Heron class have demonstrated a real sense of community during our Science lessons in the past few weeks. As part of our unit on properties and materials, we have had lots of important discussions about the impact a community can have on the environment. We discussed the different materials that can be recycled, and the ways in which certain materials can be disposed of in an environmentally healthy way. We also discussed one of the oldest ways to recycle - the water cycle! Heron class identified the different stages of the water cycle and were able to explain the importance of it. The journey of water means that it can reach places, animals and us!

Children in Red Kite class have been focussing on Learning Characteristics linked to 'Community' in school since our return from half term.

Evidence of the Responsibility, Participation and Respectful, active citizen strands have been prevalent whilst we were on our residential to Winterton. All pupils that came on the trip were deeply engaged and committed to the activities that they took part in. Their behaviour showed others just what outstanding citizens they are and how they could be responsible for their own belongings, spaces and emotions.

The last term in the academic year, for KS2, always has a huge focus on Responsibility and Sense of place, as children prepare for the next stage in their education. We are encouraging and supporting each other to celebrate our achievements as well as looking at next steps in their journey.

What a fabulous week for community engagement! 

Year 5 and 6 from Henley and Helmingham took part in Bikeability. They talked about how to keep themselves safe, checking their bikes to check that they are roadworthy. The children are taught how to ride their bikes safely along the roads, signalling their turns and demonstrating respect to all other road users.  

FUNDRAISING

On Friday 14th June, the staff and children dressed in pink/ red to support Miss Snell in raising money for Cancer Research. As a school we raised £104.76 of her £274.76 total. This came as a timely fundraiser as the children at Henley and Helmingham had recently taken part in Sun Safe sessions led by Cancer Support Suffolk. Children were advised how to look after themselves in the sun with a slip, slop, slap message to protect themselves. 

FOHS: Father’s Day Book and Breakfast 

To raise funds for the school, the Friends of Henley School team hosted a Father’s Day breakfast where Dads, grandads, uncles and friends were invited in to share books with the children whilst enjoying toast and bacon butties. This event was really well attended and the smell of bacon lingered throughout the school making us all feel very hungry.  

Sports Day

We were lucky enough to have a bright sunny day when we invited our families in to attend the sports day. Parents were able to watch the races and sports activities, take part in races and stay for a picnic lunch on the field. Deben were the Sports Day winners this year and here are a few Deben representatives lifting the trophy.  

Following on from the Sports events, we took the opportunity to have a captive audience to share some information about the learning characteristics and how we help the children learn and develop these skills in school. Parents had a presentation and question and answer session and then saw a sneaky peek at the new learning pi app (Thanks Mr Vaughn!). They were then able to go in to class to see some of the learning characteristics in action. They took part in computing classes, team challenges, escape room activities and lots of other challenges across the school. Hooking this session to the Sports day was a real success and meant that we had several parents take part who may otherwise not have been in school.  

Compassionate Conversations

On Friday, I had the privilege to go along to some training put on by St Elizabeth Hospice and Compassionate Communities. For me, it was a chance to link with some of the local community at the newly opened Cross Keys and perhaps explore the possibility of working together in future to host community events that support each other and vulnerable members of the village, especially those that are coping with bereavement, loss and trauma. Compassionate communities are being set up across the country and provide safe spaces for people to talk about death and dying, simply with people who are prepared to listen. Whilst there is nothing set up in Henley or Helmingham yet, I will definitely volunteer to be part of this project in the future.  

Kirkley Nursery recently took part in Leaders and Mentors training, this was part of the covid 19 recovery programme funded by the Dfe and provided by Suffolk Local authority.  We worked collaboratively with experts from Stepping Stones Nursery in Norwich, with the aim to improve and extend our learning environment.  We planned and created outdoor classrooms for each age group over first part of the summer term. The staff in each room have adapted the provision to meet the needs of the children in each of their rooms. Children have benefitted from the additional space in an outdoor environment that is accessible all day. The space is also providing a quiet area for interventions to take place.  

In addition to the leaders and mentors training that took place on site, several members of the Kirkley staff team also attended training externally. This included paediatric first aid, ELKLAN training and SENCO training. The staff that attended training shared ideas and knowledge with the team, enabling us to continue to develop the Nursery provision and improve outcomes for children.  

We have had a busy spring and beginning of summer at Reedham Primary and Nursery School. We have lots of positive changes to share including the news that Reedham's application to convert to an academy and join Consortium Trust was approved by the DfE. Beth Spaul will continue leading the school as academy head in September. We are looking forward to working with the staff and children of all the Consortium schools and building on the growth and positivity of this year.

Some of our highlights this term include a picnic on 6/6/24. This marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day and to commemorate the significance of the day, we hosted an assembly, which offered an overview of the events along with some historical context for the children. We wore red, white and blue, children took part in some class activities and then we invited families and friends of the school to join us on a picnic. Our PFA provided strawberries and cream and we watched some country dancing and our choir perform some Vera Lynn songs.

Our PFA also hosted a bingo night at the village hall, where family and friends enjoyed refreshments and lots of bingo! This night helped the PFA to raise £768! Our PFA are so proactive and supportive of the school; we are very fortunate to have them.

The PFA also supported our school teams to host a school fete challenge on 21/6/24. Each team had £25 to set up stalls. Parents and friends visited for the afternoon and we raised a grand total of £471.40 - thanks to our PFA for helping our children to improve outcomes and finances!

At the beginning of our first week back, we started with a residential trip for KS2, at our future partner school Winterton Primary School & Nursery. Otter class slept over at their Field Study Centre on Monday and Owl class slept over Tuesday night - Herons visited the centre for the day on Wednesday. The whole school took part in lots of beach activities, digging holes, building sandcastles, creating sculptures, team games, a tug of war and even some paddling. For tea we had chippy chips and s'mores on our camp fires. This experience was the first time some of the children had been away from home; it has left us with some great memories and helped us to build on our relationship with Winterton school.

On 14/6/24 we hosted parents to showcase some of our experiences so far this year. On the same day, we visited a project being completed by BAM to improve the drainage of the river Yare near our school. 

A great big well done to our choir, who joined in a charity event, led by Ann Smith, to raise funds for Cancer Research. They sang at the concert at Epic Studios on Sunday 23/6/23, helping to raise money and awareness.

Lastly, looking ahead, we are looking forward to sports day and swimming in our swimming pool - at last, it is up to temperature and the sun is shining!

Sports Events

The summer term has been bustling with sports activities, with our teams participating in events almost every week across the county. This half term alone, our Year 5/6 children represented the school at the Farlingaye Pyramid Swimming Gala and secured 2nd place. Our Year 3/4 boys participated in a football tournament at St. Joseph's, and our Year 5/6 netball team competed in the Under 11s tournament. This week the whole school got to take part in an amazing Glow in the Dark Dodgeball event which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Before the half term, our Year 1/2 children took part in All Stars Cricket at Ransomes and an Under 7s Dodgeball tournament. Additionally, our Key Stage 2 cross-country team demonstrated great determination and resilience at the Cross Country race held at the Royal Hospital School in Holbrook at the end of April. These events take a lot of organisation from our PE lead Kieran Fisher and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all the time he has spent ensuring our children can take part in as many sports events as possible.

Rendlesham Show

The ever popular Rendlesham show took place in early June this year; as has become a tradition, each phase of our school took to the stage to sing in front of a large audience of spectators. EYFS kicked things off with a super rendition of ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’ before Key Stage 1 confidently stepped up to sing a beautiful version of ‘A Million Dreams’ from the film The Greatest Showman. Year 3 and 4 took to the stage en masse next and sang the always popular George Ezra hit “Green, Green Grass” before an excellent turnout from Year 5 and 6 sang the Katy Perry and singing assembly favourite “Firework.” Many of our staff gave up their Saturday afternoons to support this community event and children who took to the stage all represented our learning characteristic of participation superbly.

Bikeability

This year we have restarted the Bikeability course for our Year 6 children, a program designed to teach them vital cycling skills and road safety awareness. Throughout the course, they learnt how to navigate various traffic situations, understand road signs, and practice safe cycling techniques. The instructors were impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of our children, who demonstrated significant progress and confidence on their bikes in the 8 hours of training they had. This training not only equips them with practical skills for safer travel but also encourages them to be engaged, respectful members of the community. Our Year 6 pupils should be very proud of their hard work and commitment to becoming responsible cyclists.

In Lower School, Butterflies are always working on developing our communication skills. 

We are very good at following our visual timetable, if the teacher forgets to move the pictures on the Now and Next board, their is always a Butterfly that realises and moves it on for her. 

The children love using visuals to help them explore the PECS boxes and treasure chests, to make choices and comments. 

Some Butterflies like to use letters to spell out words that they are thinking about. 

We also like to look at pictures to help us understand instructions. Music helps us, too. We know what to do when we hear our transition songs. 

In Middle School, Grasshopper class have been a busy bunch this month. We have been working hard on our "People Who Help Us" topic, making police cars and fire engines as well as lots of roleplay and dressing up. We have also started having PE on the field and have enjoyed the (mostly) nice weather.

Grasshoppers class are constantly working on a range of communication skills as we play and work, using our voices, symbols and signs. We have been learning to build sentences using colourful semantics symbols as well as making simple choices using core vocabulary boards. We are also very lucky to work closely with the SALT and have lots of fun communicating in these sessions using resources from TOBIs to talkpads.

In Upper School, Leopards class communicate in a range of different ways throughout the week to ask for items that they want, to make choices and to express their likes and dislikes. Some of our children join 'talk Pad' group where they play a range of games using their talkpads. On a Friday we all go to communication cafe where the children use different communication aids to ask for their snacks. Throughout lessons we use communication boards, colourful sematics strips, vocabulary sheets, symbols, signing and verbal language to communicate with each other and with adults. Here are a few pictures of how we have been communicating.

PMLD (Early Explorers)

Our early explorers have been experiencing time out of school and enjoying little trip to the local park area. Students have really enjoyed the walk and fresh air as well as exploring all the different activities in the playpark.

All post 16 students have had great fun developing their skills for being out in the community, we have all enjoyed weekly shopping trip to Asda as well as walking to the local shops. Students have been following their personal shopping list and using good communication when paying at the checkouts.

On Friday 7th June, Warren school celebrated Childhood Day with parents, staff and children to support the NSPCC. Everyone moved a mile around the school field to raise money for the NSPCC and so far, have raise £84.47. The day began with Kelly Bland (our Academy Head) officially cutting the ribbon on our Sunflower Sports Pavilion, which will provide a wonderful space to support Outdoor Learning. Staff walked their mile dressed as children’s characters from their own childhood and we were very excited to welcome a very special VIP guest. Thank you to parents, carers, students, staff and Mickey Mouse for making this another wonderful opportunity to come together as a community.

We also welcomed Parents/carers, young people and SEND providers to a SEND community information evening. This was an opportunity to show our local community what is on offer for our young people and how to access services. It was a very successful event and we look forward to making it bigger and better next year!

Finally, we celebrated Rare Chromosome Disorder Awareness Day, raising over £182.30 which is amazing. This money will enable Unique to continue to support families with rare chromosome disorders, and will mean a lot to so many families. If you want to find out more information about Unique, visit Rarechromo.org

Warren school welcomed the Jaylow coffee truck to school on Friday. All staff were given a voucher to exchange for a coffee or milkshake. 

The team are so important here at Warren school and we wanted them to know how much we appreciate all their hard work! 

At Waveney Valley we place a large emphasis on being part of the local community. In a small village the majority of families will be linked to the school currently or will have been in the past. 

We regularly invite representatives from the church to lead whole school assemblies. Recently, we participated in the Spring fair organised by the church. The pupils worked across the school in small groups with children from each class to create inventions that make life easier for everyone. Once they had the ideas, they created a prototype which then went on display for everyone who attended the Mendham Church Spring Fair, Votes were collected and teams were awarded prizes.

 

Another initiative which has developed impressively in the past year is the Community Garden. Last year a small garden was created with fruit, herbs and vegetables being grown and then offered to the local community to enjoy. This year the small garden is still there but the whole area in front of the school is now adorned with flowers, plants and even more fruit and vegetables. Families associated with the school and members of the local community have donated planters, seeds, plants and soil for this project. 

Within the working week we have also improved the amount of opportunities for parents/families to be part of our school:

1. Sharing Celebration Assemblies - these take place fortnightly for all families to attend - we are now regularly having to put more chairs out to cope with the numbers. One of the key features of this assembly is where children share their learning for the past week - this could be showing examples of their work, reading work aloud or providing explanations
2. Parent Engagement Sessions - these take place every half term with a different subject focus - pupils again discuss their work and then work collaboratively with their family members to complete an activity related to this topic.
3. Parent Tours around the school - this is now a regular part of each term where parents are encouraged to come into school and walk around to see the learning taking place. There is no set day for this and visits are arranged around their commitments.

At Winterton, we firmly believe in the importance of participating in community events. Being part of the community also means sharing our pupils' achievements with a wider audience through our Facebook page. Recently, our pupils took part in a D-Day event, and we were thrilled to share a well-crafted video of the event on our school Facebook page. 

Following the post, we received a heart warming response from a member of our extended community who shared a piece of history with us. Mr Jon Dalton wrote, "I've just shown the video to my 90-year-old mum (Mrs Pauline Baker), who attended Winterton School from 1938 to 1945. Her dad (my grandad) is on the Winterton War Memorial, sadly killed in July 1945. We are in deepest Buckinghamshire and mum is no longer able to travel, but the video greatly impressed her (and me)." 

We have since contacted Pauline and Jon, and they agreed to meet virtually with our pupils to share memories of the school and local history. This upcoming interaction promises to be an enriching experience for our pupils, providing them with a personal glimpse into the past and a deeper connection to their community's history. They also shared a wonderful photo with us of Pauline at Winterton Primary School in 1938. 

This connection between past and present highlights the enduring bond within our community. Moments like these remind us of the significance of our shared history and the impact our school continues to have on former pupils and their families. 

At Winterton, we cherish these connections and are committed to celebrating our pupils' achievements with all members of our community, near and far. By celebrating our past and present, we continue to build a strong, connected, and vibrant community at Winterton. 

Facebook serves as the perfect window into our school life, and great care is taken to ensure we update it regularly with high-quality posts. Hannah Waters, our assistant academy head, uses iMovie to create fantastic videos with backing music that engage our audience. We also use AI to ensure our posts are streamlined and aligned with our school marketing. 

By embracing both tradition and innovation, Winterton continues to foster a sense of pride and belonging within our community 

Leiston Education Partnership - Community Engagement

At YoxValley we are close enough to be locationally impacted by the development of Sizewell C. Just up the road from Middleton and Yoxford Primary School Sizewell C will be a 3.2-gigawatt power station generating low-carbon electricity for around 6 million homes.  It will be a close copy of Hinkley Point C which is already under construction in Somerset.  These new power stations will play a key role in our energy future, supplying reliable, clean electricity for at least 60 years. 

Wherever you stand politically or environmentally in regard to the development of this site, there is no doubt that such a project will be bring economic benefits and opportunities to our local community and in particular the education of our young people.

The construction and operation of Sizewell C will create thousands of jobs and apprenticeships and there is already a team working with local schools like ours and colleges to help develop the skills children will need in the future to possibly secure jobs at the site. 

Already there are plans in place to deliver a ‘PowerUp’ programme to UKS2 children across the local area from Skills Supply.  Skills Supply are experts in delivering Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) workshops in order to develop these skills in a fun and interesting way and are initially hoped to promote a curiosity, interest and love for these subjects.  We look forward to working with Benhall School in September on these projects.

Whilst your school might not be directly in the local community of Sizewell and the ongoing developments, Yox Valley can thoroughly recommend Educational Visits to the Sizewell Visitor Centre.  The centre can offer a range of educational opportunities and is a completely free opportunity.  More information can be sourced from -  https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/power-stations/sizewell-b#visitorcentre.

Finally, at a recent meeting we learnt about the organisation ‘Chapter One’.  Whilst this is not directly linked with the general assumption of local community engagement it does underpin more generally the idea of more widespread community engagement.  Chapter One are an organisation that have been developing innovative solutions to advance early literacy since 1993 in the USA, and since 2018 in the UK.

The organisation has established an online reading volunteer platform. Corporate partners, such as Sizewell, sponsor their staff as online reading volunteers enabling reading support for a whole academic year, using their bespoke platform.  Sessions are weekly for 30 minutes and reading pairs enjoy stories and activities together. There is a small cost involved, but even the laptop for the online sessions is provided for the setting!  We are looking forward to getting involved with this initiative too in the new academic year.