Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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24th June 2022
Fri 24 Jun 2022Good afternoon,
Since my last news update, our village summer fair has taken place. Whilst the weather was a little unpredictable, the event was a huge success. The fofsa team along with staff, governors and parents worked incredibly hard to ensure it all ran smoothly. It was great to see children and families who attended the school previously and it was lovely to have time to chat. We will be having a thank you get together soon with all those who volunteered, so we will be in touch to arrange this towards the end of term.
This week has been incredibly busy with some wonderful highlights. Yesterday we celebrated the hard work, achievement and dedication of Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson for Wasma. Later on, Mrs Dodds led her eco group which looked great fun with such valuable learning about trust.
Sport this week has been interesting! We had a rather long journey to and from swimming on Tuesday due to the road closures (I was quite surprised when we drove past The meadows!). To ensure our staffing ratio was correct Mr O'Reilly kindly joined us which had an impact on PE for the infant classes. Thank you Mrs Guillaume for stepping in! The children are certainly enjoying the run up to Sports day and we will continue next week.
On Wednesday, many of our Year 6 pupils were at their secondary school transition day so we held our own transition morning. It was wonderful to see the children so happy and ready. We will hold another transition morning towards the end of term.
I would like to thank parents for the support you have shown regarding the changes to our wrap around care provision. Further information will be shared over the next few weeks. I will do all I can to support regarding Childcare voucher payments as I know this has caused worry for some of you.
Next week, we will be welcoming our governors in for a training day and as part of this they will have time in classrooms. Next week, I will share their thoughts and some of the outcomes of the day with you and I am sure the children will enjoy seeing them in class and on the playground.
We hope many of you will be able to join us for Sports day on Friday, I will email further details next week. Please make sure your child has a plain t-shirt which is the colour of their team. If this causes any problems please talk to your class teacher and we will try to help you.
I wish you a lovely weekend and thank you all very much for the support you give our school. At this busy time of year the staff and I value every thank you and positive message even more, it really does mean a great deal so thank you for taking the time.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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17th June 2022
Fri 17 Jun 2022Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are well and have been able to enjoy the sunny weather this week. It has been wonderful to spend time on the field, on the playground and in the Chaffinch garden this week, I feel so fortunate to have our beautiful outdoor spaces.
Last week we had Year 6 moderation of writing and this week our Key Stage One team worked with a team of moderators to check our Year 2 data for Reading, Writing and Maths assessments. The moderation did create extra work for the Bullfinch team but the comments made by the moderators should make them feel proud. They (including Mrs Guillaume) were described as a strong team who know the children incredibly well.
On Wednesday this week we welcomed Sophie from Nirvana to take photos showing the life of our school. I have to say that so many children loved to pose! We enjoyed Sophie being with us and I now have a huge number of wonderful photos to use. You will begin to see some on our website but I will also share lots of them at the Open Evening in July. Mrs Dodds' daughter has also created us a wonderful leaflet. We are so fortunate to have such talented support around us.
I have seen such active, outside learning this week which has been wonderful. Showing a family around today, a Chaffinch child spoke so passionately about their learning, their enthusiasm was infectious! I have also been pleased to see photos from ECO club which looked like great fun with so much learning taking place. Sam Khan led the session with Mrs Dodds and I know the girls loved it.
On Thursday, Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson had a WASMA celebration which was loud (beautiful singing but loud!!) Well done to all the WASMA children who performed so well at the Hexagon on Sunday. I felt incredibly proud and I loved watching the focus and commitment of every child. A huge thank you to Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson and everyone else who supported.
We ended the week with a football tournament at Luckley House School with our Year 4 and 5 girls. They played so well and won their last two matches with such determination. Aizey was our chosen player of the tournament (incredible commitment shown) but all the girls played well and worked well together, with lots of goals scored.
Last weekend we celebrated our musical talent with WASMA and this weekend we have our Summer fair. The FOFSA committee have worked so hard and I hope to see lots of you tomorrow between 11-3pm on the field. I am sure we will raise a lots of money which will make such a positive impact on our children. I look forward to seeing you there!
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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10th June 2022
Fri 10 Jun 2022Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope all our families enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations as well as the half term break. At the beginning of this week the teachers had two very intense days working on our curriculum design.
We have managed to fit so much into the three school days this week which has been great but so incredibly busy.
We began the Wednesday morning with a Pentecost assembly which was a lovely, celebratory way to begin the school week. Mr and Mrs Fox have also led their video assembly on Pentecost.
Bullfinch had such a treat after the assembly and had a visit from The O'Connor family tortoise. The children have spoken about it with such knowledge and excitement and this has supported some great writing and art work.
Year 6 have taken part in Bikeability and they have all received their certificates today. There is a change this year; all the children are awarded a certificate whether they have passed or not. It is important that parents read the reverse of the certificate to see what their child can do and if they need supervision etc. This is very important to ensure they are safe when cycling on the roads. The Bikeability team enjoyed working with the children and it was a pleasure to have them working in school.
On Wednesday afternoon, we welcomed two moderators into school to meet with Mrs Wirth and look at our Year 6 writing. This is how Wokingham monitor teacher assessments and ensure consistency across schools. The two teachers were very complementary of Mrs Wirth, how thorough she is and how well she knows the children. They also commented on how creative our children are with their writing.
On the same afternoon, Mrs Lynsky kindly took 4 of our Year 5 children to Luckley House School for a Maths challenge. They did really well and Mrs Lynsky was impressed with how well they worked in their teams. Well done to them for representing our school so well.
We are pleased to be starting some new intervention groups. We have two Circle of friends groups starting which is a wonderful opportunity and I thank Ms Bardsley for her work on this. Mrs Dodds is also beginning a new ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) club which I know will be a valuable experience for all those participating.
Mrs Guillaume has carried out our Phonics testing this week with the Year 1 children and some of the Year 2 children. She has been so pleased to see the progress they have made, thank you Mrs Guillaume.
This morning Mr O'Reilly and I took the Year 3/4 football boys to Madjeski for a tournament. It was beautiful in the sunshine but got a little hot in the end for the footballers. They played so well and were unbeaten for the first 4 matches. We had some super goals and great saves.
We finished the day with the Netball team playing against the parents and some staff. It was great fun and I am pleased to say that the parents won! The netball team show great commitment on a Monday morning and they played with far greater skill that the adults!
Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson have led so many rehearsals and the choir, percussion group and the dancers should be very proud of what they achieved. I can't wait to see them perform on Sunday at the Hexagon. If any families have any concerns regarding WASMA over the weekend, please email me.
I am hoping next week will be a little calmer. We will be doing the Multiplication test with Year 4 pupils, another football tournament but this time for our Year 5 girls and then Mufti and the fete to look forward to at the end of the week.
I wish you all a lovely weekend, hopefully in the sunshine. I have added some photos from today.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
