Latest News | Chesterton Primary School

Summer Holiday Activity & Food Programme (HAF)

Fri 02 Jul 2021

Please see below for more information regarding the two different schemes GCC will be offering for Free School Meal support this summer.

Offer 1: Holiday Free School Meal vouchers

For the first and last week of the summer holiday only (26th – 30th July, and 30th August – 3rd September), parents who have signed up for holiday free school meal vouchers from the County Council will receive their voucher worth £15 per child per week to spend in a chosen supermarket.

A voucher for both weeks will be sent to you between the 14th to 16th July. You do not need to sign up to receive this voucher if you have received them in previous school holidays. This scheme is funded by grant monies.

For more information and to sign up if you haven't already please visit our website:

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk//holiday-free-school-meal-vouchers/

Offer 2: Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF)

Between the 2nd August and 27th August, we are co-ordinating the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme in partnership with district councils, the voluntary sector and other organisations. This programme is funded by the Department for Education (DfE).

This is a four-week programme face-to-face activities in your local area, plus more virtual activities online, with daily meals or food kits being offered dependant on what is available in your district. Each district area (Cheltenham, Cotswolds, Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Stroud and Tewkesbury) will have its own separate section on our website for you to find what is happening in your area.

This July, there will be a leaflet with further information on the HAF scheme that will be distributed to all schools in the Gloucestershire area for children to take home. You must sign up to this programme in order to take part, and we will inform you and schools when applications open. For now, please take a look at our HAF website which contains further information about the programme.

If you do not sign up to the HAF programme, you will not receive vouchers instead.

Pyjamarama Day

Fri 14 May 2021

Thank you for supporting pyjamarama day with us. We raised an amazing £193.33 for this worthwhile cause.

Parent Questionnaire

Tue 04 May 2021

From Tuesday 4 May 2021, the Trustees of the Corinium Education Trust, of which Chesterton Primary School is a member, will be inviting pupils, parents and staff across our multi-academy trust to complete one of our stakeholder surveys. These surveys, which can be completed online, include questions similar to those asked by Ofsted during an inspection (Parent View) and will provide valuable feedback which will inform our own and The Corinium Education Trust’s evaluation and planning. Link to the survey https://forms.office.com/r/V3Xj2DQtp4

We would be very grateful if you could complete the survey. The link to the parent survey will open on Tuesday 4 May and close on Sunday 9 May 2021 at 23:55.

We appreciate that any survey will represent a snapshot in time and will often reflect what is happening or has happened at or around the time. However, we invite you to reflect on your experience of the school as a pupil, parent or member of staff and hope you will do so in the spirit of our school standards and ethos.

We look forward to reading your responses.

Once the surveys have been completed and data analysed, we will share the feedback and stakeholder perceptions with members of our local governing body and Trustees and provide a summary on our website. We will use the information we receive to inform our self-evaluation and our planning.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Reading At Home

Tue 09 Mar 2021

Dear Parents,

We are writing to you to explain how you can support your child with reading at home now that all children are back at school. Until we receive guidance from the Government regarding taking reading books home, we ask that you continue to support your child with reading at home using the online eBooks on the Oxford Owls website.

From Friday 12th March all children will bring home a ‘Home Reading Record’ containing the current book title/scheme and level written inside that your child is currently reading. Every time you listen to your child read please write inside recording the date and a comment and do include any reading already completed from today. Initially these reading records should be kept at home and returned with your child to school on Wednesday 17th March. From then on, all reading records will be returned every Wednesday and sent back with your child every Friday with any updates inside, if your child is on a new book or level.

If Reading Records are returned on Thursday then I’m afraid we won’t be able to let your child bring them back home until Monday as we have to ensure that we follow guidelines of quarantining books for 48 hours. Please continue to access these eBooks using the same ‘Class Login’ with a username and password that has already been emailed to you.

We strongly recommend reading the same book (up to Level 6) three times; once for decoding (working out the words), once for fluency (with expression) and once for comprehension (to ensure they understand what is happening).

There are helpful tips and videos on the Oxford Owl Website on how to support your child with reading at home.

Reading at Home Competition

I know you have already received information about our exciting new Reading At Home Competition but as a quick reminder, for every 25 reads marked in their Reading Record Book, your child will receive a certificate (emailed or given in school) and a raffle ticket.

All raffle tickets will be placed in their age category glass box and at the end of Term 4, four raffle tickets will be drawn from box. We have fun, age-related prizes for the winners.

All raffle tickets that are not drawn will remain in the glass box, so your child will continue to stand a chance of being recognised in the next draw in Term 5. This means the more they read, the more raffle tickets they receive, the more likely they are to win a prize!

Helpful tips

• Not all words can be sounded out – some like ‘said’ or ‘does’ have to be learned individually, so help your child to recognise these ‘tricky’ words.

• If your child is struggling to read a word, help them to break it down into sounds, then blend together to read the word. If they are still having problems, do it for them and get them to copy you.

There’s some advice on phonics on the Oxford Owl website.

• Encourage good expression when your child is reading aloud – demonstrate if necessary. They may not be able to do this whilst they are busy decoding, so will need to re-read the sentence to provide meaning.

• When they are developing in confidence, let your child read some of their book silently, then ask them to tell you about what they have read.

Above all, reading should be an enjoyable experience for you and your child so if you are having difficulties please do get in touch with your Class Teachers as they will be able to help.

Yours faithfully,

Miss Morrison

Year 1 Class Teacher

& School Phonics & Reading Co-ordinator

School Reopening from Monday 8th March 2021

Thu 04 Mar 2021

Wednesday 3^rd March 2021

Dear Parents/Carers,

As advised by the Government all children are expected to return to school on Monday 8^th March 2021. In the first instance we will be returning to the September full re-opening arrangements. This will include staggered start and finish times, separate break times for classes and most children having lunch in their classroom.

	Start Time	Finish Time
Nursery	8:30am	3:30pm
Reception	8:55am	3:10pm
Year 1	8:50am	3:20pm
Year 2	8:40am	3:10pm
Year 3	8:50am	3:20pm
Year 4	9:00am	3:30pm
Year 5	8:40am	3:10pm
Year 6	9:00am	3:30pm

Please stick to these times to avoid congestion. If you have more than 1 child, please drop and collect at the earlier time slot.

Just a couple of reminders: -

All adults to wear face masks on school premises
Remain behind the red and white chain at drop off and pick-up times
Always keep children by your side
Children can wear trainers to school rather than purchasing school shoes
Bring as little to school as possible – avoiding large rucksacks
Make sure your child’s water bottle is named
Please do not access the school office at drop off or pick-up times
The office is available to visit between 9:30 and 2.00pm alternatively you can speak to Mrs Boulton or Mrs Hopkins by calling or sending an email
Return Breakfast and After School Club booking requests before 3.30pm today
Remember to book lunches by 4.00pm every Wednesday for the following week

As both staff and parents worked so well together during terms 1 and 2 to make these new arrangements work, I am not anticipating any problems next week. We are just looking forward to having all the children back in school.

As the Corinium Education Trust we are starting to consider the implications of the Country’s Roadmap to reopening and how this may affect some of the normal term 5 and 6 activities. I will update you in the newsletter as the terms progress.

Kind regards

Mrs Karen Venner

Headteacher

Exciting Day

Wed 03 Jun 2020

Yesterday morning, we opened the doors to 70 children following the last 10 weeks where we were only open to Key Workers children and Vulnerable children. On our school facebook page is a video of what life is like in school but I thought I would share a couple of photos. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Mrs Venner

The Gruffalo!

Sat 18 Apr 2020

Check out our Facebook page or Class pages to see our latest Chesterton Video of staff reading The Gruffalo!

We hope you enjoy 😁📖🎬 Stay Safe!

Happy Easter.

Sun 12 Apr 2020

A Happy Easter message to all our pupils from everyone here at school.

Everyone at Chesterton misses you very much and hopes that you are safe and well.We wish you a very happy Easter full of fun, laughter and hopefully lots of chocolate too. Please take care of yourself and each other.

Keep smiling!

Stay safe!

World Book Day competition winners

Fri 06 Mar 2020

World Book Day staff potatoes

Thu 05 Mar 2020