Ingleby Mill Newsletter

October 2014.



Return to School
The children have settled well into their classes
and most are following routines and rising to new
learning challenges. Behaviour in and around
school is generally good. Children are excited
about their new learning and seem to be enjoying
being at school - the new curriculum and the
themes teachers have chosen to teach are
proving to be a big hit!

Parent Teacher Consultation Meetings
We hope that you find these meetings
informative and useful. They are
intended to give you some key
information:
how well your child has settled into
his/her new class;
how well he/she is attaining in
learning in comparison with the
new National Curriculums age
related expectations;
your childs next steps for the
learning in maths, reading and
writing.
If you have any queries or concerns
about any of the above, please do not
hesitate to get in touch. If you are unable
to attend on either of the given evenings,
teachers are willing to meet with you by
appointment at a mutually convenient
time.

Maths in the new National Curriculum.
Expectations in the new National Curriculum are
higher than in previous years and so the demands on
children are higher. Each week children carry out
investigations in maths, trying to solve problems using
number, shape, shape and measures. We aim to show
that maths can be fun and challenging at the same
time!
You can help your child enormously by supporting
him/her with basic number practice. For very young
children this means number recognition and counting
items to 10 and beyond. For children in Key Stage 1 it
means children practising adding and subtracting
using bonds to 10, 20 and 100 e.g. 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6,
1+19, 2+18 etc until they are very confident and have
speed recall. In Y2 children need to learn 2x, 5x and
10x multiplication tables by heart with some children
being introduced to 3x and 4x.
In Key Stage 2, the National expectation is that
children know all multiplication tables to 12x12 by
the end of Y4 and have speedy recall of the facts.
These very basic skills are vital to childrens progress
in maths and support their learning further on in
school. A child who can multiply quickly can divide
and can apply this learning to calculate fractions,
decimals, percentages and ratios.
All children need to be able to solve problems using
money from very basic coin recognition in early
years to calculating costs, spending and calculating
change in key stage 2. I realise that this is more of a
challenge today when people use debit or credit cards
at the shops but children still need to practise using
money too!
Websites such as CBBC Bitesize are really useful for all
kinds of games to support learning.

Primary Science Quality Mark
Our school has been assessed as having met
the criteria for the Primary Science Quality
Mark Sliver award. This is in recognition of our
commitment to ensuring that children learn
skills and develop their understanding in
science. Many thanks go to Mrs Readman
and Mrs Coverdale for all their hard work! The
certificate will soon be on display at the front
of school!

The focus of our work this term is:
ensuring that children understand and
follow the schools rules and routines;
ensuring that children know what they
need to do to improve their learning in
reading, writing and maths;
continuing to ensure that all teaching is
good or better in every single lesson (it is
already good we want to make it
outstanding!);
ensuring that all children make good
progress in their learning using the new
national curriculum expectations to assess
whether children are working at, above or
towards age related expectations;

Charity News
As in previous years, Ingleby Mill will be
supporting the Rotary Club Shoe Box Appeal.
Children/Families can sponsor a box and fill it
with items for boys or girls aged between 0
and 18 years. Last year families at Ingleby Mill
donated more than 120 filled boxes, all
gratefully received by children and families in
Eastern Europe. The boxes also help our
children to understand that they can make a
real difference to the lives of others.

We will be holding a non-uniform day in
support of the Lily Foundation, an
organisation that funds research and support
for children with mitochondrial disease, on
Thursday 23
rd
October (the day the children
break up for half term). Children can wear
their own clothes that day in return for a small
donation. One of our children has been
diagnosed with this disease and The Lily
Foundation is supporting her family.

Thank you so much for the donations you
made for our Harvest festival. The tins and
dried goods have been donated to a local
food bank. The Harvest assembly was
celebrated with Father Clay of St Francis of
Assisi church: he was very impressed by the
childrens singing.

Our Coffee & Cake afternoon organised by
Y4 and 5 children in support of Macmillan
Cancer raised an amazing amount of money
- 620! Thank you so much for your donations
of cakes and for coming to support us in this
very worthy cause. The children (and their
teachers & teaching assistants) did us proud.
We had individual children who raised money
by themselves by selling cakes (Leah),
pictures (Libbi) and loom bands (Elle): THANK
YOU!

Lunchtime Arrangements
You will know that as of September 1
st
, we have
been offering all children in Rec, Y1 and Y2 a free
hot meal at lunchtime. Take up has been super
and we are delighted that so many families have
taken up this option. It does mean however, that
we are feeding an extra 200 children a day and
this has meant some changes to lunchtime
arrangements. Children in Rec, Y1 and 2 are
served lunch between 11.45am and 12.15pm.
When they have finished eating, they go outside
to play until their bell rings at 12.50.
Children in Y3 and 4 are served lunch between
12.25 and 12.40pm. They go outside from their
classrooms at 12.15 and play until their class is
called for lunch by a lunchtime assistant. Once
they have eaten, they go back outside to play
until the afternoon session starts at 1.10pm.
Children in Y5 & 6 are served lunch between
12.40 and 12.50pm. They go outside at the end of
the mornings lessons at 12.15pm and play until
their class is called for lunch by a lunchtime
assistant. Cook makes sure there is plenty of
choice available for the various lunchtime
sittings regardless of when your child has their
meal.
We had a few tweaks to make in the first weeks
of the term but we have now organised
lunchtimes so that they run as smoothly as
possible and they offer a good balance of time
outside for playing with friends and time inside to
eat. We will keep working on emphasising good
manners, including using a knife and fork, and on
reminding children about behaving well and
following rules during the lunch break. We would
appreciate your support with these expectations
at home too.

Parking:
This continues to cause great difficulties at the
beginning and end of the school day. We
would like to again remind parents about
inconsiderate parking on the roads around
the school. It is not acceptable to park on top
of the roundabout, on the kerb or to block
entrances/exits. Please consider others when
dropping off or collecting your children from
school: we want to keep everybody safe.



Dates for your diary:
Tuesday 14
th
October
Proposed industrial action by Unison and GMB
(more information to follow)
Thursday 23
rd
October
Children break up for the Half Term Holiday (24
th

Oct is PD Day for Staff)
Monday 3
rd
November
Children return to school