love of god, love of neighbour, love of learning€¦ · children to be respectful and responsible...

"Anything is possible. It is just hard work and grafting.” That is Mo Farah's motto. Olympics 2012

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Arundel CofE SchoolArundel CofE SchoolLove of God, Love of Neighbour, Love of LearningLove of God, Love of Neighbour, Love of Learning

Dates - Please see our updated list of all key dates and events on our Web Site - Click

www.arundelchurchofenglandschool.org.uk/for-parents/school-dates.html – Information is updated daily Dear parents and guardians, I hope you all had a lovely half term. I strongly believe that our school’s mission is to develop young people with active and creative minds, a sense of understanding and compassion for others and courage to act on their beliefs. We want our children to be respectful and responsible and understand what a lovely town we live in. But a school cannot work in isolation and I think, if we are going to continue to develop, we need to work together and in partnership. ACE needs you to ensure it continues to improve and strives for what those 3 letters stand for! I would like to publicly thank all those families who have helped the school over the half term including the Willis family, Sonsthagen family, Parsons family (their restaurant is pretty good too!), Gaskell family and Mr Bernie Heather, who is a true legend.!

Specialism in Physical Education I am sure you are aware that Lee Tillyer comes in

and takes the children for extra Physical Education sessions. Lee is a specialist coach and therefore our children get an opportunity to experience a high level of specialism in certain

fields such as gymnastics and, as you can see from the photos, the children seem to enjoy it! Cross country superstar, Hayleigh I just had to mention this young lady, who inspired so

many people in the last week when she demonstrated the ACE value of endurance through determination and resilience when

competing in the locality cross country race. Hayleigh never gave up and, although she was struggling, she managed to finish the course and show true ACE spirit. Thank you so much for inspiring those who were there and maybe we should follow Hayleigh’s example by getting those running shoes out!

Cross Country Result - ACE isn’t doing too badly! Over 200 runners competed in the first ever LASP X

Country Event. It was a great success and an event which will definitely be included in next year’s LASP calendar. The Y3/4 course was approximately

1100m and this was increased to approximately 1700m for the Y5/6 event. We had the most runners in terms of percentage of children per school who attended the event too! Y3/4 – Individual Medal winners Gold = Tegan Woods [Arundel] Silver = Charlotte Cooper [St Philips] Bronze = Phoebe Ayling [Arundel] Gold = Alex S [River Beach Silver = Alfie Beavis [St Catherines] Bronze = Huey Parkin [Summerlea] Y5/6 Individual Medal Winners Gold = Shannon Nolan [River Beach] Silver = Ella Thornburg [Arundel] Bronze = Grace Spindler [Lyminster] Gold = Aaron Woods [Arundel] Silver = Isaac Lavington [St Philips] & Bronze = Jak Bailey [St Mary’s ] So out of 12 positions we got a third of the places, which is 33%!

Headteacher’s Blog 4th November 2016

Volume 1 Issue 8

Arundel Church of England School www.arundelchurchofenglandschool.org.uk

01903 883149 [email protected]‐sussex.sch.uk




Thanks to Miss Talbot and Mrs Willavise for attending and all our fabulous parents who were there too. A Special Thanks to Lee and Mrs Tipton too! Message from Sandy Fell “Dear all Congratulations regarding the X Country event ...the LASP teams through are as follows Year 5/6 - GIRLS = Lyminster and BOYS = ARUNDEL - they will along with the individual runners compete for LASP at Windlesham House in January - Thursday 26th 2pm” Not bad considering the size of our little school! Ella, the swimming superstar! Well done to Ella in Year 5 who performed so well

recently at a “little” swimming event called the Sussex County Championships. I was very proud of her achievements as she achieved 5 personal bests and, as I always say to the children, if you try your very best nobody can ever really moan at you! Ella is such a humble girl and she is a

very reflective child and has already identified areas in which she can do even better next time. Now that is one thing we can all learn from! Half term busy bees Over the half term we have been very busy inside school. We have had the hall repainted and some further work on our playground. Hopefully you will be pleased with the results when you see the finished article. Meanwhile, Nick the Builder Visits ACE I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nick the Builder (aka Bob the Builder from Arundel Builders) who is helping build our brand new barbeque ready for our next FACES event. We are very lucky to have such supportive parents and grandparents who come to support their school. The big Barbie project began this half term! Talk for Writing has an impact in Rainbow Class

It was such a joy during the last week when children in our reception class had the opportunity to produce story maps and then re-enact their versions of

the Three Little Pigs. It was a lovely moment which I

would love to have shown the whole ACE community as we had a number of four year olds stand up and share their stories with the rest of the class. I also feel that the impact of Mr

Brian Moses earlier on that week had a big impact on how the children presented themselves to their peers. Great work, everybody in Rainbow Class. Spirit FM visit us again It is so nice when a radio show is so impressed with a

school that they would like to come back again. Spirit FM visited us last week and talked to a number of our pupils about various topics. The children were

brilliant and you can see a few of them in the photo. ACE will be on Spirit FM on the 21st November at 7.45 am, so please do listen out for that show. Message from Spirit FM Thank you for having me to your school earlier, the students were really amazing! Just to confirm that the earlier recordings will be edited and played on air w/c Monday 21st Nov (Mon-Fri) @ 7.45am. I will also do a tweet on the Monday morning with their photo and will also add their photo and ‘favourite thing about school’ audio to our website during that week. Hope that’s okay! India Ede Station Administrator Nathan and his Master Class in Maths

Nathan in Year 6 has been working very hard on his mathematics this term and, although we have had only 7 weeks so far, he has already completed a whole maths book! This is quite impressive and some of the work he has done has been pretty good too! Keep it up, Nathan, and I look forward to seeing your grand total of books

completed by the end of the year. School Councils I am delighted to announce that the following children will be representing the school in the following councils at school. If you child is still interested in




being a member of the school council, please do contact the lead teacher to get an application form. We would always welcome a few more members and we are also hoping parents may want to step up to work alongside staff members to lead these councils. I think personally it is very important to have active school councils to help promote the views and ideas of our best asset - our children. Each council will be having a meeting in the next few weeks. Religious Education Council Teacher Lead – Mrs Ferrier Members Olivia Staniforth Freya Child Melanie Weeden Tilly Sugden Aidan Bayley Learning Council Teacher Lead – Miss Stewart Members William Riseborough Daniel Staniforth Oscar Buss Ella Thornburg Troy Spurling Fleur Merryfield Evie Wilson Junior School Safety Council Teacher Lead – Mrs Willavise Members Ross McNeill Scarlett Fryer Alex Wood Georgie Douglas India Mason Emerson River Eco Warriors Council Teacher Lead – Mrs Slater and Miss Talbot Members Grace MacCallum

Phoebe Ayling Toby Sugden Finn Richardson Forest Purvis Lucas Rowan-Bayley Georgie Douglas Charlotte Gaillard Heidi Porter Adam Carter George Ockwell Oliver Seeds Madeleine Lark Oscar Fryer Finley Buss Jemima As hopefully you are aware, I feel it is essential that children learn their times tables and it is essential that

as parents we support them with this process. It can be challenging as a parent to support our children but learning those times tables is probably one of the easier areas to support a child but also one of the most beneficial to them. Well done to Jemima for working really

hard on learning her times tables and it is lovely to see that she has recorded them too. Alistair is a Celtic Legend! If all our parents were aware of the pride and joy it

brings to children when they complete their homework with them we would never have an issue of homework not being completed. Alistair in Phoenix Class produced some lovely work which illustrated what life was like during the Celtic period. I particularly like the picture of the scary Celt Warrior on the front of

the work (well worth a zoom!).

Edward is a Stone Age Killer! Well done to Edward who not only made a fabulous looking Stone Age axe but also noted down some fantastic facts about the Stone Age. Great work, Edward. Aldingbourne Primary School plays

its first football match for over 5 years! Aldingbourne Primary School invited our school for their first game for 5 years at their school. The boys in Year 6




played very well, especially after their poor start to the game. We were 3 – 1 down at half time. The boys played much better in the second half and we eventually lost 4 -3. We had over 75% of possession of the football and were very unfortunate to come away with a defeat. William in Year 1 is fabulous at maths I love children who like a good challenge. I personally feel it is the responsibility of the class teacher, parents and wider people associated with individual

children to motivate children and ensure that they are willing to tackle those more challenging tasks we have in life. In this case, Master William R in Dove Class has been producing some excellent mathematics recently and even been dipping his toes in work more linked to Year 2 and 3 children. Great work,

William, and, like all children, please remember to come and see me if you require some extra special work. Thomas in Year 1 is also pretty good at Maths Well done to Thomas in Year 1 who has also been completing extra maths work from me. I do love maths and it is so nice seeing children who love tackling their mathematics in such a positive way. Harvest at ACE 2016

We always think it is important to remember the traditional festivals and, in this case, we spent some time considering the meaning of harvest. Harvest Festival is a celebration of the food grown on the land. It was fabulous we had an opportunity to celebrate our harvest festival with Dr Mott this year. I would like to thank all those parents who were able to come to the event.

Thanksgiving ceremonies and celebrations for a successful harvest are both worldwide and very ancient. In Britain, we have given thanks for successful harvests since pagan times. Harvest Festival reminds Christians of all the good things God gives them. This makes them want to share with others who are not so fortunate. In our school, pupils bring donations from home to a Harvest Festival Service. After the service, the contributions that were put on, display were sent to Worthing Homeless.

Thank you for helping Worthing Homeless I would like to thank all the families who supported Worthing Homeless by providing tins etc for them on the last couple of days of term. As you can see from the photo, the people from Worthing Homeless were very pleased and came to pick up the items on the last day of term. Thanks again for making a difference to someone life over this half term!

Luca looking at Ancient Greece Luca in Year 5 has been working very hard on his class topic and produced a lovely annotated diagram of an Ancient Greek Vase. Well done, Luca. I wonder what kind of things you feel we could learn from the Ancient Greeks?

What is happening in our new library? 85% of our children have loaned out books. 300 of those books have been fiction. 179 of those books have been non fiction. 89% of girls have had books loaned out compared to only 85% of boys (come on, boys!) BRIAN MOSES MAKES HIS MARK Children at Arundel CE Primary School were delighted this Monday by a visit from Brian Moses, one of Britain's favourite children's poets. Brian certainly caused a stir with his poetry and percussion show for the whole school, in which he

transported the children to the Snake Hotel, took them for a walk with an iguana and for an interesting spin round the supermarket in a

customised shopping trolley. The pupils experienced firsthand the idea that poetry is not something that just sits on the page. Rather, it can be brought to life using a variety of voices, movements and percussion instruments. The poetry and percussion show was followed by

writers’ workshops where the children in key stage 2 had the opportunity to write metaphor poems. The day culminated with Brian officially opening the school’s new library. Four lucky librarians had the privilege of performing Brian’s special library




opening poem alongside him. Hamish Appleby, Abi Hollingsworth, Annie Kingshott and Harry Simpson gave a great performance in front of the specially invited audience, including the Mayor of Arundel, James Stuart, and others such as the Avisford Hilton Hotel in Arundel, who have been instrumental in bringing the school’s vision of a new library and learning resources centre to fruition. Tina Twaites, ACE’s chief librarian said, “We were so thrilled to have Brian Moses in school today to help us raise the profile of reading with his wonderful workshops alongside the official opening of our new library – in style. After all, libraries empower learners.” Thank you to Madeleine in Year 1

It was so lovely that we had Brian Moses in school last week. Madeleine in Year 1 was so inspired by the author she kindly bought the new ACE library a book by Mr Moses called “Dreamer”. Thank you so much and it is so lovely to have a signed copy of a book in our library. I wonder if we could get any more signed copies for our library?

Reading Tips at ACE As a parent, reading with your child is vital. Research shows that it’s the single most important thing you can do to help your child’s education. You are your child’s most influential adult with an important part to play in helping your child to learn to read. Here are some suggestions on how you can help to make this a positive experience. Choose a quiet time Set aside a quiet time with no distractions. Try to read with your child on most school days. ‘Little and often’ is best. Help your child to make links Compare ideas in stories or non-fiction books with things your child has experienced, so your child starts to make connections between these things and their own experiences: ‘Remember when we visited the beach, it was hot and there were children building sandcastles. It was a fun day….’ Be positive If your child says something nearly right to start with that is fine. Rather than constantly picking up their mistakes suggest ‘Let’s read it together’ and point to the words as you say them. Boost your child’s

confidence with praise for even the smallest achievement. Visit the ACE Library or the Public Library Encourage your child to use the public library or the ACE library regularly. There is a whole world of books available. Allow your child to choose a book which relates to their interests, even if it is too tricky for them to read, perhaps you can read it to them or just discuss the pictures. Talk about the books There is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately. Just as important is being able to understand what has been read. Always talk to your child about the book; about the pictures, the characters, how they think the story will end or their favourite part. You will then be able to see how well they have understood and you will help them to develop good comprehension skills. And lastly and above all – make it fun! It doesn’t matter how you read with your child, just as long as you both enjoy the time together. A couple of useful free websites for parents http://www.sumdog.com http://www.bbc.co.uk/education On Bonfire Night I see… Ava, Jude and Poppy in Rainbow Class

I wonder what kind of images have you seen on Bonfire night? I know I have seen some delightful images and some which may not be mentioned in such a blog! I wanted to share with you some of the lovely work Jude in Rainbow Class has completed. It is

fabulous to see that one of the things we tend to remember as a nation can be used to promote lovely writing in our school. Well done, Jude, and it is lovely to see you developing those letter formations. Poppy and Ava (also in Rainbow Class) have produced some fantastic work and it is so nice to see children working

so hard on developing their handwriting.




Awesome Amalie in Rainbow Class I would like to take this opportunity to thank Amalie’s parents for supporting Amalie with her handwriting. It was lovely to see how she has used this to also develop her knowledge of word patterns. Great work, Amalie, and it is lovely to see you work so hard.

Finley B in Year 4, the author It is fabulous when we all work together to try and

encourage our children to find their hidden talents. In this case, Finley has been working very hard to write a short novel! He was inspired by a book he is currently reading and it was lovely to have the opportunity for him to read out his book to me. Well done, Finley, and keep

up the hard work. All authors start from a mark on a page and look at where the marks took JK Rowling… Maybe we all have a little JK Rowling inside of us! Oscar and Scarlette Swimming Champs Well done to all our boys and girls who take part in

their swimming lessons outside of school and it is a joy to see when they bring their certificates in to share with our school community. Success should be shared and in this case Scarlette and Oscar achieved their 5 and 200 metres respectively in the pool. Good work, guys.

James Bunn is a superstar

Well done to James who raised lots of money for our sister school in Sierra Leone at the fireworks night. James took it upon himself to set up stall, organise the prize and man the stall to raise money for our sister school. This is the work of a true Christian and one who helps his neighbour. Well done, James,

and thank you so much for thinking about others before yourself. Magnificent Maths Homework Well done to all the boys and girls in Year 6 who produced some amazing homework based on the book that they are currently reading. It was lovely to see how you can draw a clock and then use algebra to work out the numbers!

Seth and his mighty shield Well done to all the boys and girls who made some amazing Roman shields in Phoenix Class and I had to show you the huge one Seth made. I love the design on the shield too.

Thanks, finally, to the parents who have agreed to help with our new cabin I would like to say a special thanks to the lovely

parents who are helping repair our brand new cabin, which was vandalised a few weekends ago. It is so nice that we have such a fabulous community of people

who are willing to help with their school. Thank you, everybody. Cups at ACE I have been asked by a number of parents to outline what each cup is for so here we go. It is important to make parents aware that all these cups are awarded by staff at meetings and are often a joint award. Harris Cup – named after a fabulous family who attended the school. The cup recognises a child who keeps trying hard and shows signs of endurance and resilience. Values Cup – this recognises a child who has illustrated the ACE values in or outside of school. Key Stage 1 and 2 Cups – This is for a child who has excelled in class during that particular week. They have produced really good work or shown an amazing attitude towards their work and excelled in it. They is a cup for each Key Stage, Key Stage 1 Years R to 2 (Rainbow, Dove and Butterfly Class) and Key Stage 2 Years 3 to 6 (Eagle, Phoenix, Unicorn and Ichthus). Keen Cup – This is given for a child who has worked well for a whole half term. This represents a child who has just worked really hard. Often it is for a child who just gets on with it and always tries their best. An ACE Bestie At ACE through tears and fights, Through smiles, I knew everything Would be alright, Through love and debate, For you I would always have faith, This friendship wouldn't end,




By your side I would always stand And you'll stand by mine too, Because that's what best friends do, So no matter what happens with us In life, Through all of the wrongs And all of the rights, I'm here for you

Yours sincerely, ASimpson Andrew Simpson Headteacher Holiday Club at ACE

Can you help ACE in anyway? Please do let Mrs Spencer or Mrs Williams know if you can help in any way at school. We are always really happy to have people come in.

Dear Parents and Guardians

Firework Night Update

Thank you to everyone who supported our fabulous firework night, whether you were involved in the planning, helping out on the night or just spending your hard earned money, you all contributed to the success of the night where we raised just over £1500 for our school – an amazing achievement for a small school, especially given the cost of the display itself.

Non-‐uniform day Thursday 1st December

We are holding a non-‐uniform day on Thursday 1st December in exchange for Tombola prizes / Secret Present Room gifts for the Christmas Fayre. For those of you that are new to the Christmas Fayre experience our Secret Present Room is where the children can go and choose presents for their loved ones and have them wrapped for them too – all ready to take home.

The theme for children is to wear anything Christmas related; this could be Christmas colours, accessories or Santa hats.

Please bring your donations in to the office on the morning of 1st December.

Christmas Fayre Friday 2nd December

Our Christmas Fayre is fast approaching and for this we heavily rely on support from parents, staff and friends of the school to make it so successful.

We will again be selling your wonderful cakes in our refreshment area on the day of the fayre so we would kindly request that any donations be brought in on the day of the fayre.

If you can help out on the afternoon of the fayre please fill in your details on the attached form and return to the school office.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The FACES Team

Christmas Fayre Volunteers – Your School Needs Your Help!

Please tick as appropriate:

☐ Yes I can help to set up from 1p.m – 3p.m




☐ Yes I can run a stall for you from 3p.m

☐ I can do both of the above

Name __________________________________

Contact No __________________________________

Email __________________________________

We have a really short window to set up the Fayre and as you can imagine it gets very busy on all of the stalls. Your help would really be greatly appreciated. Please don’t be shy or assume we have the help we need, we are a really friendly bunch who need your help in raising money for our lovely school!

News from around the country EMPLOYMENT System not rewarding best head teachers The school system systematically fails to recognise the head teachers who make the biggest impact in improving pupils' chances, new research produced by the Centre for High Performance suggests. The study looked at internal administrative data from 160 secondary school academies in England, finding that the heads who focus on short-term success, even at the expense of the long-term, tend to be rewarded by the system. It categorised heads into five "types", of which "surgeons" are highlighted – on arriving in a school, they exclude an average of around a quarter of the final-year students, drive resources into final-year students, and fire around a tenth of staff. While surgeons make the most dramatic improvement in the short term, their strategies are not sustainable. Many leave within two years, and the schools' results decline rapidly in the year after. Meanwhile, they are the highest paid heads on average, and most likely to get awards such as a national honour.

Council's police threat over school strike balloons Derby City Council has threatened to call the police if balloons and stickers, bearing the name of the union Unison, are handed out to school children during a pay strike by school support staff. The authority said it reserved the right to alert the force as its priority was to "safeguard children". Unison’s Dave Prentis said: "It is a ridiculous notion that these dedicated members of staff… are now somehow putting [children] at risk by simply handing out stickers.” Secondary school Sats re-sits scrapped Plans to make all children who fail their end-of-primary-school tests sit them again in secondary have been scrapped. Education Secretary Justine Greening said instead the DfE will develop "a targeted package of support" for teachers to help struggling pupils. Re-sits of Sats tests will be available, but on a voluntary basis. She also said no new tests would be introduced before 2018. Additionally, the spelling and grammar test for seven-year-olds introduced in 2015-16 is to remain non-compulsory for schools next year. Ms Greening also announced a review looking at a replacement for so-called baseline tests for four-year-olds. In recognition of the new tests “not being comparable with the preceding years”, Ms Greening said no school would face any intervention on the basis of these results alone. NAHT president Kim Johnson welcomed the news, while Christine Keates, head of NASUWT, said: "It appears that the Secretary of State has now recognised the real challenges around statutory end of key-stage assessment.” SPORT PE should be as valued as core subjects, says report A study by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood says physical education has for too long been the "Cinderella subject" in UK schools, needs a "radical shake-up", and should be valued in the same way as core academics subjects. The group recommends a personalised PE programme for each individual child, adding that PE is key to developing a life-long passion for physical activity and to reducing levels of obesity. The study adds that PE for the 21st century should reflect the many ways children can express themselves physically, and should move away from "skill drill lessons".




Opinion: Sports a window into societal inequality Tim Wigmore writes in the Independent i about how “many sports” are increasingly dominated by the 7% of the population who attended private schools. He argues that it has become much harder for children at state schools to access reasonable facilities. More than 10,000 school playing fields were sold between 1979 and 1997, and have continued since. State schools also suffer from the lack of a sporting culture, a trend particularly affecting girls. Meanwhile, independent schools have managed to plough funds into extracurricular activities and sports scholarships. Mr Wigmore further notes that sports such as basketball and netball, which have huge popularity especially in inner cities, but have poor medal prospects, have suffered significant funding cuts. He concludes that “far from being an exception, sport mirrors the iron grip that the most privileged have on the top of society.”

love of god, love of neighbour, love of learning€¦ · children to be respectful and responsible...

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