Monday 13th March

YR Trip to Beale Park
1-3pm Guitar lessons
3.15-3.45pm Drumming lessons
3.15-4.15pm Yr 6 SATs Booster Club
3.15-4.30pm Gardening club
3.15-4.30pm – GOL football
3.15-6pm—The Oaks after school club

Tuesday 14th March

Y5 Trip to the Britsh Museum
1-3pm Guitar lessons
3.15-4.15pm YR-3 Tag Ruby Club
3.15—3.45pm Drumming club
3.15-4.30pm Gardening Club
3 .15-4.15pm—Lego / Constructon Club (YR-2)
3.15-6pm—The Oaks after school club

Wednesday 15th March

1 -3.30pm Piano lessons
3.15—3.45pm Drumming lessons
3.15-6pm—The Oaks after school club

Thursday 16th March

2pm Y3 Swimming
Y2 Florence Nightingale Zoom Call
3.30-4.30pm Drama club
3 .15-4.15pm Y4-6 Tag rugby club
3.15-6pm—The Oaks after school club

Friday 17th March

Y3/4 Aim Higher Writing Day
1.20pm-2pm Y2 Mary Seacole/Florence Nightingale Zoom Call
9-11 am Rocksteady
2.40pm Awards assembly
3.15-4.30pm Multi Sports club
3.15-4.15pm—Craft Club (YR-2)
3.15-6pm—The Oaks after school club

Syrup Sponge &
Custard
Or
Ice Cream

Jelly
Or
Grapes

Blackcurrant Crumble
& Custard
Or
Ice Creamm

Squidgy Chocolate
& Pear Pudding
Or
Ice Cream

Shortbread
Biscuits
Or
Melon

Snow Day

Wednesday was an interesting day! We did everything we could to open the school and keep it open, but the weather was against us in the end. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation on the day. We had some great fun in the snow and the snowball fight was really enjoyable (until I heard the words “Get Mr Walsh and Mr Webb!”).

Y1 and Y3 architecture day

(Louise is sending a few words and some photos about this)

Parking and drop-off

We have been reviewing the safety of the parking at the front of the school and would like to communicate these
updates or repeated messages:

Parking
Parents should never park to block the staff car park entrance.
There is a danger at the front of the school of people walking onto the road between parked cars so we will use cones to extend the no parking zone on the section of the road directly outside the school gate.
Drop-off
If parents are dropping children off in the back playground in the morning, this is a quick drop-off, and children should exit the vehicle quickly and go straight into school.
The after-school collection on the back playground is for cars only. Parents should not walk onto the back playground to collect their children.

Thank you for your support.

Group Chats – the new social Etiquette – Children socialising virtually.

Messaging services such as FaceTime, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Kik have revolutionised the way we communicate. They have also created a whole new social sphere in which new rules of etiquette are still being tested out.

Messaging apps are hugely popular with both children and adults, due to the fact they are free to use and allow users to talk to each other regardless of whether they have an iPhone, Android or Windows device. Using these apps, you can talk to someone one on one, or with more than one person in a group chat. The group chat function is very popular amongst users, and at school we are aware that some of our older children keep in touch outside of school using a group chat.

For young people, group chats can be difficult to navigate, due to the social pressures of contributing to a conversation in a space where lots of other people can see and comment on it. Therefore it’s really important that young people understand the need for positive behaviour within these group chats. Here are our top tips to help young people with group chat etiquette:

Unknown members of the group

Remind your child that if they get added to a group chat, there may be other members who they don’t know, who have also been invited by the host of the group. Even though those people are friends of the host, they are still strangers, so children need to be careful about not giving away any personal information. Sometimes this is difficult, as on WhatsApp your phone number is shown by default. Go through the blocking tools of the service with your child, so they know how to stop someone contacting them.

If your child wants to create a group and add different members who don’t know each other, suggest that it would be polite to message them privately and ask if that is okay beforehand.

Notifications overload

Being part of a group chat, with lots of messages going back and forth, means you could get a lot of notifications to your device. If you’re not particularly involved in the conversation, these can get annoying, and you might feel pressure to join in to keep up with everyone else.

There is a way to stop notifications coming through – the ‘mute’ function. This will still allow you to receive messages but won’t send you a notification.

WhatsApp: swipe left on the chat > more > mute
Facebook Messenger: swipe left on the chat > mute
Kik: swipe left on the chat > mute

Unkind behaviour in group chats

As with any group of young people, sometimes unkind behaviour can occur. In a group chat, this can be even more painful and embarrassing for the victim, as a wider group of peers get to see it too. The host of the group also has the power to remove members from the group chat. If this is done as a malicious act, it can be very hurtful and isolating for the person removed.

Let your child know that if anything worries or upsets them online, they can always come to you or staff at school for help. It’s important to only accept invites to groups from people you are friends with in real life, and it is okay to leave the group if it is making you unhappy. Encourage them not to reply to mean messages, and save the evidence by taking a screenshot, so they can show you what has been going on.

These messaging apps are still relatively new, and we are all still learning how to use them. No matter what new site, app or game your child is using, the messages to use them safely and positively are the same: be a good online friend, and think before you post. Any other user in the group could take a screenshot, or forward a message on – once something is shared online, there’s no guarantee where it will end up.

Remember that you have to be 13 to use most social networks, including Facebook Messenger and Kik. For WhatsApp, the age restriction is 16.

These services can provide a really positive experience for children – for example, keeping in touch with family and friends who live far away, or creating a group on WhatsApp when working in a group project at school. As a parent, you can support your child with these sites by focusing on the posititive uses, showing them how to block and report and showing an interest in their online lives.

For more help and guidance, have a look at the parents’ leaflets available at the UK Safer Internet Centre.

https://www.childnet.com/resources/supporting-young-people-online/

What have we been learning about in Year R this week?.

At the beginning of the week the children had a lovely time exploring African animals and their habitats on the VR headsets. It was lovely to see the excitement on the children’s faces, especially when they saw a cheetah walking in front of them!

The children have also been learning some interesting facts about Africa and writing some of these down. They have been finding out these facts from non-fiction books, PowerPoint slides, video clips and the internet.

As part of our learning about Africa the children have been singing some African songs. The children found out that ‘jambo’ means hello in Swahili as part of one of our songs we learnt.

In Maths the children have been practising their number bonds to 5 and 10 and addition and subtraction facts.

Next week:

We will begin our week with our school trip to Beale Park. It will hopefully be an amazing experience for the children. Please ensure that your child comes into school with a packed lunch and a warm raincoat, hat and gloves as it is likely that it will rain.

In Maths the children will be exploring numbers up to 20. The children will be looking at recognition of numbers, estimation of a group of objects and using 2 ten frames to work out numbers up to 20.

The children will be starting their learning on the core text Handa’s Surprise. They will listen to the story and retell the story using different props.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Year R team

The Priory Easter Event ~ of the year!

Saturday 25th March 2023 2 ~ 4pm

Tickets £3 per child
(Priory, non-Priory & pre-sch children are welcome)
Please purchase tickets by 17th March

This includes; an Easter Egg hunt, for infants & juniors, a craft area to make &
do, Junior Bake Off (JBO!) for yrs 3 – 6
more details to follow…

Please book tickets & get more info via the PTA website:

www.priorypta.co.uk/shop

Book Sale News!

Thank you for donating books & then buying them back! The book sale last week raised a whopping £220
A NEW donation section on the PTA help within the website; the school has asked specifically if we can raise money for non-fiction books the total of which is £871.

Wishing Tree

From next week a wishing tree (a wish list of items/equipment required by the school that can be brought directly by you) & a chart to show YOU what the PTA are raising money for.

Uniform

Don’t forget all your uniform needs can be ordered at:

www.priorypta.co.uk/uniform

Dates for Your Diary

25th March – Easter Event

View/Print page as pdf

Please use the Chrome Browser if you can. After clicking this button, this print-friendly page may ask you to add the ‘Print Friendly’ extension. This is a safe extension for your browser and can be easily installed. Simply follow the on-screen instructions.