Newsletter Issue 4
ferncumbe friday
friday 25th october 2019
lowsonford and wroxall classes visit the houses of parliament
Last week, Lowsonford and Wroxall classes went on an exciting trip to the Houses of Parliament in London. They experienced a live debate in the House of Commons, had a tour of the House of Lords and finished the trip with a mock debate led by the education team. There was also a visit from Matt Western, local MP for Warwick & Leamington, who explained what his role was and answered some tricky questions from the children.
It was a fabulous trip and the children represented our school impeccably.
Mr Upton
shrewley class visit the lunt fort
On Friday 11th October, Shrewley class went on a school trip to Lunt Fort which was a fort built by Roman Soldiers. When we got there, we saw two Roman Soldiers. They asked us what the password was. It was the Latin word for sausages. They told us about the structure of the fort and how it was built to defend them from the Barbarians. We learnt how to march in time with each other by using two Latin words. They were sinister (left) and dexter (right). After that, we were given a tour around Lunt Fort.
Just before lunch, we were shown some Roman armour. It looked very heavy. Then we had our lunch and had a go at the activities around the room.
Not long after that, we went outside in the pouring rain and learnt how to use a shield and a sword. Then we learnt how to fight with them. After we had learnt to fight with them, we got into pairs and did a bit of fighting which was putting a wooden sword into another person’s shield. After that, we played a game when we were told to march. Then we needed to hide behind our shield and the adults threw javelins at us. If we were hit, we had to go back to the start with our team.
We really enjoyed going to Lunt Fort and learnt lots of interesting facts.
Written by Isla and Tilly
THANK YOU!
Thank you for your harvest donations last week. The display of produce in Church was truly stunning, and provided a wonderful backdrop to the variety of harvest related performances given by each class. I hope you have been able to get a glimpse of the performances via the class Twitter pages.
The Warwick District Foodbank have asked school to pass on their grateful thanks to all children, parents and colleagues for their generous donations, which amounted to an impressive 166.7kg of food and toiletries! The donations will certainly make a difference to those in our local community experiencing hardship and crisis.
School Council have decided that the money raised from coins taped to the top of tins will go towards the Helping Hands Community Project, a charity which is about local people helping local people in need. People are offered support and opportunities to help them feel better about themselves, be more active in the community and get back into work.
hatton class go pumpkin picking!
Hatton Class had a super pumpkin picking trip on Monday afternoon. Tristan the tractor picked us up from school and took us on a bumpy ride to a field, full of bright orange pumpkins. All of the children had to choose a pumpkin that they could carry, which was quite a challenge in a very muddy pumpkin patch! Then we took our pumpkins back on the tractor for a trip up the road to Hatton to feed the goats and sheep. The children also had the opportunity to hold the very lively guinea pigs. Then it was time to head back to school on the tractor. On Wednesday we made soup with a Hatton pumpkin and baked our own bread to go with it.
Huge thanks to those parents who accompanied us on our trip.
Mrs Stephenson and Mr Kitney
Come and join us in school for a lesson!
As advertised on the school website calendar, parents are warmly invited into school to join their child(ren) in a lesson in their classroom from 9 - 10am on Thursday 7th November 2019.
message from chair of governors
The first half of the Autumn term is now nearly complete, you Parents are probably shocked at how quickly half term has arrived and your Children are probably the opposite and deservedly looking for a week’s break. I thought I would write a short update from the Governors to accompany your normal fortnightly newsletter.
We have just been notified by the Diocesan Board of Education that Ferncumbe will receive its occasional SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) inspection on Wednesday 6 November. This is the national Church equivalent of an OFSTED inspection and will particularly look for how effective the school’s distinctive Christian vision is and how well it is established and promoted by leadership and teaching. As it happens, the Governing Body, led by the Deputy Chair and our second Foundation Governor (appointed to our Governing Body by the Diocese) and a new Governor are holding our equivalent of this SIAMS review on Friday 25th and although not planned as a rehearsal, it will help ensure that we are as ready as we can be for this inspection.
We held our first full Governing Body of the year on Thursday 17th October. Our main business was to appoint Governors to specific lead roles, to ensure we are able to share out the responsibilities of oversight and governance. These roles include Safeguarding, Special Needs, Data Review and Pupil Premium, Health & Safety and FInance.
The Governors also commissioned a review of the school website to be led by our previous Chair, Adrian Sloan. It may be that we have within you Parents, some with a lot of expertise in website design and if you would be prepared to help us with this review, could you please let the school office know.
Finally, we are in the process of some change in our Governors. Jo Blake has taken over the vacant role as a parent Governor. Jon Child has joined as an Associate Governor prior to joining as a full Governor as an expected vacancy emerges. Our Local Authority Governor post has become vacant and we have put forwards a name to fill that vacancy.
I hope you, the children and our staff have a restful half term and come back for what all the weather forecasters are suggesting may be a cold winter!
Best wishes
David Lane, Chair of Governors
menu change
Please be advised that after half-term deli-bags will stop and be replaced by the option of a jacket potato with a variety of fillings. This is in addition to the hot meal option each day.
Children will continue to make their choice first thing each morning.
With very best wishes for a restful half-term break,
Tracey Webb, Head of School