25th October 2019 Principal: Mrs F Chapman

Email: info@arkdickensprimary.org

Phone: 023 9282 6514

www.arkdickensprimary.org

Message from the Principal

The end of what has been a spectacular half term for Ark Dickens. Thank you for the terrific turn out at parents evening last week. We hit 95% attendance! It is only with school and community working in collaboration that we can continue to en-sure the highest standards of education and school experience for our children. If you have not yet managed to meet with your child’s teacher please do either approach them directly or book an appointment through the front office.

11by 11 continues to excite and engage the school with year 5 enjoying rafting this week. Despite the weather being consistently wet (!) our pupils diligently built and sailed their rafts. Sinking was not an uncommon occurrence!

Our coffee mornings have become ever more successful with an exceptional turnout to our year 3 and 4 topic workshop this morning! Thank you for bracing the weather to come and be involved with the academic learning in the school.

Have a wonderful and relaxing half term break. I look forward to welcoming you all back on site Tuesday 5th November.

Please follow the school on Twitter - @ArkDickens Don’t forget to check the website regularly - www.arkdickensprimary.org

We are all winners here!

Ark Dickens were nominated and short-listed for the 2019 Portsmouth Teach Award in the category of Innovation.

Through the implementation of the 11by 11 programme we have had a positive impact on the teaching and learning of

the children. Thank you to all the parents who showed their support as the children took part in the experiences in

2019. Whether it was building a den or sleeping under the stars the children were able to

articulate not only their enjoyment but also their development of grit and resilience during

their experience. We are pleased to announce that we won the category!

On 4th October the staff spent the day in London for the Ark Summit. This was an enjoyable

day with an international; speaker as well as looking at where Ark started and then onwards to

the future. The day ended with the Ark Awards and we are pleased to announce that we won Teacher of

the year 2019. This prestigious award honours a teacher that shows an outstanding commitment to

changing the lives of children in his classroom as well as in all year groups! Well done to Mr. Fossey.

Please feel free to pop in and look at our new trophies in the trophy cabinet!

Attendance:

We monitor attendance closely and while we acknowledge that children sometimes pick up bugs, we have a target for

each pupil of a minimum of 96% attendance at school. Attendance of below 90% is said to represent persistent

absenteeism. Please remember to leave a message regarding attendance (option 1) on the absence line rather than the

main reception answerphone .

What has been happening in our school:

Music this term has focused on learning to play the bamboo tamboo. This instrument originated in Trinidad and Tobago and was made of bamboo. The tamboo part of the word comes from the French word Tambour, which means drum. The children have worked really hard this term and can now play with three different rhythms going at the same time. Curie class were able to perform their piece to the rest of KS2 in assembly. Forest School has got off to a very successful start with a variety of nature awareness and team building games as well as ‘Backwoods cooking’. The groups really enjoyed making baked apples and pastry twists cooked on sticks they had sharpened themselves. Each group has noticed the change in the seasons now that autumn is well underway. We have foraged for chestnuts and learners have found all sorts of interesting bugs using our bug hunting kits. We have created forest tails for the groups to follow whilst blindfolded!

Harvest Day was a huge success –Thank you! We collected over 400 items and they have all been donated to the Salvation Army. The children sang beautifully in the assembly.

PE Team have promoted healthy living this week. Children had a special menu to choose from and were encouraged to bring in a healthy packed lunch. The children have learnt what the key components of a healthy diet are. The children can also identify a healthy plate and what foods go

into each section of the plate. Please chat to your children about a healthy plate and if you would like more Information speak to a member of the PE Team.

At the start of the school year all children were given the opportunity to become school

councillors and through a voting system with presentations from all candidates, we elected 1 school

councillor from each class. These young leaders meet with Mrs Berry every second week. The

meetings have congratulated all the class representatives for being voted on to the council by their

peers. We have discussed the purpose and scope of the school council: the children would like to

make Ark Dickens Primary even better and to select a charity to support this year. We have taken a group

photo and are starting to making decisions. We have set some activities to take part in during Anti Bullying

Week (November 2019). Finally the representatives were set a research task: they are each going to consult

with their class and then bring a suggestion for a charity to champion. After listening to each other's views,

we will hold a vote to select one at the next meeting. Please keep an eye on our display board outside the

pastoral cabin.

Young leaders of the future

Bringing competition to life:

As the term comes to an end we can look back on some fantastic moments from the last 8 weeks. Lower school have been practicing their agility, balance and co-ordination. Upper school have improved their fitness through endurance and strength training. Year 5 and 6 have been challenged with the Bleep test and 12 minute Cooper run!

There has been positive progress across all year groups in P.E. We have attended 2 sport festivals this term: the Hockey Festival and the Infant Agility Festival, in both events the

school was very successful and exhibited pride.

It has also been a very close competition for the winning house this half-term. The children have worked hard for every house point and the final house points for Autumn 1 are: Saturn: 5294 Neptune: 4928 Jupiter: 4762 Venus: 4888

Well done Saturn! Enjoy Reward Afternoon!

Parents evening

Thank you very much for your attendance at our Autumn Parents’ Evening as it is a great opportunity for us to work together to support your child’s learning. If you missed having a meeting with the teacher on these two days, it isn’t too late, and please feel free to make an appointment through the office. We had an overall attendance of 95%. As part of the Parents’ Evening, we asked parents to complete our annual questionnaire and the feedback was very positive. The results will shortly be accessible on our website.

Fancy a cuppa?

Coffee mornings are held every second Thursday and run from 9:00am in the Upper School hall.

These are an excellent opportunity for parents/carers to come along and hear all about

the exciting things that are happening at Ark Dickens Primary Academy as well as learn

ways in which to help ad encourage learning at home. You will get to meet our school

staff, other parents and enjoy a cup of tea/coffee and biscuits.

Please see below for details of our next coffee morning and keep an eye on the website

for further dates and information.

Please follow the school on Twitter - @ArkDickens Don’t forget to check the website regularly - www.arkdickensprimary.org

Upcoming Dates

4 November 2019 INSET day (school closed)

5 November 2019 School opens 8:30am

11 November 2019 Armistice Day

12 November 2019 Phonic workshop for parents—Reception

13 November 2019 Phonic workshop for parents—Year 1

15 November 2019 BBC Children in Need

Date Focus

Thursday 14 November Math: The 4 operations. Parents to work with their children in Yr 1/2 and Yr5/6

Thursday 28 November Behaviour at home: how we can make changes to support our children