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Newsletter 10th March 2023
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope your children enjoyed International Book Day last Friday. It was a huge success, particularly in relation to Bounce For Books, which has raised so much money for new cross curricular texts and books for the school library. We are so grateful to all the families who have sponsored children as part of the initiative. Also, last Friday, we welcomed Sarah Olney, Richmond Park MP, into Alexandra. She met with the Rights Knights and had a tour of the school with children and was so impressed with everything that she saw at the school. She emphasised how engaged the children were in their learning and how articulate the Rights Knights were in demonstrating the school values and the importance of education for all.
This week we delivered the next Parent Council workshop on Adaptive Teaching, specifically focused on higher attaining pupils. We had strong attendance at the session and parents emphasised how valuable it was to watch videos of the school teachers at Alexandra showcasing strategies to support quality first teaching. The Parent Council is such an important forum in providing feedback to school leaders on parents’ experiences within the school. We use the annual parent survey to identify key areas, which parents would like further information on and we then prioritise the council meetings to address questions that parents have. The slides from the session can be accessed here and Jemma Best, Chair of the Council, has provided a summary of the session.
Also, this week, we had our termly visit from our school improvement partner, Rosemary Hafeez, Associate Director for School Standards in Kingston. Rosemary observed Year 6 maths lessons, assessed standards of behaviour for learning, met with curriculum leads and evaluated school performance targets and data. She highlighted the impressive structures in place for teaching and learning in all key stages and the impact that this was having on the academic progress of the children. Her report will be shared with the governing body before the end of term.
Next week we are looking forward to celebrating Red Nose Day on Friday 17th March. Children are invited to wear mufti clothes and bring in a charitable donation. We are grateful for parents’ support of the event.
Wishing a very happy Holi fpr members of our community who celebrated earlier this week,
Robert Waiting
Join the library and get FREE access to audiobooks!
Did you know that if you join the library, you can also access ebooks, audiobooks, newspapers and magazines for free? It is free to join the library, and we are lucky to have 2 libraries in Kingston (Tudor Drive and Fairfield Road). Audiobooks are great for reluctant readers or children with English as an additional language.
Parent Teacher meetings - save the dateWe will be holding parent teacher meetings on the following dates. More details and booking instructions will be sent early next week.
- Wednesday 22nd March - in person
- Thursday 23rd March - online
Year 5 and 6 Netball Competition
Last week, these 8 fantastic children represented Alexandra at our first Netball competition since before the pandemic!
With only one 40 minute training session together before this competition, we were expecting a challenge, but Alexandra took it in their stride and made themselves and everyone proud.
At the end of the competition, the lovely lady who organises all sports competitions across Kingston told me that she wished more schools were like Alexandra and that we had such a wonderful attitude to everything.
Making an impression like that to other people is so special and incredible and you should all be very proud of yourselves!
Year 3 and 4 Panathlon Curling Competition
This Tuesday our brilliant year 3’s and 4’s came all the way to Chessington Sports Centre to take part in the Panathlon Curling competition.
With no practice before, our children picked up the skills so quickly, showing the adults how its done (the children beat the adults in the friendly). Special mention to Poppy and Noah, our sudden death champions who both secured a win for Alexandra with their precise shots during a sudden death against other schools.
Out of 16 schools Alexandra managed to secure 4th place which is absolutely amazing for our first ever curling competition!
We can’t wait until our curling equipment arrives and we can practice for next year's competition!
British Science Week
Next week is British Science Week and the theme this year is 'connections'. Alexandra has already made an amazing start, using our our 'connections' within our school community as we have some amazing volunteers who have offered to share their expertise with the children. Thank you so much! We hope to inspire the children to have fun with science and explore the possibilities that science offers. We will be thinking about connections through themed experiments throughout the week from nursery to year 6. We'll be watching short videos about different careers in science and looking at connections in science through 'odd one out' activities. If you would like to find out more about British Science Week, please check out the website.
PSA Bounce for Books
All children have now done their bouncing. Please make any outstanding sponsorship donations on Parentpay now, and fill on the giftaid form if you can.
Red Nose Day
On Friday 17th March, children are invited to come to school in mufti in exchange for a small donation to Comic Relief.
SEND Coffee morning
KS1
KS2
Reminder: Afterschool club on a Friday is open until 6pm
Communications with School
Please use the following methods to communicate with school:
Absence/illness: via Parentmail or telephone call
Emails to teachers/other staff: alexandrasch@axi.rbksch.org (please do not use office@ or alexoffice@)
IMPORTANT: Absence due to illness
This is a reminder that if your child has sickness (vomiting) or diarrhoea, you must keep them at home for 48 hours after their last episode. This is to minimise any transmission of sickness to other children.
For example, if your child is sick on Monday evening, they must not come back to school until Thursday.
PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE INFORMED THE SCHOOL OFFICE OF ANY MEDICATIONS YOUR CHILD TAKES, EVEN IF THEY DO NOT REQUIRE THIS MEDICINE IN SCHOOL.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT PARENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THEIR CHILD’S MEDICATION IS IN DATE AND RENEWED WHEN EXPIRED.
Wishlists
Each class has an Amazon wishlist of additional resources/books that would enhance the children's learning. If you would like to buy something for your class, please see the links to the lists below. It is important to emphasise that this is entirely an optional donation and parents should not feel obliged to provide anything.
Items can be purchased directly (please put your name and the class name in the message box so the teacher knows who to thank) or, if you would like to provide any of the items from alternative sources, please do email alexandrasch@axi.rbksch.org and we will remove from the list.
Safeguarding concern?
If you have a concern about the welfare of a child please speak to a member of the designated safeguarding team at Alexandra Primary School (Robert Waiting, Polly Jones, Rose Peacock and Melanie Meek). If you think a child is in immediate danger you should call 999. You can also email our new email address safeguarding@axi.rbksch.org which goes directly to the safeguarding team.
School calendar
All school events are now found on our school calendar. You can also subscribe to this calendar to your phone (via Outlook, Google or iPhone) to be kept up to date of all events.
Website links
The year groups blogs are available on the website via the links below. The year group blogs for Key Stage 2 can also be found on Google Classroom.
Printer cartridge recycling
As part of our pledge to become more environmentally friendly, we have registered as a cartridge recycling collection point. There is a box in the entrance that you can put your empty printer cartridges in. And even better, we will also be raising money for the PSA for every eligible printer cartridge recycled!
Community news
On Sunday 23 April, Hampton School is hosting its 23rd annual Music Workshop for local Junior School pupils in Year Three and above.
On the day, we will be running a series of workshops for string, wind and brass players. In addition to this, we will be running a choir session for singers.
The Workshop will start at 10.00am (registration from 9.30am). We will break for lunch and activities at 12.30pm. At 2.30pm there will be an informal concert in the Hammond Theatre presenting all the music prepared during the workshops. Parents will be very welcome to attend this concert. The course, including lunch and refreshments, is free of charge.
This form should be completed by Monday 20 March.
Click here for a flavour of this event.
