Weekly Update

Friday 19th July 2019

Today, families and friends it is our last day of term. We have much to look forward to in September, but first, a goodbye to our leavers. It never fails to amaze me how much our children grow in ways not measured in height alone. The experiences of clubs, shows, friendships and much much more enable our children to develop the skills they will need to navigate the next stages of their journeys beyond their academic achievements too. We are so very proud of them. In September we have much to look forward to. I am currently being inundated in my office with artwork related to our new house system. This will underpin the values taught so strongly here at Shefford Lower School, and will be the basis for our new behaviour policy too. The children will be stewarding the younger children and taking on responsible roles to support their development and that of other children. We have already awarded a few house points. Our tea parties will continue. If your child collected their target after our last tea party, they will be the first in the new term. Mrs Freeman, Mrs Ross and I can’t wait to hold these again. We say goodbye to Mrs Bambridge, who has been at the school for nine years. We wish her luck in her new adventures. Due to the importance of provision for SEND, this will be lead by our Deputy Head teacher with myself, and a new SENDCo in Mrs Robinson. We have redesigned some of our planning and how our children are screened for support in the early years, in order to provide streamlined interventions and expand communication. Joining the SEND team, is Mrs Woods, who will work closely with Mrs Herbert to provide support in Poplar class also. Mrs Parry remains our wonderful family liaison worker, and will continue to organise her breakfast club. The wellbeing of our pupils has taken a front seat this year, and we have also prioritised staff wellbeing internally. Heading this up newly in a more senior position, Mrs Houghton is taking a lead for programmes aimed at developing character and resilience – I’m sure you will agree that in modern times, this is a growing area for our children. In another new senior role, Mr Wakefield is taking the lead for curriculum. We have been excited by the new framework for inspecting schools, and know that the offer of breadth here at Shefford is one to be very proud of. Our children perform exceptionally well against national and local averages, and this year has been no different. Our Year 4 leavers have exceeded all of those benchmarks again, and improved on last year’s scores as well. We wish you all a happy and healthy summer. We look forward to refreshed and happy children returning to start the new school year with gusto in September. I shall see you on the gate as usual…. Warmest regards, Mrs Finch

Rosemary Last has been our school librarian for over 20

years! She has seen many changes in the school over that

time, from the many children and staff who have been part of

our school community, to the move of the whole school from

the old to the new building and various location changes for

the library over the years to where it now lives in our Learning

Hub. Sadly, she is now leaving us for a very well earned

retirement but we hope she will be back to visit us lots.

Rosemary has always worked incredibly hard to ensure that we

have a fantastic range of fiction and non-fiction books suitable

for children across the school and catering to many different

reading tastes and interests. We have nearly 7,000 books in

total in our library, all carefully catalogued by Rosemary, which

are being borrowed and enjoyed by hundreds of children each

week!

On Tuesday, she joined us for Mrs Houghton's Signing

Assembly so our whole school could thank her for all of her

contributions. She really enjoyed listening to our fabulous

musicians and singing too!

Year 4 Leavers

The time has come to say farewell to our Year 4s! They have had a lovely last week, with their leavers

lunch on the field, their fantastic performance of ‘Hoodwinked’ followed by afternoon tea. I’m sure

there will be lots of signing of Leavers Books today! We will miss them and would like to wish them all

the best on the next step of their journey.

Farewell...

Miss Bambridge

We will be saying goodbye to Miss Bambridge today who has spread

her magic for 9 years at Shefford Lower! Her new school will be very

lucky to have her. We know she will be thoroughly missed by the

children and adults and wish her the best of luck on her new journey!

School Packed Lunch

If your child has a school packed lunch as a regular order, this will cease at the end of term. A new

order form should be completed for the new school year to be returned by 9.30am on Friday 6th

September 2019. School packed lunches will not be available for the first week of term.

Milk Bottle Tops and Batteries

Please continue to keep up the good work over the holidays by collecting milk bottle tops and

batteries!

You can bring your batteries in to school for us to send off for recycling but unfortunately we are not

collecting milk bottle tops; please send them to the address below;

Freepost

LUSH GREENHUB (Has to be in capitals)

Bottletops

Thank you

We are very lucky to have such a supportive and dedicated PSA and we would

like to say a big thank you to them for all their hard work this year and in

previous ones. They are consistently coming out with new and exciting ideas to

help raise money for the school to support our children. They have funded

various projects such as the Year 3 Sing Out, Play Out concert, Year 4 Leavers

Books and the Immersive Classroom, which is being installed in September.

Thank you for all that you do!

Reading Bingo Challenge

Children in Years R-3 have been given a yellow bingo card to bring home for the Reading Bingo

Challenge. Each square on the card asks children to read a specific book e.g. ‘A book about a dragon’.

The idea is for children to complete all 9 squares on their bingo card and get them signed by an adult

once completed. Completed cards can then be brought back in to school in September and handed in

to Mrs Metcalfe for a certificate, bookmark and a house point! Happy reading!

Little Ninja’s

Please see a Little Ninja’s booking form attached to this ParentMail. This starts on Friday 13th

September.

Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge takes place every year during the summer holidays. You can sign up

at your local library, then read six library books of your choice to complete the Challenge. There are

rewards to collect along the way, and it’s FREE to take part! In Central Bedfordshire, the challenge

begins on Saturday 20th July and there are activities to join in at the libraries. After completing the

basic 6 book challenge, children are encouraged to continue reading and there is a family theatre

ticket prize at each library for the child who reads the most books.

The Summer Reading Challenge website helps you keep track of your reading all year round: find

new books to read, take part in competitions, mini challenges, and play games. For further

information: www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/summer-reading-challenge.

Well done to Dexy in Ash Class who won the Greensands

Country Photography with his picture of ‘Greensands Man’!

Well Done

Music News

Congratulations to the following children for their successes in recent music exams:

Music Medals (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music)

Copper

Lucy E

Amelia F

Isla H

Gold

Olivia B

Chloe S

Grace S

Graded exams (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music):

Olivia B (Hazel) - Grade 1 Clarinet with Merit

George M (Hazel) - Grade 2 Clarinet

Oliver D (Hazel) - Grade 1 Piano with Merit

Ayssia S (Beech) - Grade 1 Violin with Merit

Music Cup

Hudson S (Ash)

Thank you to all the children who have performed on so many occasions throughout the past year—in

music assemblies and class assemblies, at music concerts and coffee mornings, on community visits and

at end of term productions. These recitals have all been greatly enjoyed.

Music results 2018-2019

Music Medal Results 2019 (E=Excellence, P=Pass)

Bronze

Dougie A – P E P

Enya B – E E E

Felicity B – E E P

Matthew F – E E P

Priya G – E E E

Layla H – P E E

Aaliyah H – E E E

Abigail H – E E E

Lily-Mae J – P P P

Sky L – E P P

Summer L – E E P

Kayla M – E E E

Lilly S – E E E

Ellie S – E E P

Evie-Mae W – E E P

Copper

Phoebe B—P E E

Eleanor B – E E E

Matthew B – E E E

Grace C – P E P

Lucy E – E E E

Amelia F – P E E

Allyssa F – P P P

Charlie G – P E P

Abigail H – E E E

Isla H – P P E

Amely H – P E E

Hollie J – P E E

Evelyn L – P E E

Reuben L – E E E

Harper M – P E E

Bo M – P P E

Lexi M – P E E

Daniel M — P P E

Dexter P – E E E

Jessica R – P P E

Sophie R – P E E

Katherine Z – E E P

Silver

Olivia B – E E E

Alice B – P P E

Mya D – E E E

Sophie D – P P P

Scarlett G – P E E

Zoe H – P E E

Freya L – E E E

Chloe S – E E E

Grace S– E E E

Gold

Olivia B – P P E

Chloe S – P E E

Grace S – E E P

Platinum

Simon P – E E P

Hudson S– E E E

Alyssia S – E E E

Graded exams

Grace S – Grade 1 Flute (with merit)

Chloe S – Grade 1 Flute

Louis C – Grade 1 Clarinet

Hudson S – Grade 2 Guitar (with distinction)

George M – Grade 1 Clarinet (with

distinction)

Abigail H – Grade 1 Pop and Rock Vocals (with

distinction)

Simon P – Grade 1 Piano (with distinction)

Oliva B – Grade 1 Clarinet (with merit)

George M – Grade 2 Clarinet

Oliver D – Grade 1 Piano (with merit)

Alyssia S – Grade 1 Violin (with merit)

Music Cup

Hudson S

Finer Diners

Congratulations to the children below who have sat at the ‘Finer Diner’ table this week for displaying good

manners and values at lunchtime:

Year 1

Beth G

Frankie P

William H-M

Year 2

Tobias H

Isla H

Joseph R

Mason C

Stephen B

Year 3

Jaya A

Mason H

Emma G

Annaliese L

Year 4

Chloe R

Eva C

Haydn C

As ever the PSA have been busy working on your behalf to raise funds to support the children’s learning and

provide activities in addition to the school’s curriculum. Your monies have paid for magazine subscriptions,

storage units for Early years, Sing up/Play out, Drumming, Leavers books and much much more. Of course,

our main focus this year has been raising money for the Immersive Classroom. We are hopeful that Phase 1

will be installed and ready to use for the children’s return in September. Phase 2 includes a movable unit that

can be transferred into each classroom giving children the benefit of Immersive learning without leaving the

class. This has been an immense and on-going project and one we hope all children will benefit from next

term. We thank you for your continued support and hope that we see you at our amazing circus in

September.

Personal thanks go to our departing PSA members who without their commitment, support and knowledge

we wouldn’t get half the things done that we do. We are losing 2 key members of our team this year. Shelley

Chandler and Julie Liddiard who between them have put in 22 years’ service!. They have more recently been

involved in sorting out our yearly Xmas cards and Hampers for the Christmas raffle. They will have served

countless cups of tea and coffee and an infinite number of hours behind the scenes planning and preparing

events. We thank them for all their hard work and dedication to our PSA and the school over the years.

Shefford Circus

We still have tickets available for both circus performances on Saturday 28th September - although tickets

are now limited for the 2.40pm show.

Whilst the school is closed you will still be able to purchase these from Spitfire Travel, The MOT garage (near

Morrisons), The Paper Shop, (Near Post Office) and Shefford Building Supplies. All tickets are now £8.00.

Summer Jam Jar Project We are asking that all families please support the PSA over the summer holidays and convert any used jars into ‘Jars of Joy’. Leaflets have been sent home this week. These can be filled with anything: crafts, sweets, small gifts etc. We will have a Jar Tombola at the Circus, amongst other stalls. Teddies We will still collect your pre-loved teddies the first week we are back in September. The drop off bin is in the schools Reception area. White Elephant Tombola We are also looking for unwanted gifts and donations for our White Elephant Tombola stall please. These can include bottles of wine, tickets, vouchers or any donation that would be a suitable prize. The stall will be aimed at both adults and children so games and toys will also be gratefully received. Again, please drop hese directly in to the school office the first week back.

PSA News

Ongoing Events — all projects below are funding our Immersive Room Easy Fundraising

We have a link with the Easyfundraising company that allows online shopping to feed commission back to

a chosen charity. The PSA have registered with this and have so far raised an additional £367.00 for the

school. Please use the following link to register https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/E2CZEL. It costs

NOTHING and once it’s set up there are reminders as you spend on applicable websites. It really couldn’t

be easier to raise money for the school.

Go Henry

Does your child receive pocket money? Do you want to have more control over how they save and spend?

If so, Go Henry could be the solution for your family. Combining a pre-paid debit card and an app with

unique parental controls, it’s been built from the ground up for both parents and children. Sign up today

for your one month’s free trial offer, after which it’s just £2.99 per child a month. The card can be used

online, in-store, and at ATMs, so as we move ever closer to a cashless society, it allows children to

experience money in all it’s different forms. This summer term Go Henry is offering to give £20.00 to our

PSA for every parent who activates.

Go on—give it a try by clicking on the link https://www.gohenry.com/uk/pta-referrals/?

promotion=UKPTASLS&ght=UKPTASLS

Your School Lottery

Hopefully you will have seen the ParentMail and the leaflet regarding our recent registration with ’Your

Schools Lottery’ This will give you the chance to purchase weekly lottery tickets, currently giving you 3

opportunities to win prizes. We already have 22 tickets registered for the 1st draw in October.

Register this month and tickets will be entered into 3 draws:

1. Your local prize draw—30% of all monies received become the local prize fund. First date 5th October.

2. The jackpot prize draw—national jackpot is a weekly draw for £25,000.

3. The draw for any giveaways they are offering—this month is a luggage set.

ONE ticket works out to £4.34 per month on a direct debit basis. This will be an ongoing subscription and

is available to all parents, friends and family of pupils at our school. Not only will you be helping your

school, you will hopefully win a bit of cash back for yourselves.

In closing, the PSA thank you again for your support this year and wish you all a Happy Summer Break!

Community News

Please note, the following events/activities are run independently of

Shefford Lower.

Diary Dates (further dates will be added and these will be in bold italics)

Autumn Term 2019

2nd September Inset Day

3rd September Inset Day

4th September Staff and Children Return

Absence

Please see the graph below on the impact absence can have on later achievement.

Just a reminder the school office will need proof of all medical appointments for these absences to be

marked as ‘Medical’ otherwise these will be marked as ‘Unauthorised’.