Welcome to this week's newsletter. In some ways it has been an unusual week, with the school being closed to pupils on Wednesday. In other ways, it has been "business as usual" with excellent learning across the school. Every year group has now been able to welcome parents and carers into the classroom at least once this term - we hope you were able to make it indoors to see your child(ren)'s classroom and some of their exercise books.

This week our school value was Respect and we reminded the children that at Victoria Park Primary School, we celebrate our differences and teach our children to find their place in the world through respect, curiosity and kindness. With this sense of curiosity, we hope children were able to find out more about World Hijab Day on Wednesday 1st February. If you didn't get the chance to watch the videos provided, please click here to take a look. We will leave this remote learning page up for a while so that you can still watch the videos.

Staffing News

Congratulations to Miss Zaynab who will be getting married and moving to London! Unfortunately for us, this means Miss Zaynab will be leaving VPPS at half term. We will miss you Miss Zaynab and wish you all the best for your exciting next chapter.

Our congratulations also go to Mrs Hawksbee who - after studying hard - has qualified as a Teaching Assistant and will soon take up her first new job in a local Nursery. Thank you Mrs Hawksbee for all your hard work in the Play Team and in Year 1 last year while studying for your TA qualification.

Finally, congratulations to Mrs Vaughan who is expecting another baby! Mrs Vaughan will go on maternity leave in the summer term.

Attendance

Our winners for Attendance last week were:

• Best Class: Cherry and Magnolia
• Most improved Class: Ash
• Most punctual Class: Muberry, Cedar and Eucalyptus.
• Whole school attendance is currently 95.2% which is getting closer to our 96% target.
   

Safer Internet Day

Next week, we will be learning about Safer Internet Day.  The children will discuss this in class during class assembly on Tuesday and this will be followed up by a phase assembly on Wednesday.
We have recently had a few incidents in school where children have been reported to be looking at inappropriate content online at home, sharing images, using social media and playing games that are not within their recommended age bracket.  In light of this we have updated our online safety advice on our school webpage.  There are lots of handy guides on there about setting parental controls on devices and parent guides for a range of social media platforms that your child might be accessing.
Please take some time to have a read through this information, check the parental settings on your home devices and your child's devices, and most importantly open up conversations with your child about being safe online.
https://www.victoriaparkprimary.co.uk/online-safety/

World Book Day

Here is an advance date for your diaries. At Victoria Park Primary School, we will celebrate World Book Day on Wednesday 1st March. This will be a day earlier than the official date, because of the possibility of another NEU strike. As always, we would like to invite children and adults to come to school dressed up as a character from a book. We will be providing an exciting and informative day including assemblies, visiting authors and workshops. (Remember - we don't expect anyone to rush out and spend lots of money on a costume; you could wear something you already own, or make a small prop to represent your character. Taking part is optional - it's fine to wear school uniform on this day.)

Year 5 & 6 APSP Football Tournament

Over the past three weeks, two football teams have been competing in the APSP annual football tournament. Each team played in 12 games over a three week period. Every player demonstrated our school values and played with admirable care and precision. There are too many moments of success to mention - from the first week to the last - but each player should be extremely proud of what they have achieved at this event. Our teams faced some tough opposition and even came from behind to win some of their games, showing outstanding determination. We loved seeing our players shaking hands and congratulating the opposing team after the final whistle, whether they won or lost.
Our thanks go to Dylan Carpenter who volunteered his own time to help coach and manage our teams.

Spare Clothes and Pants

We keep a stock of spare clothes and pants in school in our EYFS classrooms and medical room. The EYFS team need to top up their spare clothes boxes.  We are in particular need of pants for both boys and girls aged 4/5/6, and grey or black jogging bottoms aged 4/5/6.  We would love to rehome any items which have a bit of life left in them! Please drop these into the front office or hand them to a teacher.

Levelled Books

We have replenished our levelled reading book boxes with high quality texts for all our pupils to enjoy. Please remember to return any books your child has finished reading so they can be circulated for everyone to read. You will notice if the book belongs to school because it will have a coloured sticker on the spine.

Uniform

Children are expected to wear full school uniform to school, including black shoes. Children should not wear hoodies, sports tops or white trainers (except for PE). The full uniform expectations are available here on the website.

Other information

For details of free School Health Nurses webinars for parents and carers, please click on the flyer below.

Please come to the Bedminster Lantern Parade tomorrow at 5pm. Pupils and staff in Year 4 have been working hard to create this year's giant lantern and individual lanterns. We will join other local primary schools to walk along North Street and British Road. There is also music along the route from a range of local bands. See you there!