Friday 19th January 2024

From April 2024, the government is extending free childcare for working parents to include 2 -year-olds. If your child is 2 years old, you may be able to get 15 hours free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year (during school term time).

More information is available on this link https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-childcare-if-youre-working, which includes how to apply for a code to enable you to get free childcare. You can apply from when your child is 1 year and 36 weeks old.

We are currently looking at our Nursery offer and would be very interested to know if you would like a place for your 2-year-old at the school so that we can review and plan for it. Please complete the survey below.

Survey

Book Your Parent and Carer Consultations slot

Parent and Carer Consultations will be held on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st February in school. The booking system via the Arbor app will be open on Monday 22nd January at 7am.

SEN Reviews will be held separately and you will be contacted directly for a meeting with Mrs Sephton.

Closing Date Monday: Parent Governor Vacancy

The Governing body have a vacancy for a parent governor and are seeking nominations for an enthusiastic and committed parents or carers to join the governing board. It is your opportunity to help Ellingham achieve its strategic vision to AIM HIGH for every child.

The core functions of the governing board are to:

Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
Hold senior leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation, its pupils, and the performance management of staff
Oversee the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

The term of office for all governors is four years. Governors need to attend an average of two committee meetings per term (before or after school) and have the opportunity to visit the school to understand a specific element of the school's practice. Many companies allow time out of work for governor commitments.

Please see letter here from the Chair of Governors for more information and a form to complete for nominations. Closing date extended to Monday 22nd at noon.

Kingston-Wide Wrap-Around Care

Achieving for Children, Kingston's Educational Services team are hoping to capture parents' likely requirements for wraparound care to support their planning for September 2024. Please complete the survey on this link.

LEARNING TOGETHER

New Year Group Curriculum Pages

We have exciting new web pages for each year group. Click on the buttons to read all about your child's year group, including photos, an overview of learning and resources to support your child and home.

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Reception Have Fun Learning

Each week Reception children complete fine motor tasks to help strengthen their muscles needed for pencil control.

It's such fun, they don't even know they're building strength and learning!

Year 2 Cold Colours!

Year 2 discussed hot and cold colours this week and how they make us feel. The children then used a range of cold colours and experimented adding white and black paint to make different shades. They will be using their cold colours to create their very own art work in the style of Alison Lester.

Budding Musicians: Class 3BR Ukulele

This term 3BR are learning the ukulele.

Mrs Pearman from Kingston Music Service is coming in weekly to teach us, and after only 2 lessons we have able to play along to songs, including 'Roar' by Katie Perry!

Many children decide to learn the guitar in school after learning and loving the ukulele.

Year 4 Research the history of London Bridge

This week in Year 4 history we looked at how important London Bridge has been over the centuries. London Bridge has been rebuilt many times but there are 4 key structures:

Roman construction- CE 50
Medieval construction - CE 1209
New London Bridge 1831–1967
Modern day London Bridge - 17 March 1973 to date

There were THREE reasons to only have ONE bridge coming into London:

Security/Defence
Control
Taxes

After researching the bridges, we made them out of carboard and discussed the new materials and technologies available for each one. As a class, we considered what had changed and what had stayed the same throughout time.

Y4 Investigate States of Matter

This week, Year 4 were investigating what makes a substance a solid or liquid. They had a range of different materials to experiment with and had to establish how the two differ.

Year 6 Trip Natural History Museum

"I really enjoyed the trip on Tuesday. We got there on two trains and walked to the museum. There were approximately six of us in each group and then half of the groups explored the museum whilst the others did the workshop. They were both fun. We all got grossed out by the jars with embalmed animals inside and the workshop (featuring evolution and inheritance) was marvellous. I loved our trip; this is definitely something I would want to do again!" Persey - 6H

SAFEGUARDING, HEALTH AND SUPPORT

Helping children with Screen time (1).pdf

This is the full safeguarding team in school. They are all trained to Level 3 and everyone in the school received the annual update of Safeguarding Level 2 training at INSET.

Contact details: 020 8397 3864 or email: office@elp.rbksch.org to request a safeguarding call back. For pupil support, contact 020 8397 3864 or email: pupilsupport@elp.rbksch.org

LOCAL EVENTS

Kingston Adult Education - Courses for parent and carers

Please click here for a brochure outlining some of the courses available at Kingston Adult Education, part of Kingston Council, during the Spring Term.

A number of these courses are free.

Courses take place at various times and locations across our borough, and include:

· Reducing anxiety and developing resilience in your child

· Help your child be a good friend

· Support your child through exam stress

· Assisting your child with their math's school work

They also offer a comprehensive range of vocational and creative courses to develop your skills, increase your earning potential and improve your wellbeing.

For further information, please contact Kingston Adult Education directly on 020 8547 6700 or at adult.education@kingston.gov.uk

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