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Friday 16th May 2025

Messages from the Principal, Miss Jarrett

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Dear Parents

As we approach the culmination of this half term, I am pleased to reflect on the significant strides we have made collectively. Your concerted efforts to bolster attendance have yielded remarkable improvements across all classes, a trend we must sustain (outside of chocolate challenges!) as we venture into the final half term of the academic year.

Our focus now shifts to transition, a process already underway for some children. Continuing our successful practice, we will be reconfiguring both Year 1 and Reception classes for the upcoming academic year. This strategic approach not only broadens children's social horizons but also ensures balanced, effective class compositions. Rest assured, this process is meticulously managed, leveraging our teachers' profound understanding of each child. However should you have any concerns, please engage with your child's class teacher. The new class allocations will be revealed on our transition day, Tuesday 1st July.

I must emphasise the importance of safety on school premises. Equipment in playgrounds and sheltered areas is off-limits before and after school hours. Additionally, football is prohibited on site during these times. 

Your continued support and vigilance in supervising your children during arrival and departure times are crucial in minimising potential accidents.

As we look ahead, preparations for our summer fair on Friday 11th July are in full swing. We welcome prize donations for our raffle from any willing companies; please liaise with Mrs Tibballs in the office if you can contribute.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude for your ongoing support and wish you all a rejuvenating half-term break.

Miss Jarrett
Principal


SAFEGUARDING

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Roblox and Parental Controls - South West Grid for Learning 

Roblox, the popular minecraft 'style' game has announced a new raft of parental controls. The website which ranks among the most popular games for children in the e-space, has previously been accused of possessing weak child protection tools. Their new raft of adaptations is important due to the game's position among school aged children. The new features have been adopted to allow parents to take control of their children's game time in a more comprehensive manner.

Parents will now be able to block individuals who communicate with their children, as well as have more detailed oversight over their usage of the programme. Real-time awareness measures have been increased and these changes represent a big step forward in making popular multiplayer games more secure for underaged users. If interested, the South-West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) has produced a comprehensive run down of these changes. Please follow the link below for more: 

https://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/roblox-launches-new-parental-controls/ 

If you have not already, we strongly urge you to check your devices and ensure you have parental controls set up on Roblox to keep your child safe when they are playing online.  If you need help with this please speak to your childs teacher or a member of SLT. 


Celebrating our Children!

Our Year 2 children last week participated in an NSPCC workshop "Speak out Stay Safe" which forms part of our school safeguarding work we complete with children to empower them to speak out when they see or experience something that is not safe.  

Year 2 have also been writing about being at the beach - Ayaan has been waiting for his writing to be showcased in the newsletter and we think it deserves to be here! 

Falcon class also helped out by doing some gardening in the playground! 

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Student Leadership

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Our Eco Councillors led assembly last week all about litter and how important it is to pick up your litter and not drop it on the floor.  They asked classes to nominate "Litter Helpers" to check the playground, classrooms and school environment daily to make sure we are keeping our school clean and tidy.  

We also introduced our new cuddly tiger that the WWF sent us in return for our donation to their Tiger fundraising appeal following our Dress up as an animal day.  The tiger has now visited all classes and voting is underway to name him.  


The Nest

This week, the pupils from the Nest enjoyed two engaging trips. At The Look Out, they had fun with hands-on activities, and at TVP, it was great to see their confidence grow as they explored and engaged with the equipment.

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Sporting Updates

Slough KS1 Athletics Festival

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Our group of 11 athletes attended the Slough School Sports Network Athletics Festival and represented our school in an amazing manner. Their efforts, enthusiasm and engagement were recognised by all the young persons supporting this event. 

Activities our athletes competed in included: junior javelin, spring stepping hurdles (see pic left), speed bounce and an end-of-event relay - which I think we would have won if the other school had competed with the right number of competitors! 

Our athletes were amazing and Mr Bowskill couldn't have been any more proud of their efforts, attitudes and respect shown to everyone. 

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Phoenix Mini Marathon

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who came and supported the children with their mini-marathon - we were very lucky with the weather!

We announced the results in our assembly last week to the children, but these also need sharing with our community - so here they are:

1st Place   Teachers

2nd Place  NHS

3rd Place   Police

4th Place   Fire Brigade

There were bonus points too for Noah (NHS) in Reception, Azan (Police) in Year 1 and Idris (Police) in Year 2 for completing the most laps in their year groups.

 

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House Competitions

Following on from our mini-marathon and to link with other school events, we have a "House System" that we use to help our children learn about simple and healthy competitions. 

The "house" system has been at Phoenix for a long time, and you will have noticed your child's PE shirt and other references linking their house to a particular colour. 

For your reference - the houses are, including their House Teacher:

Fire Brigade (Miss Austin)

NHS (Mr Bowskill)

Police (Miss Purdy)

Teachers (Miss Tranmer)

We are going to start introducing more "house" events throughout the calendar year so that our children can develop the link and association with their respective houses. 

Whenever we have a house competition, we will be awarding points based on the final standings for each team; these are likely to be:

1st Place = 4 points

2nd Place = 3 Points

3rd Place = 2 Points

4th Place = 1 points

Mr Bowskill has been busy counting up the numbers for events that have taken place so far (skipping competitions across the classes) and added them to the mini-marathon and we have our first league table standing:

Police - 15 points

NHS - 15 points

Teachers - 11 points

Fire Brigade - 9 points


ATTENDANCE

Well done to all parents/carers who continue to ensure their children attend school regularly.

This week Year 2 has the highest attendance of any year group across the school. Well done!!

The class winners in each year group can be seen below.

All attendance expectations can be found on our website.

Please do get in touch if you would like any support getting your child to school and on time.

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RECEPTION CLASS WINNER

Well done to Magpie class who won the attendance trophy this week with nearly 98%.

Keep it up!

YEAR 1 CLASS WINNER

Well done to Heron class who won the attendance trophy this week with 99%.

Keep it up!

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YEAR 2 CLASS WINNER

Well done to Buzzard class who won the attendance trophy this week with almost 100%.

Keep it up!


Attendance - Chocolate Challenge

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WOW! What a great first week we had! It was the first time in almost 2 terms that every class had an attendance higher than the school target (96%) - there were even 4 classes with an attendance higher than 98%. 

Week 2 has been just as successful as we have all 3 classes above the school target and 2 classes with 99% attendance!

Reception and Year 2 are in joint 1st place for the most number of children in school - we're going to need more than 230 chocolates if this continues. 

We have 1 more week to go with the challenge; remember, 100% attendance for the 3 weeks!


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Dates for your Diaries

Heron Class Assembly
1:15pm – 1:35pm
19
May
Phonics Screening Check Workshop (Invite Only)
9:00am – 10:00am
21
May
Baby and Toddler group
2:00pm – 3:00pm
22
May
Half Term
All Day
from 26 May until 30 May
26
May
Parent Workshop: Behaviour
9:00am – 9:45am
05
June
Empathy Day
All Day
12
June
The Nest Trip - Pizza Express
9:30am – 12:30pm
17
June
Swan Class Assembly
1:15pm – 1:35pm
23
June
Healthy Food and Nutrition Parent Workshop
9:00am – 10:00am
25
June
Sports Day
9:00am – 12:00pm
27
June
Year 2 Trip to the Beach
All Day
08
July
Parent Workshop: Behaviour
9:00am – 9:30am
09
July
Summer Fair
2:00pm – 4:00pm
11
July
Year 2 Leavers Assembly
9:15am – 10:15am
15
July
Year 2 Leavers Picnic
All Day
17
July

Community Notices:

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Wishing you all a lovely weekend. 

TOGETHER WE SOAR!