Alexandra Primary School

For key dates for the whole school year, please click here to see the updated calendar.

Newsletter 2nd February 2024

Message from the Headteacher

Dear Families,

This week our Rights Knights shared their campaign in assembly focused on reducing single use plastic in school with the ambition to become an accredited 'Plastic Free School.' The initiative is led by Surfers Against Sewage, which aims to equip young people with the tools to understand the problems of single-use plastic, speak to politicians and eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic from schools for good. Children at Alexandra have been designing posters and our Rights Knights will be speaking at the Eco Conference next Tuesday on the work they are completing. Parents can find out more here: https://plasticfreeschools.org.uk/

Next week we will be participating in Children's Mental Health Week. Our team captains will facilitate activities in whole school and phase assemblies on supporting children's positive mental health. As part of the week we are also running a parent workshop at 9.15am on Tuesday 6th February led by our school mental health community champions. The session will focus on supporting children with emotional regulation and is open for all parents to attend. 

Finally, the children will be participating in computing workshops next week as part of National Safer Internet Day. Some of our pupils will be taking part in live lessons focused on addressing cyberbulling, social networking and managing digital identiy. We are really pleased to be working with Tech She Can as part of the initiative to enhance children's understanding of cyber security. We look forward to updating parents next week.

Enjoy the weekend and, for those families celebrating the Lunar New Year, we hope you have a wonderful week.

Robert Waiting

Head Teacher 

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Pokemon cards

Please remind your children that they should not bring Pokemon cards (or any other precious things) to school as these could get lost or damaged, and cause upset to your child.

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Collection of unwanted suitcases, travel bags and rucksacks

Next Friday (9th February), we are inviting you to bring in any unwanted suitcases, travel bags and rucksacks suitable for adults, teenagers and children.  Please only bring these in on Friday as we do not have space to store them.

These will be collected by Refugee Action Kingston:

We are asking your school community for help to source school rucksacks and travel bags.

For a young person arriving in Kingston, starting school is exciting and scary. We want our young people to start school feeling confident with all the right kit.  If you have a rucksack at home in good working order please donate it to Refugee Action Kingston and we will give it a new home.

Our families are often sharing one room with very little storage and could be moved at any time.  We urgently need travel bags and suitcases.  If you have a spare suitcase in good working order then please donate,  it is our most requested item and makes such a huge difference for our families.

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Congratulations to Minkail and Aisha who both received gold medals at the British Judo Association Area competition

 

 

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 Year 3 

This week, Year 3 children were making observations about how light reflects, including writing 'mirror messages' and walking a chalk line 'mirror maze'.  

 

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Please come to the school office at 9.15am on Tuesday 6th February

MHST Wellbeing Drop In Sessions

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) as part of Achieving for Children, supports your school to promote the emotional wellbeing of children. To support children effectively, we recognise the crucial role you play and without your active involvement we could not achieve the outcome we aspire for your children.

Sarah Burrell, Camhs Practitioner & Trainee Family Practitioner, will offer a series of drop in mornings for parents and carers at Alexandra Primary School. This will be a chance to talk about any family or school concerns that may be impacting the emotional mental wellbeing of your child.

The drop in sessions will take place on Friday mornings from 9.30 - 10.00am. To express your interest in attending one of these please complete this short form, or contact Mrs Jones, Assistant Head Teacher.

The drop in sessions will be available from 26th January until 29th March 2024.

Contact details
Please ensure you inform the school if you move house, or change your phone number or email address.

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Lost bike

This balance bike has been in the reception area since the beginning of the academic year.  If it is yours, please come to the office.

 

 

Absence reporting

When you are reporting your child's absence on parentmail, please give details of the illness (headache, cold, fever, chickenpox etc). We need to report any spreadable illnesses to the Local Authority. Thank you.

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Headlice

There are currently a number of cases of headlice across the school.  Please check your children's hair.  There is advice on how to get rid of headlice from the NHS here.

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• Alexandra Primary School Education Fund

  Our voluntary education fund helps provide a rich and varied curriculum for the children.

  We would like to stress that the donations we are asking for are voluntary; there is no obligation to contribute to the Fund but any amount, however small, is very welcome and will make a difference. 

  For more details about how to donate, please click here.

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Miss Peacock's Maths Challenge

Each week we will have a new maths challenge for each keystage. Bring your answers to Miss Peacock for a special sticker. If you want to continue with your maths learning, then please play Hit The Button

 

Achieving for Children Wraparound Care Survey

AfC are reviewing their planning for September 2024 in relation to wraparound care requirements  (8am-6pm). If you would like to give your views, please fill in this short survey.

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. 

KS1 library  Nursery   Caterpillars   Woodpeckers   Dragonflies    Sparrowhawks 

KS2 library   Hoglets   Ladybirds   Foxes   Bats  Skylarks   PE   Owlets   Swans   Hedgehogs  Kestrels Swallows   Specialist Resource Provision   Afterschool Club

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 admin@alexandra.school and we will remove it 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, Lorraine Figueiredo and Annabel Uwai). If you think a child is in immediate danger you should call 999. You can also email safeguarding@alexandra.school 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.

• Nursery

  Reception

   Year 1

   Year 2

• Year 3

  Year 4

   Year 5

   Year 6

   Beehive

• Golden and Ambassador Assembly

  Parent Workshops

 

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!

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Community news   

Family Concert at the Rose Theatre on Sunday 24th March

Oompah Brass will entertain their audience with high-octane renditions of well-known rock and pop favourites, as well as introducing the intricacies of each instrument to the children, each member of the group showing off their instrument and its characteristics. The perfect way to start the day! 

Oompah Brass are one of the busiest brass quintets in the UK, performing over 100 shows a year, in everything from school classes to Oktoberfest audiences of over 6000 people. They are the original exponents of 'Oompop', the clever re-working of rock and pop classics onto brass instruments and continue to lead the way. Oompah Brass are very keen and active educators, and run many school workshops every year, introducing the next generation to the joys of making music on brass.