LANGSTONE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Newsletter September 2012
Welcome back to the new term. May I extend a particularly warm welcome to our new pupils and their families.
Staff News
Miss Gittins has returned after her year of teaching in Dubai. Miss Gibbs, Miss Driscoll and Miss Gaona have taken up their permanent positions in school after their successful appointments in the summer term. Miss Drew was married in the summer holidays and is now Mrs King. Mrs Johnson has returned to us after her maternity leave. Mrs Hall and Mrs Hillman are with us as part time teachers. Mrs Hall will cover Reception PPA and staff release time and Mrs Hillman will cover staff release time. Finally, Mrs Young has joined us as a Teaching Assistant in Reception. We are delighted with our staff team, all of whom are looking forward to working with pupils.
Premises
During the holidays classes 4, 5 and 11 have been painted as has the exterior of classes 9 and 10.
Attendance 2011-12
As you are aware, the Welsh Government informed all schools that they had to set targets to improve attendance last year. At Langstone, we had fallen behind our ‘family of schools’ (schools similar to us in catchments area and size in Wales) in 2009, 2010 and 2011 for attendance and so we worked hard with parents and pupils to improve in this area. I am pleased to inform you that our overall school attendance for 2011-12 is 96% and has risen by 1.5% from the 2010-11 figure. Well done Langstone!
Congratulations to the following pupils who have had full attendance for the whole of the academic year 2011-12:-
Class 11-Caitlin Blackburn, Caitlin Galliford
Class 10 - Megan Thomas
Class 9 - Darsha Ergul
Class 8 -Ceri Thomas, Samuel Kellaway, Jessi Humphreys, George Henson
Class 6 - Rebekah Young
Class 3 - Reuben Jeffs
Class 1 - Theo Russell.
Congratulations also to the pupils that have had full attendance throughout the summer term:- Class 11-Caitlin Blackburn, Caitlin Galliford, Lewis Edwards, Liberty Chaney-Davis, Amelia Blakemore, Bryn Allen Class 10 - Megan Thomas, James West, Matthew James, Sam Hay, Bradley Godden, Max Edinburgh, Josh Brittan, Harry Bachelor, Alex Ainsworth Class 9 - Darsha Ergul, Rathi Utham, Athena Phillipou, Amy Parker, Bailey Newman, Amelia Lloyd, Georgia Jamieson, Alex Hale, Kate Evans, Jasmin Arnold, Ellie Allsop Class 8 -Ceri Thomas, Samuel Kellaway, Jessi Humphreys, George Henson, Mia Webb, Oliver Pavis, Elliott Hughes, Megan Hoskins, Louis Hay, Alice Hackwood, Molly Davies, Grace Davies Class 7 – Rubi Leigh-Sanges, Kurav Gopaul, Flynn Galliford Class 6 - Rekekah Young, Tomos Picton, Claudia Harding, Charlie Grigg, Bay Chaney-Davis Class 5 – Lucy Somerville, Oliver Rees, Evan Jones, Sophie Jones, Thomas Melhuish Class 4 – Naomi Young, Alex Middleton, Emily Hoskins, Emily Hansen, Toby Godden, Rhys Allsop, Euan Bell, Lewis Edwards Class 3 - Reuben Jeffs, Lyllia Baugh, Cairun Bessant, Shanice Bessant, Lola Brett, Anushka Khan, Patrick O Carroll, Rhys Taylor Jones, Harri Taylor Jones, Alexandros Phillipou Class 2- Jamie Arnold, Alexander Harding, Zackariah Khan, Angharad Webb Class 1 - Theo Russell, Preston Jamieson, Nicole Jones, Oscar Jones, Amelie Melhuish, Harry Rowlands, Sot Sai Thomas
Congratulations to class 8 who have had the highest number of weeks with 100% class attendance and to classes 1,6 and 7 who tied for second place.
Finally many, many congratulations to Caitlin Blackburn who has had 100% attendance throughout her seven years of Primary education at Langstone. This is an amazing achievement and one that Caitlin is rightly proud of (and was reflected in her squeals of joy when it was announced in assembly).
Again, the Welsh Government requires us to set attendance targets for this academic year and so we will continue to work with parents and pupils in this area by:-
1. Celebrating pupils’ full attendance termly and annually with certificates, recognition in assembly and in school newsletters.
2. Celebrating class full attendance weekly in assembly.
3. Authorising holidays in term time only for annual family holidays (upto 10 days) when families are unable to take their holidays in school holidays. Holidays must be determined in advance.
4. Not authorising long weekends but providing parents with a list of training days early on in the year which may be useful for this purpose.
5. Informing parents of monthly attendance if it falls below 85% for that month. Please note these letters are for information only and illustrate the impact of authorised and unauthorised absence on attendance.
Any unexplained absences are recorded as ‘unauthorised’ and the Educational Welfare Officer is duly informed. Please ensure all pupils absences are reported to the office in advance when planned, or on the first morning of absence for illness/ unexpected absences.
Platinum Status for Langstone
On Thursday July 12th, Langstone Primary School became the 2nd school in Newport and the 40th in Wales to be awarded ‘Platinum’ status by Eco Schools Wales. This prestigious award is the highest achievement in the Eco Schools scheme and is the culmination of eight years of dedicated and purposeful activities driven by consecutive elected Eco Committee members and supported by their contemporaries. To attain Platinum status the school has had to demonstrate continual progress in raising school sustainability standards and coverage of topic areas over an eight year period that involved a green flag application every two years: the platinum therefore is the fourth and final flag.
The Eco-Schools programme is an international initiative that encourages pupils to engage with environmental and sustainable development issues. It provides a highly structured system for the environmental management of schools. During a Comenius project visit to our partner school in Sweden, we were pleased to see that they too were on the Eco Schools programme and on their second green flag.
The purpose of the Eco Schools programme is to focus on improving a school’s Eco friendliness and raises awareness whilst promoting positive attitudes and behaviours. The key topic areas of the Eco school’s programme are: Litter, Waste Minimisation, Transport, Healthy Living, Energy, Water, School Groundsand Global Citizenship. The Eco Committee has worked hard to ensure that these areas were covered and prompted pupils to reduce, reuse and recycle in order to minimise waste and to raise their peers’ consciousness of sustainability and environmental issues: by considering how their actions impact others and their world around them.
The level of pupil involvement and child initiated activities has been a real strength of the programme. The Eco committee, once democratically elected, conducted a formal Environmental review; from this an action plan was drawn up detailing what activities are being carried out and what improvements need to be implemented and how that was to be achieved.
Many schemes, initiatives and curriculum based activities have been carried out over the eight year period. The introduction of Eco weeks and theme days has brought the school together to focus on curriculum based and outdoor practical activities – this year’s Green Day is a great example of this: during which every class was outside preparing their raised beds and seed trays whilst having fun dressed in green.
The Eco journey has brought about many changes and activities that we are very proud of as a school. The development of the school grounds to cater for outdoor learning activities is certainly one that has allowed the pupils to gain experiences that will equip them for a lifetime of healthy enjoyment. The installing of junior and infant raised beds for vegetable growing as well as a poly tunnel has prompted a gardening revolution which has inspired children to begin growing their own food at home as well as in school.
Last year, to celebrate our bumper harvest the pupils at Langstone Primary School cooked, prepared and shared tasty and healthy ‘posh’ potato salads for all the pupils to eat as well as dressed salads. Cooking demonstrations were also conducted to enthuse the pupils and show them how much fun healthy cooking is. The pupils were then given the demonstrated recipes for Home Learning so that could try the recipes at home (under the supervision of an adult of course!).
This year, we have built upon last year’s promotion of healthy cooking and eating by organising a MasterChef @ Langstone 2012 competition. Pupils were challenged to make three course menus using non-processed, healthy food items. Each menu had to include a brief description of what they wished to cook, what the ingredients they wished to use and why they had chosen the dish. The SNAG (School Nutrition Action Group) then chose three winners who went into a ‘live’ cooking final in front of the junior school, during which they cooked a dish of their choice off their menu. The enthusiasm for this event from start to finish has been fantastic and I’m sure that many positive lifelong cooking and eating habits will evolve from these initiatives.
Although we have reached the Platinum status, our commitment and passion for sustainable and healthy living is set to continue. The Eco Schools ethos is deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of all at the school and we look forward to a new era, led by Miss Gibbs and our newly appointed committee, in which we can continue to innovate and embrace the opportunities that inevitably unfold before us.
Active Marc Cymru
Langstone received a gold star for PE at the end of the summer term when they were awarded ‘Active Marc Cymru’ from Sport Wales and the Association of Physical Education. We are very proud that the school’s commitment to providing pupils with high quality physical education through PESS (PE in school sport) has been recognised.
Langstone’s School Ambassadors
This year we have introduced School Ambassadors into our school structure. They are Year 6 pupils, chosen by pupils, to be the lead school ambassadors and have an important seat on the School Council. School Ambassadors is a scheme that the Children’s Commissioner for Wales (CCFW) run in primary schools across Wales. It is intended that our School Ambassadors, along with School Council members of Year 6, will also be given opportunities to visit other schools in South East Wales that are similar to us in size and catchments; schools that we refer to as our ‘Family Schools’.
During the first week back at school pupils were made aware of the School Ambassador scheme and were invited to do some research on scheme to determine if they were interested in becoming a school ambassador. We were careful not to ‘spoon feed’ pupils as we wanted them to be pro-active and resourceful. Interested pupils were given the opportunity to explain why they were interested and why they thought they’d be a good ambassador and to address the school (Year 1-6) in assembly. This was followed by a secret ballot by years 4-6. We selected these year groups for the vote as they would know the Year 6 pupils much better than the younger pupils. It was our original intention to have one girl and one boy as our Ambassadors, and these pupils would also be known as our Head Boy and Head Girl. Surprisingly, no boys wished to take up this position. However, I am pleased to inform you that we had six strong female candidates hence our School Ambassadors for 2012-13 are Niamh Nancarrow and Lois Harrison. The girls put on excellent presentations to secure their high number of votes. Many congratulation to you both! Also commended are Faith Harris, Laura Hackwood, Rathi Utham and Imogen Maynard who also presented well.
School Council/ Eco Committee
Miss Driscoll will be co-ordinating our School Council this year and Miss Gibbs our Eco-Committee. They led an assembly last week to get representatives for this year’s School Council and Eco Committee elected. . The School Council and Eco-Committee this year will be made up by a representative from classes 3-11 and also our Ambassadors will sit on our School Council. Congratulations to all pupils that were elected. It is a real privilege to be voted for by your peers! They are as follows:-
Class / School Council Representative / Eco- Committee Representative3 / Theo Russell / Isabelle McKim
4 / Taliesin Rudge / Harry Binner - Vaughan
5 / Freya Rose / Harri Taylor-Jones
6 / Hollie Everitt / Harvey Sparkes
7 / Harry Russell / William A’Court
8 / Grace Hamblen / Ben Nancarrow
9 / Oliver Andrew / Ben Middleton
10 / Grace Davies / George Henson
11 / Matthew James and Rathi Utham / Gregg Hamblen
To give School Council and Eco Committee the time they need to develop their initiatives they will run as extra curricular clubs as well as meeting in school time. School Council and Eco Committee will meet on a Wednesday 3.30pm – 4.30pm. Pupils must be available at this time if they are to hold a position on the School Council or Eco Committee.
Eco Warriors will also be appointed within each class. They will not attend Eco Committee on a Wednesday night but will help with the day to day reducing, reusing and recycling for their class.
Diary of Events/Extra Curricular Timetable
Already the term in well underway with pupils settled happily into their new classes. The school diary is already filling up so I have drawn up for you a ‘Diary of Events’. Please keep this safe but be advised dates are subject to change and PTA dates will follow. Staff have put together the extra curricular timetable outlining the activities they are offering this term and this can be found on the back of the Diary of Events. Clubs begin on Monday September 17th and end on Friday December 7th. Should staff need to cancel an after school club pupils will be notified. There will be no after school clubs held by school staff week beginning Monday October 22nd due to Parental Consultations. There will be no clubs run by Miss Gibbs, Mrs Russell or Mrs King week beginning October 8th as they are involved with our Comenius project and will be in Turkey that week.