Call us: 0 1922 682583 Email us: postbox@st-francis-p.walsall.sch.uk

Early Years & Year 1 In the last Tweet, I quoted figures from the latest

Walsall schools’ league tables.

The ranking that I gave you for our Early Years and Foundation Stage team (29th out of 86 schools in the

Local Authority) was one that is based on the school’s achievements in EYFS over the last two

academic years and is an average of the July 2013 and the July 2014 data.

Based on the 2014 figures alone, St Francis actually has the 24th best EYFS department in the borough.

Similarly, based on the most recent academic year alone, the Year 1 Phonics test scores were the 14th best in the borough (the ranking of 28/86 schools for St Francis quoted in the last Tweet was based on a three-year average).

So standards are definitely rising.

Many congratulations to the team members for their magnificent work!

Holiday Dates 2014 Term Dates 2014/15

Fri 19th Dec 2014 – Fri 2nd Jan 2015 Christmas Holiday Fri 13th Feb – Fri 20th Feb 2015 Half Term Fri 27th Mar –Fri 10th Apr 2015 Easter Holiday Mon 4th May 2015 Bank Holiday Fri 23rd May – Fri 29th May 2015 Half Term School closes for Summer Holiday - Mon 20 Jul 2015.

7th November 2014

Diary Dates CLJ Week – 8th December 2014

THEATRE VISITS KS2 Mon 15th December KS1 Wed 17th December

Nursery Visit to Cadbury World – Thurs 18th

Message from the Acting Head Teacher

Half term holiday I hope you all had a happy and enjoyable half term holiday!

WRITING TASK (4)

Here is Point 4 of our weekly writing tasks series*:

3. “Give children the freedom to CHOOSE pathways, rather than FOLLOW one.”

*These points are taken from Wrigley, S: National Writing Project (NWP),

National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE): http://www.nwp.org.uk/1/category/national%20curriculum/1.html

Using this as a starting point, can you help your child/ren to

write a story at home this week? The children can write about whatever they like, making choices about what

happens next in the story for themselves.

Enjoy!

WORDS OF THE WEEK

‘Word of the week’ sentences should be handed in by Thursday each week.

This week’s winners are:

Holly Shepherd (Key Stage 1); and Mia Clarke (Key Stage 2 winner)

Winning sentence (KS1): “Aladdin and his magic genie flew

on their magic carpet to find Princess Jasmin”. Winning sentence (KS2): “As I entered the beautifully-lit castle, my mind was full of curiosity for what I would find

behind all the elegantly-carved doors.”

Here is the target word for Key Stage 1 pupils to use before Thursday 13th November:

giraffe

The Key Stage 2 target word to use is: parliament

Good luck, everyone! PLEASE SEE OVER

Early Years and Foundation Stage Parental Questionnaire

Thank you to all EYFS parents and carers who completed a survey

form recently. It is great to hear your views and change the way we do things - to make things even better for your children - as a result.

Thank you so much for endorsing the work of the EYFS team in such

a positive and enthusiastic way.

So far, 100% of you were 100% positive about what the school does in EYFS in 8 out of the 11 questions asked.

The lowest score for any question was 88% ‘agree or strongly

agree’, but this included a 6% no-response rate for this particular question.

The main change that will take place – from yesterday – as a result

of parental feedback, is that we have now started to produce a weekly newsletter for Nursery as well as Reception parents and

carers.

Please let us know what you think of this as we go along.

It is important to note that the scores (above), and the analysis of them, are based on a response rate of 40% (that is, 40% of the

parental questionnaires have been returned so far).

If you have not replied yet, but you would like to, please send in your form by next Friday. Your views are important

to us.

Junior Leadership Team This week, the team worked on the school’s

Post-Ofsted Monitoring Visit Action Plan (‘POMVAP’). The pupils suggested ways in which assessment can be improved at the

school.

September is the month of the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

PiXL update For more information, please see

www.pixl.org.uk

We continue to run PiXL sessions for Year 6 students. The past two weeks have been focusing on mathematics and writing skills. In maths the children have revised their understanding of mean, median, mode and range as well as representing and interpreting data. All have made great strides in these areas.

In writing the group has focused on how to use verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns to improve their sentences. These sessions are beginning to have an impact on the children’s learning as they continue to prepare for their SATs in May.

STARS OF THE WEEK As you know, the two best pupils in every

class from Reception to Year 6 are rewarded in assemblies every Friday.

This week’s ‘Stars of the Week’ are: Reception – Bobbie Fairburn & Rio Lawley Year 1 – Harry Smith & William Geraghty Year 2 – Jake Roberts & Paige Moseley

Year 3 – Nicole Henworth & Olyvia Matthews Year 4 – Dylan Fairburn & Seth Hynes Year 5 – Amy Peakman & Elle Wallis

Year 6 – Lewis Owen & Olivia Bradburn

Congratulations to them and their families!

Diwali Day and ‘Creative Learning Journey’ Week As you know, there was a one-off ‘World Faith Day’ celebrating

Diwali on the Friday before the half term holiday.

Feedback from pupils tells us that they really enjoyed the carousel of rotating learning activities, which included making Diwali lights

out of clay; cooking; designing and producing Rangoli patterns; writing; music, art and dance, etc.

It was a great day, packed full of exciting learning.

Thanks to all staff and pupils. Special thanks go to Mr Probert, Miss

Wellings, and Mrs Keeling.

Mrs Charles will be leading a ‘Creative Learning Journey’ Week in w/b 8th December 2014, and this will involve the whole school

working on a whole week’s worth of projects that bring together the Foundation subjects of the National Curriculum.

That is, pupils will enrich their learning through History, Geography, Modern Foreign Languages, Art, Drama, and Music, etc. all together

as one big topic-based project.

The main focus of the CLJ work across the school that week will be ‘Roald Dahl’, and pupils of different ages will study different Roald

Dahl books as starting points for their work.

Nursery and Reception children can dress up on Friday 14th November for Children in

Need. (Costume or Pudsey wear - £1 donation)

CHRISTMAS FAYRE – 5th DEC 5 – 7 PM

There will be a Mufti Day on Friday 28th November for bottles and chocolate for

the School/Parish Christmas Fayre. Please support this fundraising event.