Weekly Bulletin: Friday 7th February 2025
Dear Parents, Carers & Families,
Our Key stage 1 and Early Year's children have had fabulous time this week enjoying the story telling skills of our visiting author, Neil Griffiths. It was lovely to see so many of our students and staff engage in the stories of ‘Itchy Bear’ and ‘Winnie Wagtail.’ Well done all of you for joining in with the storytelling and answering Neil’s questions so fully!
It was great to see so many of our parents join us for Neil’s workshop. Neil was a primary school Head Teacher for 13 years before taking on the role of director of a National Literacy Support Project for the Basic Skills Agency. He devised and developed Storysacks, promoting
them to schools and communities across the UK. He is hugely knowledgeable and is keen to communicate with parents on how best to support their children with reading. If you were unable to attend and enjoy the workshop, you can access Neil’s stories and advice in the following videos:
//www.youtube.com/embed/m_knEh11hc4#t=0.5
//www.youtube.com/embed/DrVOtUL-bKM#t=0.5
//www.youtube.com/embed/hEgREFpqFfA#t=0.5
Thank you to Neil Griffiths for visiting us and sharing your love of books!
Week on week, we will continue to share the learning experiences of other year groups.
In assembly this week we shared what we know about friendships and
through discussion established that friendships involve accepting each other's strengths and weaknesses, and allowing individuals to be who they need to be - it’s important that they celebrate and maintain their individuality (their spirit). If your child is struggling with friendships, please speak to their class teacher - they will be happy to help.
We are still looking to recruit House Captains, Prefects, Head and Deputy Prefects for the school. Interested students will need to write a brief note to the Headteacher and Student Council if they wish to apply for these roles. They need to state why they would like the role and why they think they would be good in it. All applications need to be in by the half term break.
There is Still Time to Book!
Our SENCo, Miss Haddaway has organised a workshop for those parents with 10 and 11 years olds who are interested in supporting them with their mental health. Please click HERE if you are interested in attending.
We are presently looking to develop a parent/carer/school consultation group. This group would meet the first Monday of each term within the school day (14:30 to 15:30). The remit of the group is to work together and develop strategies that improve our students’ well-being, learning and chances of successful futures. We are looking to recruit one Parent or Carer to represent each class across the school at the consultation meetings. If you are able to commit your time on a regular basis and are interested in applying for this role, please click HERE and complete an Expression of Interest Form.
Have a lovely week everyone.
Best wishes,
Angela Carpenter
Headteacher.
Attendance
The foundations of learning are laid in the Primary years of schooling and so Whitehill Primary School is committed to making sure that our children do not miss out on the education and care that we offer. Regular attendance is critical if our pupils are to be happy, successful and benefit from the opportunities presented to them now and in the future.
Good attendance is fundamental to a successful and fulfilling school experience. We actively promote 100% attendance for all our pupils and we use a variety of rewards and incentives to promote good attendance and punctuality. Awards are group focused rather than given to individuals as we recognise that our students cannot help being absent for medical reasons.
Below, you can see this week's attendance data. The stars indicate the year groups who were awarded 5 minutes extra Green Time for topping everyone else's attendance:
Key Events
