victorian school or our Y3/4 children about the Romans in Britain or our Y5/6 children about the changes to the village across periods of history.

We are encouraging our children to ask questions to get to grips with what is being learned through not only learning key skills and facts but being able to apply them, problem solve, reason and explain their learning and understanding.

We now have a new acronym to help us do our very best: ACHIEVE
A — Ask questions
C — Concentrate and take up the challenge — focus on the task at hand and be prepared to grapple with the
learning
H — Help each other with the learning — peer tutoring, demonstrating a skill, sharing strategies
I — Improve — always look to see how the work could be even better: edit, redraft, up-level
E — Engage — Stay focussed and get involved with the learning
V — Value all the work you do — make it the very best that it can be
E — Explore — think more deeply, asking a question to move the learning and understanding on

Mrs Charlesworth has established this year's School Council and they are working hard to gather the views of pupils across school.

Thank you to the parents who have joined us for the Phonics Base 1 presentation, Reading and Maths whole school workshops this term. All have been well received and seen as insightful in how we teach the subjects in school and how parents can support at home.

I have to thank all the staff at Wrenbury for their dedication to the school and the teaching and learning that takes place at Wrenbury. They all have high aspirations for all our children and this is now being born out in the way the children are responding to being inspired, wanting to achieve and the outcomes for pupils at the end of the last academic year. We are very proud of the progress and improvements we have made so far as a team.

Our statutory results for end of EYFS, end of KS1 (Year 2) and end of KS2 (Year 6) show great improvement.
At the end of EYFS, we have seen an improving picture over the past few years in the % of children achieving a Good Level of Development: 2017
80% achieved a GLD

Phonics Screening Test
In June of Year 1, the children take the Phonics Screening Test, which checks each child's ability to read aloud words (real and 'alien') applying their phonics knowledge.
2017 — 79% passed the Phonics Screening Test

Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 SATs Results
Key Stage 1 (Y2) Results in 2017
Reading: 71% met the expected standard; 29% at greater depth
Writing: 71% met the expected standard; 24% at greater depth
Maths: 76% met the expected standard; 29% at greater depth

Key Stage 2 (Y6) Results in 2017
The school's SATs results are measured against the national average.
To achieve the expected standard, a pupil had to achieve a Scaled Score of 100 +;
To achieve a High Score (Reading and Maths), a pupil had to achieve a Scaled Score of 110+; to achieve greater depth in writing, a pupil had to have met all the statements in the 'working at expected' and 'working at greater depth' frameworks.
Reading: 75% achieved at least the expected standard; 35% of these achieved a high score
National at expected: 71%
Average Scaled Score: 105 compared with 104 national average SS
Writing: 75% achieved the expected standard; 30% of these achieved greater depth
National at expected: 76%
Maths: 80% achieved the expected standard; 30% of these achieved a high score
National at expected: 75%
Average Scaled Score: 111 compared with 104 national average SS
SPAG: 90% achieved the expected standard; 45% of these achieved a high score
National at expected: 77%
Average Scaled Score: 108 compared with 106 national average

Combined Reading, Writing and Maths for Wrenbury at the expected standard was 70% with 10% achieving a combined high score for R,W and M.
Progress measures: KS1 to KS2

Reading progress score (confidence interval in brackets) +0.4 (-2.5 to +3.3)

Writing progress score (confidence interval in brackets) +1.5 (-1.3 to 4.3)

Maths progress score (confidence interval in brackets) +3.3 (0.7 to +5.9)

ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY
Attendance is currently at 96.7% for the whole school. We aspire to having 97% + whole school attendance.
We have a number of families who have taken children out of school during term time (holidays, weddings etc) or who have not made a commitment to their child having the best possible attendance. This adversely affects our whole school attendance. It is disheartening that the school's overall judgement from Ofsted for Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare can be jeopardised by a few families, when so many of our families are committed to their children attending as much as possible.

All absence (other than for illness) taken in school time will be unauthorised and may result in a fine from the Local Authority. Monitoring letters will continue to be sent to parents whose children's attendance falls below 90%. This is deemed as 'Persistent absence'. Poor attendance is linked to a lack of progress and achievement. Children who miss school a lot can quickly falling behind their peers, lose confidence and make less progress. We don't want this for any of our Wrenbury children.

We track 'late arrivals' so do endeavour to have your child in school in time to join their class by 8:55am and not have to come through the school's reception door. If you are regularly late, please consider leaving home earlier to ensure that your arrival time at school is no later than 8.55am. Arriving late means that the morning and lunch registers have to re-opened and ultimately stops the learning that has started in the class. This is unfair to the children already in school and can cause unnecessary worry for the child arriving late into class as they are not quite sure of what the learning is about and what may be expected of them.

Thank you for handing in letters and monies (in named, labelled and seal envelopes), as requested, to your child's class teacher. It means that Debbie is not burdened unnecessarily at the start of the day in the office.

VISITORS
We have had many visitors this term, all of whom have been highly complementary about school. They have reported back to us that the school is very welcoming; presents a lovely learning environment; has a happy, positive 'feel' and very polite and hardworking children. See website newsfeeds for more information.

A very big thank you to all who have offered their time, expertise and interests so far this year — your support is always very much appreciated; we've had a Professor of Archaeology; a representative of the RNLI; our community Police support; representatives of the Wrenbury and District Royal British Legion; Wider Opportunities offering brass tuition to all our Y3/4 pupils; specialist PE and gymnastics coaching; Rev Alison Fulford leading an assembly and Antoinette Sandbach, the Eddisbury MP, meeting the children as we focussed on UK Parliament Week as part of our understanding of British Values.

A special note of thanks has to go to Mary and Geraint Jones for their sustained commitment to supporting the children with their learning journeys as they move through school and for bringing in their teaching expertise, especially Geraint with his teaching of art skills.
Cath Mansfield supports school in many ways: hosting the Coffee Stop, teaching children needlework and offering an after school sewing skills club.
We also must thank Bernie Lunt who has volunteered time to school for a number of years and who brings an adorable Ruby (the dog) into school weekly (and now twice weekly), offering children the chance to read to and groom Ruby, helping children to build their confidence and reading skills.
A big thank you to Mrs Clarke, Iona's mum, for running our gardening club. One parent recently emailed in: 'Thank you for running the gardening club, M loves it and we have had to light the pumpkin tonight! She was so happy as we didn't get round to making one for Halloween.'
We also thank our parent readers and those who offer support with school visits — your time is very much appreciated.

It was lovely welcoming new faces to our Open morning and afternoon as well as welcoming so many parents into school for our Parent Lunches. We received lovely comments.

Educational Visits
Base 1 and 2 were given an insight into the history of the RNLI recently as part of their history learning. They also thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Blists Hill and, amongst other learning, dressing up as Victorian children for a Victorian child' school experience.
Base 2 will be joining Y2 from Sound school at Broomhall and Sound Chapel to find out about special characters in the Nativity story as part of their RE learning.
Base 3 had a wonderful Roman Day in Chester as part of their Learning Journey work this term and given an insight into being an archaeologist with Nathan's grandad (a professor of archaelogy) with real Roman artefacts to investigate.
Base 4 have explored the village for their history focus and will revisit to gain an understanding of the local canal and its engineering features including the cantilever bridge. They will be welcoming a canal artist into school before the end of the term to practice this specialist artwork.

PARENT SURVEY
Feedback, so far, from the Parent Survey returns has been very positive and with all surveys, we do appreciate knowing where we can make things even better.

One or two returns have commented about not knowing about events. We sent out a paper copy calendar covering all the main events of the school year to ALL families at the very start of the school year and would ask that you refer to this in the first instance. There will be occasions when there are changes or additions to the calendar as the need arises; for some of these we, as a school, receive information about at short notice and consequently that short notice is passed on. Please do send in your return if you haven't already done so. Your voice does count.
You can also have your say about school using 'Parent View' https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk.

Safeguarding
We work continuously to safeguard your child.
We, as a staff, have revisited our safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures including PREVENT. All staff have appropriate training. Online safety continues to be taught across school to provide your child with the information on how to safe on-line or using mobile phones.

Road safety — a polite reminder that there should be no parking (even for dropping off) in the yellow marked area outside school OR in unmarked areas opposite the road junction outside School House. (Cars should not park on the road within 10metres of a junction — Highway Code). Such parking causes danger for pedestrians and especially our children trying to cross the road safely at busy times of the school day. Please support us in keeping our children and families safe on the roads around school. Thank you!

Community Safety — PCSO Sharon Jones joined us at this month's Coffee Stop and spoke to a number of children and, along with her colleague PC Nicky Berry, talked to the children about keeping safe over the Bonfire Weekend.

Thank you for keeping us up to date with changes to home-time arrangements and contact detail changes.

Well-being
Our 'well-being lunch clubs' are working well in supporting the children in helping them to express their feelings and emotions. We focussed on Anti-Bullying Week and the children were very articulate about what bullying was and equally articulate that they didn't experience bullying at Wrenbury. We as a staff are always vigilant as we do not tolerate any form of bullying ion school. Next term our theme will be: There are no outsiders in our school and very much supports the theme of anti-bullying week 'All different — All equal'.

School is a place of learning but we also know that to learn well a child has to have a sense of well-being. If your child is experiencing any difficulties that could be affecting their emotional well-being please can you share them with school (in confidence) so that staff can put the necessary support in place during periods of difficulty.

Clubs
Thank you to staff, sports specialists and parent / friends of school volunteers for hosting a range of clubs this term including: gardening, archaeology, sewing, tennis, gymnastics, craft, singing, construction, maths and homework clubs. We are looking at the clubs we offer for the Spring term to ensure there is something for everyone.

Fundraising for school so far this year

New Sports kit will be ready for January competitions — £618 — raised by Terry Whalley (school governor).

10 quality headphones with microphones for laptops to support use of IDL programme

£1,178.24 raised at The Cotton Arms Bonfire Night will finance new reading books for EYFS and KS1 in school

FUNDRAISING FOR OTHERS
We have supported the Royal British Legion by selling poppies in school
We have raised £138.02 for Children in Need by dressing up as Superheroes and selling cakes.

Coming up...
PARENT EVENINGS
We look forward to welcoming you for your child's progress meeting this Wednesday or Thursday. If you haven't already asked for an appointment, please ask your child's class teacher or phone school. Teachers have been asked to make appointments for every child.

FOWS ~ Friends Of Wrenbury School
Christmas Fair on 8th December 6-8pm
Preparations are well underway. If you haven't already returned your 'I can help' response sheet, please do as 'jobs' are being allocated.
All donations are gratefully received. See Christmas Pack sent to each family for more information.
The Giving Machine
Please sign up with The Giving Machine — all donations while you shop online will go towards our charity 'FOWS' and benefit the children — email sent from school office for more information.

We look forward to you joining us for:
Y3/4 Brass Concert — Thursday 30th November at 9.30am
KS1 Nativity: Monday 11th — Wednesday 13th December — information to follow regarding seats.
KS2 Carol Service with KS1 singing — Tuesday 19th December — St Margaret's Church 6pm

Christmas Lunch for children and staff followed by Christmas Parties will be on Wednesday 20th December.

Please note this year's Christmas Holiday period.
We break up at the end of the school day on Wednesday 20th December and return to school on Monday 8th January 2018.

Many thanks for all your continued support,
kind regards,
Mrs Cador

A paper copy of the newsletter will be sent to all families.