‘Mayflower Primary School ensures children learn in a safe, caring and enriching environment. Children are taught how to keep themselves safe, to develop positive and healthy relationships, how to avoid situations where they might be at risk including by being exploited.’

http://mayflower.j2webby.com

Friday 7th December 2018

TERM DATES 2017/18

School closes: Friday 21st December School opens: Tuesday 8th January

School closes: Friday 15th February School opens: Monday 25th February

School closes: Friday 12th April School opens: Monday 29th April

School closes: Friday 3rd May School opens: Tuesday 7th May

School closes: Friday 24th May School opens: Monday 3rd June

ATTENDANCE

Mayflower School’s attendance target for the Academic year 2017/18 was set at

95.2%+. Unfortunately, due to the levels of sickness and holidays taken, we did not

meet this target, and at the end of the academic year our attendance stood at 94.9%

which is disappointing. In addition, 32 children were classed by the government as

being persistent absentees, as their attendance was 90% or below at the end of the

year.

I am hoping that we can all work really hard to improve attendance at Mayflower

School for the 2018/19 academic year.

At present, our attendance at 07/12/2018 stands at: 96.4%, which includes the

Nursery. If we exclude the Nursery, it stands at 97.1%. This is dip since November

but I am confident that you will all help us to improve on this by sending your children

to school every day.

Class attendance figures for November 2018 were:

8th November 15th November 22nd November 29th November

F1 am 83.1 89.4 97.7 96.2

F1 pm 84.8 85.4 86.9 84.6

LA 92.8 95.5 97.3 94.7

AK 96.1 91.3 94.5 95.7

AB 92.8 95.9 96.6 97.9

KM 95.5 96.5 98.1 94.5

RMC 98.1 97.1 95.2 97.7

AJ 99 99 99.7 98

PA 94.3 98. 98.7 97.3

LG 92.4 96 94 94

KW 96.5 100 98.1 97.4

CR 96.1 95.8 99.4 99

PV 98.3 98.3 99.3 96

SD 93.3 97.7 95.3 98

RC 96.2 99 96.2 98.1

CS 96.5 93 96 92.5

BW 99 100 100 98.6

Our trophy winners for November were:

Foundation Key Stage 1 Lower

Key Stage 2

Upper

Key Stage 2

8th November AK AJ KW BW 15th November LA AJ KW BW 22nd November F1 AM AJ CR BW 29th November F1 AM AJ CR BW

Congratulations to all of these classes for their fantastic achievement of winning

the trophies in November.

SINGING TROPHY

The singing trophy for November is going to Maryam in AJ

for her amazing solo singing in the Year 1 and 2 performance

of The Bee Musical. Very well done.

LOST PROPERTY

Would all parents please check in lost property for any missing items as we have a large

amount in the main reception area. Most of the children’s school clothing has a label

attached for you to write your child’s name on, this would help us greatly to get it back to

the right child.

NURSERY WELLY WALK

Nursery raised £1114.00 by going on a

sponsored welly walk. A huge thank you

to all the parents' for supporting this

event. The money raised will be spent

this academic year and will go towards

our second phase of the Foundation

Stage playground which we are excited

to announce will be on theme of water.

Watch this space!

Please see Miss Brown if you have any

fundraising ideas for the future.

OPENING OF SCHOOL GATES

For Health and Safety reasons, we do not open the school gates at the end of the day until

3.05pm at the earliest. However, if there are still children in the playground, we will not

open the gates until the children are back inside the school building. I know that you will

understand that this is for the safety of all the children in school.

THE BEE MUSICAL

A huge thank you to all the staff and children in Year 1 and 2 for all their hard work in

creating the magical performance of The Bee Musical last week. The children spoke so

clearly and sang so beautifully and with such confidence. The costumes and set were

wonderful and everyone really enjoyed show! Thank you to all our parents and carers who

managed to come along to support the children.

INTERNATIONAL WORK

Staff CPD

Mrs Desai and Miss Gurney attended a week-long CPD course in Oulu, Northern Finland this

month and have returned to us enthused and excited to put their new learning into practice.

They thoroughly enjoyed spending time with educational professionals from across Europe

and will be feeding back to staff about their experience.

eTwinning Projects:

Pass the Picture

This lovely project is reaching the final stages with

schools from France and Lithuania working together to

look at art works in their local Art Gallery or Museum and

then recreate them in school. Please scan the QR code to

see a video of the work done by our amazing artists in

Mayflower so far.

Thinking Allowed

Our 3 year whole school Erasmus Plus project is in its second year and we are now looking

to deliver the tools for effective thinking. Following on from the planning visit to France

in October, Mrs Stokes has now delivered a Philosophy session to every class throughout

the school. Class teachers will be continuing to practice this method before our big “Live

Debate” in January.

SNOPP (Say NO to Plastic Pollution)

Year 6 are working on a wonderful project with schools in

the USA, Poland, Germany and France linked to the

Sustainable Development Goals.

They have been learning a lot about the impact of plastic

pollution on the environment and comparing survey results

from across all the schools. They are now finding out what

we can do to improve the situation.

Watch this space!

We also have Let’s Get Physical with eTwinning Teddy in Year 4 with schools in Slovakia

and the UK; Travelling Ted in Nursery with schools in Norway, the Czech Republic and the

UK and Taking care of your PET in Year 6 with schools in the Czech Republic, Poland and

the UK. We also had our annual SCHOOLOVISION project confirmed this week!

ISA Reaccreditation Award Ceremony

All of the International work that we do at Mayflower is

celebrated and evaluated, with assessments made of the

impact of the learning on both the children and staff.

Miss Brown, as the school’s International Coordinator,

works really hard to drive this aspect of our work in school

and ensures that the global ethos is embedded in every

class.

We were delighted that she was invited down to London

this week to collect our International School Award in

recognition of the outstanding development of the

international dimension in our curriculum. The event was

held in the Palace of Westminister and was attended by

the Education Secretary. Miss Brown did us proud!

ACTION FOR HAPPINESS

We’ve added to our happiness repertoire! We already knew about:

But now we have more ideas to develop our levels of contentment:

CHILDREN IN NEED

Thank you so much to all our parents who joined in with all of the Children in Need fun!

Not only did the children have a great day meeting a VERY special visitor, but we managed

to raise £438.14. Well done!

Do please scan the QR code to see photos from the day:

ANTI BULLYING WEEK

We did work in school for Anti-Bullying Week, reminding

ourselves of what bullying was … and what it wasn’t.

Our Young Consultants shared with everyone in Friday

assembly what had been going on in their class for Anti-

Bullying week. We had a vast collection of stories, posters

and drama activities showcased which raised awareness of

the issue.

The whole school also read a wonderful book called “Only

One You” and talked about respecting everyone’s

individuality. You will notice a display in the school foyer

which has grown from our reading of the story.

VISTORS IN SCHOOL

Mary Anning

Year 3 were thoroughly inspired by a visit from “Mary Anning”, one of the founders of the

science of Geology. They were delighted to have the opportunity to interview her about

her life and work. We must thank Mrs Eames, a wonderful science teacher from Sandfield

Close, who is a close friend of Mary and who enabled her visit to take place!

Year 3 were SO inspired by her, in fact, that they have all written to the Bank of England

requesting that SHE be the scientist featured on the new £50 note! Please do look at the

school’s Twitter feed to see pictures of their designs.

Thank you to the Year 3 teachers who have been so flexible and willing to follow the

children’s enthusiasm and passion for this learning.

Spark Arts – The First

Year 6 were treated to an intimate theatre performance in school this week which really

captured their imaginations. Thank you very much to the Year 6 staff who grasped this

last minute opportunity and moved the curriculum around to accommodate it!

Dr Bike

A big thank you to Dr Bike who repaired and

serviced 30 bicycles in school last week, on

a very wet and rainy day! Hopefully now,

our children will be out and about in the

park enjoying the fresh air on the winter

weekends!

Leicester City Council Air Quality Education Officer

Danni Kennell is back in school working

with our Young Consultants on a number of

projects to raise awareness about the air

quality in Leicester. The team was

starting to talk about what WE can do to

help improve the situation.

We are also working with Living Streets

looking at ways of improving the air

pollution levels around our school.

Creative Learning Services – Year 1 – Travelling Toybox

The children in Year 1 enjoyed a visit from our local Museum Educator looking at toys from

the past. They learned so much from the hands on session and valued the opportunity to

handle the artefacts.

Librarian – Nursery and Reception

Children in Early Years were inspired by a lively visit from a Librarian who generated a real

buzz around books and reading! Huge thanks to Mrs Pilgrim for arranging the visits from

both the Museum and the Library service.

TRIPS

Orchestra Unwrapped

Year 6 enjoyed the most wonderful visit to

De Montfort Hall to see the London

Philharmonia Orchestra playing music

especially composed for the book “Leon and

the Place Between”. They had done a lot of

work on the book in school before the

performance, and were very familiar with

the music! Some of the artwork the children

produced was displayed on the screen at De

Montfort Hall during the performance.

Into Film Festival

Once again, as members of the BFI Into Film

community, we were able to get priority

FREE tickets for every child in Years 1-6 to

go to the cinema. The children enjoyed

watching Ferdinand, Peter Rabbit or Captain

Underpants with their friends.

Gardening Club – Eco Roadshow

We always love learning about new and different ways to save the world!

InterFaith Conference at Madani

Our Year 6 children enjoyed a visit to Madani School which had organised a very interesting

conference as part of Inter Faith week. The children were able to meet representatives

from many of the different major religions and question them directly on their faith and

practices. Many thanks to the staff and Head Teacher at Madani for organising such an

important event in our City.

Year 6 - Warning Zone

Year 6 made their annual visit to Warning

Zone in Leicester.

Warning Zone deliver life-saving

messages to children in Year 6, catching

them at a key transition in their life as

they begin their journey towards

secondary school and increased

independence.

The children were educated on

understanding risks and consequences,

peer-pressure, anti-social behaviour,

cyber-bullying and much more.

SPORT

Boccia / New Age Curling Festival

Sportshall Athletics

Year 5 and 6 Girls 7-a-side Football

Year 5 and 6 Hi 5 Netball

Yoga in Years 2, 4 and 5

And Finally…

There are few things that give me more pleasure than taking a look back through the

monthly newsletter and it always make me think about the wide range of fun and exciting

activities that our children engage with. By offering such breadth, we are hoping that they

will all find their area of expertise and in so doing, work towards excellence in what they

do. Pleasingly, excellence in one area of learning can very easily lead to excellence in others

so please continue to encourage your child to get involved!

On a separate matter, I have noticed that the Traffic Wardens have been out in force and

it makes me feel very happy that no tickets have been issued, as far as I am aware! I know

that dropping children and picking them up at the end of the day is difficult but I would

be ever so grateful if consideration could be shown to local residents, especially those that

live very near to the school. There can be few things more infuriating than finding your

driveway blocked in the morning and I have noticed an increase in littering. This makes

living by our school less of a pleasure than it should be and I hope we can all join together

and show some of that community mindedness that makes Evington such a special place.

Given some of the work that the children have engaged with regarding clean air, might it

be an idea for you to consider ‘Park and Stride?’ This would see you parking some distance

away from the school and walking the final part of the journey as a family. Not only will

this contribute to improved air quality in the city, it will also become part of a healthier

lifestyle for you and your child/children.

Finally, I wanted to sound a very quick note of thanks regarding attendance. I can see that

as a school, we are on-track to meet our targets for good attendance and this would not

have been possible without your support and determination to make sure that all children

are in school every day of the week. We do still have some children with an aggregate

figure below 90% and I will be writing again to these families to explore the ways in which

better attendance can be fostered.

All that now remains is for me to wish you all an enjoyable end of term break and I shall

look forward to seeing you and your children when school comes back into session on

Tuesday 8th January 2019!!

Mr. L. Whitney – Head Teacher