Orchard Fields Community School Edmunds Road Banbury Oxfordshire OX16 0QT Telephone: Fax: orchard-fields. oxon.sch.uk Newsletter - Date of Issue – 26 th September 2014 Dear parents/carers, It is with delight that I inform you that our recent Ofsted was very positive. We have achieved a good for leadership and management, behaviour and safety of pupils, quality of teaching, achievement of pupils and Early Years provision. Therefore the overall effectiveness of our school is graded good. All parents will receive a copy of the full report at the end of today. Here are a few of the inspectors’ views about our school. ‘Pupils take pride in belonging to the school and respect the needs of others.’ ‘The calm and positive approach used by members of staff leads to a happy school where children feel safe and well cared for.’ ‘Leaders have clear plans to improve the school further and are aiming high.’ ‘Leadership and Management of the school, including the Early Years Foundation Stage, are good.’ ‘Pupils good progress in the development of literacy and numeracy supports their learning in other subjects and prepares them for their future lives.’ We as a staff would like to congratulate your children on achieving this good grade. We also would like to thank both parents and carers for supporting our school during our journey of improvement. We know that we can rely upon your continuing support and look forward to becoming an outstanding school in the near future. To celebrate this success we would like to invite you to join us in school next Friday 3 rd October for a celebration party at 2.30pm. Cakes, nibbles and refreshments will be provided and we look forward to seeing you there. Mrs Dawn Shilston (Head Teacher)

Dates for your Diary EventDate Macmillan Coffee Afternoon (Mrs Foreman’s class) – (Parents Invited) 26 th September 2014 – 2.30pm-3.15pm Phonics Introduction Session (Reception class- parents can attend) 1 st October 2014 – 3.30pm-4.00pm African Mask Making Day (Whole School)6 th October 2014 Reading Afternoon (Year 2)6 th October 2014 – 2.45pm – 3.15pm African Dance Day (Whole school)7 th October 2014 Maths Inspire Workshop (Nursery and Reception)8 th October 2014 Maths Inspire Workshop (Year 1)9 th October 2014 Literacy workshop (Years 4/5)14 th October 2014 Parents Evening22 nd October 2014 – 3.30pm- 5.00pm Parents Evening23 rd October 2014 – 3.30pm – 7.00pm Key Stage 1 Halloween Disco23 rd October 2014 – 3.30pm – 4.30pm Key Stage 2 Halloween Disco24 th October 2014 – 3.30pm – 4.45pm Year 2 Just a reminder to complete and return your trip permission slip with a voluntary donation of £10.20 for our trip to Gaydon Motor Museum on Tuesday 21 st October. Thank you to those that have already returned both, just to remind you that if we do not get enough voluntary donations we will have to cancel the trip.

Craft Club In craft club children are giving old socks a new lease of life as a cuddly toy. All the children are working together as a team to complete their cuddly toys. Nimrah Kanwal in Mrs Bradford’s class is transforming her old pink and white fluffy socks and Ryan Bloxham in Mrs Stuart’s class already has a name for his monkey which will be revealed when the project is finished. Year 1 Next week, Year 1 will be going for a walk around the outside of the school site to observe the local environment as part of their topic. Miss Godsil’s class will be going on Wednesday 1st October and Miss Morgan’s class will be going on Thursday 2 nd October. If any parents /carers are willing to join us, please let your child’s class teacher know on Monday. We will be leaving around 1:45pm and will aim to be back by 2:45pm. Please ensure your child has a coat in school on their trip day.

Early Years We would like to say a big well done to all the children in Early Years for settling in so well to their new classes. In Reception Class we have been counting cereal using number fans and learning about shapes. We have played with Metal Mike, a Robot, who helps us to 'Sound talk' simple words. We have had a great time exploring the outside environment, practising writing our names in the new literacy area, sharing the bikes with our new friends and getting rather wet in the water pump area! We would like to invite parents /carers to the first 'Fun with Phonics' session of the year. This will take place on Wednesday 1 st October from 3.30pm until 4.00pm in the Reception classroom. (Please come straight to the classroom and not the main reception) This session will be held primarily for the parents of the current Reception classes as an introduction of teaching reading and writing, however everybody is welcome to attend.

Maths Inspire Workshops for Week Commencing 29 th September All parents/carers are invited to attend our Maths Inspire Workshops to take place within your child’s classroom. Year 6 - will take place on Monday 29 th September – 9.30am am Year 5 – will take place on Tuesday 30 th September – 1.30pm – 3.00pm Year 4 – will take place on Wednesday 1 st October 1.30pm – 3.00pm Year 3 – will take place on Thursday 2 nd October – 9.15am pm Year 2 – will take place on Friday 3 rd October 1.30pm – 2.30pm Loom Band Club Loom band club began on Wednesday 24th September. If you would like to attend please bring in your own loom bands and go to Mrs Ruffle’s classroom at 12pm on Wednesday.

Dinner Money Polite notice- When sending in money with your children for school dinners could you please provide the correct change for their class teacher. If you require change we would politely ask that you pay at reception. Thank you Medical Information Parents/carers are encouraged to administer medicines at home whenever possible. Children should be given medicines at school only if necessary. All prescribed medicines to be administered at school must have written parental consent using the appropriate form which is available from the school reception. Please note we cannot administer any pain relief medicine eg. Calpol, without a doctor’s confirmation. We are advised not to administer any other non-prescription medicines due to the problem of unknown side-effects and possible counter effects of combining other medicines or foods. We would therefore encourage you to seek your doctor’s advice for any condition and obtain written confirmation from the doctor if any medication is to be administered. Alternatively parents/carers would need to come to school to administer the medication. We would also like to advise that children who have been diagnosed with asthma bring in a spare Spacer and Inhaler which will be kept in school at all times. As per other medicines this medicine needs to be prescribed by a doctor for your child. Attendance This week, unfortunately we have dropped to 95.76%. Thank you to those parents who have phoned in before 9am to let us know why their child was absent – this has improved this week. Well done to Mrs Bradford’s class for getting the best attendance last week. Every child was in every day and 1 child was late on one day! This week we had 32 lates, which is an improvement from the previous weeks of 36, which is brilliant news – let’s keep improving like this every week! Unfortunately Ms Rowe’s class had the worse punctuality this week with just over 18% of all the lates throughout the school. Well done to the children in year 6 for having no lates this week!