What an incredible term we have had at Waterside. We have been busy, productive and the impact is that 100% of our pupils this year are all making expected progress and 55% better than expected. This is just superb. Children are becoming much stronger at transferring Reading, Writing and Maths into the wider community. Next half term, our focus will be on extending vocabulary, times tables and Science – hands on experiments.
Thank you to parents for all your hard work on reading, spellings and homework with your children. The seeing is believing workshops have been fantastic and parents have commented how much they have benefitted from seeing the wonderful teaching in school. We are hosting lots more demonstration lessons in the Spring Term and you can simply see how well children are engaged and gather strategies to support if required at home. Parent feedback is that you would like the option to buy books to support learning – these will be coming in January.
After half term, we are going to be launching a new impact initiative with parents where you can sign up for a 6 week learn with your child to see the impact parents make on learning. If you would like to be part of this project please email office@watersideprimary.org.uk
This half term we have achieved our bronze status in Philosophy for Children. The impact in school is most certainly evident, with children showing great respect for viewpoints and differences of opinions. They have also begun to think deeper about concepts. A huge well done to the whole school team – consistency is key!
I am delighted to say since half term we have participated in some significant historical and cultural events. We participated in remembrance for 100 years. The children designed a whole school exhibition and took charge of this. It was sensational. See the website. We have also had some sensational nativities already this week from Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1.We have been out in our local community this half term, participating in, Christmas carols, community projects, working with the foodbank and much more. The community fund has also given the school £5000 and we will be investing in outdoor fitness equipment for children.
The extension will take place ready for September 2019. We have met just this week with the local authority who will be funding the entire project. We will grow from currently being a 380 pupil school to 480.
Have a wonderful Christmas break and I wish you all the best for 2019. I hope it is a year filled with love, happiness and memories. We will make 2019 another spectacular year for learning.