A brief introduction to our school
Prospectus (2023-24) The Federation of Abbey Infant and Junior School.
BB6Y LENS October 2019 Vol 6: Issue No. Eleven Excellence Through Partnership
THE
Welcome
Guinness! World record holders.
At Abbey, children are at the heart of what we do. It’s the first line of our ‘mission statement’ and drives all of our work. We believe in learning that is real, purposeful and memorable. We strive for learning that connects, learning that impacts and learning that inspires our children and adults!
Have you got a paragraph of good news to share? Write in under 100 words, attach a picture and your story may be published. All submissions to office@abbey-jun.sandwell.sch.uk or office@abbey-inf.sandwell.sch.uk
www.abbeyfederation.co.uk
At the Federaton of Abbey Infant and Junior Schools, we believe in learning that's real, purposeful, and memorable . Our " Creatve Curriculum," " Abbey Bucket List, " " Abbey Sof Skills ," and " Abbey Life Skills" are designed to bring our c urriculum to life, inspire and engage our pupils , and provide e xcitng teaching and learning opportunites with a purposeful outcome . Through our taught curriculum, additonal experiences and parent workshops through the year, children will experience a curriculum full of memorable learning that reinforces their skills and knowledge. We also supplement our curriculum with educatonal visits and visitors and organise educatonal visits, residental visits, and memorable learning experiences throughout the year.
Curriculum belief
We believe that children should be actively engaged in their learning and be given the opportunity to take ownership of it , which is why at Abbey we work with our students to plan a curriculum based on their interests. To provide memorable learning opportunities, we have introduced the 'Abbey Bucket List' , comprised of experiences that your child will have if they journey with us from Nursery to Year Six.
In additon, by working closely with our parents, we have developed a 'Sof Skills' * menu, focusing on essental work skills s uch as decision-making, leadership, creatvity, problem- solving, teamwork, responsibility and communicaton.
We also have a ' Life Skills' list which includes actvites such as catching the bus, making an emergency call, performing basic frst aid, making a hot drink, cooking, putng away clothes, brushing teeth, handwashing, road safety and wearing seatbelts. Our goal is to create a broad and balanced curriculum that inspires, motvates and caters to the needs of our community *Sof skills is a term ofen associated with a person's "EQ" (Emotonal Intelligence Quotent), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communicaton, language, personal habits, interpersonal skills, managing people, leadership, etc. that characterise relatonships with other people.
At Abbey we believe that; 'Children must have access to a rich learning environment which provides them with the opportunites and conditons to fourish in all aspects of their development. It should provide balance across the areas of learning. Integral to this is an ethos which respects each child as an individual and which values children's eforts, interests and purposes as instrumental to successful learning' (EYFS Handbook) Using a balance of teacher-led actvites and child-led/child-initated actvites , which we refer to as 'child-initated learning' (CIL), we provide the children with opportunites that allow every child to reach their full potental. Our Early Years areas are a secure, enjoyable and caring educatonal environment where each and every child feels valued. We track the progress of every child, based on ongoing observaton and assessment of learning and the three characteristcs of efectve learning. Our observatons are stored occasionally in a 'learning journey' but much reduced electronic use so that staf are freed up to work directly with children. The areas that we observe and report on at the end of FS1 (nursery) and FS2 (recepton) are the 'Prime Areas' and the 'Specifc Areas’. The Prime areas of learning are; communicaton and language, physical development and personal, social and emotonal development. The Prime Areas are seen as key areas of development that are needed to ensure progress in the Specifc Areas. The 'Specifc areas' are ; literacy, mathematcs, understanding the world and expressive arts and design. We also make judgements about the children and how they present themselves as 'litle learners'. Notng and observing how a child learns is referred to as 'Characteristcs of learning', here we discover how a child plays and explores, partcipates in actve learning and how they develop their thinking. Using the DfE's non-statutory guidance; 'Development Maters' and 'Early Years Outcomes' w e will work closely with every child and their family to ensure that they try and reach their full potental and their early learning goals at the end of FS2 (recepton). Our Early Years Team works hard to ensure contnuity between FS1 (Nursery) and FS2 (Recepton) so that children can build on skills already developed and follow routnes that fow with their needs. We establish an environment for them to feel safe and confdent throughout their Early Years, in preparaton for their future years in our school. Our Early Years Department will: • Provide a happy, caring, secure environment where children feel valued; • Build on what our children already know and can do and provide new and excitng experiences that challenge, develop and stmulate their thinking; • Provide a rich and stmulatng and aesthetcally pleasing learning environment that is commited to raising standards; • Develop parents as partners , parents are a child’s frst educator we aim to ensure parents are involved in their child’s learning; • Promote s elf-esteem and independence through praise and celebraton of achievements; • Ensure that no child is excluded or disadvantaged ; Early Years - Nursery & Reception
• Ofer a structure for learning that has a range of startng points, matches the needs of all children and provides opportunity for learning both indoors and outdoors; • Deliver a curriculum that is responsive to their interests and supports, fosters and promotes children’s: - social skills; -atenton skills, persistence and a positve attude to learning; -language and communicaton; -mathematcal skills; -knowledge and understanding of the world;
-physical development; -creatve development. Which encompass the Early Learning Goals set out by the DFE.
In the early years, physical educaton is part of the daily early year’s curriculum and children take part in a range of fne and gross motor skills which are crucial to their development. There are planned PE sessions and children have access to a range of sports specialists.
Forest Schools in the Foundaton Stage
At Abbey our Recepton (FS2) children experience Forest Schools as part of their curriculum. Forest school, is not what the name suggests, it is not a school in a forest. Rather it is the applicaton of a certain set of principles and way of working with people in an outdoor area. It is the ethos established by the practtoners and the use of the guiding principles which create a ‘forest school’. The principles of forest schools are: • Forest school is a long-term process of regular sessions rather than a one-of or infrequent visit; the cycle of planning, observaton, adaptaton and review links each session. • Forest school takes place in a woodland or natural environment to support the development of a relatonship between the learner and the natural world. • Forest school uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for being, development and learning. • Forest school aims to promote holistc development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confdent, independent and creatve learners. • Forest school ofers learners the opportunity to t ake supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves. • Forest school is led by qualifed Forest School practtoners who contnuously maintain and develop their professional practce. Whilst we will teach various tool skills such as; using mallets, cutng tools, using saws and fre lightng, it is the behaviours and attudes that are developed through the learning process which we believe are the most important. Children are given the opportunity to working collaboratvely as a team, make choices, become a leader, communicate with others, practse fne and gross motor skills and most important and perhaps the most important of all, we have fun and make memories!
English
Talk 4 Writng:
School) as confdent, fuent and able readers. We also have e-books matched to sounds for our early readers in Years Nursery to Year 3. All children practce their developing reading skills through daily phonics lessons (Infants), Talk 4 Writng, regular guided reading and individual reading scheme books (fully book banded). Each classroom has a dedicated reading area to encourage access to quality reading material and to promote a whole-school approach to the 'love of reading'. We have an extensive school library, which has recently been r e-fted and re-stocked, used by confdent readers in Key Stages 1 and 2. The process for borrowing books from the library, using an electronic record system, has been updated so that children and parents can browse the library stock, reserve books and review them all from home. We also have a commited group of reading volunteers who provide additonal reading opportunites for some of our children. These volunteers are fully DBS checked and receive training on how to support children with their reading. If you would like to volunteer regularly in school, please talk to our team!
At Abbey we use 'Talk for Writng' as our approach to teaching writng. Developed by Pie Corbet, this highly efectve approach is based on the principles of how children learn to write. If a child cannot compose a piece of writng orally before they begin to write, then they will have a difculty writng independently. So, the frst stage of teaching children how to write is to ask children to imitate the key language they need for a partcular topic orally before they try reading and analysing it. Over a three or four-week unit of 'Talk 4 Writng' the children partcipate in a range of actvites that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need , followed by shared writng to show them how to craf their writng . Children are then supported to compose their own pieces. Children are given the opportunity to extend their writng and apply their knowledge and skills to cross curricular writng tasks. The 'Talk 4 Writng' approach is combined with 'Alan Peat's Sentence Types' and other grammar type actvites to ensure that children are taught essental skills of grammar and punctuaton. At Abbey we have created an agreed teaching schedule of these 'sentence types' which meet the needs of the English Natonal Curriculum. Phonics We efectvely use a s ynthetc and systematc approach to teaching Early Years and Key Stage One children phonics . We use the Department for Educaton's 'Leters and Sounds' schema (for the programme and progress), alongside 'Phonics Play' resources, to assist staf with teaching and learning and planning. This results in our young children quickly becoming confdent readers. Children at our Nursery (FS1) learn Phase One of 'Leters and Sounds', identfying environmental and musical sounds, and learning how to identfy individual sounds in words. For Recepton (FS2), they are taught phases two to four, learning leter sounds, 'tricky words' and diagraphs/ trigraphs. More able pupils progress to phase fve. At Year One, some children repeat phase four and most start phase fve, learning spelling paterns, 'tricky words' and high frequency words. Year Two children are taught phase six, practsing and applying their phonic knowledge. In 2023-24, children will have extra teaching in phonics to ensure they have completed the teaching in their phase.
Reading Scheme
Our reading scheme is fully matched to the sounds that children learn in their phonics lessons. Once they have secured all the sounds and become profcient readers, they use book banded books (matched to their reading age) throughout the school, which supports our approach to teaching reading. In our Early Years phase, we use a range of books across diferent series to help children decode words and read 'tricky words' taught in their phonics level. This is supplemented by books from other publishers to give a varied range of reading material. Our aim is that by the end of Key Stage 1 (Infant School), children are ready for Key Stage 2 (Junior
Mathematics
Our current federated mathematcs team, has worked hard to ensure that staf use an agreed approach to 'maths methods' and use creatve and practcal ways to deliver mathematcs lessons. The use of a ‘Mastery’ approach where all children are expected to artculate and explain their thinking runs through the whole federaton. The introducton of ‘Power Maths’ across the whole school (Y1-Y6) has developed the ‘Mastery’ approach further. The school has embraced 'Numicon' resources to provide a practcal and visual understanding of early number. The use of practcal resources throughout the whole school and using the NCTEM website have developed approaches to practcal maths across the school.
Foundaton Stage (Nursery and recepton)
Early Years have a range of fun mathematcs actvites linked well to topic work. Through a balance of teacher-led and child-led learning, children experience a range of opportunites to learn about and play with numbers , ensuring that all children are on track to meet their Early Learning Goal' for number. Using the school’s strategies for transiton, along with the recent publicaton ‘Bold Beginnings’ a more formal structure is adopted in the second half of the summer term to support pupils in their ‘school readiness’ and move to year 1.
Key Stages 1 (infants) and 2 (juniors)
Our maths leader is also an NCETM accredited lead practtoner has worked to develop our approach to a ‘mastery’ style of lesson. Within the maths structure, pupils have the opportunity to draw upon prior learning to make links from and to the new learning; use the rich language of mathematcs along with diferent representatons of the concepts being taught; discrete teaching of the mini-steps toward mastery and deepening reasoning opportunites within every lesson. Opportunites to explain, reason, justfy, prove are common elements across key-stages one and two. Pupils use, bar- model, dienes, part-part whole, Numicon all support mastery of the subject. Times-tables are supported through the teaching of arrays before standard recall to allow joined up processing of known facts. Abbey subscribes to ‘Times Table Rockstars’ an on-line games-based system to promote learning at home with healthy, sensible (anonymous) competton. Alongside this is the powerful package ‘Conquer Maths’ that enables home-school learning.
Fluency sessions/Same Day Catch up
At Abbey we have fuency sessions across our schools whereby children practse recalling and using their number bonds and multplicaton facts. Using a range of resources (Number Fun etc) children will play games and take part in engaging actvites to practse key skills and concepts. Children have opportunity to ensure they have understood the mathematcal concepts with further small group work during same day catch up.
The national curriculum at Abbey
All physical actvity opportunites ofered at Abbey Infant and Abbey Junior Schools are designed to be inclusive, and cater for diferent ability levels. All children will be given the opportunity to partcipate in a range of physical actvites regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability. Targeted groups will have additonal tme to 'close the gap' in their physical development. The Physical Educaton Curriculum is developed at school and is designed to support the Natonal Curriculum. Each year group has two hours of tmetabled PE each week where they engage in a broad range of physical actvity. Assessment of progress in PE is determined by the age-related expectatons as set out in the Natonal Curriculum. In the early years, physical educaton is part of the daily early year’s curriculum and children take part in a range of fne and gross motor skills which are crucial to their development. There are planned PE sessions and children have access to a range of sports specialists. In KS1 children have regular physical actvites sessions. Each week there are dance and games lessons, each contributng to the two hours of tmetabled PE provision. Year Four children also take part in swimming during the Autumn, Spring and Summer Term, with the aim that all children will be able to achieve their target of swimming 25 meters. The school has used a proporton of the PE Premium to deliver additonal swimming so that more pupils meet the end of key-stage atainment target.
Science
Science is taught each term from Foundaton Stage to Year Six. Using a progression map of skills and knowledge, teachers plan lessons that build on the children’s prior knowledge . Interactve exploraton and investgaton actvites linked to the Natonal Curriculum are used to ensure all children achieve a successful outcome. Practcal experience is encouraged to support ‘working scientfcally’ and the teaching of key skills. Children are encouraged to be independent and collaboratve scientfc investgators and in KS2, to design their own experiments. Through observaton, exploraton, asking questons and evaluatng evidence, pupils use reference materials to fnd out more and c ommunicate their ideas using scientfc language, drawings, charts and tables.
Computng
Children at Abbey have a range of computng experiences. We have been successful in ataining the ICT Quality Mark which recognises the range of opportunites that the children have in our school. Our computng lessons are linked to Purple Mash & NCEE schema Ours is a progressive computng curriculum which meets the requirements of the Natonal Curriculum. Children are taught computng skills that they can apply to other subjects across the curriculum. Essental updates to our hardware and sofware are regularly completed in order for us to teach the natonal curriculum. The children now have access to network PC, tablets, Netbooks, Chromebooks and, a range of electronic equipment, I-Pads, educatonal programmes and a wide range of apps and learning platorms such as Educaton City, Purple Mash, Charanga, 2 Simple etc. E-safety is systematcally taught.
We ask that no jewellery is worn whilst remaining culturally sensitve.
French in KS2 There are a number of opportunites that teaching a modern foreign language presents and these include: • Embedding languages into an innovatve approach to the curriculum; relatng to an outcome such as a Foreign Food market for instance, or connectng languages to topics • Using language study to connect learning to other cultures, Geography and the SCMS agenda • Working with specialists and partners in the area of languages Religious Educaton We follow the Sandwell Agreed Syllabus for R.E teaching across the school. This syllabus was published by The Local Authority and The Standing Advisory Council on Religious Educaton (SACRE). All pupils on the school roll are enttled to receive Religious Educaton, this includes pupils in the recepton year of the Early Years Foundaton Stage to Year 6. At Abbey we believe that Religious Educaton is an essental component of a broad and balanced educaton and is a focal point in the curriculum for work on SMSC and Britsh Values. It
Physical Educaton
The school is commited to promotng the health and well-being of its pupils and staf through physical actvity. Through the philosophy of 'head, heart and hands' we provide high quality physical educaton which inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in compettve sport and other physically demanding actvites. PE at Abbey provides opportunites for pupils to become physically confdent in a way that supports their health and ftness. Opportunites to compete in sport and other actvites build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect. Physical actvity develops our children technically, physically, psychologically and socially. It also promotes positve attudes towards a healthy lifestyle enabling our children to make informed choices about physical actvity throughout their life.
A creative curriculum Our ‘Creatve Curriculum’ encompasses a knowledge & skills-based approach to learning through Geography, History, Art and Design Technology a whilst consolidatng core areas. Underpinning the combinaton of skills and knowledge is also the over-arching aims of each subject’s Natonal Curricular aims, for example, in History: • know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narratve, from the earliest tmes to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this naton and how Britain has infuenced and been infuenced by the wider world • know and understand signifcant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisatons; the expansion and dissoluton of empires; characteristc features of past non- European societes; achievements and follies of mankind • gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisaton’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ • understand historical concepts such as contnuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, diference and signifcance, and use them to make connectons, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questons and create their own structured accounts, including writen narratves and analyses • understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrastng arguments and interpretatons of the past have been constructed • gain historical perspectve by placing their growing knowledge into diferent contexts, understanding the connectons between local, regional, natonal and internatonal history; between cultural, economic, military, politcal, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term tmescales. Subjects such as Geography, History, Music, Art and Design, Design and Technology and Computng are taught through a creatve, purposeful and skills & knowledge based approach to learning. Each year group plans for each subject area and may use topics or projects to ensure Natonal Curriculum coverage. Using Knowledge Grids at the start of each lesson the teacher will consider prior and future learning, this method of teaching ensuring that there is good subject progression from EYFS to Year 6. Within each topic – each Natonal Curriculum subject has a discrete and clear place that pupils understand well. Parents are given informaton about each subject area, the topics covered, the skills taught and the learning experiences through a termly 'Curriculum Informaton Leafet'. This is also uploaded to the website and the class pages. Topics or projects may begin with a fun, engaging or memorable experience (a ‘hook') which leads to a 'real and purposeful' outcome. Memorable experiences are provided at the start of a topic to engage and inspire the children, this may be an in-school actvity, visitors or an educatonal visit. Events may include exhibitons, school productons, a local theatre performance, class actvity, or a product to be marketed, shared with parents, staf, governors and the wider community.
Wellbeing; Spiritual, Moral, social and cultural learning; British Values At Abbey we recognise the 'golden thread' that links all of our learning comes in the form of values and respect for each other. Essental life skills, values and emoton work is done through our half termly wellbeing themes, Britsh Values work and Social, Spiritual, Moral and Cultural Learning. From looking at 'relatonships', ‘managing emotons’, taking care of our physical and mental health, to dealing with 'bullying' the children have weekly wellbeing lessons and half termly assemblies which address these issues and importantly look at how we deal with the issues in a practcal way. We take the 'Let's Start STOP' approach to ant bullying; the analogy S.T.O.P helps us identfy what bullying is; Several Times on Purpose and it helps empower us to do something about it; Start Telling Other People. Abbey’s wellbeing curriculum includes important aspects of positve self-image and mental health/well-being. Children are taught essental life skills on how to manage their wellbeing and health through breathing techniques, yoga and mindfulness actvites. Our work on Britsh Values looks at how we can actvely promote the 'values' of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with diferent faiths and beliefs, through our everyday teaching and experiences with the children. We regularly promote these values through our own school values, curriculum and wide range of enrichment actvites. We focus on: • an understanding of how citzens can infuence decision-making through the democratc process; • an appreciaton that living under the rule of law protects individual citzens and is essental for their wellbeing and safety; • an understanding that there is a separaton of power between the executve and the judiciary, and that while some public bodies such as the police and the army can be held to account through Parliament, others such as the courts maintain independence; • an understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law; • an acceptance that other people having diferent faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour; and • an understanding of the importance of identfying and combatng discriminaton.
T eaching about relatonships is done through the wider curriculum, our wellbeing programme and assemblies. From EYFS up to Year 6 we consider; what is a friend? How can you be a good friend? What does a healthy relatonship look like? How can we manage difcult relatonships? How can we promote kindness, honesty, humility, generosity consideraton and respect? • Each week we award a Kindness Cup in our praise assemblies to recognise children who show these qualites. • Wellbeing assemblies (PSHE and SMSC) across the school help children to make informed decisions about their wellbeing (physical health and mental health) and relatonships. These provide essental life skills, develop resilience and know who to turn to for help. • Good RE teaching ensures that children have an understanding and respect for diferent faiths and develop a social, moral, cultural awareness. • On Line Safety educaton provide children with about appropriate behaviour and conduct online, how to keep themselves and their personal informaton safe. Children are made aware of CEOP and who they can turn to for help. • Gender equality teaching throughout the school (which challenges perceived limits on pupils based on their gender or any other characteristc). Ensure that males and females are respectul to each other and foster a health and respectul peer to peer communicaton and behaviour between girls and boys. Use the policy Sexual Violence and Harassment Between Children In Schools and Colleges for advice. • Staf play a role in modelling positve behaviour. There is a culture where homophobia and gender stereotypes are not tolerated and any occurrences are identfed and tackled. • Through our assembly schedule we provide informaton and educaton about Stonewall (LGBT), Ant-Bullying, Black History Month, Holocaust Memorial Day and Internatonal Women’s Day etc). • Sensitve teaching about families and how families of many forms provide a nurturing environment for children. • UNICEF – ‘the rights of the child’ and NSPCC safeguarding assemblies to ensure that children refect on their rights, consider the relatonships around them and recognise abuse. Children are encouraged to speak to a trusted adult or Safeguarding Champion if things are difcult for them. • Transiton from Year 6 to 7 to support pupils ongoing emotonal and physical development (see RAISE programme, transiton assemblies and meetngs). Health Educaton Each Year group across the school works in partnership with the School Nurse team to deliver lessons which promote health educaton. • The topics covered range from lessons on hand washing, basic hygiene and dental hygiene, to puberty, sexual relatonships and transiton. Relationships education
• Science teaching covers, subject related content i.e. external body parts, the human body as it grows from birth to old age (including puberty) and reproducton in some plants and animals. • Wellbeing assemblies provide informaton on ‘healthy bodies’ with a focus on personal hygiene (using the toilet, washing hands, brushing hair, dental hygiene etc). Sex Educaton Teachers and local health professionals (School Nurse Team) work together to plan a relatonship an age appropriate sex educaton programme. • Children in Year 4 consider the importance of consent (relatonships) • Children in 5 receive a lesson on puberty (Health) • Children in Year 6 receive a lesson about sexual relatonships. • Parents are provided with informaton about the RSE sessions and have the right to withdraw pupils from sex educaton but not relatonships or health educaton. Good practce would be the head teacher discussion with parents the benefts of receiving this important educaton and any detrimental efects that the withdrawal may have on the child. • Brook Advisory and the NSPCC are used by the inclusion team to provide informaton about ‘healthy sexual behaviour’. These links including NSPCC PANTS provide advice to children and parents. • The Brook Advisory have produced a Sexual Behaviours Trafc Light Tool which supports professionals working with children by helping them to identfy and respond appropriately to sexual behaviours. • We have worked to develop a programme will include informaton about the following: 1. Relatonships 2. Puberty 3. How babies are made and born 4. Growing up These sessions are to be delivered in single sex groups for year 6 pupils and content is age appropriate for pupils. Parents are provided with informaton and leafets about the sessions.
Educational visits
BB6Y LENS November 2019 Vol 6: Issue No. Nineteen Excellence Through Partnership
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The children are given the opportunity to experience a wide range of educational visits and have visitors in school throughout every school year, from Nursery (FS1) to Year 6. The staff work hard to select carefully chosen and purposeful experiences to supplement teaching and learning. T hese events support year group topics and teaching and most importantly provide the children with frst-hand experiences that a child may not necessarily have had. Whether this be to visit the Severn Valley Railway, the beach, visit a farm or the Houses of Parliament or partcipate in adventurous sports, there is lots on ofer at Abbey. In additon to this the children are given three opportunites throughout their tme at Abbey to partcipate in a residental experience . I n Year 2 , the children can visit the Frank Chapman Outdoor Educaton Centre, in Bewdley Worcestershire, partcipatng in outdoor actvites and staying for two nights. For many children this is their frst stay away from home; they have so much fun and come back with so many memories. In Year 4 the children may like to go to the Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning. Edgmond Hall is a converted Georgian farm in rural Shropshire, owned and run by Sandwell Council, where the children have the opportunity to stay for four nights. Finally, i n Year 6, a visit to Plas Gwynant in Snowdonia, Wales, may be an opton for children, where they will experience a range of outdoor pursuits including canoeing, kayaking, climbing, and hill walking. Visit our class page; htps:// www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/plas-gwynant-2019/
Outdoor adventure! Year 6 residential trip.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF The first week of November saw Year 6 pupils away from home for the week, staying in North Wales. Plas Gwynant is at the heart of outdoor education and adventure in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales. Based at the foot of the highest peak in Wales, the centre combines the power and magic of the natural environment with the challenge of adventurous activities to inspire young people; helping them to recognise what they are capable of achieving.
Have you got a paragraph of good news to share? Write in under 100 words, attach a picture and your story may be published. All submissions to office@abbey-jun.sandwell.sch.uk or office@abbey-inf.sandwell.sch.uk
www.abbeyfederation.co.uk
BB6Y LENS March 2020 Vol 6: Issue No. Thirty nine Excellence Through Partnership
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Back at Edgmond! Residential
YEAR 4 AWAY The week after the holiday, some of Year 4 went on a really exciting trip to Edgmond Hall. It was both fantastic and fun. We had a mind-blowing week where we did a variety of activities including: team building games, archery, fencing, zip wire, blind sensory walk, fire breathing dragons and a night walk in the pitch black with our torches. Happily, we got to meet the cute and cuddly goats, rabbits and guinea pigs. We even got to feed the chickens (the brave ones fed the scary Big Bertha!). Whilst we were there, we were fed delicious food; amazing pizza and a fabulous roast dinner. We got to sleep with our friends in dormitories and that was so cool! We had a camp fire which was a blast! We sang loads of songs together, our favourite was Lady Gaga and her shiny bra! We had the best time ever! We wish we could go back again.
Thanks to Miss Stocking, Clara, Hannah, Alice and Jia (4S) for the story.
https://abbey-federation.secure- primarysite.net/edgmond-hall-2020/
Have you got a paragraph of good news to share? Write in under 100 words, attach a picture and your story may be published. All submissions to office@abbey-jun.sandwell.sch.uk or office@abbey-inf.sandwell.sch.uk
www.abbeyfederation.co.uk
After school clubs Extra-curricular actvites at Abbey Schools have excellent atendance with most clubs selling out all of their available places and some having a long reserve list. This highlights the impact of PE and school sport as children are keen to contnue engaging in physical actvity in their own free tme. This is a positve behavioural change as it contributes to the healthy actve lifestyle that Abbey Schools promote. Abbey ofers a broad and varied range of afer school clubs, delivered by external providers, such as football, girls’ football, dance, mult sports, gymnastcs, cricket or athletcs, Yo-chi, Young engineers, Wheelchair basketball and choir. We encourage all pupils to take part in a range clubs and involve them in deciding the clubs we put on ofer. Registers of clubs are kept to identfy those who do and do not take part in regular extra exercise. We try to rotate and update the range of clubs and are always looking out for reliable providers. Music tuition We ofer additonal music lessons to pupils using a range of expert peripatetc staf. There is an additonal cost for these lessons as set out in our Charging and Remissions policy.
Instruments include : Guitar, Violin, Drums, Keyboard. A ll pupils have the opportunity to learn tuned and un-tuned percussion; recorders are taught as whole class instruments in KS2.
Friends of Abbey PTA Coming together for educaton and fun, this is where our school builds a great partnership. There are regular opportunites for the school to be part of family life and the community and we hope that you will embrace this through atending; performances, presentatons, parent workshops, exhibitons, educatonal visits, sportng events and compettons, links with the local community (Library and Warley Woods), events held in local buildings (the church, temple, mosque or theatre). Contributng to parent surveys which develop and shape our practce. Our Friends of Abbey events include events such as: the Christmas Fayre, Easter Eggstravaganza and the Summer Fayre, Fashion Shows, Family Fun Days and Family Quiz Night. There is so much going on and something for everyone so please check out our website calendar and diary with dates of all the event to keep you informed and engaged. htps:// www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/diary/grid/2020/07/
Excellence through partnership
Working together, communicating together
We strive to build strong relatonships with our carers and parents, knowing that our children will reach excellence when s chool and home are working together. Our school moto, 'Excellence through Partnership', refects our commitment to families and motvates us to improve our communicaton with them. Every week we publish T he Abbey Lens newsleter , which celebrates the good news from our school and is distributed both electronically and in paper form. We also encourage our students and parents to submit news, photos, and stories to share with our 650+ families. Our website (htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/) is regularly updated with events and informaton for each year group. The calendar page is visited 28,000 tmes in an average year, averaging 700 hits per week over term-tme. T his diary can be synced to your smartphone , so you won't miss any school events! We ofer parents 'Schoolcomms', which provides email correspondence. School could provides bookings for events. We also have ‘Parentpay’, an online and cashless payment system, and ‘Medical Tracker’, a notfcaton tool which emails parents when their child needs frst aid or medicine in school. Throughout the year, we also ask for parent feedback through online surveys, which have seen a high response rate and help us in our ongoing school development.
We are now a completely ‘cashless’ school. More informaton can be found at: htps://www.parentpay.com/schools/customer/primary
Find out about our school
BB6Y LENS September 2019 Vol 6: Issue No. One Excellence Through Partnership
THE
Our website is a key gateway for information about our school. There are some examples below.
Hello! 6th Year of our Abbey Lens
Abbey’s curriculum pages htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/parent-guide-to-the-natonal-curriculum/
Abbey’s Phonics pages htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/phonics-for-parents/
MEET THE STAFF Fun, short videos that introduce some of our staff. http://www.abbeyfederation.co.uk/whos- who/ CALENDAR OF EVENTS Planned out for the year, including a link to add the dates to your smart device. http://www.abbeyfederation.co.uk/diary/ grid/2017/09/ OUR CURRICULUM A detailed guide to the national curriculum and how we tailor it for our children. http://www.abbeyfederation.co.uk/parent- guide-to-the-national-curriculum/ KIDS’ ZONE Educational based games that change every month supporting many areas of the curriculum http://www.abbeyfederation.co.uk/special/ kidszone/ CLASS PAGES Year group pages and lots of great events that our children have taken part in. http://www.abbeyfederation.co.uk/topic/ class-pages ON-LINE SAFETY Advice and guidance for parents on keeping our children safe in the ever growing technological world. http://www.abbeyfederation.co.uk/useful- links/
Abbey’s handwritng (at the botom of the YR page) htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/recepton/
Abbey’s Maths Methods htps://abbey-federaton.primarysite.media
htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/maths-methods/
Abbey’s Britsh values htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/britsh-values/
Abbey’s home-school learning htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/home-school-e-learning/
Abbey’s School council htp://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/school-council/
Commercial website that has many useful reference guides htps://www.theschoolrun.com
Abbey’s Class pages htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/topic/class-pages
Abbey’s Safeguarding informaton htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/safeguarding/
Abbey’s On-line safety informaton htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/on-line-safety-informaton/
Abbey’s Special needs informaton htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/sen-inclusion/
Abbey’s DFE Publishing requirements htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/how-is-the-abbey-website-compliant-with-dfe-requir/
Have you got a paragraph of good news to share? Write in under 100 words, attach a picture and your story may be published.
www.abbeyfederation.co.uk All submissions to office@abbey-
jun.sandwell.sch.uk or office@abbey-inf.sandwell.sch.uk
Times and uniform
Nursery morning 8.30-11.30 Nursery afternoon 12.20-3.20
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (Infants) 8.50am - start of the school day
10.45am - playtime 12.00pm - lunchtime 1pm - start of the afternoon 3.15pm - end of school
Year 3-6 (Juniors) 8.50am - start of the school day 10.25am - playtime for Years 3 & 4 10.45am playtime for Years 5 & 6
11.45am- 12.45pm - Lunchtime for Years 3 & 4 12pm- 1pm Lunchtime for Years 5 & 6 3.25pm - end of school
The following is our school uniform. Most items are available from an on-line shop htps:// ais.ace-online.co.uk/catalogue . We do not insist on purchases from this store and comparable colours from the high-street are equally acceptable.
Grey or black trousers/skirt/shorts (summer); White polo shirts; Royal sweatshirt or cardigan; Blue and white gingham dress; Black school shoes; PE kit royal blue shorts and white round neck t-shirts.
Abbey Playden
Before and after school provision for families
Abbey Playden has been developed in order to provide the children and parents of Abbey Junior School, Abbey Infant School and Abbey Nursery with quality out of hours childcare provision. Based on the schools’ caring ethos of excellence and inclusion for all, Abbey Playden provides a safe, stmulatng environment for children to share, play and learn. By making use of the junior school’s wide range of facilites, including IT suites, dining hall, library, indoor and outdoor sports equipment and the ‘house’, children have the opportunity to explore numerous actvites. A team of Playworkers and Early Years Workers are employed together with catering support from the school’s own superb kitchen, to provide peace of mind for parents and quality care and support for children.
Abbey Playden ofers the type of all round quality childcare that only a school can provide.
Abbey Playden
Breakfast Club - 7.30am - 9.00am Afer School Club - 3.15pm - 5.30pm
£5.50 per session* £9.50 per session*
Abbey Junior School Barclay Road Smethwick B67 5LT Bookings are made electronically by parents using the Parentpay App: Queries and enquiries via email to; abbeyplayden@abbey-jun.sandwell.sch.uk
Payment can be made by childcare vouchers or on Parentpay. The applicaton pack can be found on our website htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/abbey-playden/
Additonally there is a holiday play-scheme service for most term breaks. Parents can use the Government tax-free childcare account to pay fees.
* Prices do not include any potental pay award from local government and are subject to change.
Other useful information
ParentPay: We are a ‘Cashless’ school. All payments need to be made through ParentPay which is our e-payment method. This can be done using a very secure website or in cash at local stores where you see the PayPoint logo. We do not have the facilites to collect payments by cash or cheque. Approximately 97% of our parents have now registered with ParentPay and are successfully using this as their preferred method of payment. If you would like any assistance in actvatng your ParentPay account please contact either of the school ofces. More informaton about ParentPay can be found on their website: htps://www.parentpay.com/schools/customers/primary/ Term Time Leave of Absence: The Head Teacher will not grant any leave of absence during term tme unless there are exceptonal circumstances. Therefore, should you decide to take your child out of school for holidays or any other reason during term-tme, this will be recorded as an ‘Unauthorised Absence’ and your child’s overall atendance fgure will be afected. A list of school holidays and Inset days is available on the school website for your informaton. If you stll decide to take your child out of school during term tme you will need to complete a ‘Leave of Absence Request Form’. This can be collected from the school ofces and is also available on the school website. Please note that if you choose to print the form from the school website yourself, this has to be printed in colour. Child Absence: If your child is unable to atend school you are requested to call the school ofce by 8.50am to notfy us that your child will be absent. There is an opton to leave a message on our pupil absence line before the ofce opens at 8.30am. If you do not inform the ofce of an absence, you will receive a courtesy call from us as part of our welfare checks. We request that medial appointments are made out of school hours wherever possible. Where this is not possible, evidence of the appointment will be required. School Meals, free school meals in KS2, milk for under 5’s: Dinner money at the junior school is £2.73 per day – £13.65 per week. Please make sure you have added your child to your ParentPay account if your child has transferred from the infant school to the junior school. Children will be asked every morning their meal choice for that day. Please ensure you have sufcient funds on your dinner money account within ParentPay to enable them to choose a school meal. Dinners have to be paid for in advance, before any meals are taken. A menu is available on the school website to give you an idea of the food available to your child at lunchtmes. There is no cost for dinners for the infant children due to the introducton of the universal free school meals scheme which started on 1st September 2014. htp://www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200151/educaton_benefts/2176/free_school_meals Your child will be automatcally registered for free milk, if under 5 years old. Once your child is 5 then parents must register themselves at the link below htps://www.coolmilk.com/parents/
Other useful information
Schoolcomms. Please remember to ensure that we have your most up to date email address and contact numbers as all correspondence is sent via Schoolcomms, our electronic mailing system. This will also ensure that we will be able to contact you in the event of an emergency. We endeavour to be a ‘Paperless school’ where possible with all communicaton being sent via email. If you do not have an email address you will receive hard copies of correspondence. Collecton of children. All children are collected from the 2 x playgrounds at the end of the school day. Please be mindful of coats in the event of poor weather. But additonally: Juniors: If you wish your child to leave the site unaccompanied at the end of the school day - would would require email/writen consent. This can be done via email to the school ofce. The school children will not be released to anyone diferent coming to collect them unless the teacher or the school ofce has been informed beforehand and this informaton can then be passed on to the teacher. Please ensure that you collect your child on tme. All staf have afer-school commitments for planning, marking and curriculum meetngs. Lateness can cause inconvenience. Site. We would like to remind you that the whole of our site, inside school, the playground and surrounding grounds, is a ‘chewing gum free zone’ and a ‘no smoking / vaping zone’. Junior Break-Time. All children in YR, Y1 and Y2 receive free fruit at break tme as part of a Government scheme. Juniors can bring a healthy and proportonately sized snack. PE Kits / Earrings. Children are allowed to wear one set of stud earrings. These should be removed for PE and any other physical actvity, if your child cannot take out their own earrings please make sure that you remove them on the day they have PE etc. Please note that staf are not allowed to remove earrings and children are not allowed to do PE with them in. Please ensure your child has their full PE Kit with them in school at all tmes as we are unable to loan spare PE Kits due to Health and Safety. This should comprise of a white t-shirt, royal blue shorts and black pumps all labelled in a PE bag. Full PE kits can be purchased from Ace Embroidery - see the Uniform page. All other school uniform can also be purchased through your ParentPay account. Afer making your purchase, uniform will be sent home with your child the following day. A price list is also on the school website for your informaton.
Special educational needs and medical needs
At the Federaton of Abbey Infant and Junior School, we welcome everybody into our community. The staf, governors, pupils and parents work together to make Abbey a happy, welcoming place where children and adults can achieve to their full potental and develop as confdent individuals. This means that equality of opportunity must be a reality for all our children. We make this a reality through the atenton we pay to the diferent groups of children within our school family, providing a learning environment that enables all pupils to make the greatest possible progress and achieve to their full potental in a caring, supportve and fully inclusive environment. Our special educaton needs and disabilites (SEND) provision allows pupils with barriers to their learning, the opportunity to follow a curriculum specifcally tailored to develop life skills and to give pupils self-confdence through their learning, enabling them to maximise their potental and to work independently.
More informaton about our SEND provision can be found at: htps:// www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/sen-equality/
We can also support pupils with medical conditons and those who require GP prescribed medicaton. Each pupil will have n individual Medical care-plan. More informaton can be found at: htps://www.abbeyfederaton.co.uk/medicine-personal-care/
Applying for school places
If you would like your child to atend our school, please see full details of our admission arrangements below.
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council - Admissions page
Applying for a recepton school place
Useful Telephone numbers for your local school admission team 1.docx
Applying for a school place for Recepton or Junior (Y3) for the forthcoming academic year
Weblink to Sandwell Admissions - also informaton for mid-year transfer
Mid-year transfer between school - LA site containing informaton about how to move schools mid--year
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