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Friday 8th December 2023

Messages from the Principal, Miss Jarrett

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Dear Parents, Guardians, and Students,

As we approach the end of this autumn term, I want to take a moment to extend my warmest wishes to each and every one of you. To those celebrating Christmas, I wish you a joyous and festive season filled with warmth and happiness. For everyone, I hope the upcoming holiday brings relaxation, laughter, and precious moments with loved ones.

I am incredibly proud to share the success of our KS1 choir at the recent Slough Carol concert. Not only were they the youngest participants, but they also undoubtedly stole the show, with many people afterwards coming up and telling me that our children were incredible - not only singing but signing Makaton as well. Their dedication and talent shine brightly, reflecting the spirit of our school community.

A heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the success of our Christmas fair, which raised over £550. Your generosity and support have exceeded our expectations. With these funds, we are thrilled to announce that we will be purchasing a stage in the new year. Our goal is to have it up and running for the Year 1 Easter performance, providing our students with an enhanced platform to showcase their talents.

In the final week of this term, we have a lineup of exciting events planned. Please take a moment to check the dates below and mark your calendars. We look forward to seeing you there, celebrating the achievements and creativity of our students.

Additionally, in the spirit of giving, we will be supporting the Slough foodbank at the end of both carol concerts and the reception Nativity. We kindly ask you to consider donating whatever you can to help those in need during this festive season. Your generosity will make a significant difference in the lives of those less fortunate, embodying the true essence of compassion and community spirit.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming events. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year.

Warm regards,

Miss Jarrett
Principal

SAFEGUARDING

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Keeping safe over the holidays

Whilst these websites have a Christmas focus, much of the advice is applicable at any time of year - when did you last check your smoke alarms work? Do you have a working carbon monoxide alarm in your house? Please follow the links below to a couple of websites with some useful safety advice.

12 Days of Christmas Safety Tips - 3B Training Limited

Top Christmas Safety Tips (safelincs.co.uk)

Holidays can also be a difficult time of year. Please see a link below to a website with useful coping tips, including financial guidance, looking after yourself and places to get further support.

Christmas coping tips - Mind

ONLINE SAFETY TIPS:

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Celebrating our Children!

Walking around the school recently we have seen some fantastic learning taking place! Year 1 have made lentil and vegetable soup as part of their Design Technology lessons. Reception made delicious bread for their Little Red Hen celebrations and produced some wonderful story maps. Year 2 have continued their learning about Christmas in RE. In music Year 2 started learning about composing and wrote individual pieces of music that they performed to each other using just 3 notes on the glockenspiel!

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Student Leadership

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The school librarians had their first meeting recently and enjoyed sharing why they love reading. We made a poster which the children can see outside the library. The librarians are also looking forward to sharing their favourite books with each other and the rest of the school, as well as lots of fun and exciting reading related activities in the new year, including an assembly for National Story Telling Week and all the fun of Book Week!

Sporting Updates

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Bursts

BURSTS is a fun and simple to use Physical Education app that offers exciting, meaningful, personalised physical activities for your child to improve their physical literacy through play.

As with phonics in English or numbers in Maths, focusing on physical literacy helps children to develop critical building blocks and start to create a positive relationship with being active. This provides a foundation for them to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage successfully in Physical Education, physical activity and sport. BURSTS supports this journey by providing opportunities for EVERY child to develop essential Fundamental Movement Skills, often referred to as ABCs (agility, balance and coordination), in an age and stage appropriate, fun way.

As the name suggests, BURSTS provides ideas for children to engage in short bursts of activity, so it might be that you only play for a short period each time. Just 10 minutes a day will make a massive difference! The adventures, challenges and games are designed to allow the child choice – just like a computer game does.

Recognition of the amount of play and key milestones of activity and progress will be celebrated both on the app and in the classroom.

You have FREE access to this app via school. We have re-emailed the log in details to those who have not logged in today. Why not make use of the app over the holidays to help your child stay active!

Music Updates

Carol Concert

On Tuesday, our KS1 choir took part in the annual Slough Music Service Christmas Carol Concert. They listened to other choirs singing first and then finally (saving the best till last) it was our turn. We sang and signed in Makaton Frosty the Snowman and It was on a Starry Night. The choir performed amazingly - definitely the best school in our opinion!

Samaira said "I liked singing Rudolph."

Genesis said " I liked that my mum got to come and see."

Elyza said "I really liked the people how they sang and they sang very nicely. It was really fun and I like to sing."

There are further opportunities planned for choir performances in both the Spring and Summer terms (including a performance at The Hexagon in Reading!) so if you would like your child to be involved why not sign them up for our brand new free lunchtime Singing Club coming soon in the new year! Sign up is via Parent pay on Tuesday at 10am!

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Clubs

We have an abundance of clubs on offer for the Spring term and there is something for everyone! Clubs are open to all year groups and offer children additional opportunities that are so valuable for their growth and development. We would love all children to take part in at least 1 club this term so please do take a look at what is on offer and get signing your child up! Singing, Fencing and Rocksteady band lessons are all during the school day. The rest of the clubs are after school.

We are pleased to announce that this term we will be running an art club. We will also have homework/computer club - please note this will run for 30 minutes only. Football is back - this will be run by Super Star Sports!

Fencing: sign up now via https://bookings.littlemusketeers.com

Rocksteady: sign up now via bit.ly/parent-sign-up

Art, homework, chess, singing, football, girls football (future Lionesses maybe?!), basketball, yoga and multi sport clubs: sign up via your Parentpay account. These will go live from 10am on Tuesday 12th December and are first come first served!

Chess Club

Chess club is undeniably good for kids. It fosters cognitive development, improves concentration, enhances emotional skills, teaches stress management, and promotes social interaction. The benefits extend beyond the chessboard, empowering children with valuable life skills that will serve them well in their future endeavours.

Chess club is run by our own Mr Jason and runs on Monday afternoons 3.30-4.15pm. Sign up is via Parentpay.

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ROCK AND POP BAND LESSONS WITH ROCKSTEADY!

From January we will be welcoming Rocksteady Music School into Phoenix Infants. It’s an incredible opportunity for your children to learn to play their favourite songs in their very own band with a choice of drums, keyboards, electric guitar, bass guitar or vocals.

As well as learning new musical skills, lessons also boost children’s confidence, wellbeing, social skills and teamwork. Lessons take place every week during school time.

These fun and inclusive lessons are taught by highly trained, professional musicians who know how to inspire a life-long love of music. At the end of each term each band will perform in a concert for the school and their families, so you can see how far they have come! A musical workshop has already taken place in school, where the children tried out the instruments and saw what it is like to learn to play in a band.

You can sign up for lessons online at bit.ly/parent-sign-up

The school are funding a very limited number of spaces. These are open to children eligible for benefits related free school meals. These will be allocated on a lottery basis and are subject to children attending sessions regularly and following our school rules. If you are interested in this please complete this form survey by the end of day Tuesday 12th December. https://forms.office.com/e/Zgc56PEr5e

We will notify the parents of the children allocated the places by the end of this week. If you do not hear from us unfortunately your child will not have been selected this time.

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Little Musketeers at Phoenix Infant Academy | Red Term – Resilience

Little Musketeers are back offering a fun, safe and educational environment for young children to learn the sport of fencing. What child has not grown up pretending to be a swashbuckling pirate, a dueling Musketeer, or even the master of swordplay himself, Zorro? Why do they do it? Because it’s fun!

Little Musketeers provide bright coloured foam and plastic foils and plastic masks with mesh visors that are safe and yet hard enough to give children the real feel of fencing. We ensure visors are worn at all times giving peace of mind as well as that genuine fencing experience.

Little Musketeers classes are designed and managed by Olympic fencer and 4 times British National Champion James Beevers. All staff are CRB checked, First Aid certified and trained personally by James.

This term’s course will focus on building your child’s resilience. Once the course is completed, they will be awarded with the Red term wristband.

We hope you can join us for our 10-week course as follows: • Monday 08th January - Monday 18th March 2024 / 12:15 - 13:00 / Year 1, Year 2

The cost for the course will be £20.00 per child. If your child would like to sign up for this course, please visit: https://bookings.littlemusketeers.com

Once there, follow the instructions to complete your booking online. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

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Author Events

This term we have been lucky enough to participate in 2 author events. Reception participated in an online webinar with one of our favourite authors, Nick Sharratt. Years 1 and 2 then welcomed Kate Williams, a poet, into school. Kate worked with each class, leading a poetry workshop.

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The Challenge starts on Friday 1 December 2023 and ends on 19 February 2024.

Read three or more books to complete the Winter Mini Challenge!

Rate and review your books on this website while the Challenge is on and you’ll unlock a limited-edition virtual badge for your profile AND a special certificate that you can print out and keep.

If you don’t have a profile yet, click the Join  button on the reading challenge website.

Keep an eye on their News to keep up with the latest Mini Challenge news, including activities, book recommendations, and competitions to enter.

If you earn a certificate please do share it with your child's teacher via their Dojo portfolio, just like Jathvika did after the summer reading challenge!

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Christmas Celebrations

Friday 8th December was a fabulous Christmassy day! Everyone looked fantastic in their Christmas jumpers and then it was wonderful to see everyone coming together as a school community enjoying the Christmas fair. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day a success!

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ATTENDANCE

Well done to all parents/carers who continue to ensure their children attend school regularly. Children should be in school all the way until the end of term. We have a wonderful school disco on the last day of term so don't let your child miss out by not being at school!

A reminder to all that school starts at 8.45am. Gates close at 8.55am and any child arriving at this time or after is late. If you running late but you can see staff still waiting at the gates, this is to allow parents to leave the school site and not to continue to allow children to enter. Any child who arrives when the gates are closed must arrive via the school office. This is to ensure we have registered them correctly. In these circumstances, I would ask that all parents please remember our school rule "being kind" as this does apply to our whole school community and not just the children!

It is really important that children arrive as close to 8.45am as possible so that they are able to maximise their learning opportunities. if the school gates are closed, staff will not open them

This week Year 2 has the highest attendance of any year group across the school. Well done!!

The class winners in each year group can be seen below.

All attendance expectations can be found on our website.

Please do get in touch if you would like any support getting your child to school and on time.

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