Headteacher’s Round-up

And there it is – the end of another school year!

It has been an enjoyable first year at The Priory for me. I feel privileged to be working with such a good community in such a lovely area. Working with Primary children can be tiring but also has many magical and funny moments which are encapsulated by this statement I found written on a random whiteboard after break one day.

Thank you to all of the parents for your support this year, and for making sure your children have been getting to school every day. Our school attendance was 95.3% which was higher than the national average of 93.7%.

We’re excited that it’s the summer holidays but already also excited about the next school year!

We wish all of our Priory families a happy and safe Summer holiday. There will not be anybody regularly in the school office over the holiday, but if you need to contact the school, please email the school office email ( Office@priory.hants.sch.uk) which we will check periodically.

Swimming lessons/singing during school time

This year we have had a number of younger pupils being taken out before the end of the school day for private lessons, mostly swimming. Whilst we try to accommodate these requests where possible, it has been disruptive so please could parents make alternative arrangements with the swimming lessons before the next academic year so that all pupils can stay for the whole school day every day.

Persistent absence

Our attendance is generally good for most pupils but we still have some pupils with persistent absence. This is classified as absence under 90%. This absence was highlighted on the attendance percentage on the recent report in pink. The correlation between poor attendance and poor achievement is well-researched, so this is why we are so keen for all pupils to be in as much as possible.

INSET dates for next year

Please note that 1st September is an INSET day. The first school day of the 2023-24 school year is Monday 4th September.

Class equipment list for Y2- Y6

As in previous years, at the start of next academic year we will ask all of our pupils from Year 2 to Year 6 to come to school with a pencil case filled stationery that will help them with their learning:

• 2 pencils
• A pencil sharpener
• A rubber
• A small ruler
• A glue stick
• Preferable: A whiteboard pen
• Preferable: a set of coloured pencils
• Preferable: highlighters

Infant backpacks

A lot of the Year R to Year 2 pupils have been bringing increasingly large backpacks to school but it is difficult to fit these into the cloakroom, so they clutter up the cloakrooms and cause trip hazards.

Please can Year R to Year 2 children bring a book bag and a drawstring bag to school. We store the book bags in special boxes which are checked daily. The drawstring bags are much easier to hang on pegs.

If you need to buy a book bag, you can buy a school logo one on the PTA website, or buy a non-logo royal blue book bag from an alternative retailer. Either way, please ensure the book bag and drawstring bag is labelled clearly with your child’s name. Thank you for your understanding.

Pupil reflections

At the start of the week, I asked the children to consider 3 questions about their school year and here are some of the replies:

1. What has been your best thing about this year?

School lunches

We have recently been reviewing our school meal provision. At present our catering team, led by Mrs Clitheroe, cooks meals for over 100 Priory pupils every day (today was 150!). We use a majority of fresh, local produce, the menu items are mostly cooked from scratch on site, and the meals are healthy and tasty (enjoyed by pupils and staff alike!). Indeed, at yesterday’s Y6 leavers’ assembly, a number of children lamented that one thing they will miss about The Priory was Mrs Clitheroe’s cooking (especially pudding on Wednesday!).

From September, the cost of school meals will increase to £3 per meal in line with Hampshire County Council meal prices.  We have resisted increasing the cost of meals for as long as possible, but the increasing cost of food and fuel has made this necessary to ensure value for money.

Please note that this increase will not affect the free school meals which are provided to all pupils in Years R, 1 and 2.

We will also aim to improve our food ordering system by enabling all parents to book meals in advance online through the Arbor app. Mrs Clitheroe is also working on an updated menu for next school year. Further details will follow on this.

School lunch accounts

Please could we ask that parents pay any remaining balance on their child(ren)’s school meals Arbor account by the end of Friday 21st July. Thank you

Reading Challenge

At assembly the children were told about the annual Summer reading challenge that is happening at Tadley Library. The theme of this year’s challenge is Ready, Set, Read!

The children need to read 6 books to get a certificate and a medal and enter a prize draw. We hope that many of our Priory Pupils will take part to keep their reading going over the long Summer holiday.

We are promoting the challenge through Tadley library , but you can enter the challenge through any Hampshire library – just don’t forget to mention that you are a Priory pupil!

Friendship values

Ella and Primrose from Year 1 spent some of their free time this week working on a friendship poster showing how our school values are linked with friendship. They did so well that I promised to include their poster in the newsletter.

House Points…

Well done Falcon, you are the house winners for this school year!

We cannot believe it is the end of the school year. It has certainly flown by. The children have all had a great first year at The Priory and we are all super proud of their achievements. We would like to thank you all for your continued support this year. If you would like to further support your child during the summer holidays a few suggestions would be to continue with their Reading (there is a selection of books available on the e-library), practise forming letters and numbers correctly, writing sentences about what they do during the summer holidays and practising addition and subtraction with numbers up to 20.

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded their child’s Tapestry journal so far. If you haven’t yet done this and would like to please could you download it by Monday 24th July as we will be deleting accounts so that we can set up the new ones ready for the new Year R’s in September.

We would like to say a huge Thank You for all of the fantastic end of year gifts that you have given us. They are all greatly appreciated.

We wish all of the Year R’s Good Luck in Year 1 and we wish you all a happy and safe Summer. We will certainly miss you all next year.

Have a lovely Summer.

The Year R team

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