Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 13th December 2024

ashley.coley • December 13, 2024

Headteachers Update

Hello, I would like to take this chance to say a massive thank you for the warm welcome I have received from children, staff and parents. The performances this week, were so lovely. I am really looking forward to leading the school in Miss Laycock's absence and already I feel I have got to know the strengths of this wonderful school. Fortunately, I have been able to spend a couple of days with Miss Laycock to handover and I know your thoughts and prayers will be with her and her family.


I have been a headteacher for over 7 years, and for the past two years, I have been working in an advisory role supporting both Primary and Secondary schools. When Tim Coulson asked if I would come to Lingwood, I did not hesitate. I live just outside Bury St Edmunds with my wife and 16-year-old twin boys. I am an avid sportsman and fan and am currently training for an attempt to run a sub 3-hour marathon, so you might see me running around the village.


I will be working from home on a Wednesday, but we have made arrangements for another senior leader from Unity to come and support Miss Coley when I am not in school. Please do catch me at the gate at the start or the end of the day and say hello.


Have a lovely weekend.


Ben Jeffery

Interim Headteacher

Dates for the diary 

  • Monday 16th December - KS2 Christmas Performance 9.30am
  • Friday 20th December - Last day of term
  • Monday 6th January - Spring term begins

Year Group News

Nursery

This week in Nursery we have been learning about the Christmas Story. The children have been re-telling the story in our small world tray and they have enjoyed dressing up and acting out the story in our role play area. We also had our Christmas performance and we are so proud of the children who all shone.


Reception

Reception have been learning about the Nativity story this week and have enjoyed re-telling the story using a story map. They have also been decorating the classroom with paper chains using repeating patterns and remembering the shapes we have learnt over the last few weeks. We were so proud of them all during their Christmas show on Wednesday. They were so brave to perform in front of such a big audience and we think they are all superstars! 


Year 1

We are so proud of the children and their hard work for our nativity play this half term! They were fantastic during the performance, showing off their amazing singing and speaking parts!  Thank you for all of your support with costumes, line learning and no doubt hearing the songs on repeat at home!


We were also lucky to have a visit from a parent who brought in a posada which was visiting them for the night from their church. The children enjoyed hearing about where the statue and tradition originates from and why it is important to the family and their religion.


Year 2   

What an amazing nativity performance from Year 2! Thank you to all the parents that were able to join us- you were an amazing audience! Thank you for all the lovely costumes! We are so proud of all of them- they all worked really hard to learn their parts and songs. 


This week we have also learned about the Lantern Festival in China during our reading lesson. We practised sequencing events from the story and finding events in the story by identifying the beginning, middle and end, which makes it easier to find information when answering questions about the text.

Year 3

This week Year 3 have been working hard to write their historical stories, including dialogue. They have been using their learning in History to help them use precise vocabulary. 

In reading we have begun reading the poem The night before Christmas and have been practising our scanning skills to identify key words and phrases which help us answer questions.


Year 4

This week Year 4 have started their new writing unit, News Reports! They have already begun by looking at various news articles and annotating their features. We are nearly at the end of our core text, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant. In Science, we were solving why water droplets form around cold cans and glasses. The children also recorded what had happened to their experiment from last week. Lastly, we had our final music lesson with our Norfolk Hub music teacher where we rehearsed our performance of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on the ukulele!


Year 5

This week, Year 5 had a whole day of DT, where they designed and created a road safety belt in groups. They carefully selected particular materials so that they were reflective and would be able to be seen in the dark. I was so proud of them all - well done! In Writing, we have planned and started writing a balanced argument about whether we should ban school uniforms or not. The children have recognised points for as well as against to ensure they remain balanced and not biased. 


Year 6

Year 6 have been rehearsing hard for their Christmas performance this week. They have also written a news report and edited it. In maths, the class have been multiplying and dividing fractions with success. Finally, they are really enjoying the class book How to Live Forever.

Achievement Awards

Rabbit Class  - The whole class for being superstars during their Christmas show.


Squirrel Class – Mollie - for fantastic addition and subtraction work in maths.


Hares Class  – Brooke - for her commitment to rehearsing lines and songs at home - a fantastic donkey!


Fawns Class  – Theo, for working hard to apply his knowledge in his writing this week.

               

Otter Class - Jess B - For your amazing adventure story. You had a clear plot, characters and setting. It was a very exciting read.


Badger Class – Georgia for doing amazingly well on your spelling test - well done!


Fox Class - Luca for working really hard on his handwriting when completing his news report.


Star Pupil Awards


Rabbit Class -  The whole class for being superstars during their Christmas show.

Squirrel Class –Isabelle - for being a kind and helpful member of Squirrels class.


Hares Class  – Alfie - for being a great member of Hare’s class. We will miss your smiley face


Fawns Class - Talula Gregg, for consistently trying her best in all lessons. Well Done.


Otter Class – Thea - for always being so positive and sharing your lovely smile with us every day!


Badger Class – Tye for being respectful to all adults - well done!


Fox Class – Alesha for an improved focus and effort this week in class.


Congratulations to you all - we are very proud of you!

Attendance Update
   This week's whole school attendance

95.5%

  • In first place is Year 3  with 96.1%
  • In joint second place is Year 1 and 6 with 96% 
  • In third place is Year 4  with 95.1%.


Well done to all the children arriving at school on time, ready to learn lets see if we can increase our attendance next week! Fawns won the extra reward this week!


A reminder that the school gates will continue to be open from 8.30 am. Registration is at 8.40 am and school finishes at 3.25 pm.


Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know 

Remember that every day counts and we are in every day next week!

Congratulations Mr Scott


A big congratulations to Mr Scott and his wife on the birth of their beautiful daughter Ivy.


We look forward to welcoming Mr Scott back after his paternity leave, but in the meantime Mrs Gregory will be in full charge of the nursery.


FOLPA Christmas Raffle

Reminder:


If you would like to buy a square to win the Christmas raffle please visit the school office.


Squares are £1 each.


The winner will be drawn on Wednesday 18th December.


Thanks everyone.

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 25th April 2025

By ashley.coley • April 25, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. The children have come back to school in good spirits and have settled back into the ‘Lingwood Way’.  Last term I wrote to you about uniform expectations at Lingwood and it has been useful to hear some feedback from parents. Further to what I wrote in my last newsletter, please note that black or dark grey pinafore dresses can be worn and that plain hoodies are ok for outdoor PE. I hope that clears a few things up. All Unity Schools are sending surveys to parents, staff and pupils this week. This type of feedback is really useful, and I would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes filling this survey in. As always, if there are any big issues please do not hesitate to contact the school so we can work things through. Our weekly attendance has dropped a bit to 94.4%. The simple fact is that the higher the attendance for your child the more learning they can do. Often our absences are because of unauthorised holidays. I understand the frustrations around expensive holidays, but your child is missing crucial learning if they are going away in term and it is highly unlikely I will authorise the absence. Well done to year 6 who managed 100%attendance for the week. Year 6 have SATS on the w/c 12th May and it is crucial they are in every day. Have a good weekend and enjoy the mini heatwave which is set to come. Regards, Mr Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 4th April 2025

By ashley.coley • April 4, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, What a lovely way to end the term with. The children had a great service at the church. They sang beautifully, walked sensibly to and from the church, and the readers did a great job. We were also fortunate to hear the bands from Rock Steady in the afternoon. It is important to be able to offer opportunities like this to our children and we will be sending some information out after Easter about the chance to learn an instrument. Next term, we are having a big push on school uniform. School uniform helps us have a sense of identity and belonging and I am a firm believer in taking pride in your appearance in school (even when I am dressed as a penguin). Once standards start to slip with uniform, it is a battle to get them back up. Also, by allowing one child to wear a hoodie, for example, opens this up for every other child to ask why they can’t do the same. Our big push for the first few weeks of term will be shoes, the correct PE kits (not hoodies) and proper school shorts and trousers. On our website it says children must have proper school shoes, but after speaking to children, parents and staff, I have decided to allow plain black trainers. For more information, please see the link below and if you are unsure or if you have any questions please contact your class teacher of Mrs Tubby. Uniform at Lingwood Primary I hope you and your families have a brilliant Easter break. A reminder the first day of term is Tuesday 22nd April. Regards, Mr Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 31st March 2025

By ashley.coley • March 31, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, I hope you had a lovely week. We are nearly at the end of the Spring Term but still have a busy few days to go. On Friday we are heading to St Peter’s Church in the morning for our celebration service. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help. Your child’s class teacher will let you know if we need you to help walk down. As much as we would like to have everyone there, please don’t turn up at the church as there is not room. We are keen to have share what happened at Lingwood on social media and have brought the Lingwood Primary Academy Facebook page back to life. Please click on this ling to follow us. (1) ‪#‎lingwoodprimary‬ – Explore | Facebook FOLPA met last Tuesday. I am pleased to let you know about some important dates: We have two non-uniform days in the summer term. Children can bring in £1 or tombola donations. Dates will be 16th May and 26th June. This is to raise money for our summer fete which be held on 11th July at 3.30pm. There is a quiz on 16th May at the Village Hall. Once again, our attendance is above the national average for Primary schools. A big well done to year 5 and Nursey for 100%. Have a great week.

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 24th March 2025

By ashley.coley • March 25, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, It has been quite a week at Lingwood. We celebrated and raised money for Comic Relief on Friday including lots of exercises in assembly. The year sixes have been on their residential trip for three days. I am writing this having just experienced kayaking in March. Thank goodness for the sunshine. On Wednesday, we filmed our promotional video of the school. Once we have checked it through we will put this on our website. Many of you have been asking how Mrs Laycock is. It was lovely to see her visit the school on Wednesday. Please see an update from Dr Tim Coulson (CEO Unity SP). Mrs Laycock has successfully had surgery and has recovered well. She is now moving onto the next phase of her treatment plan. Once she has fully recovered from this, she is looking forward to returning. It has been agreed that Mr Jeffery will continue as interim Headteacher until her return. Please see this week’s attendance below. Well done to year 3 again for getting 100%! Have a lovely week. Mr Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 17th March 2025

By ashley.coley • March 17, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents, It was great to see such a good turnout for parents evening last week. If you didn’t manage to come your child’s class teacher will be in touch because we think it is important you know how they are getting on. Mrs Brighton is running the London Marathon on Sunday 27th April and raising money for Neuroendocrine Cancer UK in memory of her mum. To help with the fundraising we will be holding a CAKE SALE! When: Wednesday 2nd April Where: School playground Time: From 3.25pm All items will be 50p If you are able to donate any baked goods, homemade or shop bought (and importantly nut free!) then please drop these off on the morning of the cake sale. If you would like to sponsor Mrs Brighton directly, please visit: https://www.justgiving.com/page/stephanie-brighton-run-for-mum?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL Thank you for your support :-) I have had a few eagle-eyed parents who have pointed at that it said underneath my newsletter that children return to school after the Easter holiday on Monday 21st April. This is a mistake and is in fact Easter Monday. Children and staff return on Tuesday 22nd April. Another reminder to please not use the staff car park but to use the one at the Village Hall. A solid week with attendance. Well-done to year 3 for 100% attendance. Have a lovely week ahead. Mr Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 10th March 2025

By ashley.coley • March 10, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, Firstly, I would like to apologise that you received last week’s newsletter so late. We are having a few IT issues, but I am hopeful they have been resolved. It has been lovely to see the sun shining and the children continue to enjoy using the play equipment at lunch. It was also wonderful to see the effort put into World Book Day costumes. Last week I met three wonderful members of FOLPA (Friends of Lingwood Primary Academy). FOLPA is our PTA, and they help raise much needed and appreciated money for our school. This includes holding discos, non-uniform days and fetes. They are keen for more parents to join and help out. They are keen to stress that any help is welcome, and by signing up, you are not signing your life away! The next meeting is on 25th March at 7.15pm at the village hall. We are having a big push on reading at Lingwood this term. We are asking to children to read at home. Please support your child and the school by signing their reading logs and even better by listening to them read. We expect all children to be reading at home at least three times a week. Our weekly attendance is a cracking is 97.2% with the highest attending class being year 1 with a whopping 99.3%. Have a great weekend Mr Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 3rd March 2025

By ashley.coley • March 4, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, I hope you all had a wonderful half-term break. The children have come back to school with brilliant attitudes to learning. It is always great to see their enthusiasm for school when I open the gate in the mornings. We have had out write up from our attendance review. Here is part of the summary written by someone from the DfE: Overall, Lingwood has developed excellent, relationship-based practice, tight daily follow up processes and good monitoring and tracking processes in place in a short period of time. There is strong leadership and significant change in a short period of time since the school moved across to USP. This is a real team effort. Currently our school attendance stands at 95.3% and our current overall winners are Year 3 with 96.3%. One of the actions was to clear up what time the register is taken. The school gate will continue to open at 8.30am. The register will be taken at 8.40am. Please can I remind you not to use the car park at the front of school. We are fortunate to have access to the Village Hall car park. Have a lovely week. Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 14th February 2025

By ashley.coley • February 14, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents / carers, As we head towards half-term, I wanted to say a big thank you for all your support over these past few weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed working at this lovely school. I must admit having a broken wrist has been challenging, and I have seen a little too much of trains and Premier Inns, but it hasn’t stopped me feeling very much at home at Lingwood. I will continue to lead the school until Miss Laycock is well enough to return. It’s good to see that class dojo is being used with parents now but as I explained last week we are not currently using it for contact between home and school. Please contact staff through office@lingwoodprimary.org.uk. As I mentioned in a previous message, we are working on ensuring there is consistency in what both staff and children do. You will be sent a document that we are calling the ‘Lingwood Way’. Please have a look at our expectations for the school day. Attendance hit a record high last week with our weekly school attendance hitting an impressive 97%. Well-done to everyone for this fantastic achievement. Have a wonderful half-term break with your amazing children and we will see you back at school on Monday 24th February. Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 10th February 2025

By ashley.coley • February 9, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents / carers, It has been really useful speaking to children, staff and parents about how we can improve our behaviour systems and communication at our lovely school. I believe it is so important to praise, recognise and reward excellent effort and behaviour. At Lingwood, we award ‘dojos’ when a child has worked hard and/or demonstrated one of the values of the school. We would like parents to see this recognition and therefore we need you to be set up on class dojo. Today, your child should have come home with a login sheet with simple instructions on how to set this up. If you have not received this, please speak to the class teacher or Mrs Tubby. We are resetting children’s dojo scores at half term. When they earn 100 dojos, they will receive a silver badge to wear on their school jumper. This will be celebrated and awarded on a Friday assembly. If a child reaches 200 dojos they will be given a gold badge. Some schools use class dojo to communicate between the teacher and parents. For now, we are not going to use this facility. To speak to the teacher, please do one of the following: Catch them at the start or end of the day for a quick chat. This can’t be a long conversation because the teacher will need to have eyes on the rest of the class. Ring Mrs Tubby in the office on 01638 to arrange a meeting Email the office ( office@lingwoodprimary.org.uk ) and your email will be forwarded to the teacher We will continue to send out our weekly newsletter on a Monday with an update from me and your class teacher as I know this is appreciated. However, this week, we will send the final newsletter for the half term out Friday. Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy

Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 3rd February 2025

By ashley.coley • February 2, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, We seem to have had four seasons of weather in one week at Lingwood, but our children are hardy souls and don’t seem to be bothered by a bit of wind or rain. We had our first school council meeting of 2025 on Tuesday. It is always good to hear from our pupils. They were particularly keen to get some more equipment to use outside and had interesting ideas about our reward systems. As a staff, we have been working on having tight routines, so children are able to be ‘ready, respectful and safe’. We are striving for consistency and our focus for next week is the start and end of the day. Except for our Nursery pupils, children will be dismissed at the end of the day when they are sat down at their desk or on their carpet space. The teacher will call them up one at a time. Please be patient next week as this may take a bit of time to get right. In the winter months, the grassy areas around our paths and playgrounds become muddy and slippery. Please try and keep to the paved and concreted areas for your own safety. Please can you take a few minutes to complete the SEND survey for Norfolk County Council as this will give you a voice in SEND provision in Norfolk. Please follow this link. SEND survey 2025 - Norfolk County Council - Citizen Space Have a great week Regards,  Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy
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