QUEENSWAY www.queensway.oxon.sch.uk Termly Newsletter, Issue 94: May 2018 Head Teacher’s News in Brief

We are busy preparing for our shuffle up

day and we will be creating new class lists

soon. Classes can change considerably

through the year; with new children

arriving, Special Educational Needs being

identified, groups of children excelling or

struggling and class dynamics shifting. So

we re-examine the class splits so that

there are similar numbers of children on

the Special Educational Needs register,

Gifted and Talented, English as an

Additional Language etc. in each class. We

also consider friendships and who learns

well with others and equally who learns

better away from certain children. We will

inform all parents and children who their

new teachers are towards the end of next

term 6 in preparation for ‘shuffle up’ day.

Wendy Newman, our Cleaner in Charge is

leaving at the end of this academic year

after 17 years’ service with us. She is

looking forward to spending more time with

her grandchildren. We will be recruiting her

replacement after half term. We thank her

for all her hard work and commitment to

getting up early to start work at 6am for all

those years.

A massive thank you to all the parents that

have embraced our new cashless system-

ParentPay. The amount of money we are

having to handle has decreased

significantly and we are hoping that this will

continue as the final few parents sign up to

using the new system. Breakfast club,

After School club, trips and dinner money

can all be paid through this system. Please

speak to the office staff if you need any

support with this.

We are already taking bookings for After

School club from September onwards. If

you require childcare from 3pm, please

speak to the office staff or email

childcare@queensway.oxon.sch.uk.

This provision has grown in numbers, so

book early to ensure we can accommodate

your request. For those parents who

already have contracts, these will roll over

to September unless you notify us of any

changes.

If your child is in Year 6 then they are

allowed to walk to and from school for

Term 6 in preparation for starting

secondary school. Please collect a

contract from the school office if you are

giving consent. Year 6 children cannot be

responsible for younger siblings.

Just to reiterate the messages that many

teachers were giving parents at Parent’s

Evening- please ensure your child still has

opportunities to read aloud to you, even in

Years 5 and 6 as fluency and pace can be

tricky for many children. Ensuring that

children can read with expression and

understand the punctuation in the text, is a

crucial reading skill.

We trialled inviting parents of children who were due to win awards to our trophy assembly this term. It was a very special occasion and the children were genuinely surprised to see their parents there. Our next trophy assembly will be in July so if you are contacted from the school office inviting you, please keep it top secret from your child!

You may recall that from the last newsletter that we were continuing our work on SCIB: Safeguarding Children In Banbury and outlined that the project is focusing on 3 areas this year:

1. Drugs and substance misuse

2. Cyber bullying

3. Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

We are now moving onto Child Sexual

Exploitation this term. The work sits alongside

our existing PSHE curriculum. All these

lessons will be differentiated and taught age

appropriately throughout our school to help

raise awareness of these issues.

For further information or questions do not

hesitate to speak your child’s class teacher.

Class News Foundation Stage We have had a great Term 5 with all the children working hard. They really enjoyed our work on trains and especially enjoyed our trip to Buckingham Railway Centre. They loved going on the miniature railway and their ride on the steam train. They have also loved finding out about plants and enjoyed growing cress, planting their sunflowers and looking at how a bean grows. We are now looking forward to our shared lessons where we will be exploring outside and having a bonfire.

Year 1 (Mrs Bibi) Earlier in the term we went to a Multi-skills

Festival at Banbury Academy. We got to try

out lots of different activities and took part

alongside other Year 1 children from other

Banbury schools. The children enjoyed it but

were very tired walking back!

In science, we have been learning about

plants. We have planted our own plants and

have seen them grow over a period of time.

Also, the children found out what plants need

to grow and now are experts at telling you the

things plants need. In English we have been

finding out about the difference between fiction

and non-fiction texts. We based our non-fiction

writing on plants.

The children have really enjoyed learning all

about the 7 continents and have created some

lovely art work. They have really demonstrated

their knowledge and enthusiasm towards the

topic.

I look forward seeing everyone for our class

assembly on Friday the 8th of June 2018.

Year 1 (Miss Brown/Mrs Thorpe) The children in Class 1MBR have been very busy in their learning this term. In English they have been exploring non-fiction (information)

texts, including looking at a range of books to find features such as headings, diagrams, captions and glossaries. The children have also written their own non-fiction texts about tigers and plants (which links to their science work) and have worked hard on using correct punctuation and interesting word choices. Tigers are carnivores. They are very dangerous and they creep over and kill other animals. (Afia) Scary tigers are a type of big cat. They live in sunny India. (Ava-Mai) A plant needs soothing, blue water and shiny, warm sunlight. (Bruce) The beautiful leaves and the colourful petals decorate the perfect stem. (Olivia) Our Maths work has comprised of lots of investigations to solve problems involving multiplication, division and capacity / volume. We had a hands-on, very practical shared lesson, where the children and their family members explored water, sand and soil as part of a carousel of activities. There was lots of learning, but also lots of fun too! Well done everyone for all of your hard work - keep this going for Term 6!

Year 2 (Miss Ross) We’ve had another busy term in Year 2. The

children have been learning all about the

weather and how the climate is different

around the world. We created our own weather

broadcasts and presented these to the rest of

the class. There were some very imaginative

news stories and lots of strange weather

occurring. We have also been learning all

about the weather and climate of different

places around the world. The children have

used the IPads to research weather in Kenya,

the UK and the Arctic.

In Geography, we have travelled around the

world and written postcards from different

climate zones to tell the other children what

the weather is like and what they should pack

with them. We have also had great fun

learning about extreme types of weather and

created our own posters about hurricanes,

blizzards, tornadoes and thunderstorms.

In Science this term we have been learning all

about animals and their habitats. The children

thoroughly enjoyed their shared lesson

investigating how different animals are

adapted to live in their environments. They

have also enjoyed exploring the school

grounds to find different microhabitats and

have written some brilliant poems about the

mini - beasts they found.

I am very proud of how hard the children have

worked this term and the focus they have

shown in lessons. I can’t wait to see what

adventures next term brings. Enjoy your half

term Year 2!

Year 2 (Mrs Newman) This term the children have been learning all about animals from around the world, they have used the internet to find out where different animals come from and used their reading time to find out facts about them. In Geography they have learned all about weather around the world and have even written and performed their own weather forecasts. The children also learnt about the sculptor Michelle Reader who makes animals sculptures, they then made their own animal sculptures in a similar style to hers using a range of recycled materials. The children have worked really hard this term and many of them have continued their learning at home, your support and encouragement with this has been much appreciated. Thank you for coming to our shared lessons, class assemblies and other whole school events; the children love sharing their learning with you. Have an enjoyable and relaxing break. Mrs Newman Year 3 (Mrs Scales)

We have had such a busy term in Year 3! We

started looking at the changing power in the

monarchy and focusing on Henry VIII. The

children loved learning about the wives that

Henry had and have learned a rhyme to help

us remember what happened to them:

Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced,

Beheaded, Survived!

The work that we have started on Badminton

in PE has been a firm favourite! We learnt the

'handshake' grip for holding the racket

correctly, and have been using this to improve

our accuracy in serving and receiving the

shuttlecocks. Active maths is something that

they children have loved as well this term and

the PE element has made Maths even more

fun!

Year 3 (Mrs Thomas) A huge well done to all of our class this term- you have made the adults feel really proud of all of your hard work.

Firstly, thank you to all of the parents who were able to come in to class for either one or both of our shared lessons- art and Bhangra dancing. You all got fully involved and I am sure that you will agree that your children's talents in both sessions were amazing!

We have learned a lot about the monarchs throughout the Tudor times and were lucky that the Royals conveniently had a wedding during this term! We have written some fantastic adventure/ mystery stories based on Peter Pan where children have transported us to other worlds and participated with great passion in our weekly active maths sessions. It has been lovely to have such lovely weather to help us become fully active.

We look forward to our last class assembly next term and a visit to People's Park for the Banbury in Bloom competition in June.

Have a lovely week off!

Year 4 (Miss Hoffman’s Class) Year 4 have had a fantastic term and have continued to work hard! They had an excellent time at Hill End, with their Viking and Anglo Saxon day. The children got to experience a wide range of activities, including archery, bread making and learning new battle tactics.

At the moment, the children are working really hard, exploring the Ancient Egyptians, and have been incredibly creative! They have enjoyed looking at the story ‘Pepi and the Secret Names’, creating some fantastic character descriptions. The children have also spent time developing their computing skills, looking at creating a persuasive brochure, promoting Egypt as a holiday destination. They have looked closely at adding in backgrounds, copying and pasting images from the Internet, using different styles of font, and ensuring the brochure is bold and eye catching. We are currently designing and making our own Egyptian sculptures in small groups, using junk modelling. The children have had to think hard about how they will make their sculptures look like the real thing and have had to choose the material carefully. After we have made them out of paper mache, we will be painting them. Finally, we would like to say a massive well done to the whole class, who worked incredibly hard to create their final, Egyptian inspired, class assembly. Thank you to all those who could come along and share it with the children, we know how much they enjoyed

putting the assembly together and preforming it to everyone. We would like to wish you all an enjoyable and fun filled break! Year 4 (Mrs Lawrences’ Class) We had a very exciting start to the term when the children got to experience the Viking and Anglo Saxon day at Hill End. All the children got to experience what it would have been like to live during this era. It really was a fantastic day.

We then moved onto our new history topic all about Ancient Egyptian times. The children have really embraced this topic and are busy making some replica Ancient Egyptian artefacts. During our computing lessons they have started making brochure all about Egypt. In science and English we have moved onto teeth and the digestive system. The children have been learning all about what happens to food inside our bodies. They have then been creating information leaflets to share with others. We had a fantastic maths and outdoor learning day where the children got to do their maths lessons outside and apply all the skills they have learnt to an outdoor curriculum. We have also been revising time and looking at converting between digital and analogue time. We are really excited about next term when the children will be swimming. Look out for the letter!

Year 5 (Ms Carnevale and Mrs Bytyci) The highlight for Year 5 this term with an amazing visit to the Space Centre. We had an early start and a long coach trip, fortunately we only had one rendition of the "wheels on the bus." We began the morning with an amazing presentation in the planetarium which explained about what it was like to be an astronaut-this was definitely a wow moment! The children had a brilliant workshop where they programmed a probe and then spent the rest of the day looking at the exhibits in the Centre. This was a fantastic trip for the children-some people were a little bit tired on the way home with a few children snoozing!

Year 5 (Miss Jenkin) Is it the end of term already? We have done so much that the time has just flown by. The highlight of the past few weeks has to be our trip to the National Space Centre. Everyone was able to make it and we had a fabulous time learning all about the Moon landings and how to control Mars rovers. The 3D cinema show was a big hit as we all really enjoyed experiencing space through an astronaut’s eyes. We have been making the most of our lovely

outdoors areas, not just for playtime and PE

but also taking our learning outside – maths

fun in the sun.

Our shared lesson was well attended and we

enjoyed demonstrating our learning and

working with family members to design and

craft our very own pottery, inspired by the

Ancient Greeks.

Finally, we hope that you are enjoying our

class blog. Each week we take it in turns to

draft a blog post so keep looking to find out

what we have been learning.

Happy Half Term!

Year 6

What a busy term we have had in Year 6! We

have spent the majority of the term preparing

for our end of year assessments, which we

completed last week. I would like to thank all of

the parents for their support over this busy

time and most importantly would like to say a

big well done to all of the children who took

each of the tests with a big smile on their

faces.

It hasn’t been all test preparation in year six

though. We have managed to get outside in

the sunshine to take part in some active

maths! Some Year 6 pupils also entered a

competition ran by Banbury Friendship festival

and Tyler, Alisah and Gracie won a book token

for their great poems! Have a read of their

winning entries below. We are looking forward

to Term Six and are looking forward to putting

on a super play for you all.

Friendship, by Gracie Blencowe and Alisah

Ahmed

Friends are there to lead the way, through the

tough and hard times, a strong friendship will

last more than one day. You might fight but

you’ll come back together. Over day and night,

friendship is important to cherish in your life,

keep it forever, and hold it tight

Friendship with sugar cubes (white and

brown), by Tyler Hone

Come on let’s try and be friends, but we aren’t

allowed because we are different colours. That

doesn’t matter, you can still be friends even

though we are different colours, they both

hobbled to meet and they got on. It doesn’t

matter if you are different you can still be

friends.

Sports News

Year 1 Multi-skills On Thursday 3rd May, Year 1 joined other local schools at Banbury Academy for a morning of Multi Skills. The children were kept busy as they rotated around 6 stations, which were focused on developing fundamental skills such as running, jumping, catching, throwing, kicking and hitting. The children enjoyed a range of activities including parachute games, playground games, mini golf and relays. All the children came away with big smiles and were incredibly hardworking. Well done Year 1! Change 4 Life Festival On Thursday 10th May, 13 children who attend the Change 4 Life club were invited to a festival, hosted by Banbury Academy. All children had the opportunity to take part in archery, dodge ball, parachute games and boccia. The children took part to the best of their abilities and were most importantly, enjoying the sports and activities on their own and with others. The value for the festival was ‘self belief’, which was awarded to Imani and Thomas, who showed great determination in

every activity. A big well done to all the children who attended; Miss Taylor and Mrs Adams were incredibly impressed with your involvement and how you supported each other during the festival!

Debbie’s Diary

I would first of all like to introduce myself as the new Home School Community Link Worker, replacing Jenny. I have been made very welcome at Queensway and look forward to meeting many more children and parents. I am continuing the Listening Shops for Children in Jigsaw at lunchtimes: Years 2, 3 Monday 12.30–1.00pm Years 4, 5, 6 Wednesday 12.00–12.30pm Year 1 Friday 12.00–12.30pm Please encourage your children to come along for a chat if they are worrying about anything. Likewise, I am available to speak to any parents who have concerns. I have lots of experience in supporting families through difficult times. Just contact the school office and I will get back to you. Breakfast Club You can now pay for Breakfast club via ParentPay, which is convenient and easy to do! You can pay daily amounts or load up your account for the whole week or month. We’ve also started our fun exercises before we begin the school day. Once we have finished our breakfast, we have a few minutes of dancing with the Go Noodle and Super Movers. Check them out online to practise at home!

https://www.gonoodle.com

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/supermovers/42959685

After School Club More and more smiley faces have filled our After School Club, which has been great! Everyone has enjoyed getting to know each other as well as Ms Adams and Miss Taylor (it’s as if they have always been here).

Lights, Camera, Action! We didn’t realise quite how much talent and confidence our children have. From the tuneful singers, hilarious joke tellers, energetic gymnasts, comedy duos, (to name a few). Together, they produced the most breath-taking and memorable talent show. The effort and pure determination, as well as the fun aspect shone through greatly. We were so proud of each and every one of them!

Keeping cool outside with water play and ball games has been very entertaining, finished with carpet picnics to round the day off nicely.

We now have our own blog for After School

Club. Please look out for updates and photos

of your children’s time with us. Here is the link:

https://wordpress.com/view/queenswayaftersc

hoolclub.wordpress.com

Have a fantastic half term and we look forward to the last term of the year!

Lost Property Please, please, please come and have a look in the lost property in the Year 3 area, where there is a trunk and a rail. There are many lovely coats, lots of hats, gloves, scarves, some lunch boxes and bottles. Unfortunately we are unable to return items which are unmarked.

We will be sending all items left in lost property to a charity shop at the end of the summer term – please do come along and make sure there is nothing belonging to your child before

they go. Some items have been there for a long time.

PTA We are very excited about our new school t-shirts for children that go off site representing Queensway school in sports activities. A very big thank you to Watermans for their kind generosity in funding the purchase of the t-shirts, the children look very smart and what a great image for the school.

We also held our first parent Quiz and Curry

night. It was a lot of fun and in the process we

raised a fantastic £590.00! Watch out for more

events coming to the school soon.

Thank you all for your continued support,

generosity and time for our PTA events, it is all

really making a difference to our children’s

school.

Forthcoming PTA events:

Wednesday 13th June

Film night

Thursday 5th July

Family Picnic night (Circus Theme)

Monday 23rd July

Uniform Sale

TBC

School Disco

Wishing you all a Sunny May Half Term.

Governors

PARENT GOVERNOR VACANCY

We currently have one Parent governor vacancy and so must hold an election. As many of you may already know, the governing body has an extremely important role: it is responsible for working strategically in partnership with the Head-teacher and staff to identify the most important aspects of the school that need to be improved, approving plans to achieve this and ensuring progress. All governors receive training to help them carry out their role. Oxfordshire Governor Services runs special induction courses for new governors – we expect all our governors to attend this training. Parent governors, like all governors, will be

most effective if they bring relevant skills and

experience, as well as the ability to work as

part of a team. We are currently looking for

one governor to join our Pupil Outcomes

Committee, which looks at the achievement of

children across the school, curriculum policy

and quality of teaching.

All nominations should be sent in to the school

office by 6th June 2018. You can nominate

yourself. Every nomination must be signed by

the candidate, stating that they are willing to

stand.

On 14th June 2018 we will send the ballot

forms with the names of the candidates and

their details home with the children so please

watch out for the letter!

If you would like to know a little more about

becoming a parent governor, please leave

your details with the school office and a parent

governor will get in touch with you. Please

refer to the guidance information distributed

earlier this year. You may request a copy of

this document from the school office.

Dates for your Diary

INSET DAY FRIDAY 25th MAY

SCHOOL REOPENS MONDAY 4th JUNE

Whole school class photographs Tuesday 12th June

PTA Meeting Monday 4th June at 7pm

PTA Film Night Wednesday 13th June 3.05-5.15pm

Planting in the Park – Year 3 Friday 15th June

INSET DAY Friday 22nd JUNE

KS2 Sports day Wednesday 27th June pm

FS and KS1 Sports Day Wednesday 4th July, pm.

PTA Family Picnic, Thursday 5th July (evening)

Year 2 (CN) Trip to St. John’s Museum, Warwick, Tuesday 3rd July

Year 2 (MR) Trip to St John’s Museum, Warwick, Tuesday 10th July

Thursday 19th July - Shuffle up Day

Year 6 PTA BBQ. Monday 23rd July, pm

Year 6 Leavers service Wednesday 25th July at 9.30am

SCHOOL BREAKS UP FOR SUMMER Wednesday 25th JULY, normal time

INSET DAY TUESDAY 5th SEPTEMBER

SCHOOL OPENS WEDNESDAY 6th SEPTEMBER 2018