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December 2015.

Salsa, Survival and Surprise Visits

This busy term got off to a flying start in September with the Year 6 venturing out to survive a four day

visit to Kingswood. Wall climbing, beach combing and quad biking to name just a few activities.

Challenging themselves in areas outside of their comfort zone the children were brilliant encouraging and

supporting each other. Their strong friendships and team work set the scene for a successful term.

Before their topic on Pirates, the Key Stage One children spent the

first part of the term searching the streets of Warboys to find

Traction Man who was the main character in their topic. The

children drew maps, created ‘Missing Person’ posters, wrote stories,

discussed the action of his friends as well as investigating the water

proofing of his clothing. Meanwhile Year 3,4 and 5 travelled back in

time to explore what is was like living in the Stone Age. They learnt

about homes, tools, and key needs for survival.

With the support of Play Right the whole school supported National

Anti Bullying Week. Children across the school had opportunities to discuss and reflect on different forms

of bullying. They agreed that Cyber Bullying is now becoming more common outside of school and

children need to have strategies to deal with this.

The progress and range of work the children have covered was praised

several times during a number of visits made by representatives from the

Local Authority. However, a visit from the Ofsted Inspectors last month

suggested that our curriculum should be even broader and incorporate

more writing.

In November the whole school took time out for the “Jigs in Wigs Dance

Off” to support Pudsey fund raising and even Mrs Robinson, our new

business manager [pictured right] joined in the fun. The dancing raised

£301 for Children in Need.

Mrs Downing has worked hard to develop the new school choir and organised a wonderful display of their

talents at our Community Carol Service. The choir is also practising for their first experience singing as

part of Young Voices at the O2 Arena which takes place on the 8th February.

Following a visit to another school, we successfully launched our Parent Forum with Mrs Sally Smith

offering to take the Chair. Discussion topics have already included communications, the new assessments

system, reports and homework. These meetings have been very positive and were felt to be a good method

to further develop links with parents. The next meeting will be on the 2nd February. We also have a new

PTA committee this year which has already been incredibly active under the guidance of it’s Chairperson,

Mrs Campbell. Refurbishing the school library is their priority this year and with paint already donated by

‘Crown Paints Company,’ they have made a great start to this project. Further details of their work can be

found on page 3.

We still have regular coffee mornings with Zoe Holland, the early intervention worker ,who as made

significant links with school, families and the localities team. Anyone can drop in to these sessions or you

can book a session with Zoe by contacting the school office. Angela Boxall

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Response to Ofsted: By now most parents will have read our Ofsted report, if not you can find

it by following link :

http://www.warboys.cambs.sch.uk/_site/data/files/users/12/

F82DEB68FE36D3BFDEDA2CBAC00F50EA.pdf

During the year there have been many positive developments across the school. In particular:

For the whole of this term Mrs Spittle, Assistant Headteacher and Maths Leader has spent a

great deal of time and resources developing maths across the school, particularly in Key Stage

Two. As well as teacher courses, part of this development was for children in Key Stage Two to

have access to Mathletics, an on line maths programme to help reinforce maths. Children

need to be practising quick mental recall of number facts and table facts at every opportunity

both at home and at school.

As a key area for development, writing was already on the school development plan. In Sep-

tember, Mrs Pawley was appointed as Assistant Headteacher and Literacy Leader and has al-

ready made an impact on writing by introducing ‘Big Write’. Spellings are now sent home for

home work and children are expected to record their daily reading in the reading logs.

Developing the independence at all levels is important to build up children’s resilience and

ownership of learning. With a ‘no excuse policy’ our expectations are that children come to

lessons ready to learn. Children should be on time for the 8.45 registration in the morning, hav-

ing the right equipment, PE kit, reading books and completed homework. Although teachers

work hard to differentiate work there is still a ‘can’t do,’ don’t want to do’ attitude from a mi-

nority of children. Staff will be taking a firmer stance on this type of attitude and will be swifter

contacting parents for support. On the other hand we have so many child who work consist-

ently hard giving their best effort and for them we will be increasing the praise and rewards ac-

cordingly.

All staff reading the Ofsted report, including those new to teaching, felt the comments about

not being supported by the leadership team were unfair and unjustified. It goes without saying

we will be reviewing our inductions and professional development calendars in light of the

comments made.

The leadership team will be meeting with the Governors early next term to discuss the

next steps resulting from the Ofsted report and we wish to share these with parents at

the curriculum evening on Tuesday 19th January.

Mr Bostock and the School Website

I would like to welcome Mr Nick Bostock who joined

our staff this term. Nick has been very busy behind

scenes working on the school website and keeping

all our IT equipment in working

order.

Up dated information regarding the curriculum and

milestones for learning can now be found on the

school website. We are now working to add a video

of our handwriting writing style.

Curriculum Evening

Tuesday 19th January

6.30pm

Attendance

Attendance to date this year is 96.3%

Same period last year was 95.0%

Number of these days that were unauthorised was151

No of days lost to unauthorised holidays was 96

The class with the best attendance this term was Starfish with 97.4 % attendance.

We continuously track attendance and we are pleased to announce 102 children had 100%

attendance this term and were awarded their Bronze certificates.

Curriculum Evening

Tuesday 19th January

6.30pm

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PTA

Do you fancy joining in?

Did you know that as a par-

ent you are automatically a

member of the PTA? It’s

entirely up to you how ac-

tive you are as a member

you could do lots or nothing

or something inbetween.

You don’t have to come to

meetings regularly or at all,

just let one of us know that

you are interested in help-

ing and what you would

like to do and we will fit

around you.

Meetings are held in The

White Hart on the 2nd

Tuesday of the month @

7.30 pm

Thank you for your continued support! 3

YOUR PTA NEEDS

YOU!

CAN YOU HELP?

FIND OUT ABOUT THE

FUN IN FUNDRAISING!

AND BEST OF ALL,

WE’RE FRIENDLY

TOO!

Dear Parent and Carers

It is my pleasure to introduce the PTA committee to you who were elected

in September at the AGM.

Sarah Warman Kay Broad Ruth Campbell Sandra Sawyer

(Wingman) (Secretary) (Chair) (Treasurer)

Sally Smith is our Publicity and Advertising Officer but she was so excited

by her new role that she missed the photo!

What are we fundraising for?

In 2015/2016 the PTA are aiming to raise money for the refurbishment of

the library. Once we have all the costings we will let you know how much

we need to raise and how you can help us do it, in the meantime if you

have any fundraising ideas you would like to suggest, let us know!

So far this year ………

The autumn term has been busy for the PTA with the final rag bag bin, our

first after school club, the Carol Concert and the Christmas Hamper Draw,

serving the children at the school Christmas lunch and the teas and coffees

at the KS1 performances. So far this year we have raised £754.80. We’ve

set up a Facebook page (Warboys CP School – PTA) to keep members

informed of events and fund raising news, if you’re not a member please

ask to join us. Oh and if you like to internet shop, particularly at this time

of year or you do your grocery shop online, please have a look at

www.easyfundraising.org.uk either online or the app and raise money

whilst you shop, it really is easy fundraising!

…. And finally

I would like to say thank you to all the Committee and volunteers for their

hard work and support and on behalf of all the PTA Committee may I wish

you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year –

here’s to 2016!!!!

Ruth Campbell

Chair.

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Nativity News.

On a grey and overcast morning the children

from EYFS took their first steps into the

limelight and a few more steps to the parish

church. A packed house watched their most

treasured little ones perform their hearts out,

singing beautifully and remembering what they

had to say and do.

It was amazing for all to watch how fantastic the

children were, remembering the words to 8

songs (well, nearly all of them) and telling the

story of the nativity. They all did so very well

and made everyone so very proud of their

achievements, it is hard to believe that they have

only been in school for one term. The confidence and enthusiasm they showed was way in excess of their

age. Well done to all the Dolphins and Turtles and a big thank you to everyone who supported them in

their performance.

Dolphins & Turtles.

‘Hey Ewe’.

On Wednesday 16th December, the children in Years 1 & 2 took to the stage to perform their

Christmas play, ‘Hey Ewe’. Rehearsals had taken place through the previous weeks, songs had been

learnt and then it was finally time to show all the parents, carers, friends and relatives what all that

hard work was for. Thanks to everyone who helped with the performances.

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Lions, Pumas, Tigers and Hawks.

This term in Yrs 3, 4 & 5 our Topics have been ‘Greeks’ and ‘Home

Sweet Home’. We had great fun making some Greek pots using clay,

and got rather messy! For our homework we had to find out all about

the Greek Gods and also draw a picture of a mythical Greek creature.

Then we had a quiz all about the Greeks and the Greek Gods.

When we did ‘Home Sweet Home’ we all made a model of Stonehenge

and Stone Age houses, which was a lot of fun. All of us are looking

forward to starting our topic of ‘Amazing Africa’ next term.

Yrs 3, 4 & 5.

Football News.

On Tuesday 10th November, the Year

4/5 football team played a match against

Roundhouse school at St Neots. The

players were Rocco, Ben, John, Morgan,

Marcus, Noah, Charlie and Jack.

Roundhouse kicked off but after about

two minutes Noah scored our first goal,

which was set up by Rocco. Rocco then

scored himself, and then Noah scored

again. Then we had a free kick, followed

by Roundhouse getting a free kick, Just

before half time, Roundhouse scored

their first goal, making the half time

score 3 -1 to us.

After half time, it was a bit tense when

Roundhouse took a shot on goal from a

free kick which hit the crossbar. It bounced back and they took another shot, but Charlie saved it! Then

we scored another four goals (from Rocco, Noah and Morgan) and Roundhouse scored one. When the

match ended, the score was 7-2 and we had won!

Yr 4/5 Football Team.

Netball News.

On Thursday 12th November, Warboys School netball team went to Buckden

Primary School to play a netball match. We had practiced really hard and were

really looking forward to playing, but sadly we lost by 14 points, with a score of

16 - 2 Fortunately we had a good time. We feel that we did really well as their

Year 6 players were very tall. It was difficult but the team participated and

represented the school well.

We would like to say thank you to Pearl, Zanda, Hannah, Joe, Harvey, Lauren,

Jack, Dominic, Libby, Grace and Bernardo. And a massive thank you to Mrs

Olivier for organising it all for us.

The netball team.

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Yr 6 Trip to Kingswood.

On a lovely sunny Sunday in September, 30 very

excited Year 6 students all piled onto a coach to

take them to Kingswood in Norfolk for three

whole days! When we arrived we were shown

where we were sleeping and then we had to

make our own beds, which was a bit of a shock

for some of us! After we’d settled in, we went

into our groups for our first activities. Over the

three days we were there, we did lots of really

fun things. We all had a go at fencing and lots of

us enjoyed the activity where we were blindfold-

ed and had to follow a rope. There was also go-

karting, quad biking, crate stacking, archery, the

leap of faith, the zip wire and indoor games too.

Everyone laughed at how funny people

looked wearing the safety harness for things

like the zip wire. We had a pool party too

which was lots of fun. For our team chal-

lenge we went to the beach, where it rained,

which was a bit of a shame. In the evenings

we played things like Twister and got to

have a hot chocolate. The food was really

nice too. The instructors at Kingswood were

all very funny and everyone had a really

good time. Thank you to Mrs Hunter–Jones,

Mr Duncan, Mrs Glitherow and Mrs Ball

for taking us.

Riley and Eden.

PARENT FORUM – WE NEED YOU !

Following the start of the Parent forum, firstly a big THANK YOU to the

parents/carers and staff who’ve taken the time to come along and support the

forum, the forum is an opportunity to get involved in the school and offer

suggestions and opinions on a range of things on a very informal basis, you

don’t have to attend every time or commit any of your time to anything other

than the evening of the meetings which are held once every half term.

After two successful meetings involving topics from swimming to the

curriculum content, we’d urge you to come along and join in, it’s a great

way to come and share your views in a group format. We are very lucky to

be supported by the School, Governors and the PTA who are always there to offer support and

suggestions along the way.

Our next meeting is Tuesday 2nd February @ 7.30pm at the School, we hope to see you there. If you

are unable to attend but would like to add a topic to the agenda please email this to the School Office

or feel free to speak to myself or Debs and we can include this for you.

We look forward to seeing some new faces next year.

Sally Smith – Chairperson

Debs Archer – Secretary

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Governors Parents

Steve Dodd (Chair)

Peter Wood-Eeles (Vice-

Chair)

Simon Mead (Chair of

Resources)

Claire Eeley

Alan Evans

Karen Glen

Co-opted

Angie Curtis (Chair of S & A)

John Pennington

Karen Harding

Nigel Graham

Jo Spittle

Jan Attwood

Local Authority

Casey Scott

Staff

Angela Boxall (Headteacher)

Caroline McKeating

Clerk

Loren Bradley

Interested in

becoming a

Governor?

Ready to give

something back to

your community?

Contact us for a chat.

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Dear Parents and Carers

On behalf of the Governing Body I would like to thank Mrs

Boxall, the Senior Leadership Team and all the staff for all

the hard work and effort they have put in this year. The

Local Authority has been actively involved visiting the

school throughout the year and its monitoring visits were

positive about the progress achieved by the school. We were

disappointed and surprised that Ofsted continues to consider

the School as Requiring Improvement, as we believe that the

actions taken by Mrs Boxall and her team, and the steps they

have put in place are enabling the children to achieve their

potential.

I am delighted to be able to report that the School Team

continues to be focussed on the vision for the School going

forward and that they continue to be motivated and

determined to continue to deliver for our children. There is,

of course, a clear understanding throughout the School Staff

and the Governing Body that we need to demonstrate these

improvements in the results by which we are all measured.

Despite the disappointing outcome of the Ofsted inspection,

there were many points to celebrate within the report and

they witnessed some good teaching; so we know that we are

making progress.

The Governors had arranged our termly link visits on the

dates that Ofsted were in school and so these have been

postponed until next term to the week commencing 11th

January when we will focus on the points Ofsted has raised.

During the first week of January, the Governors will be

meeting to work through all the recommendations made by

Ofsted and draw up a clear plan to help the school move

forward.

If anyone has any concerns they can contact either me or any

member of the Governing Body and we would be glad to

help.

On behalf of all of the Governors, I would like to take this

opportunity to wish you all a great Christmas holiday break

and a Happy New Year.

Regards

Steve Dodd

Chair of Governors

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Diary Tuesday 5th January 2016 Back to school

Friday 15th January 2016 Lions Class Assembly

Monday 18th January 2016 Swimming starts for Year 5

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Yr 6 trip to Stibbington

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Curriculum Evening, 6.30-8pm.

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Parent Forum, 7.30-9pm

Friday 12th February 2016 Training Day

Monday 15th February-Friday 19th

February 2016

Half term

Wednesday 9th - Friday 11th March

2016

Yr 4 residential trip to Grafham Water

Friday 18th March 2016 Pumas Class Assembly

Thursday 24th March 2016 End of Spring Term

Tuesday 12th April 2016 Start of Summer Term

Friday 15th April 2016 Seahorses Class Assembly

Friday 6th May 2016 Tigers Class Assembly

Monday 30th May - Friday 3rd June

2016

Half term

Friday 24th June 2016 Dolphins Class Assembly

Friday 1st July 2016 Turtles Class Assembly

Thursday 21st July 2016 End of Summer Term

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www.warboys.cambs.sch.uk