Welcome to 2018 at Orchard Primary School

The Spring term is now well and truly upon us; luckily snow has not disrupted school for the past couple of years, however please look at the website in case of bad weather.

Reading is a big focus at Orchard. It is important for children to read regularly at home, we encourage parents to enjoy and share books with their children. The children in KS2 are now using Accelerated Reader, so please ask them to show you their virtual bookcases, so that you can see what they are up to. Children at KS2 should be reading for at least 20 min a day. We can tell how much they are reading from their Accelerated Reader data and will be encouraging them to develop good reading habits.

We are also having a big drive on times tables. By the end of Year 4 the children should know all of their times tables, please help us by ensuring that your child is learning their times tables at home. They should learn whole number sentence, 5 X 6 = 30, 6 X 5 = 30 and 30 ÷ 6 = 5 and 30 ÷ 5 = 6. Children will be bringing home their Rock Star passwords, please encourage them to use this fun programme as it will help them to learn their times tables.

As always we would like to remind you that regular attendance is vital to your child’s education. Every School Day Counts! Look out for our famous Early Bird, who is due for a visit this term. I am sure the children and parents will recall the prizes to be won (by parents and children) and make sure that they collect the raffle tickets handed out each day the Early Bird is about.

At Orchard Primary, we are very proud of our smart school uniforms, we anticipate shiny shoes and big smiles as the children come through the gates each morning. Please remember to keep the bows in the hair small, and the same colour as the school uniform.

Parents please look out for our upcoming workshop on e-safety; there will be a quiz and prizes (for the parents!) It is important to know what your children are up to online, and to be at least one step ahead of them.

This term there are some exciting events coming up, these include Harry Potter Day, Skate & Skoot, a film night and a Valentine Disco. Some of the children will be going to the theatre, and there will be library visits to meet authors for some of the classes. Look out for the football matches and Rugby festival. A very busy term lies ahead.

We look forward to another successful and positive term.

Best wishes

Mrs Jo Rowntree
Head Teacher

24 January 2018