Newsletter – December 2018 Issue 10

Dear all, In schools, at this time of the year, there is always a buzz of excitement and an air of anticipation about Christmas performances, special meals and other end of term festivities. In the classroom, of course, December is only the end of the first term but we have much to celebrate as this newsletter demonstrates. In particular, we must congratulate the pupils and staff of WCE for their letter from Nick Gibb, School Standards Minister, recognising that 98% of WCE pupils reached or exceeded the pass mark for phonics last school year. Thank you also, and most sincerely, to all staff whom have worked tirelessly, throughout this term, to inspire the children to ‘aim high’ and to exemplify the HEARTS Values in all their school activities and in their lives. We also welcome the pupils of the Atrium to HEARTS Trust this term and congratulate the Atrium team on their work in supporting the most vulnerable pupils beyond our schools as well as in them. They are already having some positive successes with pupils in challenging circumstances and developing a good reputation for their services locally. It is also a time for reflection as the calendar year comes to a close. I am pleased to report that we have a MAT that is performing well! We know this because pupil outcomes continue to improve and because as the Trust Board self-evaluates performance against a range of indicators, we are able to acknowledge many positive achievements. However, success is being gained in a climate of significant financial challenge, which almost certainly will get worse. It is still our strong belief that together as a HEARTS team we can resolve these challenges and continue to enhance educational excellence across our schools. To assist in this task, I am pleased to welcome Aubrecia Nel, an IT and Project Manager with over 25 years’ experience, to the Trust Board. Wishing all associated with the Trust a happy and memorable Christmas time, enjoyable moments with family and friends and a continuing concern into the New Year, to improve the life chances of all the pupils and families in our schools.

Vaughan Collier On behalf of the Trustees and Governors of the HEARTS Academy Trust.

Highlights and proud moments from our six schools and nurture provision…….

Stambridge Primary School

EYFS & Nursery – Amber Class

In autumn 2 half term in Amber class we have been very busy! We have been learning all about numbers in our maths learning, focusing on a new number every week. We are now experts up to number 9! We can show these numbers in different ways and represent them too.

In our Literacy learning we have been reading lots of different stories about journeys, our favourite was the Gruffalo. We created our own monsters, wrote descriptions for them and then wrote about where our stories were set. We then worked all together and created a giant Gruffalo for our classroom. We have been really trying hard to work on our speaking and listening skills, making sure we use the right tenses and grown up sentences. The end of this half term has been super fun, with lots of Christmas crafts going on and writing cards! We can’t wait for Spring term!

Year 1/2

This term Amethyst class have thoroughly embraced and enjoyed the terms topic, Dinosaurs. Our wow day helped us to write some fantastic recounts as well as giving us the opportunity to share all the knowledge we have learned. Our Geography day was another hi-light and learning about different countries from a range of continents and being able to visit each class during the day made it even more exciting. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing our day (and our dances) with our grown-ups at the end too.

Year 3/4 – Sapphire Class

This term Sapphire Class has enjoyed studying the rainforest through the book, Journey to the River Sea. They have explored the story through drama helping them with their descriptive writing and empathy of characters. They have enjoyed finding out about the layers of the rainforest and the habitats of the animals and plants living there. This has inspired the children's creative homework. We have had some wonderful homework from PowerPoint presentations about David Attenborough, 3D rainforest models and animals and even a rainforest cake! In our Geography day they learnt to Samba and in their ukulele lessons they have learnt to play a rainforest song. Year 5/6 – Onyx Class

This term, Onyx Class have been so busy, having so much fun! They have been

learning all about London; finding out about landmarks in our capital and how our laws are made. They have also learnt a lot about Elizabeth Fry and the impact she had on reforming our prisons. We have been lucky to have so many guests in already this year, including The Dog's Trust, who taught us all about evolution, and Money Sense, who asked for our help to investigate a fraudulent crime. It seems their favourite part of the term has been reading 'Holes' and getting to write their own tension narratives based on a chapter in the book. It has been a non-stop term, so hopefully they will rest well over the Christmas holidays so they are ready for another action-packed term next year!

Hilltop Junior School

This term at Hilltop Juniors year 3 and 4 have been learning all about the Greeks. The teachers organised a day devoted to the Greeks and the impact they had on todays society. All the children dressed up in different Greek outfits, wearing Togas, military clothes and Laurel leaf garlands. The children took part in lots of different, exciting activities, such as; using drama to recreate mythical Greek god adventures, solving puzzles created by the Greek mathematician Archimedes and playing traditional Greek games. They also learnt about Greek weapons and the Greek military.

This term year five and six have been learning all about our great capital city, London. They started the topic with a real bang, visiting London on an educational visit. This involved a whole host of transport, trains, boats, tubes and foot! Along the journey up the Thames, on the Thames Cruiser, they saw the Tate Modern, London Bridge and Tower Bridge, sailed past Somerset House and the Embankment. During their walk around London they visited; Buckingham palace, unfortunately the queen was not in, walked along the Mall, passed Clarence House and stood outside the seat of our democracy, the Houses of Parliament. Back in school the children produced some brilliant work using maps and grid references. They looked in details at the transport systems they used and wrote fact files about each of the places they visited.

Year 5 and 6 have also been learning about the works of Banksy, under the Topic ‘you gotta fight for your right…’. They have learnt about the power of art in bringing about political and cultural change.

Briscoe Primary School

A cross Trust approach to planning a Landmark tour of

London for upper KS2 meant that all the children had a

fantastic day out, the teachers thoroughly enjoyed

themselves and lots of learning and fantastic homework

happened as a result. The other passengers on the Thames

Clipper also enjoyed the information that teachers had

prepared about the landmarks on the journey and gave

them a round of applause at the end!

Our annual Big Harvest Breakfast was once again an amazing success, resulting in

lots of donations for the local women’s refuge. Our school council delivered them

after the half term break and as you can see they were very grateful.

The whole Trust had the excitement of the dinosaur

workshop where children were able to make and dig for

fossils as well as learn lots of facts about them.

The first inter-Trust KS2 sporting event took place this

term. All Trust schools sent a tag rugby team to BPS to play in a tournament in which BPS emerged victorious.

Hilltop Infant School

KS1 at Hilltop Infant School went on a trip to the Natural History Museum this

half term. We had a great day exploring the dinosaur and mammal sections of

the museum and the children wrote some fantastic recounts about the trip!

EYFS have enjoyed celebrating different

festivals throughout the Autumn Term -

we have painted firework toast for

Bonfire Night, made diva lamps for

Diwali and posted our letters to Father

Christmas! We also had a visit from an

Olympic Athlete - Montell Douglas and

had a training session with her!

We are so lucky at Hilltop Infants to have an amazing outdoor space which we have used this year to start our Forest School adventures. We have used our nature garden to watch the seasons change from summer to autumn. The trees no longer have their leaves, the newts have left the pond and the squirrels have dugs holes all over hiding their nuts for winter.

Waterman Primary School We have had a busy and fun filled start to the school year at Waterman Primary. We have welcomed in new pupils

and new staff. We started the Autumn term with less pupils than expected with some families being rehomed

during the summer holidays. We have worked hard to promote the school within the locality and have been

welcoming in new pupils on a regular basis. In September we have 72 pupils in roll, we are currently at 85 pupils

with 5 more starting in January – taking us up to 90.

We are pleased to share how we are further developing links with families and our community. In addition to our

‘Rise and Shine’ morning club we now work alongside the National School Breakfast Programme. We are provided

with free cereals, porridge and bagels to ensure pupils are given a healthy, warm and nutritious start to their day.

Bagels are now served daily to all on arrival, helping to fuel learning! Our Harvest collection of food was donated to

the local food bank to support those in need within our own community. Reverend Leach continues to support our

assemblies and came in to lead a special Remembrance Service, sharing artefacts from local families, who served in

WWI. The dance presentation at the end of Geography day saw 67 family members

attend to watch. This is over 80% of our

families represented in the audience –

amazing turnout and fantastic atmosphere.

Parents working alongside Acorn Messy fun Exploring ice as the seasons change in a phonics workshop.

Learning Outside the Classroom - Staff

Meeting

We were treated to a glorious sunset as staff took part in training in the use of the resources received as part of the successful bid, applied for by Mrs Wiltshire.

Sleepover fun included art work,

making pitta bread pizza, singing by

the campfire and, of course, bacon,

beans and toast for breakfast. Lots of

fun was had by all.

HEARTS KS1 Multiskills Event. It was a pleasure to welcome pupils from the other HEARTS schools to take part in the first competitive sports event of the school year at Waterman. Pupils from all schools were brilliant; HEARTS values were modelled by all and made for a competitive but fun afternoon.

The values of Respect and responsibility as well as service were demonstrated throughout Harvest and Remembrance services. Our collection was the largest we have seen in the last few years and was donated to the local foodbank; supporting families in our community. Pupils learned about Remembrance and created class wreaths to lay in our Special assembly ahead of a time of quiet reflection.

Little Teds at Wickford CofE School Our learning wall illustrating a snap shot of our learning this Half Term.

Fundraiser for resources the children planted Winter Pansies Christmas Workshop the children and parents engaged in a range of activities, decorating biscuits, collage and pin the nose on the Reindeer

Wickford CofE School Our term in pictures!

The Atrium – Nurture provision The Atrium is celebrating the end of its first term this Christmas! We are proud to be working in partnership to support eleven local schools to meet the social and emotional needs of their pupils. It's been an incredibly busy and rewarding time for the new team, from setting up and resourcing to building new relationships with pupils and schools. We have had many successes this term including one pupil who is back in mainstream class fulltime. Our 'Reading at the Heart' initiative is bearing fruit as reluctant readers are now reading for pleasure. It appears that hot chocolate, blankets and teddies help massively!

A note from Debbie…. I would like to add a huge thank you to our board of Trustees and local LABs who continue to support us in all of the very many challenges that we have and help Trust leaders professionally and personally. Staff and families face many new obstacles to add to the challenges that have always been in the education profession and in schools. However, it remains a joy to visit all of our schools and see the happiness and high quality outcomes being promoted across the curriculum. This is due to the dedication and commitment of all of our staff every day for every child. It is a privilege to see and a credit to you all that our schools are wonderful and engaging places to be. Also thank you to our school improvement team and all the central HEARTS House team. I hope everyone has a very happy Christmas and that you all return renewed and refreshed in 2019. Any rest taken and enjoyed is more than well deserved. Debbie