Newsletter – 24-May-24

Any updates to the Festival of Sports in June, will be uploaded to the calendar on the website, here

KS2 Performances

Years 3 and 4:  Wednesday 10th July in the afternoon.  Timings TBC.  (Dress rehearsal on Tues 9th July)

Years 5 and 6:  Tuesday 16th July in the afternoon.  Timings TBC. (Dress rehearsal on Mon 15th July)

Dear Parents and Carers

Next week is half term. We hope all of our families have an enjoyable half term break.  School will resume on Monday 3rd June. The next half term is the last half term of this academic year.  Children will continue studying the curriculum right up until the end of the summer term.  It is important that parents keep their children’s attendance as high as possible as we will be following up any low attendance. 

Coffee Afternoons – Community & Curriculum

Thank you to the parents who attended the coffee afternoons with me this week.  At the meetings, I reinforced our commitment to the school’s vision and values, then presented some information about our provision around the themes community & curriculum, and how we are looking to move these areas further forward.

Community

We have a strong community who are proud of the school.  The school is quite remote and is a single academy trust, so we need to be proactive to maintain good links with organisations and stakeholders within our community. 

We have a good ongoing link with The Oaks (CiC); we are now offering summer clubs on the Priory premises; we have increased the amount and breadth of external clubs and staff-led clubs in consultation with parents; we are offering stay & play during the summer term primarily as a community-strengthening venture; we have a curriculum which allows children to learn about community and how to be a good citizen. 

We want the school to increasingly be the hub of the community. We want to develop the curriculum so pupils can be active citizens on a local, national and global scale. 

The questions and suggestions that parents had around the school’s provision in this area were:

• Possibility of running community service days
• Developing more charity links
• Career links with organisations like local businesses and the army
• Using the website to develop more community links
• Further links with Ewhurst Park

Curriculum

Our school curriculum is based on the National Curriculum for England but has many extra knowledge and skills objectives, along with school activities and events which make up The Priory Curriculum. We are proud of our curriculum as it is progressive and builds up the knowledge, skills and attitudes as they move through the school. However, we are at a time when we would like to review the curriculum to ensure it is fun, engaging and purposeful. Also to ensure the curriculum is equipping our pupils with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need for the world as it will be in the future. 

In discussion, parents had a fair idea of what their children were learning at school, but this is something that could be developed and standardised. 

The questions and suggestions that parents had around the school’s provision in this area were:

• Potential for Forest Schools
• Value hands-on learning (across the curriculum) to bring learning to life
• Would like more modern foreign language learning (and/or more regularity with languages learning)
• Appreciated the efforts that have gone into improving and increasing the PE and sports provision
• Possibility of learning British Sign Language
• Interested in knowing if/how pupils are taught learning behaviours and how to prepare for tests
• Appreciated the amount of peripatetic music tuition, but wondered if there were opportunities for cheaper tuition or for classes to be taught instruments as a group.  

As part of our curriculum review, we will be sending out a survey regarding the school curriculum to all parents in due course. 

Parents can find more about the Priory Curriculum on the website. Additionally, on the website under the classes link, parents can view the Awe & Wonder documents which outline the main learning in each topic. 

Sports Day: 

Timings TBC.  Approximate start time at the moment, of 9.30am.
Parents should be able to take children home by 1.15pm.

Long Distance Running Races – 12th June 2pm

Thanks to all for the positivity surrounding our new look sports day – GO Team! We are also planning a new look longer distance running event as part of our extended festival of sport this year. This frees up some time at sports day and allows younger children to also be involved as part of our sports opportunities for all initiative! Details:

• Six races split by age group and gender: Year 1/2, Year 3/4, Year 5/6
• Points will be allocated to the top 3 runners from each year group in both the boys and girls races and these will be added to the house team sports day totals.
• Participation will be optional – all children will do some practises as part of their normal PE and sports day preparation and can then sign up for the long distance race event. Everyone that participates will earn a point for their house team sports day total!

This will be an open event, so if your child decides to participate why not come along and cheer them on. If the weather is nice we would love to offer some refreshments and/or ice creams at this event – if this is something you would be happy to organise or help with please do get in touch. Thanks Priory Team!

Star of Wonder Awards

YEAR R: Rae, Kit and Ava.

YEAR 1: Olivia, Olson, Olive and Skye.

YEAR 2: Ella, Theo, Oscar, Poppy and Toby.

YEAR 3: Harvey, Ben, Alex and Leonie.

YEAR 4: Primrose, Bhupinder and Tilly.

YEAR 5: Darcy and Kyra.

YEAR 6: Evie, Annabelle and Verity.

Special Mention to...

Superstar Teddy, who competed in the MF Martial Arts Southern Region Championships in Bristol.  He medalled in two categories for his age group!

Special Mention to...

Last week Beatrice (yr 6) and Matilda (yr 5) who are very keen rugby players, were lucky enough to meet Rosie Galligan and Marlie Packer (Captain) from the Red Roses (England Women’s Rugby Team) at Basingstoke Rugby Club.

Wonderful news this week... A Beautiful Priory Baby!

Our fantastic Mr Webb has become a daddy.  His gorgeous little boy was safely delivered at 16.04 on Wednesday the 21st of May weighing 7.7lbs.  Mummy, Baby Webb and Daddy are all doing well. We are sure that you will join us in wishing Mr Webb and his new family many congratulations and best wishes.

Safeguarding and Wellbeing

IN THE NATIONAL PRESS – You might have encountered discussions in recent news reports regarding online safety following the release of a report by Ofcom. This report outlines new measures aimed at technology companies, designed to prevent children and young people from accessing harmful content on social media. In this section, we’ll provide an overview of the Ofcom report and offer actionable advice for safeguarding children online, starting today. There is power in education. Be prepared to have open and honest conversations and establish with the child or young person in your care who their trusted adults are.

What is in Ofcom’s report?

Ofcom has suggested 40 measures for tech giants to implement to increase safety. These include:

• effective age verification
• safer algorithms
• content moderation
• governance and accountability
• age-appropriate support and choices for children

The new proposal aims to stop children and young people from viewing distressing content online, such as materials relating to suicide planning, self-harm, eating disorders, and dangerous stunts or challenges.

Ofcom has stated that this means:

• children will not normally be able to access pornography
• children will be protected from seeing and being recommended harmful content
• consent will be required for children to be added to group chats
• reporting harmful behaviours online will be easier

What can you do?

While the headlines can be worrying, there are actions that parents, carers, and safeguarding professionals can take to protect children and young people as the new measures take their time to come into force and the tech giants start to respond to the new measures and laws. Here are INEQE’s  top tips and further resources below:

Reporting concerns

Key actions to take if you have a concern that a child is in danger, may suffer harm and maltreatment…

MAKE A REPORT IF…

• If you fear that a child is in immediate danger CALL 999 and report the concern
• IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS AND YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO – report your concerns to the DSL and team at school

Alternative options – as a member of the public you can report a concern to Hampshire’s Child Protection Services directly – information about the services is available here – this site provides useful information and learning about a range of abuse as well as what will happen when concerns are reported –

https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/safeguardingchildren/childprotection

If you are a member of the public and wish to report any welfare/safeguarding concerns DIRECTLY TO CHILDREN’S SERVICES:- you can complete Hampshire’s online form here: online enquiry form

You can report a concern over the telephone and via email –

Phone 0300 555 1384   
Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm
Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm

Email childrens.services@hants.gov.uk     Please note: Emails are dealt with during normal office hours Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. At other times phone our out of hours number.      

Out of hours – Out of hours contact telephone number for Children’s Services Phone 0300 555 1373 

REMEMBER – SAFEGUARDING IS  EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY

Summer Clubs

Please note that there will be two new summer camps running at The Priory this summer and The Oaks will continue to run their summer club at Mortimer St Mary’s.

• 22nd – 26th July:  Summer Camp with Mrs Enticknap

  (a Priory parent and qualified teacher) . Please click here for full details and then click here for the booking form and email to zoe@hillyardmail.com

• 29th July – 16th August: Curveball Summer Camp with Coach Zack

  Please click here for more information and click here to book

• 5th – 23rd August:  The Oaks at Mortimer St. Mary’s

  Please click here for details or email office@theoakschildcare.co.uk for more details.