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Dear Parents

Sponsored Fun Run

I am delighted to say that the total sum raised is now over £1800. Thank you all so much for your generous support and please pass on my thanks to your relatives, work colleagues  and friends for sponsoring the children.

As I mentioned in a previous letter we plan to use this money as a big boost to the KS2 adventure playground fund and to give a portion of it to support the transport costs of Mrs Wragg’s venture in sending surplus equipment to the Gambia.

Brazilian dancing

Last Friday evening a large group of our Yr 4, 5 and 6 pupils joined many other Warwickshire children as part of an Intercultural Arts Festival held at the Civic Centre in Stratford. They were accompanied by Mrs Crow and Mrs McColm and showed a lively selection of Brazilian dances to an appreciative audience. The organisers were especially pleased to have a representation of Central American culture; “well done” children and a special thank you to Mrs McColm for her expertise in teaching the dances.

Music and Singers

Other groups of children in KS2  have been taking part in performances recently with the Warwickshire Young Singers.

We are very fortunate at Kineton to have so many opportunities for children to learn to play a musical instrument. There are groups playing recorder, steel pans, keyboard, violin, guitar and flute. All these children have given delightful small performances to school and parents at the end of term.

We are planning to involve more children’s instrumental playing  in school assemblies next year.

Cycle Training

Congratulations to all the children who have taken the Cycling Awareness course; they all successfully passed. This vitally important safety course was led by Rod Joy and a group of parents.  Thank you to these volunteers.

Road Safety

We have arranged a visitor to talk to all the children on road safety this week as a reminder about looking after themselves during the summer break.

Assessment Results

At the end of this week we shall be sending out SATs results for Yr2 and Yr6, assessment results for Yrs 1, 3, 4,and 5, reports for children learning musical instruments and attendance records for all children in Yrs R-6. Foundation Stage Profiles have already been sent out to parents of children in Yr R.

Attendance

The attendance print out you receive will show you the records held on our computer up to Wednesday 13^th July. If you have any queries about this please contact Mrs Stimpson or Mrs Braggs. You may be interested to know that Warwickshire Education Authority and the Department of Education and Skills consider an acceptable level of attendance to be 95% or above. The greater majority of our pupils are above this level. If your child’s level is below this it may reflect an extended period of illness, a hospital stay, general poor attendance or term-time holiday. As headteacher it is my responsibility to monitor attendance at school and I am delighted to say that 17 of our pupils have achieved 100% attendance for the whole school year. They will receive a certificate to mark this attainment.

Open Afternoon

Thank you to all our visitors who came around school last week. It was a pleasure to welcome parents and grandparents. I know that many parents took the opportunity to meet their child’s new teacher for next year as well as looking at the work covered during this year.

If any parents missed this opportunity and have a query about this year’s work or would like to meet their child’s new class teacher please contact the teacher or myself. We will do our best to find some time during these last few days of term.

It was also very interesting to see the plans for the new playgroup building on our site. We have exceptionally strong links with Kineton Playgroup and this can only be enhanced by such plans. Thank you Mike arranging and manning the display.

Tokens

We have now decided to spend our Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers on a range of outdoor playtime equipment. This will build on the existing range. Our aim is to provide fun activities which will keep the children active. Thank you for collecting so many.

Gold Celebrations – Healthy Schools Award

It was a pleasure to see so many parents joining us at last week’s celebration. We now have our new gold plaque to put up on the wall!

County Caterers Consultation

Mrs Venus has asked me to mention that she will be attending another meeting with County Caterers on July 19^th. If any parents have any ideas or comments they would like to make please talk to Mrs Venus and she will pass them on.

Library

Sheriden Hunt from the Library Service talked to the children yesterday about this year’s summer reading scheme: “The Reading Voyage” which starts this Saturday. Children need to register at a local library and aim to read 6 books over the summer period. There are lots of incentives such as stickers and  book marks along the “voyage” and a medal if the child manages to read 6 books. Your child will bring home a sticker to mark the beginning of the Reading Voyage

Sports Day

A reminder about Sports Day on Tuesday morning (back up is Wed in case of bad weather): we look forward to parents joining us at school for the occasion. We sent out a letter with the details last week and this included a slip to return regarding arrangements for the picnic and for collecting children after the sports events from the classrooms. It is very important that children return to their classrooms to be checked out by their teachers. Please make sure that you return this slip to your child’s classteacher so that we can be absolutely sure about who is responsible for supervision after the sports events.

Leavers Assembly

This will be held on the last Friday of term at 9.30am. Yr 6 parents are invited to join us.

The Yr 6 pupils are now ready to move on to the next stage in their education. The rest of the school have learned a song to sing to the leavers which reflects some of the mixed emotions they may be feeling as they move on; excitement and anticipation possibly tinged with a little apprehension of the unknown. The majority of them have been at this school since Reception and one of their early teachers – Miss Clements visited school to see them this week. Good luck Yr 6, the teachers here will be looking forward to hearing good things about you from your secondary schools, don’t forget to let us know of your future achievements. Maybe we’ll see some of you here on work experience in the years to come.

As well as Yr 6 we shall also be saying goodbye to Fergus in Class 2, who will be moving to join his brother at Warwick School from September. Good luck Fergus at your new school.

Of course this will also be the time to say farewell to Mrs Biltcliffe and Mr Cousens. These two teachers have given so much to the school in so many ways and will be missed greatly.  

Mrs Biltcliffe’s family have been moving to North Wales in stages during this term; her husband and son are now living there, their house move is tomorrow and so Mrs Biltcliffe and her daughter will be “camping out” with friends for the last week! Thank you Mrs Biltcliffe for keeping going so well this term it can’t have been easy. Good luck in your new job, I hope your new school realises how fortunate they are to have you working there.

Mr Cousens’ new job is local, in Leamington, so we are expecting to see him at sports or other events. Mr Cousens has spent some time with his new class, the children and staff here think his new class is very lucky to have such a special teacher.

I am also very pleased to tell you that Miss Emms is to be married during the summer holidays and when she returns she will be known as Mrs Field. Some of our younger pupils are convinced that Mr Field is a farmer but I am assured that this is not the case! As a school family we send Miss Emms and her fiancé our very best wishes for a happy future together.

Yr 6 Leavers Service

Key Stage 2 children and staff will be joining the Yr6 leavers in church for a Leavers’ Sevice led by Mrs Charmaine Host and Mrs Heidi Cartledge. Parents are very welcome to join us at the service.

Summer Play Schemes

There will be a two day play and sports activities event held at school on July 28^th and 29^th. This is run by the local council and parents can apply for places by telephoning 01789 260643. Details in the Hi- 5 booklet sent out earlier.

There is also to be a Multi Sports Camp held at Kineton High School for children aged 7 upwards, from 15^th -19^th August 9.00am – 4.00pm. The contact numbers are 07770 363 653   or 07855 342268. There is leaflet coming out to give more detail.

Two Minute Silence

You may like to know that each class observed the two minute silence today at 12noon in remembrance of the victims of last week’s bombing.

Email letters

It appears that some families are not receiving letters reliably via pupil post. If you would prefer to have the newsletters emailed to you please let Mrs Stimpson or Mrs Braggs know in the School Office.

At the end of my first two terms at Kineton, I would like to thank you all for your support for the school and especially for having made me so welcome. I have not changed my original thoughts that this is a very good school and I am enjoying working with the staff team to ensure that the school continues to move forward and that our children can have every opportunity to achieve their best.

I wish you all a very enjoyable summer holiday and look forward to seeing you all again in September. The first day for children to attend is Tuesday 6^th September.

Yours sincerely