# MLI – ‘Making Learning Irresistible’ Issue 4 – Friday 29th September 2017 It’s that time of the week again, welcome to the 4th edition of Blackfield News. I can’t believe that we’re four weeks into the new school year already. The children have settled well now with their new class teachers and in their new year groups. You can already see progress from when they started at the beginning of September. Poetry Competition Yesterday was National Poetry Day. With this in mind, we have decided to join in with a national theme and run a poetry writing competition. KS2 were told about it last week, but KS1 can enter too. All your child has to do is write a poem about Freedom. It can be a short poem, a rap, an acrostic, a song a rhyming poem, anything. There will be winners for KS1 and KS2 and all poems need to be in by Monday 2nd Oct. So if you’re child is feeling creative and has a spare 30 mins, then please encourage them to give it a go and hand their poem into their class teacher to give to Miss Hartley. The winning poem will be chosen by the Junior Academy Council and the Student Leadership Team. Associate Acamdey Councillor Last week I mentioned about the need to recruit some new people to our Academy Council (which is part of the school’s governing body). This year we’ve introduced a new, less time committed role, the Associate Academy Councillor. An Associate AC, will take part in all of the meetings and ensure that their voice is heard. We’re very keen that all of our community is represented on the Academy Council and not just a small part of the parent population. Again, if you’re interested (or a couple of you want to get some information together), please come and let me know or drop into the school office. Thank you. Proud Principal It’s only the third week of school for the Little Bubbles and Little Rainbows, yet they are already starting to settle into the routines of school life. We are delighted to welcome such a lovely group of children to our school! I was absolutely blown away to hear that some children are already getting to grips with phonics and are starting to read words. Immie in Little Bubbles built the word ‘mat’ by identifying the correct sounds and blended them together to read. She was even teaching the rest of the class! Amazing learning Immy, we’re so proud of you.

Harvest Festival - Food Bank For the next two weeks we will be celebrating the harvest festival and as always, the community would be very grateful for any donations of tinned or packaged food which is still in date. We will have a food bank collection outside of the main hall for the children to contribute to. Thank you. The Friends of Blackfield After a busy end to the summer term we’re delighted to announce that we raised over £1623 from the Festival of Learning and £2143 from the sponsored Singathon. Thank you to everyone that helped and supported the events and especially to the children for their amazing efforts with the Singathon. Christmas Cards – This year we’re pleased to be able to offer all the children a chance to design their own Christmas cards. Letters and templates will be sent out this week and completed designs need to be returned by Friday 6th October. All children returning their designs by the deadline will receive a free sample with the opportunity to order additional cards and gifts. Halloween Disco – The Halloween disco is on Thursday 19th October from 6.30 – 8.00pm. This event is for years 3 – 6 and tickets are £4 including a gift and sweets. Full details will be sent out before the event. If you have any queries or are interested in helping at an event please contact us at [email protected].

Harry Potter – Fancy Dress on Tuesday 3rd October Just a reminder that our brand new reading bus is arriving on Tuesday. To celebrate, I’d like to invite the children to come to school on that day (if they wish) in Harry Potter themed fancy dress. The children will get the opportunity to explore the bus with their teachers during school time, but parents are also invited to pop along after school to have a look and take photographs. All welcome!

Unauthorised Absences and Holidays during Term Time A reminder that now the court case involving the family on the Isle of Wight is over, I would like to make it very clear, that from the start of the new academic year, the council will be issuing Penalty Notices for parents who take their children out of school on holiday for a certain amount of time, without authorisation and for parents who have a child that has accumulated a number of unauthorised absences in a short space of time. The fines will be per parent and per child which really do total up. Missing even 5 days of school throughout the year is proven to have a detrimental impact on your child’s education. If you intend on taking your child out of school please speak with the class teacher or the school office. Thank you.

Who’s Who? I think it’s really important that you know the staff at Blackfield Primary, and this can be difficult as your children move to a new year group or start Blackfield for the first time, I thought it may be handy to introduce some of the staff on here. Each week I’ll add a new group of people. This week I’d like to introduce our Year 4 team.

Miss Sandeman, Year 4 teacher and Year 4 Leader

Miss Bennett, Year 4 teacher

Miss Cripps, Year 4 teacher and Leader of Mathematics

Reading Tip of the Week – FREE E-book collection Sometimes it’s fun to mix up children’s reading experiences. Oxford Owl is a brilliant website with a section for parents, including a free E-book collection aimed at children aged 3-11. Register for free and then you can access Ebooks on your tablet or other electronic devices – great for holidays or car journeys! https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/

Parent Consultations We are holding our first set of parent consultations on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th October (ISS will have their consultations on Monday 9th and Wednesday 11th October). This is a fantastic opportunity to meet with your child’s new class teacher to find out how they have settled into their new year group and to discuss their current targets as well as the year group expectations. If your child is in the infants, please sign up to a time slot on the class notice board on the playground. For parents of junior children, please complete the slip with your preferred time/day and return ASAP so that teachers can allocate you an appointment. Many thanks. Calshot Nature Club invites you to our POTATO HARVEST & WEIGH IN! Wednesday 4th October, 4.00 - 5.30pm Our main crop of potatoes are ready for harvest after five months. Come and join us digging them up, collecting and weighing the total crop! Take away some to cook at home (bring your own bag) PLUS: Some potato crafts, hot chocolate and biscuits indoors. 50p per child. Meet at St George's Hall, Calshot. New families welcome. Bookings will be taken at this meet for our special outdoor skills activity 18th October (4.15 - 5.45pm at St George's Hall, Calshot) with Grace Brennan from Hampshire & IOW Wildlife Trust. Limited places. Don't miss out. More information on Calshot Natures Club's Facebook page.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T It really upsets me when people fail to treat others how they would like to be treated themselves. No matter how our days are going, everyone should be able to be pleasant to one another. With this in mind, I urge parents to be considerate when parking their car during drop off and pick up times. Not only this, but please refrain from being rude to each other and members of the public. We’re here to set an example to the children and a select few could really do with showing others a little respect.

Vacancies at Blackfield Nursery Interested in working with our youngest learners? There are currently two vacancies at Blackfield Nursery. Details can be found on The Inspire Learning Federation website: www.inspirelearningfederation/org

King Edward’s Open Evening King Edward VI School is a co-educational independent day school in Southampton. If your child is starting Year 7 in September 2018 and you are interested, you might like to attend the open evening on Friday 6th October, 6:309:00pm.

Pizza Tasting Day As you know our cook and her team make the most amazing pizzas! They want to find out what other varieties of pizza you like and on Thursday 5th October we will be offering a selection of different pizzas on the lunch menu. Hopefully you will want to try them so make sure you sign up for a school dinner on that day. We will be asking you for your comments about the toppings so we can be sure to have your favourites on our menu. VIP This week we have been looking at the importance of ‘respect’, one of the British Values. The children have been thinking about how we can show respect for others, no matter what our differences are. The children who best demonstrated this have been voted as this week’s VIP winner: Little Bubbles (RLB) – Faye Chapman

Little Rainbows (RKW) – Daisy Purdie

Snowflakes (1VM) – Lola Adams-James

Sunbeams (1SS) – Ava Bray

Reptiles (2EB) – Neve Mitchell

Amphibians (2SB) – Katelyn Von Landau

Rosen (3JA) – Alanna Churcher

Blake (3LM) – Scarlett Downey

Donaldson (3AK) – Paul Clarke

Farah (4AS) – Tilley Blake

Turing (4PC) – Amber Humphrey

Hamilton (4EB) – Rosie Ronald

McCartney (5CB) – Sophia Darby

Lennon (5MD) – Mia Smith

Bowie (5JT) – Connor Birch

Horowitz (6CH) – Cerys Barber

Morpurgo (6DH) – Rosie James

Dahl (6JR) – Freya Renyard

All VIPs will receive an invite (with a +1 adult) to a Tea Party with myself and Mr Hindle on Friday 6th October. I look forward to seeing you. Dates for your Diary 3rd October – Harry Potter Day! Fancy dress optional. 5th October – Pizza Tasting Day 9th October – Parent Consultations 3:30 pm – 7:00 pm 10th October – Parent Consultations 3:30 pm – 6:00 pm (Not 1SS) 11th October – Parent Consultations for 1SS only 3:30 pm – 7:00pm 11th October – School Photograph Day, dress to impress! 17th October – Open morning for children starting September 2018 17th October 2:20pm -3:00pm Year 2 Fur, Feathers and Scales outcome PARENT OUTCOME 18th October 9:00am -10:00am – 3LM (Blake Class). PARENT OUTCOME 18th October 5:00pm -7:00pm – Year 6 Oscars outcome. PARENT OUTCOME 19th October 9:00am -10:00am – 3AK (Donaldson Class) PARENT OUTCOME 19th October 2:20pm -3:00pm – Year 1 Wolf Proof House Challenge outcome. PARENT OUTCOME 20th October 9:00am -10:00am – 3JA (Rosen Class) PARENT OUTCOME 20th October – Last day of half term, normal finish time. 6th November – First day back after half term break. As always, any events that crop up will be added to the Dates for your Diary section every week. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Mr Sasso Principal