Special Events 2016-17

On Thursday 18th May the children of Toftwood Infant and Toftwood Junior Schools attended an assembly led by Hayley Kidd, the NSPCC Schools Organiser for Norfolk.

Both schools are committed to ensuring all children feel safe and know what to do if they do not, or if they have any concerns or worries in their lives. With the help of Buddy the mascot, Hayley shared information on things that may harm us or make us feel worried and encouraged the children to think about situations in their lives that are not OK.  Some examples shown were when adults are using loud arguing voices that may be upsetting, or when a child is feeling unsafe because they are left on their own, or hungry because they do not have enough food to eat.  Hayley talked to the children about which adults they could talk to in school and at home if they are worried or sad about something that affects their lives.   All children are encouraged to ‘speak out and stay safe’.  Information about the NSPCC was given to staff, and all the children received a “Speak out. Say safe” sticker to take home.

The NSPCC offer a schools’ service which involves providing resources for schools to use at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 with key safeguarding messages for children.  Their message is that it is vital that every child in every primary school across the UK understands abuse in all its forms, recognises the signs of abuse and gets help if they need it.  This is a commitment that Toftwood Infant and Junior school also share and have been discussing with the children in lessons and in assemblies too.

Parents and carers can see information about the campaign and the work of the NSPCC and how to report a concern they may have about a child being abused by looking on the NSPCC website. There is a link on the Infant School website too.

 

 

On Monday 8^th May the children attended an assembly led by Kathryn Redfern, the Practice Manager at Boots Opticians in Fakenham, about keeping their eyes healthy and reading for enjoyment.

Boots Opticians have been working in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, a national charity dedicated to raising literacy levels in the UK, to inspire children to read and look after their eyes. The children were very keen to talk about their favourite stories, such as Matilda, or The Gruffalo, and had fun guessing which animals could see better or worse than people.

One simple way you can help your child to become a great reader is by looking after their eye health, especially in the early years. Eyesight is a big part of a child’s development as so much of what children learn is through their sight.

Tips to help keep young eyes healthy

1. Regular eye checks: It’s really important for children to have regular eye checks to catch problems early. Anyone under the age of 16 is entitled to a free NHS-funded eye check and vouchers toward the cost of glasses if needed. Visit boots.com/opticians to find details of your local Boots Opticians practice.
2. Protect young eyes from the sun: Children tend to spend more time outdoors than adults, and their eyes have larger pupils and clearer lenses, meaning they are more susceptible to the sun’s harmful rays. Keep children’s eyes protected outdoors by wearing good quality sunglasses that have a CE mark.
3. Eating a rainbow of colourful fruit and vegetables: These help young eyes get the nutrients they need to grow healthily. Foods like tomatoes, kale, melon, grapes and blueberries as well as fish, chicken, eggs and whole grains are packed with eye-friendly nutrients.

You can find more eye health advice and fun activities to complete with your child at www.visionmatters.org.uk sunbeams and lots of information on reading at www.wordsforlife.org.uk.

We are dedicated to promoting reading and reading for pleasure and we make this a focus of our provision and teaching throughout the year, but in Book Week we organise even more special activities, extra events and exciting visitors to inspire our chidlren.

Our theme for Book Week this year was ‘Lost in Space’ and it was a huge success.  The children enjoyed lots of cross-curricular activities linked to space.

The author James Campbell worked with reception, year one and year two children. James entertained children by telling stories and poems, which included a poem about a wobbling wallaby.  The children had lots of fun joining in with the words, actions and sound effects to the stories and poems. James answered questions and encouraged the children to write their own stories.

Our Nursery class was also entertained by story telling with the author Brian Ogden. The children enjoyed listening and joining in with stories from his book called “Aunt Emily’s African Animals”, including a story about James the elephant, who couldn’t read.

The EYFS children took part in space themed singing and signing sessions led by Maria from Tiny Talk. The children were introduced to some space signs,  and used them in space related songs, including ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Three Little Men in a Flying Saucer’. The children had great fun on their space adventures, played space related parachute games and pretended to be comets.

We also held another very successful Bedtime Stories evening event for our families.  Approximately 300 children and families came back to school in their pyjamas, carrying teddies and with their pillows to share stories.  All families enjoyed the books and the chance to tuck into milk and biscuits as a bedtime snack!  The session ended with teachers reading to large groups of children throughout the school.

 

On Friday, we got to dress up as our favourite character or object from a space related book. We had a special prize giving assembly. Here are the winners of the dressing up competition with our special guest judge, Mrs Bell.

We also had a half price book fair and lots of children enjoyed choosing new books to read at home. We earned around £400 worth of books this year and we have bought new books for the library and the class reading boxes.

The whole school took part in the Internet Safety Day on Tuesday 7^th February. Each class used a PowerPoint to discuss how the children use technology at school and at home. Lots of the children said they used YouTube, CBeebies and different apps on tablets.

They then listened to a story about Smartie the penguin who felt sad after finding something online that made him feel uncomfortable. The children were great at giving advice to Smartie and what he needed to do to keep safe when online.

Each year 1 and year 2 class had a quick quiz about online safety and what to remember when using technology online. The PowerPoint is attached for adults to see how you get on with the quiz too!

Please check the Curriculum Newsletters as each half term the online safety tips are added to these as a reminder for when children are using technology at home.

Please check the Computing tab for useful websites to use with your child and to help with online safety. A Net Aware website link has been added which evaluates and reviews different apps and games and gives both children’s and adult’s responses to these.

The children recently had a visit from Olly Day and enjoyed his spectacular Road Safety Magic Show!  Olly performed lots of tricks whilst explaining to the children the importance of staying safe on the roads.  He covered being seen in the dark, always holding an adult’s hand, and making sure that you always wear a helmet when you are riding your bike.  

We worked with Toftwood Junior School and Fred Nicholson School on Thursday 19^th January to launch the Breckland campaign for their schools around voluntary non smoking areas around schools.

All 3 schools decided to approach this together to support promoting children’s health and children’s awareness of the dangers of smoking and to address concerns raised by several parents whose children attend the schools. All 3 schools had an assembly to talk about the dangers of smoking, to share information on this and to look at why smoking around schools was not a good idea. They hope that this will promote a better awareness of the dangers of smoking and encourage some parents to reconsider some of their smoking habits and practices.

Each school has signs designed by children in Breckland that are on display around their schools and alongside the public areas on Westfield Road and School Lane to discourage adults for smoking around the area near the schools. These will hopefully act as a visual reminder that smoking around schools is not acceptable in terms of the impact on children’s health and well being.

It has become more of an issue lately with several parents choosing to smoke on the pathways outside the schools when children were coming to and leaving school.

“We have asked parents several times not to smoke around the school as parents have complained that their children are breathing in other people’s cigarette smoke on their way to school. We fully appreciate adults have the right to choose to smoke or not, but all we ask is they wait until they are away from the areas around the schools for the benefit of the children. Sadly, despite all of our requests, some parents and carers still continue to do so. We hope that this assembly and launch may help to get the message across.”

All 3 schools are looking forwards to seeing if the scheme has a positive impact in improving the health of children around the school through not being exposed to cigarette smoke.