News Blog

Dear Families

What a start to the week! On Monday, we welcomed our 58 new reception children. They have settled in amazingly and we are incredibly proud of them. The parents were given a little gift as we know Monday was an important day for them aswell. We look forward to watching all 58 of them flourish in our East Hunsbury family.

Also on Monday, Paul Sturgess came into school and led a really motivating and exciting assembly. Paul is 7ft 7.26inches tall with size 18 shoes! He has to have his cars, beds and bathtubs specially adapted!

Paul taught us how he uses his difference as his superpower to fuel his success. Watching the children so inspired by him was fantastic and he showed them how he has embraced our values of: Work Hard. Be Kind and Believe. After the assembly, children from Years 1-6 took part in their own basketball workshop.It was a brilliant start to the week.

Houses – Our Communities within a Community

On Wednesday, we launched our new House system which has been over a year in the making. For us, the purpose of the Houses is to unite our school and allow the children to experience being a community within a community. It will facilitate children from all year groups across the mainstream and SU to mix and get to know each other.

The houses are:

• Whittlewood
• Salcey
• Everdon
• Harlestone They are named after woodlands in Northamptonshire. We chose woodlands to represent growing stronger together – have you visited any of them? Our houses will become an integral part of our school life and our current Heads of Houses are:

• Rachael Stryjek (Salcey)
• Rachael Linnell and Sarah Halsall (Everdon)
• Lisa Kelly (Whittlewood)
• Erin New (Harlestone)

and Mrs Fenton is over seeing it all.

Although we are starting small to begin with, we have big plans over the next year so watch this space for house events, an award system linked to our values, Year 6 Heads of Houses being appointed through an application and interview process and so much more (Hogwarts has nothing on East Hunsbury Primary School). We have it all planned and ready to go!

In fact, every member of staff has been placed in a house and we all feel very excited to plan our events and work as a team. Which house do you think will win the House shield for the first ever time? You will receive a letter on Monday with more information and… badges will follow soon!

Personal Development Education teams

You may have read this article which explains how we have launched our 5 Education Teams based on the personal development of our children and their school community. They are run by experienced teachers and are focussed on:

1. Economics and Enterprise – this team will teach the children about financial planning, money and entrepreneurial skills.
2. Health and Wellbeing – this team will focus on teaching and supporting the children’s physical and mental health. They will learn about healthy choices and the impact on these for their future.
3. Our World – this team is focussed on developing the children’s understanding of their role and place in the world. It explores the communities in which they live, provides opportunities to take part in local events whilst also looking at the role that they play as global citizens.
4. Enrichment and Critical Thinking – this team looks at providing the children with world class enrichment opportunities and experiences to truly develop critical thinking. 
5. Careers and Aspirations – we want every child to believe in themselves and to know the choices and opportunities they have for their future

I look forward, over the next few weeks and months, sharing the exciting enrichment opportunities that these teams will provide your children from: careers fairs/exhibitions to community events, a school shop and talks from banks and continuing our enterprise initiatives.

Have you seen our new Brilliance Board? The board is designed for children to look at their brilliant reflections and be proud of everything they are and will be. They are surrounded by inspirational quotes from books (many of which are from our 100 reads – a selection of books chosen carefully by our teachers - see page 13 for our 100 Reads poster which was created by Mrs Atkinson).

The board is part of our brilliance ethos – did you ask your child last week what they learnt? Did they reply: ‘I’m brilliant?’ – I hope they did, because they are!

In fact, you will now find lots of new signage around our school, all of which has been carefully designed to link with our curriculum, community and school values as we believe your child’s learning environment is very important and shows them that we care about where they learn and spend their school days.

Homework

This week homework has started – please support your child with completing homework by finding them a quiet place to work and a regular timeslot to do it. If your child needs any extra help then please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher.

Happy news! Our EHPS family is growing

Finally, it with great pleasure that I can inform you that our wonderful Mrs Atkinson is expecting a baby boy in January. Mrs Atkinson will continue to teach with us until December!

This is going to be a brilliant year!

Have a lovely weekend.

Kathryn Pennington
Headteacher