Friends:

The Friends have had a particularly active year and a very successful one on the fundraising front as well.  Through the two main events; the summer fete and the Christmas Fayre, over £6000 was raised.  But in addition to this, the Friends have put on school discos (for us and Saxmundham Free School), held two family fun quizzes (very successfully hosted by Liz Gleave), the SATs chill-out evening and other events besides.  

Such activities take quite a bit of planning and often a large number of people to run on the day; if you could help the Friends in any way, please drop into the office and speak with Ali Fox - she would be more than happy to have your support!

School Sport:

Our sports teams have been very successful this year; winning nearly every tournament that we have entered.  At times, we have been victims of our own success and not been able to attend County Finals due to other commitments but we are very proud of our children’s effort and commitment this year and will continue to build on this next year.

In addition, our two Sports days were very well attended by parents and this brought out the best in the children.  Earth and Water shared the Reception/Key Stage One title but

School Sport: (Cont.)

Earth decided they wanted all of the glory in the Key Stage Two competition and took the trophy outright!

The KS2 event also saw the first outing for the house banners which the children had created in their house teams the day before.  This was part of our bid for the ‘School Sports Award’ and we look forward to hearing how we have done.

Sadly, we also say goodbye to Mr Clucas today after two years as our sports instructor - we wish him well in his new role in Norwich and he leaves us with our sincere thanks for all he has done.

We are taking the opportunity to look again at how we deliver PE and sport in our school and so for the Autumn term, our PE lessons will be delivered by Josh Slade from Inspire Suffolk.  Mr Slade has already delivered one session to Poplar class and they very much enjoyed the lesson - we look forward to working with him and Inspire Suffolk.

Pebbles:

Following the success of our ‘Hands’ whole school art project, we shall be completing another one very early in the Autumn term.  We will be look at a book called ‘Only One You’ in our start of the year assembly and following this, every child will be painting their

Pebbles: (Cont.)

own pebble in a similar style to the fishin the book.  To support this, we would like every child to bring a pebble into school with them on Wednesday 6th of September.  The book will be shared in assembly and every child will take some time over the next couple of days to paint their own pebble.  These will then be arranged together as a permanent display!

Houses:

Earth has certainly been the dominant house this year.  They won both sports days (R/KS1 shared with water) and have won the house points race for 3 of the 6 half-terms.  We hope to expand house events next year by including some more academic house events - watch this space!

Performances:

Our choir has again been active this year; most recently at the Alde Valley Academy summer fayre.  Mrs Nicholas has been working hard with them and with all children in the school; this afternoon’s singing by key stage two in the leavers assembly being a great example.

Again, all children have had the opportunity to perform in their year group’s production and the closing performances of the Nativities, the Pied Piper and Troy Story were really special occasions.  An important part

Performances: (Cont.)

of this has been our community performances which have brought the children’s work to a new audience.  The residents at Swann House have especially benefitted from these occasions and we look forward to welcoming them to our school again next year.

Uniform:

A reminder that in September, all children should be in black, sensible shoes (not trainers) and a school sweatshirt or cardigan (available from the office). If you are getting your child’s ears pierced, please do so at the start of the break so the earrings can then be removed in September for PE.  Children will not be allowed to do PE or swim with earrings in.

Attendance:

The vomiting bug had a significant effect on attendance this year but the final percentage for the year is 95.5%.  In the end of year assembly this morning I was proud to hand out nearly 100 certificates for 100% attendance this term and 14 certificates for 100% attendance this year.  

Of course, all parents will also have received their termly attendance letter along with this newsletter and I make no apologies for continuing to raise this as an issue.  Your child’s time at school is limited and precious; to make the best progress, they need to

Attendance: (Cont.)

regularly attend.  As a school, we aim for all of our children to have good attendance.  That is, attending on at least 96% of sessions.

From Robin Potter, Chair of Governors:

The Governors have been looking closely at the opportunities that may be created by changing  Saxmundham Primary School from being under Local Authority control to becoming an Academy.  We  have attended meetings and training and had discussions with many local schools about their own strategies towards Academisation.  Our key focus has been on the potential benefits for the children at our school.

As a result of this research we have  decided to enter  into discussions with the Avocet Academy Trust which currently supports Aldeburgh, Easton, Leiston and Wickham Market Primary schools regarding the possibility of us joining the Trust. We  will keep parents/carers and the community briefed and carry out appropriate consultations as these discussions progress.

On a personal note I am standing down at the end of August as  Chair of Governors but will remain on the Governing body of the school for a while.  I would like  to  acknowledge the wonderful support I have received from staff, parents  and children over

From Robin Potter, Chair of Governors: (Cont.)

the years –  it has been both enjoyable and a privilege to have been able to support our school. Tom Boswell will be taking over as Chair in the Autumn.

Hands:

Thank you to those parents who have already made their donation of £5 for the hands we made and exhibited recently.  We would be grateful for any further donations and are happy to receive them in September!  We have sent an article to the EADT about our work and hope to see this in print in the next week or so.

Key Dates:

Start of Autumn Term: Wednesday 6th September

Tuesday 12th September - Individual Children’s Photos: Family groups available from 8am

Friday 29th September - Macmillan Coffee Morning

Thursday 12th October - Year 5 London Trip departs

Friday 13th October - Year 5 London trip returns

Monday 23rd October, 2017 - Half-Term Holiday

Monday 30th October - PD Day (School closed for children)

Friday 10th November - Armstice Day

Wednesday 22nd November - Flu Immunisations (Y R-4)

Tuesday 19th December, 2017 - Last day of Autumn Term

Saxmundham Primary News

Issue 11 - July, 2017

At last the summer holidays have arrived!  After a couple of false starts and some recent thunderstorms, we are ready to enjoy the sun! (Cue more thunderstorms, lightning and the odd hailstone!)

Of course, the end of the year inevitably means saying goodbye to our year 6 children.  They have had an excellent year and have represented our school well in many ways; we shall miss them as they leave us to go on to their secondary schools.

However, coming quickly up behind them is our current year 5, eager to step into the vacated shoes.  This week we had a special assembly for Ellie-Grace, Izzy, Niamh and Cristian as they received their Silver award for their work as Junior Road Safety Officers.  On top of this, many of the year 5’s had prominent parts in “Troy Story” and several have represented our school successfully in sports events this year.  The future is indeed

bright and the talent is not just limited to our current year 5.

Last year at this time, I reviewed the progress of our school and this year we have again made significant improvements.  We have experienced more success on the sports front; the standard of artwork and arts performance, singing in particular, has risen across the school as a result of increased focus in this area and at KS2, 69% of our children achieved the national standard in reading, writing and maths.  That is 6% higher than last year and 8% higher than this year's national average.

Success is often measured by narrow means such as league tables.  But, as I have said before, a successful school is one that produces confident, successful children who are well equipped for the challenges ahead..  Judging on the basis of this years leavers, we are doing just that.

Edward Pearson-Shaul