Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Remembrance Day

  Thu 12 Nov 2020

  I was very proud of the children yesterday. They were very respectful when we held a two minute silence socially distanced outside.

  Children from Kingfishers read For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon.

  The classes then visited each of our five mini outdoor art galleries where the classes had displayed their Remembrance themed artwork. 

  

• School Tour Video Live

  Tue 03 Nov 2020 Mr Stephens
  Our new school tour video is now live and you can see it here.

• New play equipment

  Sun 18 Oct 2020 Headteacher

  We are very excited to have some hand over hand bars for the children to play on. We have wanted these for a long time and were finally able to afford them using some of our sports funding and a generous bequest from a former resident of the village.

  We wanted the children to have these bars because they are excellent for building upper body strength. Also, and more importantly, mastering the bars means using perseverance and determination- both of which are qualities which we are encouraging in the children.

  

• Updating our learning environments.

  Fri 07 Aug 2020 Headteacher

  We are aware that this has been a very strange time for children and adults alike. Some of the children may well be feeling anxious about returning to school after their prolonged absence.

  We have been thinking about how we can help the children to settle back in to school and to feel calm and ready to learn.

  As well as thinking about our curriculum, we have been looking at the school environment and how we can make that as calming and purposeful as possible.

  To this end, we have developed our outdoor space so that the children can learn outdoors as much as possible. Examples of this are the new shelter in the forest schools area and the preparation of  the new reading shelter.

  Inside school, we are taking William Morris's advice: have nothing... that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful'. An uncluttered room is both good for concentration and easier to keep clean and prevent the spread of infection. We have decided to back our boards with hessian or brown paper so that the children aren't overloaded with stimuli. This is in line with Rosenshine's Principles based on research into how children learn. You can see the books and articles which have inspired our thinking on the website.

  

• Science week.

  Sun 15 Mar 2020 Headteacher

  This week, we have celebrated Science Week in a range of ways.

  Both Kingfishers and Eagles had a visit from some Rolls Royce engineers and conducted some exciting experiments into forces. They also had a visit from one of our governors, Andrew Warnekin, to talk to them about a career in engineering and how people use science in their every day lives.

  Each class researched a scientist:

  Eagles - Katherine Johnson

  Kingfishers - Jane Goodall

  Swallows - Charles Darwin

  Robins - Carl Linnaeus

  and the children then shared what they had learnt in a special Collective Worship. 

  Wrens talked about the lifecycle of the caterpillar.

  We had also planned to participate in a Rolls Royce Engineering Challenge but this was postponed.

  

• INSET days 2020-2021

  Thu 30 Jan 2020 Headteacher

  We can now confirm that she INSET days for the next academic year are as follows:

  Wednesday, 2/9/2020 

  Monday 4/1/2021 

  Friday 12/2/2021

  Thursday 1/4/2021

  Friday 9/7/2021 

  We hope that giving you the dates early will enable you to book holidays when the children are not in school as taking them out of school is detrimental to their learning.

   

• Great Learning Behaviour.

  Sat 25 Jan 2020 Headteacher

  We are very proud of how the children's learning behaviour is developing and proud to be able to share the following comments from our School Improvement Officer who visited last week:

  Walking around the school, there was a calm and welcoming atmosphere with children being engaged in their learning and demonstrating good learning behaviours. Children who were spoken to were happy to discuss their work and could talk with confidence about what they were doing.The school is tidy and well presented and reflects high expectations of all. Books looked at were well presented and reflected high expectations and pride in children's work.

  This pleasing behaviour is partly due to high and consistent expectations from all staff, but is also due to the work which we are putting in to helping the children to be calm and ready to learn.

  Here are two examples:

  • every child has leant a way to calm him or herself if s/he is getting over-excited or upset. (See picture).
  • initiatives such as the skipping workshops have helped the children to be active and engaging in positive play at break times so that when they come in to lessons they are relaxed and ready to learn.

  We look forward to sharing our work on mindfulness with you soon-we will keep you informed.

   

  

• The Meghan Beesley event.

  Mon 09 Dec 2019 Headteacher

  We really enjoyed the recent visit to the school by the athlete Meghan Beesley. The event was very exciting and motivating for the children. Meghan was a fantastic role model, talking to the children about how she had overcome adversity and continued to train despite serious injuries.

  The children worked hard to find sponsors and raised money for both Sports for Schools and equipment for our school. Thanks to this hard work, Miss Edwards, our PE lead can select over £700 worth of equipment for our children.

  There were some rewards for children who raised money for Sport for Schools and the children are very proud of their wrist bands and certificates (depending on how much they raised).

  

• We are open. In case anyone hasn't received the text messages.

  Fri 15 Nov 2019 Headteacher

  The Aston- Weston Road is open. The Swarkestone-Weston Road is currently closed.

  The before-school club is open and can be used by anyone for free this morning as we appreciate that some journeys to work may take longer than usual.

• Reading at Weston.

  Tue 05 Nov 2019 Mrs Burns

  We are really passionate about reading at Weston. It is massively beneficial for children to adopt the habit of reading for pleasure for a variety of reasons. Some of the benefits are academic, but their mental health and ability to 'switch off' is enhanced as well.

  Reading together is a wonderful way to build shared interests between parents and their children and to share relaxed time together which will be fondly remembered by all concerned.

  The children really enjoy being read to right up to Year 6 and this can be a way of enabling them to access texts which might otherwise be a bit too challenging for them.

  We are actively encouraging reading for pleasure in school in a number of ways: by creating a display sharing adults' enthusiasm for children's books that they know and love; by displaying the text being read by each class on the door to their room; by participating in the Reading Gladiators programme (this is for some Year 6 children at present but we hope to expand this in the future) and by creating opportunities for quiet reading during lunchtime. There are an unprecedented number of books in school now and of adults who are very happy to talk about reading.

  We are also conducting surveys in to the school community's reading habits so that we can see where there is scope for supporting them.

  Our bookmarks were specifically designed to support adults when they are sharing a book with a child by giving them examples of the most helpful type of questions to be asking at different development stages.

  We are seeking to involve parents in building enthusiasm for reading so please do consider participating in the reading survey http://bit.ly/2PPMwbO or by completing a postcard for our display. The details of how to get involved are shared in Mr Connor's letter which is in the Newsletters section of the website (all parents will have a link texted to them). We are also sharing a document which explains the benefits of reading in the same way.