I am going to keep this blog quite short, as this week we have sent home a HUGE Christmas newsletter full of dates and information. This is also attached below too. I am quite aware that keeping up with emails and newsletters, at this time of the year, must be quite tricky but we always like to give as much notice as possible of the exciting events taking place. 

It has been great seeing so many of you at the Parent Consultations this week! I hope that you enjoyed hearing about and celebrating your child's progress. For those of you who came on the Wednesday evening, I do hope you enjoyed sampling some of the food provided by Caterlink. There were lots of parents who were quite pleased that they no longer had to cook dinner! Thank you to everyone who took a few minutes to complete the questionnaire. I am really looking forward to reading about the positive aspects of school life at WPA, along with any suggestions for improvement.

I would like to direct you to a website which supports families to ensure that devices at home are safely set up to protect your child. The internet is an incredible tool, but we must also ensure our children can access it safely. Online Safety features prominently  in our PSHE curriculum and your support with this at home is so important too. Please visit this website which gives really clear instructions about how to set up restrictions on devices. You can choose which device you are using (iPhone, Android etc), so that the instructions are personalised. Thank you for your support with this.

 https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Lee- Elkins 

It seems rather early, but this week the School Hall was filled with the sound of Christmas songs, as KS1 and KS2 start to prepare for their Christmas Performances. Even though it's still November, the singing sounded wonderful and certainly put a smile on my face! Last week you will have received a letter about the many events happening in December. Please do add those dates to your calendars as we love to see as many families as possible at the Christmas events. Over the next week you will receive another letter about the Christmas Lunches, Cinema Trip etc. 

Sometimes it amazes me how much we squeeze into a week. This week alone we have had a visit from Barnardo's, Y1 have been baking bread, Y6 have taken part in a Football Competition, Bikeability and a Global Neighbours assembly from the School Council, amongst many other great learning opportunities. It's no wonder we are all exhausted by Friday! 

This week I was really excited to have a visit from Stanley in Y5 to show me his Geography learning. The presentation was impressive and so was Stanley's knowledge. Well done Stan! Our Governors spent Wednesday afternoon visiting classrooms and talking to children about their learning. They were really impressed with how articulate the children were and how positively they were able to reflect on their learning. 

Shining Stars will take place in classrooms today, rather than in assembly. In assembly we will be thinking about Remembrance Day together, as a school. We will hold a 2 minute silence and some of Y6 Pupil Leadership Team are going to read their poetry to mark the event. 

Next week we are looking forward to Parents' Evening on Wednesday and Thursday. If you have not yet made an appointment, please do. If you are having any difficulties, please do contact the school office. Please remember that there will be no teacher led after school clubs next week. 

Next Week is 'Anti Bullying Week'. On Monday, the children invited into school wearing odd socks to help us celebrate what makes us all unique. Mrs Orme will talk about this in Monday's assembly and teachers will continue this discussion throughout the week. There is a poster below with more information.

Finally, our current whole school attendance is 95% which is better than this time last year. This is great news! Attendance will continue to be a focus for us at Wadebridge Primary and where attendance is lower than expected, we will work with everyone on a very personal basis to support you. At the Parents' Evening this week you will be given a copy of your child's current attendance certificate. 

See you all next week! 

Mrs Lee-Elkins 

Well, what a start to the term! I wanted to start the blog this week with a big thank you for your understanding and patience on Thursday morning, when we delayed the opening of school, due to the storm. Staff who travel from outside of Wadebridge, were finding it difficult to get in due to closed roads and we also had a large tree on the road in to school that was very unsafe. With every gust of wind, the tree swayed a little further in the wrong direction and the roots made the ground raise! Our fantastic Caretaker (Mr Holt), with help from the Trust, were able to arrange for Lanhydrock Gardening services to get to us really quickly and cut the tree, meaning that we could safely open the road again. The Lanhydrock Team removed some other dangerous trees from across our site too. Closing the school is never an easy decision to make, but the safety of children, families and staff must always be a priority. Once the school reopened at 10:30am, it was business as usual and the great learning across the school was able to recommence.

It has been great being back in school this week. I have had many visitors to my office (3 today already!) to share their learning and it's great to see the children so proud of their achievements. Shining Stars this week are all about kindness- I can't wait to hear all about the kind children in our school, in the assembly later today!

This week we also held our second Coffee Morning for parents of children with additional needs. We hope that parents enjoyed this opportunity to meet with our new SENDCo (Mr Smith) and chat to other parents. We will keep you posted with the next date, which will be after Christmas.

Global Citizenship
This year, as a school, we are developing 'Global Citizenship'. Mrs Orme is leading the way with this and here is some further information.

This term at WPA we have been exploring what it means to be a responsible Global Citizen. This comes as part of the Global Neighbours scheme which is an exciting school accreditation scheme. In partnership with the Church of England's Education Office, we want to encourage a deeper understanding of global injustice and equip our pupils to tackle this and become courageous advocates for change. Here are some of the things we have achieved in our first 6 weeks of this year:

• Newly appointed Eco-councilors who have completed a detailed audit of how environmentally friendly our school is and have written an action plan to move forward.
  
• Organised a huge community donation to the Wadebridge Food Bank, linked to our learning about Harvest Festival
• Embarked on a Year 6 project to raise awareness about Fairtrade and Cocoa Life, within our community. We are looking forward to inviting our families in for several events to educate people about the importance of Fairtrade.
  
• Celebrated Black History Month (October) where we learnt about the contribution Black communities and individuals have made over the centuries, in shaping the dynamic and diverse country we have today.
  
• Newly appointed School councillors and pupil leaders have planned and delivered a whole school assembly about Global Citizenship and what it means to be a responsible Global Citizen

We have a lot more planned over the course of the year! We aim to increase our children’s understanding of the root causes of poverty and injustice, as well as engage and empower pupils as agents of change in the transformation of our world. We are excited to help our pupils to become active global citizens and courageous advocates for change in the world, from a local to global level.

Remembrance Day
Next week, with the help of our Y6 Pupil Leadership Team, we will be selling a range of Poppy products to mark Remembrance Day. The prices of products range from 50p to £2 and children will be able to purchase these items from the school hall at playtime. We also have a small box of paper Poppies with pins (for adults) that can be purchased from the school office. This can either be with cash or using the QR code. Next week, in our assembly, we will mark Remembrance day together as a school.

Year One Phonics Workshop
We are really looking forward to seeing Year One Parents and Families in school on Monday 13th November at 9am for a Parent Workshop. This will be a chance to find out about Phonics in Year One, along with some information about how you can support your child to be ready for the Phonics Screening Check that takes place in the Summer Term.

This week, you will have a received a letter via Arbor about the many events happening this term. We know that talking about Christmas in November seems a little too keen, but we wanted to give you as much notice as possible about the exciting things to look forward to this term. I have attached the letter below.

Finally, please can I remind you not to park in the KS2 drop off zone. The cones, the tape and the signs help to identify this area very clearly. Parking in this zone blocks traffic and causes quite a few problems for other people. Please ensure that this message is passed on to any family or friends that may collect your child.

I hope you have a great weekend,
Many thanks,
Mrs Lee- Elkins.

The clubs this term have been fantastic too, particularly our drama and choir club who are putting together an exciting performance. We will let you know more about this soon. Our gardening club has been in full swing too! They have been growing edible violas, planting daffodils donated from Trelawney and harvested red and green peppers and sweet tomatoes. As you can see from the picture, the children have also been harvesting the sunflower seeds ready for next year.

At the start of next term I will be in touch with dates for upcoming events- including Christmas! Eeek! 

In the meantime, I hope you all have the most wonderful Half Term! 

See you all on Monday 30th October.

Mrs Lee- Elkins

I've got to start this week's blog with a very special mention to some of our littlest learners in Reception. This week I was excited to spend some time watching some of their Maths lessons and my goodness, it was hard to believe that they are only in week 6 of their school journey. The way they have settled into school life is simply fantastic. They were so excited to tell me all about different patterns and how to be a careful counter when counting objects. Apparently if you keep your objects in a line then you will be just fine. But if you keep them in a huddle, you'll get in a muddle!

Maths seems to be thriving across the school as this week some of our budding mathematicians at the other end of the school (Year 6) visited Wadebridge Comp for a Maths competition. Mrs Young said that they represented the school remarkably.

This week I was also very excited to have a visit from three writers from Miss Warren's class. These three writers have been working incredibly hard to keep their letters on the line and use sound mats. Well done boys! It's always a pleasure having visitors to my office, even if I am starting to run out of Head Teacher Awards!

On Wednesday we hosted a girls football festival at our school. It was great to see so many players involved with 10 teams participating. The girls played matches and had a skills session. Both our teams performed excellently; demonstrating great skills, determination and enthusiasm throughout. They all represented our school admirably.

This week my Head Teacher's award goes to Flo and Sylvia in Y6. They are two of the most polite and kind children I have ever met. They always have a smile to share and show genuine care to everyone and anyone. They work hard with their learning and their teachers tell me how lucky they are to have them in their class. Girls, you are superstars!

Next week we have a VERY exciting event to look forward to. On Monday FOWPA’s Bake Off will finally arrive! Please do read the email sent out this week about how to enter. We can't wait to see your creations- let the baking commence!

Here are a few other reminders for next week:

-2 more weeks of swimming. Next week and the week after half term 
-Y4 Multiplication Check meeting for parents on Tuesday morning at 9am
-Final day of term on Thursday. Normal finish time.

Have a great weekend and see you all for our final week on Monday!

Mrs Lee Elkins

This week I have had the absolute pleasure of spending a good amount of time in Year 5 and Year 6. On Tuesday, Mrs Orme and I completed a learning walk around Upper Key Stage 2, with our Area Executive Head Teacher, Mrs Sanson. I was incredibly proud of the team, who have worked hard to create a calm and purposeful learning environment. The children really impressed us with not only their determination to improve their own outcomes, but also to support and cheer their friends on too. There were some great examples of children helping out learners across their classroom and really bringing our Trust value of being ‘responsible’ to life. I can’t wait to see the great things they will achieve this year! As you can see from the pictures, the writing in Y5 is already impressive!

On Monday and Tuesday our Year 3 children represented the school well on their school trip to Pentire where they explored the local coastline. A group of KS2 children also attended a great event where they were able to demonstrate their incredible bowling skills!

Last week the local Food Bank collected a fantastic amount of donations from us, as part of our Harvest Festival. Thank you to everyone who was able to contribute to the worthwhile cause. To celebrate our Harvest Festival, we had a great assembly with Pastor Drew and sang the primary school classic, ‘Cauliflowers Fluffy’. It wouldn’t be Harvest without singing that song!

This week our ‘Shining Stars’ theme was all about children who demonstrate our Learning Characters. I chose Bailey in Y4 and Milo in Y1. Bailey has really impressed his teacher this week by showing true determination with his reading and spelling. Well done Bailey! This week I was very excited to teach a Phonics lesson in Y1 (I have really missed it!) and Milo caught my attention by being so incredibly helpful and thoughtful. We really do have many great children at our school. As you know, improving attendance is a key focus for the school this year.

Last week you will have received a letter from the Trust detailing our approach to this. Please do have a look on our school website under ‘policies’ for more information. As part of our Trust policy, next week I am going to spending sometime looking at attendance so far this term. I know that there have been many illnesses lurking around so I will, of course, look at each case of lower attendance on a very personal basis. Outside of the school office, our weekly whole school attendance and the class with the best attendance will be displayed to help us celebrate the positive steps we are making with this.

I can’t believe that we only have two weeks of the term left already! The children have already achieved so much. We still have lots to look forward to, such as the FOWPA Bake Off on Monday 16th October and the Y4 Maths event for parents on Tuesday 17th October. This is just a reminder that school (and Bridge Kids) is closed for an INSET day on Friday 20th October. If you would like to make a booking for Bridge Kids for the October half term, please do contact the school office.

Finally, please remember not to park in the KS2 drop off zone (the cones and signs help to identify this area) and to not park or block the disabled bays in front of school. The bays are reserved for blue badge holders, along with the families with children who have significant additional needs. Thank you for your support with this to help the collection/drop off times run as smoothly as possible.

See you all next week. Enjoy the Autumn sunshine across the weekend!

Mrs Lee- Elkins

Well, that’s another week down full of learning and fun! At Wadebridge Primary we strive to provide a range of exciting experiences for all of the children and its fair to say that school trips are well under way!

This week’s highlight has got be the Y2 trip to Newquay Zoo. Here is a little blurb from Mr O’Dwyer all about their adventure….

On Wednesday, the Year 2 cohort visited Newquay Zoo and met with the Education Team to discuss all the ways the zoo helps animals, birds, insects and people! This was part of our ongoing topic, 'Do all superheroes wear capes?' Steve from the Education Team welcomed us and informed the children that each enclosure has a chart displaying how endangered each animal is. Green for 'Not endangered' up to red for 'Critically endangered'. We then explored the zoo with our classes and saw Lemurs, Meerkats, Wallabies, Penguins and many more. We then met Steve again at the Savannah and overlooked 3 Zebras, 2 Wildebeests and some very shy Antelopes. Steve talked about how Vets care for the zoo animals, as well as the Zoo Keepers. He also told us about the Cafe staff, ticket office staff, cleaners and the site maintenance team who keep the zoo running smoothly for all visitors. He also showed us a very hard, plastic ball they place in enclosures to keep the animals entertained. The ball he showed us was completely chewed and destroyed from the Lions that once were at the zoo!

The children then had a chance to ask questions. Some brilliant questions were asked such as; 'How did you move the lions to the other zoo?', 'What is the oldest animal at the zoo?' and 'Where did you get the penguins from?' - interesting fact, the first Penguins at Newquay Zoo came from an old mini golf course in Newquay 54 years ago! The children had a great time and they were a credit to the school. Well done, Year 2!

Next week Year 3 are heading out for a seaside adventure. If your child is in Year 3, please ensure you read the guidance carefully about the plans for the day.

Year 1 are excited to be heading out on a trip too! They will be walking around Wadebridge to learn all about their local environment, along with a visit to the Library.

In the celebration assembly today, my Head Teacher’s award will be going to Daisy in Y4 and Estelle in Y6. Both of these children are always looking incredibly smart and are wonderful role models for the rest of the school. They always have a smile to share and take huge pride in their learning. Well done to them!

This week I had my first Zoom call of the year with FOWPA, our wonderful group of parents. We are so grateful for the team who help enhance our school. They have already provided £50 per class along with over £300 for new guided reading books in Year 5 and Year 6. FOWPA are putting together some great fundraising events, starting with the cake sale on Monday 16th October. Please see the attachment below for more information. If you are interested in joining FOWPA, please do get in touch. Any help is always gratefully appreciated!

Here are a few important dates for the next few weeks:

-5th October: School Census Day. We encourage all Reception and KS1 children to have a lunch on this day, as it helps with funding for the rest of the school year. Please do order your child a lunch!

-10th October: Flu Immunisations Year R to Year 6

-16th October: FOWPA Cake Sale

-17th October: Year 4 Multiplication Check Parent Meeting 08:45

-19th October: Final day of school before the half term

-20th October: INSET day. School and Bridge Kids Closed.

Finally, this week you will have received a letter from the Trust detailing the importance of attendance and how we aim to work together over the next year. Attendance is a key focus for us as a school and will be closely monitored to ensure that we are doing everything we can improve attendance and outcomes. Each case of poor attendance will be handled sensitively and personally, based on individual circumstances. Over the final few weeks of this term we will be contacting families of children who have fallen below the national target this term. From next week we are going to be displaying some important attendance statistics outside the front of the school to help us celebrate positive attendance.

See you all next week!

Best wishes,

Mrs Lee- Elkins

It’s been another great week at Wadebridge Primary Academy! The children have continued to settle in well and I have had many conversations with the teachers about the great learning already taking place. We were very excited to welcome our Nursery children back this week too. The children have been ‘busy learners’, exploring their new environment and getting to know their new adults.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make the ‘Meet the Teacher’ events and thank you to many of you who were able to walk to help reduce some of the traffic coming into school. Please don’t worry if you weren’t able to make the meeting, as all of the information will be added to the class blogs. We were excited to give out more information about plans for residential trips to Bristol (Y6) and Porthpean (Y4). If you haven’t received a letter about these trips, please visit the school office.

This week we had our first whole school picture in around 8 years. The children were very excited but also very well behaved. I took a moment to stand back and look at our ‘school team’ altogether and it was very moving to see just how many remarkable children and staff we have in our school. We can’t wait to share the picture with you soon!

Our first trip of the school year took place this week too! Mrs May and Mrs Giles took a group of Y5 children to Bodmin Fire Station for a ‘Junior Life Skills’ event. The children learnt about important skills such as internet safety, first aid, CPR, road safety etc. Both Mrs May and Mrs Giles commented on the children’s engagement and exemplary behaviour. Well done to those children for representing our school in such a wonderful way.

Our theme this week for Shining Stars is ‘Presentation to be proud of’. Having already looked at some books across the school, it’s clear to see that there is real focus on handwriting and presentation this year and that the children are motivated to take pride in their learning. As you can see from the picture, the Y4 children have been working particularly hard!

This week, my Head Teacher’s Award goes to a special pupil in Y5. She always has a smile to share and has been incredibly helpful in Lunch Club. She is always offering to set up/ tidy away activities and according to Mrs May, is an absolute delight to spend lunchtime with. Well done!

I also had my first (very quick!) meeting with our Y6 Pupil Leadership Team to invite them to a lunch and meeting with Caterlink next week. As you may know, Caterlink are our new catering team and they would very much like to meet with the children to find out what they think of the food so far, explain some of their decisions about how they put the menu together and share their company values. I look forward to letting you know all about it next week. In the meantime, please can I ask that everyone orders school lunches by the Sunday evening, ready for the following week. This will give the canteen a better understanding of how many meals to prepare. This will ensure the right amount of food is cooked and will also reduced waste. Thank you. 

Finally, just a quick reminder that in the mornings, children should say goodbye and then walk independently past the KS1 and EYFS green gates, into their classrooms. If there are any messages to be passed on, please speak to the adult on duty. Thank you for your support with this. 

Next week we are really looking forward to the start of clubs, our SEND coffee morning (Tues 19th) and a Y5 and Y6 assembly with the Sea Cadets. We also have individual and sibling photographs on Wednesday- that should be the last of the professional photographs for a while. The children have very much perfected their poses! 

I hope you all have a great weekend!


Mrs Lee- Elkins

Well, what a week! It has been an absolute pleasure welcoming everyone back to school. Thanks to the fantastic team at WPA, I have had the most brilliant first week as ‘Acting Head Teacher’ with so many kind words of encouragement. Wadebridge Primary really is a special place to be.

This week started with an Inset day for Teachers, where we thought carefully about how we can continue to build on the many strengths at Wadebridge Primary and our next steps to help us move forwards. I’m really looking forward to sharing our School Development Plan with you soon.

On Tuesday the school came to life again and the corridors were full of hustle and bustle! The children have come back to school refreshed and excited for the year ahead. In our whole school assembly, we thought about how changes can often feel like a new pair of school shoes. At first, new shoes can feel strange and uncomfortable but new shoes can soon become so comfy, you don’t even notice them! And just like new shoes, the new year can feel a little strange to start with, but soon it's not new anymore, just normal!

It’s been great walking around the school to see the interesting learning taking place. I have already had two budding Y1 artists visit my office to show me their creative portraits and a fantastic writer in Year Three who really impressed their teacher with a funny story about their pet rat! Whilst all the year groups have impressed me with their focus in lessons, a special ‘well done’ has to go to our Reception children. They have really dazzled us with how they have settled into school life. Reception is one of the most magical years in terms of independence and progress- we can’t wait to see them grow this year!

Today in assembly I am looking forward to giving out my first ever ‘Head Teacher’s Award’ to one of the most polite and chatty students we have. Seb in Y5 always stops to say ‘hello’ and asked me this week, with such genuine interest, how my first week as Head Teacher was going and gave me some great words of encouragement for my whole school assembly. Anyone who has worked with Seb will agree that he more than deserves his certificate today.

Meet the Teacher: Wednesday 13th September 2023
Please do come along to our annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ event that will be taking place on Wednesday 13th September. This will be a chance to see your child’s new teacher and find out all about their new year group.

The timings are:

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: 2:30pm- 2:50pm
Please enter via the green KS1 gate

Years 3 to 6: 3:00pm- 3:20pm
Please enter via the green KS2 gate

If you are unable to make the meeting, we will ensure that the relevant information is on the class pages of our school website. Please do have a look on your child’s class page to find out more information about reading, home learning etc. These pages will be updated regularly to showcase the great things happening in school.

Whole School Picture: Thursday 14th September
Thank you to everyone who has been on to Arbor to update permissions and ParentPay to book school lunches. If you haven’t yet, please ensure you have given photo permission on Arbor as we have our whole school picture on Thursday 14th September. Just a reminder that there is no PE on this day and so everyone should be in their uniform looking super smart for the picture.

Dates
Here are some important dates for this academic year. We will soon have more to share with you.

Term Dates
Autumn Term: 4th Sept- 19th December 2023 HALF TERM: 23rd- 27th October 2023
Spring Term: 4th January- 28th March 2024 HALF TERM: 12th- 16th February 2024
Summer Term: 15th April- 24th July 2024 HALF TERM 27th- 31st May 2024
INSET Days: Mon 4th September 2023,  Fri 20th Oct 2023, Fri 9th February 2024, Fri 7th June 2024 and  Weds 24th July 2024

National Assessments
We will give you further information about these assessments but please avoid any absence from school during these times.
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check : from Monday 10th June- Friday 14th June.
Optional KS1 SATs Window 2024: Testing will take place in May 2024
Year 4 Multiplication check: 2 week window starting from Monday 3rd June 2024
KS2 SATs 2024: Monday 13th May- Thursday 16th May 2024

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a great weekend with some rest and relaxation before another busy week in school.

As always, if you have any questions please do send us an email to secretary@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk

Best wishes and thank you for your support,

Mrs Lee- Elkins