Lingwood Primary Academy Newsletter 3rd March 2025

ashley.coley • March 4, 2025

Headteacher's Update

Dear parents and carers, 

I hope you all had a wonderful half-term break. The children have come back to school with brilliant attitudes to learning. It is always great to see their enthusiasm for school when I open the gate in the mornings. 

We have had out write up from our attendance review. Here is part of the summary written by someone from the DfE: 

Overall, Lingwood has developed excellent, relationship-based practice, tight daily follow up processes and good monitoring and tracking processes in place in a short period of time. There is strong leadership and significant change in a short period of time since the school moved across to USP. 

This is a real team effort.

Currently our school attendance stands at 95.3% and our current overall winners are Year 3 with 96.3%.

 

One of the actions was to clear up what time the register is taken. The school gate will continue to open at 8.30am. The register will be taken at 8.40am.

 

Please can I remind you not to use the car park at the front of school. We are fortunate to have access to the Village Hall car park. 


Have a lovely week. 


Ben Jeffery

Interim Headteacher 

Lingwood Primary Academy

Dates for the diary  

  • Thursday 6th March - World Book Day
  • Monday 10th March - Parents' Evening Week
  • Thursday 13th March - OM Wellbeing PSHE Workshops
  • 19th March - Year 6 Residential
  • 21st March - Comic Relief 2025 - £1 donation 
  • 26th March - Class Photos
  • 26th March - Year 2 Class Trip
  • Friday 4th April - Last day of term
  • Monday 21st April - Return to school

Year Group News

Nursery

This week in Bishy’s we have been learning some fun facts about animals! Our book is called ‘Do Baby Elephants Suck Their Trunks’, which has helped us appreciate how animals may differ from humans in lots of ways, but there are also some similarities in the things they do as they grow up. We have been playing lots with sea creatures in the water tray, African animals in the small world area, and building farms for the farm animals in the construction area. In phonics we are building our skills with blending simple words that have been broken down into their individual sounds, and in maths we are playing games linked to early subtraction and addition.


Reception 

This week we have been reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’. The children have been experimenting with different materials and building techniques to construct their own houses and retelling the story using ‘time’ words like first and next. In maths we have been learning about time and seeing what we can do in one minute, we have also been learning the days of the week and the months of the year.  


Year 1

Year 1 have loved starting to learn about David Attenborough in our History lessons this week. We have been finding out about why he is a significant person in our lives and watched some of his documentary work, which we were fascinated by!  In Science we are revisiting our Animals topic, remembering what types of animal there are and their features. In Maths we have been securing our place value knowledge and enjoyed quizzing each other on the composition of numbers.  A busy first week back!

Year 2 
We have had a really good start to the term! This week we started learning about cultural stories in English and started planning our own story based in Kenya. We learned about the third person and how to use personal pronouns to write our cultural story. In addition, we finished our multiplication and division Maths unit and have shown great understanding of the relationship between the five and ten times table.  

Year 3

This week Year 3 have been working hard. In English we have been learning about different sentence types and word classes. We have also started reading our new text: Operation Gadgetman in our reading lessons. In Maths we have started our unit on fractions. The pupils have shown an excellent understanding of unit and non-unit fractions. Well done Year 3, keep up the hard work.

Year 4

This week, Year 4 have had a great start to the term! In English, we have been learning about different features which are found in persuasive writing. The children have enjoyed creating slogans, and being entrepreneurs writing persuasive pitches in a dragons den style. In reading, we have began our new core text, 'The boy at the back of the class,' and we have had some grown up discussions around refugees. The pupils had excellent conversations in DT whilst they were learning about mechanisms in hinges. A busy, but very productive first week back.


Year 5

This week, year 5 have been writing a synopsis for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where they have been selecting precise and ambitious vocabulary. In Maths, they have been learning about decimals, focusing on tenths, hundredths and thousandths writing them as fractions as well as decimals. In PE, we started gymnastics, and the children were amazing at performing to their peers.


Year 6

Year 6 have had a really good start to the new half-term and begun their maths unit on angles and shapes. They have also started their science unit on light and have learned about how light travels.


Achievement Awards

Rabbit Class  -  Bethany, for doing some great writing during independent learning.  


Squirrel Class – Grace – for using adjectives and ‘and’ in her sentence writing. 


Hares Class  – Jenson- planning a great cultural story.


Fawns Class  –  Annabelle – For excellent explanations of how you know an answer in maths.  

               

Otter Class - Erin – For fantastic knowledge and effort so far in our persuasive text unit.


Badger Class –  Erin for improving her reading age by 1 year and 1 month – well done! 


Fox Class - Bailey for really good improvements in his multiplication work in maths.


Star Pupil Awards

Rabbit Class -  Otis, for constructing an amazing house for the three little pigs.  


Squirrel Class – Edward S – for persevering with challenges in Maths. 


Hares Class  –  Harriet- for a having a great start to the term and joining in our carpet sessions.


Fawns Class - Harley – for working hard this week and persevering when finding things tricky.  


Otter Class –  Stanley – Improving his stamina and presentation. Well done! 


Badger Class – Chloe for overcoming challenges and being brave – well done! I am proud of you.


Fox Class – Evie for always showing that she is ready to learn  


Congratulations to you all - we are very proud of you!

Attendance Update
   
This week's whole school attendance

97.2%

  • In first place is Year 3 with 98.7%
  • In second place is Year 6 with 98.6% 
  • In third place is Reception with 98.5%.


A reminder that Kara Stock is at Lingwood every Tuesday, if you need any further support and guidance with attendance.


Please note, class teachers will be communicating with any parents of children whose attendance drops below 95% to offer additional support.


Well done to all the children arriving at school on time, ready to learn lets see if we can again increase our attendance next week! 


A reminder that the school gates will continue to be open from 8.30 am and closed at 8.40am. Registration is at 8.40 am and school finishes at 3.25 pm.


Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know 

Remember that every day counts and we are in every day next week!

Parents' Evening Week


Please remember to sign up to your parents' evening slot. This will be an opportunity for you to discuss your child's current progress and look at their books.


Sign up sheets are outside the classroom doors.


Additional Appointments


This term, you will also be able to schedule a meeting with:


  • Kara Stock (Family Support and Attendance Officer) 
  • Becky Clack (School SENcO)


These will be available on Tuesday 11th March.


Or

- OM Wellbeing Consultancy

 These will be available on Thursday 13th March.


Please book for these at the school office. For further information see letter.

World Book Day 2025

Thursday 6th March


Before the end of term, we sent a letter with information about World Book Day 2025 and each child recieved their token to exchange for a free book.


We are really excited to see the creative ideas you have this year! Every year, the costumes are inventive and with new books coming out each year we love to see new book characters your children want to be.


Don't forget to use your voucher for a free book!


By ashley.coley March 10, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, Firstly, I would like to apologise that you received last week’s newsletter so late. We are having a few IT issues, but I am hopeful they have been resolved. It has been lovely to see the sun shining and the children continue to enjoy using the play equipment at lunch. It was also wonderful to see the effort put into World Book Day costumes. Last week I met three wonderful members of FOLPA (Friends of Lingwood Primary Academy). FOLPA is our PTA, and they help raise much needed and appreciated money for our school. This includes holding discos, non-uniform days and fetes. They are keen for more parents to join and help out. They are keen to stress that any help is welcome, and by signing up, you are not signing your life away! The next meeting is on 25th March at 7.15pm at the village hall. We are having a big push on reading at Lingwood this term. We are asking to children to read at home. Please support your child and the school by signing their reading logs and even better by listening to them read. We expect all children to be reading at home at least three times a week. Our weekly attendance is a cracking is 97.2% with the highest attending class being year 1 with a whopping 99.3%. Have a great weekend Mr Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy
By ashley.coley February 14, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents / carers, As we head towards half-term, I wanted to say a big thank you for all your support over these past few weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed working at this lovely school. I must admit having a broken wrist has been challenging, and I have seen a little too much of trains and Premier Inns, but it hasn’t stopped me feeling very much at home at Lingwood. I will continue to lead the school until Miss Laycock is well enough to return. It’s good to see that class dojo is being used with parents now but as I explained last week we are not currently using it for contact between home and school. Please contact staff through office@lingwoodprimary.org.uk. As I mentioned in a previous message, we are working on ensuring there is consistency in what both staff and children do. You will be sent a document that we are calling the ‘Lingwood Way’. Please have a look at our expectations for the school day. Attendance hit a record high last week with our weekly school attendance hitting an impressive 97%. Well-done to everyone for this fantastic achievement. Have a wonderful half-term break with your amazing children and we will see you back at school on Monday 24th February. Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy
By ashley.coley February 9, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents / carers, It has been really useful speaking to children, staff and parents about how we can improve our behaviour systems and communication at our lovely school. I believe it is so important to praise, recognise and reward excellent effort and behaviour. At Lingwood, we award ‘dojos’ when a child has worked hard and/or demonstrated one of the values of the school. We would like parents to see this recognition and therefore we need you to be set up on class dojo. Today, your child should have come home with a login sheet with simple instructions on how to set this up. If you have not received this, please speak to the class teacher or Mrs Tubby. We are resetting children’s dojo scores at half term. When they earn 100 dojos, they will receive a silver badge to wear on their school jumper. This will be celebrated and awarded on a Friday assembly. If a child reaches 200 dojos they will be given a gold badge. Some schools use class dojo to communicate between the teacher and parents. For now, we are not going to use this facility. To speak to the teacher, please do one of the following: Catch them at the start or end of the day for a quick chat. This can’t be a long conversation because the teacher will need to have eyes on the rest of the class. Ring Mrs Tubby in the office on 01638 to arrange a meeting Email the office ( office@lingwoodprimary.org.uk ) and your email will be forwarded to the teacher We will continue to send out our weekly newsletter on a Monday with an update from me and your class teacher as I know this is appreciated. However, this week, we will send the final newsletter for the half term out Friday. Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy
By ashley.coley February 2, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, We seem to have had four seasons of weather in one week at Lingwood, but our children are hardy souls and don’t seem to be bothered by a bit of wind or rain. We had our first school council meeting of 2025 on Tuesday. It is always good to hear from our pupils. They were particularly keen to get some more equipment to use outside and had interesting ideas about our reward systems. As a staff, we have been working on having tight routines, so children are able to be ‘ready, respectful and safe’. We are striving for consistency and our focus for next week is the start and end of the day. Except for our Nursery pupils, children will be dismissed at the end of the day when they are sat down at their desk or on their carpet space. The teacher will call them up one at a time. Please be patient next week as this may take a bit of time to get right. In the winter months, the grassy areas around our paths and playgrounds become muddy and slippery. Please try and keep to the paved and concreted areas for your own safety. Please can you take a few minutes to complete the SEND survey for Norfolk County Council as this will give you a voice in SEND provision in Norfolk. Please follow this link. SEND survey 2025 - Norfolk County Council - Citizen Space Have a great week Regards,  Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher Lingwood Primary Academy
By ashley.coley January 27, 2025
Headteacher's Update Dear parents and carers, Another week flies by. The children have behaved brilliantly at break and lunch. We have given the children more equipment to use at break and lunchtimes and they have loved it. I have been particularly impressed with how they have put it way and taken responsibility for this.  We have an attendance review in a couple of weeks and have been speaking to the children about the importance of being in school. For the second week running Rabbit Class have won the attendance cup with a superb 99% - well done Rabbits. Have a nice week. Have a good week. Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher
By lorraine.long January 20, 2025
Headteacher's Update It has been a cracking week at Lingwood. One of the highlights was our new cricket coach (Aaron) coming in on Tuesday. The children loved the opportunity to bowl, bat and field, despite it not exactly being summer conditions. I was particularly impressed with how all of the children listened and responded to a new face. It has been useful for me to speak to several parents last week about things they think would make the school run more smoothly. Communication seems to be a key theme - as it is in most schools. We are working hard behind the scenes to make sure that parents are kept in the loop as much as possible. Please do come and grab me in the playground at the start and the end of the day if you want to give any feedback. We welcome back Miss Coley today, and she will start in her role as the main year four class teacher alongside her deputy head duties. There are fewer staff out on training this week so there should be less disruption. Key Stage two staff are currently being trained on how iPads can enhance learning, and we will have some exciting news about this in the near future. We have had a couple of children off with chickenpox. If your child does have chickenpox, please keep them off until the blisters have 'crusted' over. I am keen that Lingwood is a school with high standards across the board. One of the expectations we have is about wearing the correct school uniform. Please make sure your child comes to school in the correct uniform, including Lingwood PE kit. Have a good week. Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher
By lorraine.long January 13, 2025
Headteacher's Update Happy new year. The Christmas holidays already feel a long way away, but we have got back into the swing of things and have had a good week at Lingwood. Pupils have quickly got back into good learning routines and have coped well with some disruption to staffing. We had several staff off ill last week and also staff on really important training. Whenever we use supply teachers, we always try to make sure we have staff that know the children and have high expectations. As parents of year 4 children already know, Mrs Walker has started her maternity leave, we wish her all the very best. Mr Wills (an experienced teacher) will be teaching this class this week before Miss Coley takes charge the week after. This week, we welcome a cricket coach into school and the year sixes are doing a week of sats getting ready for May. In my assembly we talked about New Years Resolutions and making pledges to be the best version of yourselves. It has been interesting hearing the resolutions children have made but the real test for all of us is keeping them! Regards, Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher
By ashley.coley December 20, 2024
Headteacher's Update What a lovely way to finish the term with our celebration assembly. It was great to hear some of the songs from the Christmas performances and celebrate the achievements of this week. It was especially pleasing to see so many children achieve 100% attendance this autumn term. If you haven't yet please read my letter which was sent to parents yesterday. I hope that you and your families have a wonderful Christmas break and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year. See you all on the 6th January. Please note moving forward the newsletter will be sent on a Monday. The first being Monday 13th January. Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher
By ashley.coley December 13, 2024
Headteachers Update Hello, I would like to take this chance to say a massive thank you for the warm welcome I have received from children, staff and parents. The performances this week, were so lovely. I am really looking forward to leading the school in Miss Laycock's absence and already I feel I have got to know the strengths of this wonderful school. Fortunately, I have been able to spend a couple of days with Miss Laycock to handover and I know your thoughts and prayers will be with her and her family. I have been a headteacher for over 7 years, and for the past two years, I have been working in an advisory role supporting both Primary and Secondary schools. When Tim Coulson asked if I would come to Lingwood, I did not hesitate. I live just outside Bury St Edmunds with my wife and 16-year-old twin boys. I am an avid sportsman and fan and am currently training for an attempt to run a sub 3-hour marathon, so you might see me running around the village. I will be working from home on a Wednesday, but we have made arrangements for another senior leader from Unity to come and support Miss Coley when I am not in school. Please do catch me at the gate at the start or the end of the day and say hello. Have a lovely weekend. Ben Jeffery Interim Headteacher
By ashley.coley December 6, 2024
Headteachers Update The children have been working exceptionally hard this week, across the curriculum. We welcomed Sue in from OM health and wellbeing. She visited and delivered different workshops to Year 1 - 6. These were focused around topics like: being safe, resilience, understanding emotions and puberty. We look forward to her delivering more workshops next term. Next week, we are looking forward to our Christmas performances and events. We look forward to welcoming you all. Thank you for your continuing support. Miss Laycock and the Lingwood Team
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