Current Newsletter

Monday 28th September 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Firstly, a huge thank you for all of your support in helping us improve attendance across the school. We are grateful for your commitment to ensuring children arrive at school every day, ready to learn.

Regular attendance is one of the most important factors in a child's success. Every lesson counts, and even small amounts of missed learning can soon add up. Thank you for continuing to work in partnership with us to ensure children attend school daily, arrive on time, and make the most of every learning opportunity.

A Daily Focus on Number Facts

You may have noticed that children are now recounting number fact as they line up in the mornings. This is a key part of our drive to improve mathematical fluency across the school.

Just as we want children to read fluently without having to stop and sound out every word, we want them to recall key maths facts quickly and accurately so that they can tackle more complex mathematical problems with confidence.

With daily practice in school and your continued support at home, these number facts will become embedded much more quickly, giving children a strong foundation for future learning.

Exciting News: Introducing Mastering Number

We are delighted to announce that we are implementing the Mastering Number programme across the school from Reception to Year 6 as an additional element to our mathematics curriculum.

Mastering Number is a nationally recognised programme that helps children develop a deep understanding of number and strengthens their fluency with key mathematical facts. The programme focuses on building children's confidence, flexibility and accuracy when working with numbers, ensuring they have the tools they need to succeed in mathematics.

We are particularly excited about the positive impact this can have on children's confidence. When number facts are secure and readily available, children are able to focus more of their attention on mathematical reasoning, problem solving and deeper understanding.

This is a significant step forward for our mathematics curriculum, and we look forward to sharing the progress children make throughout the year.

How You Can Help at Home

Your support makes a tremendous difference. Children can continue to develop their fluency by completing their weekly maths homework through:

• Years 1 and 2 – NumBots – 15 minutes a week
• Years 3 and 4 - Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) – 30 minutes a week
• Years 5 and 6 - Doodle Maths – 30 minutes a week

Just a few minutes of regular practice each week helps children build speed, accuracy and confidence with their number facts.

A Love of Reading: Visiting Our School Library

We are delighted that all classes are now timetabled to visit our school library each week. These sessions give children the opportunity to explore a wide range of high-quality books, discover new authors and develop a lifelong love of reading.

Children will be bringing library books home to share with you. We encourage parents and carers to spend time reading with their child, talking about the story, characters and information they discover. Even a few minutes of shared reading can have a significant impact on a child's vocabulary, comprehension and enjoyment of books.

Please help your child to look after their library book and ensure it is returned to school the following week so that it can be exchanged for a new title.

Thank you for your support in helping us foster a culture of reading both in school and at home. Together, we can help every child develop a love of books and the confidence to become enthusiastic, successful readers.

I am looking forward to carrying out some student conferencing next week to chat to a range of children about their experiences of reading, what they like, what we can do to make reading even better at school and how much time they spend reading for pleasure at home. This information will then feed into my our whole school approaches.

Residential Adventure at Grittleton

Our Year 5 and 6 residential visit to Grittleton House was a wonderful opportunity for children to challenge themselves, develop independence and create lasting memories with their friends.

Throughout the week, children were encouraged to step outside their comfort zones and try new experiences. For some, the biggest challenge was spending time away from home and building their confidence away from familiar routines. For others, success came through tackling adventurous activities and pushing themselves to achieve goals they never thought possible, whether that was reaching the top of Jacob's Ladder, taking on a team challenge or encouraging a friend to keep going.

We are incredibly proud of every child for their determination, resilience and willingness to embrace new opportunities. They represented our school brilliantly, demonstrated our values of love, joy and determination, and showed that success comes from having the courage to give things a try.

We hope the children will treasure these memories and the confidence they gained for many years to come.

Sponsored Obstacle Course Success!

A huge well done to all of the children who took part in our recent Sponsored Obstacle Course in support of Acorn Advantage. Thanks to the generosity of our families and community, we have raised valuable funds that will help provide even more opportunities for our children across the trust.

It was wonderful to see children encouraging one another, pushing themselves to keep going and refusing to give up when the challenge became difficult. They truly demonstrated one of our school values, determination, by working hard to achieve the goals they had set for themselves.

Most importantly, lots of fun was had by everyone involved! We are incredibly proud of all the children for their effort, commitment and willingness to challenge themselves, while supporting such a worthwhile cause.

Thank you to everyone who donated. Your support helped make the event such a tremendous success.

Reminders

• Please don’t forget to support your child with their student council applications – voting will take place this Thursday!
• Flu vaccinations – taking place on Thursday – please make sure you have completed the form if you want your child to have the vaccine. Please find a link to a child friendly story explaining what the flu is and what the vaccine does: Flu Fighters – Stay Well Dorset

Many thanks,

Mrs Shillito