This week at Gainsborough…
Welcome to Spring 2!
We hope everyone enjoyed February half term. This half term we are focusing on the following aspects of school life:
WOW theme – Keep Connected: How do festivals and traditions help us to feel we belong? We will look at Shrove Tuesday, World Book Day, St Patrick’s Day, Ramadan and Easter and how we keep connected in our very special and diverse community.
British Value- Tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions
RRS Article 14 Every child has the right to choose their own religion & beliefs
School Council – designing a playground for everyone to play in
Behaviour – how can we use sensory circuits to regulate our emotions
Wellbeing – achieving silver Rights Respecting Schools status
Community Focus – reading workshops, book sale and phonics sessions for families
Teaching and Learning focus – strategies to support SEND children
Year 3 Soanes Centre Trip
Year 3 visited the Soanes centre to consolidate their learning in their science topic, rocks and soils. https://www.soanescentre.org/primary-school-science
Year 5 Forest School
We are very excited to be able to offer Forest School sessions to older classes in the school. Years 2 and 5 will visit our Wick Woodland Forest school weekly throughout Spring 2. The Forest School Association outlines Forest School as:
The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take risks. Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world and an understanding of how a learner fits within it. Our approach to risk means that learners constantly expand on their abilities by solving real-world issues, building self-belief and resilience. We believe that risk is more than just potential for physical harm, but a more holistic thing, there are risks in everything we do, and we grow by overcoming them. Forest School therefore, helps participants to become, healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners.
There is lots of research out there to support the outcomes of Forest School, but we know that it isn’t just the educational outcomes and research that matter, our learners and leaders love it too!
For more information on what a Forest School session is, ad it’s benefits, please see the Forest Schools Association website. https://forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/
Special Recognition Award
This week we were contacted by Reading Plus, the online reading system we use in Years 3 4 5 and 6. They reached out to the school to share the incredible success of one of our pupils this term, read all about it below!
Aston Pham (Year 7) has read through 141 texts to date, making 4.9 years of reading progress. His reading rate has also jumped by 175 words, from 138 to 313 words per minute, far exceeding his age-expectancy for fluency.
I mainly wanted to draw your attention to Aston’s Silent Reading Fluency progress. In this chart, we can see that his reading rate target is 195 words per minute, and he is already reading comprehensively at 313 wpm while using the guided window. However, the most important line to track here is his independent reading rate. We can see that his independent reading rate was initially quite inconsistent, but it has become much steadier as he has passed his reading rate target without scaffolding from the guided window.
Well done Aston, we are very proud of your achievement. Keep going!
Reader of the Week
Each week we will award one child from Years 1-6 with a new book, as the Reader of the Week. The award is for commitment, reading progress, engagement or sharing their love for reading. Please support your child with reading at home! After all, reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Year 1 Ismail
Year 2 Fatima
Year 3 Zivah
Year 4 Jacinta
Year 5 Jay
Year 6 Nanette
Most Improved Writer of the Week
Each week we will award one child from Years 1-6 as most improved writer of the week. The award is for those who have shown a significant improvement in handwriting or writing throughout the week.
Year 1 Nellayna
Year 2 Tate
Year 3 Talisa
Year 4 Riley
Year 5 Mia
Year 6 Martin-Anthony
GOLDS!
Each week we celebrate an amazing achievement from each class. Children are celebrated in assembly, receive a gold certificate and their name in the newsletter. Please celebrate their learning at home too!
Nursery Ducks
Khobie was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for always tryig his best and working at the maths table independently. Well done Khobie!
Nursery Geese
Zi’Ciaine was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for joining in and contributing to all of our carpet times. Well done Zi’Ciaine!
Nursery Swans
Ozzy was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for sharing his ideas with his friends and being a great role model. Well done Ozzy!
Reception Doves
Annabelle was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for settling in brilliantly and being an excellent role model in reception. Well done Annabelle!
Year 1 Wrens
Yusuf was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for working really hard in writing independently and coming up with some incredible ideas. Well done Yusuf!
Year 2- Owls
Ahad was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for his effort and enthusiasm across all lessons. Well done Ahad!
Year 3 – Hummingbirds
John was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for showing great manners and being an excellent role model on our school trip. Well done John!
Year 4- Herons
Bobby was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for creative ideas in writing and his hard work simplifying freactions. Well done Bobby!
Year 5 – Skylarks
Yusuf was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for making an excellent contribution to all areas of learning. Well done Yusuf!
Year 6 – Magpies
Aston was awarded a Gainsborough Gold Award this week for making incredible progress in reading using Reading Plus. Well done Aston!
Coming up at Gainsborough…
Improving Attendance at Gainsborough
This week you will receive an attendance certificate outlining your child’s attendance. If your child has reached the government target of 96% you will receive a celebration certificate. If your child’s attendance is under 90% we will be inviting you in to school, to set an action plan and target, to improve your child’s attendance. We must improve attendance at Gainsborough and working together to do this is imperative. Together we can make your child’s experience at school happier and more successful with good attendance. We look forward on working on this with you.
World Book Day and School Council Book Sale
Our school council have been encouraging us to read for pleasure. They will hold a book sale, after World Book Day, on Friday 7th March at 3.30 and 5pm. Children are invited to dress up for World Book Day in a costume relating to a book. Children can create and make their costume and are invited to bring a book to share with others on World Book day.
Kench Hill Parent Meeting
Year 6 will make their annual visit to Kench Hill during the last week of the summer term, 14th-18th July. A parent meeting is arranged for Wednesday 5th March, 3.30-4pm, for parents to find out further information and ask questions. We hope to see all year 6 parents there.
