It has been an unusual last week of term, with the unplanned closure of the school on Tuesday. I want to thank all staff, pupils and parents for your flexibility and professionalism in adapting to the last-minute change in provision. Student learning continued well online (at least one good thing to come out of COVID). Primary pupils had holiday booklets to work through which was very timely ready for distribution.

If you are interested in setting some early New Year’s resolutions, please read the “Get Fit with Avanti  Fields section for details on our community activities programme. Thanks to Ms Kansara and Mr Patel for their work on securing and leading a funding project worth £40,000 to open up our school to become a hub for community activity.

A significant development to the school will come in the New Year as we begin to recruit and launch our chaplaincy program. We currently have two adverts out for a secondary chaplain (year 7 pupils and above) and a primary chaplain who will support at both Avanti Fields and Krishna Avanti. Should you, or someone you know be interested in applying, please use the following links:

• Secondary chaplain (based at Avanti Fields): https://www.eteach.com/job/chaplain-1391506
• Primary (based at Avanti Fields and Krishna Avanti): https://www.eteach.com/job/chaplain-1391910

Staffing changes for January

Secondary students may have noticed that Mrs Neglur has been absent for an extended period of time and will likely be absent for the remainder of the academic year.  KS3 Sanskrit lessons in the new year will move to support English, Science and Spanish teaching; Nisha is working with subject leads to ensure a consistent and meaningful learning environment is created for our students.

In the new year, Ms Williams will be moving onto pastures new. Ms Williams has been with Avanti Fields in the Nursery since we opened in August 2022 and has contributed significantly to the ‘Outstanding’ provision we currently have. I wish her the best of luck in her future endeavours.

Ms Athwal will become a permanent member of the Avanti Fields family from January, Mrs Dave will begin her new role as HLTA, and we look forward to welcoming back Miss Sicotray from maternity leave. Miss Sicotray will also be stepping up to lead the Nursery base for the remainder of the academic year.

Miss Ratia will also be leaving her position of exams officer in the new year. Miss Ratia first joined us as a maternity cover science technician. During her time, she has then moved to become our examinations officer and has led our first set of GCSE examinations. Mrs Askham will be transitioning from cover supervisor into the role of exams officer from January.

Mrs R Patel will be taking a step back from careers lead in the new year. Since Mrs R Patel took over the careers role, she has taken it from strength to strength. Our students have benefited from a variety of opportunities, from interview practice, 1:1 careers advice and a plethora of guest speakers to support their next steps. Dr Sangar will pick up the reigns from January, alongside his role of HOY 10, and I know that he is excited to continue building the fantastic provision we have in place.

Last week we welcomed Mrs Riley to our school as a midday supervisor. She is joining the team to continue to support the growth of our school and has settled in very well.

Season’s Greetings

I want to wish you all a very lovely Christmas holiday with your family and friends. May you have a joyous Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Secondary Calendar

• Monday 8th January:  First day of Spring term – Students return to school
• Tuesday 9th January:  Y10 Oxford physics trip

Primary Calendar

• Monday 8th January:  First day of Spring term – Students return to school
• Monday 8th January: Primary Christmas Pantomime (rescheduled)
• Tuesday 9th January: Primary Art Workshop
• Wednesday 10th January: Reception height and weight measurement

We are happy to announce the launch of different activities at Avanti Fields school for entire community. Please see the flyers below for more information on the activities. There are limited space available for each activity. Trial sessions in first 2 weeks of January 2024 will be cost only £1 or £2.00.

If you have any enquiries, feel free to get in touch [email protected]

Primary News

We have come to the end of the Autumn term and what a blast it has been! Workshops, performances and visitors in have all supported in enhancing the children’s learning experiences.

This week, we have had workshops led by the NHS team on healthy living and lifestyles and the children have also met one of our Local vicar’s who shared their knowledge and wisdom about the festivities of Christmas for Christians.

As we approach the end of the term, we are saying goodbye to Miss Williams. She has been with the primary from its opening and has supported the development of the nursery. She is now moving onto pastures new at a new school as an Early Years Teacher. We wish Miss Williams all the best of luck!

🌲Reception and Year 1 Tree Planting 🌲

Thank you to the Woodland Trust for donating 30 trees! Children had an amazing experience planting trees for our new forest school development. We can’t wait to see them grow.

Christmas Fayre

We had a blast at our mini Christmas Fayre! The children took part in an enterprise competition where each class made things to sell. The winning class was Buttercup Class 🧁Well done to everyone for joining in and donating to our school resources. We raised over £200! #teamwork

Primary School Calendar:  

We have an abundance of exciting events taking place next week. Please ensure you keep up to date with the Primary school calendar to ensure you do not miss out on anything: Calendar – Avanti Fields School

Spring term pastoral focus: Standing up for diversity

In the Spring term, our pastoral focus will on ensuring that disrespectful, racial, or homophobic language is not tolerated within our school, including being spoken in a language other than English. We will be launching an initiative to promote upstanders to report unkind behaviour and stand up for diversity within the school. Although this is not a problem at our school, we believe that having a term’s focus on this will support all students to continue to feel save and valued within our community.

More Good Days at School

Anna Freud research project into wellbeing support at school.

All Year 8 and 9 parents an e mail has been sent regarding Avanti Fields involvement in a nation-wide research project in to wellbeing provision at school. If you do not want your child to be a part of the research project there is a link to follow to opt out.

https://redcap.idhs.ucl.ac.uk/surveys/?s=4YWYX4WH7TPRFHMX

Memorandum of understanding Research project_

Year 10 Football Team

Our year 10 boys football team were crowned East Leicester City champions last night. The boys put on a strong show and kept their cool against St Pauls in the semi final which saw a 2-1 win. The boys were ready this time as we came face to face with Madani Boys who we lost out to last year in the final on penalties. However, this was our year as we played the game well and took our chances which claimed us a 4-1 victory. Goals came from Rares, Anay and Harshit. Man of the match went to Rares. C but a mention should also go to Anay. P who was consistent throughout and played up a year group.

PE Sports Team Successes this term:

1. Year 9 football team – got through to the final against Judgemeadow with just a 1-0 defeat
2. Year 8 football team have got through to semi finals against St Pauls – due to play after xmas
3. Year 10 football team – Won the final 4-1 against Madani Boys. Now they play English Martyrs in the next round.
4. Year 7/8 Girls football team – got through to finals – due to play after xmas
5. Anshh Dhagia won bronze medal out of 36 performers in table tennis individuals representing Avanti Fields
6. Year 9 Netball Team came 3rd out of the 9 city schools in the East Leicester Competition
7. Year 8 Netball Team won out of 8 city schools in the East Leicester Competition

Coding Games Masterclasses

Thursday 21st December 2023

🎮Would you like to make video games but don’t know where to start?
👾Would you like to learn the fundamentals of programming?
🎮Would you like to learn how coding is used in the real world?

Join our FREE Coding Games Masterclass over the Christmas holidays to learn more and create an awesome arcade-style game!

This session is designed for students aged 11-16.

To register go to: Christmas Coding Games Masterclass! 🎮 (mailchi.mp)

Gingerbread Competition

Year 10 Food Technology students competed in a gingerbread house competition to support their development of skills required for the coursework. Here’s what Zorawar, one of our students had to say about it:

“Over the last two weeks, we were given a task to make a gingerbread house by Mr Westwood. We had three lessons to plan out the sessions and find a good recipe. My group then split the ingredients and brought them to school the week after.

Mr Westwood then gave us another three lessons to make the gingerbread house and be judged by the teachers around the school.

This was to prepare us for our NEA (nonexam assessment). We had to use skills such as research, organization, team building, communication Etc.

This was a useful experience as it helped build stronger relationships with our peers and highlight the qualities of the Avanti way which was portrayed on multiple occasions.

For instance, dedication was shown when our peer’s dough was too crumbly and had no hope they persevered and by the end of it they won the competition.”

Y11 Mock interviews:

We need your help! We are looking for enthusiastic and helpful volunteers to conduct our year 11 mock interviews which are held for all our year 11 to allow them to prepare for college interviews. As a volunteer you will be asked to do the following:

• Deliver and ask pre prepared questions in a professional manner to mirror the college interview process.
• To give appropriate feedback on their strengths and areas of development to allow them to improve for actual college interview.
• Have a supportive and age-appropriate approach towards students to help build their confidence.

There will be a member of staff present in the interview room to support the process.

Please could you complete the short form (2-3 mins) to indicate your availability for the week beginning 15.01.24: https://avanti.wufoo.com/forms/qcyz4d50o7v45r/, if you could complete this prior to 09.01.24, we would be extremely grateful.

Have a lovely Christmas holidays!

Leicester City area holiday camp programme

Please find below information regarding our holiday camp programme running in January in the Leicester City area. We would really appreciate it if you could pass this information (FLYERS ATTACHED BELOW) to all your parents/careers.

We are pleased to inform you that we are running a selection of Holiday Activity Camps in Leicester this January through the Holiday Activities and Food Programme 2023 funded by Department for Education for eligible children to attend for FREE!

The Government have rolled out the programme nationally to support families who receiving benefit related free school meals to take part in and it will enable children to get active as well as receive a healthy lunch each day!

Premier Education are the UK’s leading provider of sport and physical activity for schools and the Holiday Activity programme will give children the chance to try different sports, make friends, have fun and be active. Children will be able to take part in sports such as Dodgeball, Archery, Football, Tennis and much more throughout the week! In addition to this, the programme includes some fantastic health & wellbeing activities each day as well as some great arts & crafts!

Lunch and snacks will be provided each day however we would encourage children to bring their own drinks, preferably water, as well as suitable clothing to take part in the physical activity! Children can bring their own packed lunch if they would prefer.

Leicester City venues we are running are…

• Abbey Mead Primary School , LE4 5HH
• Linden Primary school, LE5 6AD

Dates:              2^nd January – 5^th January

Times:                     9:00am – 3:30pm

Ages:                       5-11 years old only, boys & girls of all abilities

To book your child’s HAF place, follow the below steps: 

1. Visit families.leicester.gov.uk and click ‘Holiday Activities and food programme’
2. Click ‘search for a programme provider’ and chose your venue of choice
3. Click ‘Complete the Holiday activities and food programme registration form’ and complete the simple steps!
4. Bookings go live on 20^th November 2023. Your place will be confirmed once the bookings have closed on 5^th December 2023 and Leicester City Council have been able to confirm your eligibility!

Please see the flyers and letter below for further information

Abbey Mead HAF Letter

Christmas Abbey Mead Flyer

Linden Primary School HAF Letter

Christmas Holiday Camp Linden Flyer

PTFA  – Annual General Meeting

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

21st January 2024

To be held at Avanti Fields School, Hamilton at 3:00pM

Please email your request to attend meeting and nomination for a  committee role to  [email protected]

The deadline for nominations is Thursday 18th January 2024.

please see the link below of meeting letter

PTFA AGMupdated letter

Parent Teacher Friends Association (PTFA)

 PTFA  

Garden Project Volunteers

Communications – Wherever possible please use the contact form on our website to get in touch. This is detailed on the website at https://avanti.org.uk/avantifields/contact-us/. The appropriate member of staff will pick up the message and get back to you as soon as possible.

Absence

To report an absence to the school, parents should contact us by 8:00am (primary) and 8.30am (secondary) 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0116 326 6813 (Option 1 to leave a voicemail) 

Please remember to state your child’s full name, tutor group and reason for absence. If your child is unwell, please could you give a brief description of the symptoms. 

All education research highlights how crucial it is to a child’s academic progress and wellbeing they attend school , on time, all of the time. Therefore, a reminder that it is important that families organise events or holidays outside of school time to ensure that their child is at school as often as possible.   

The school works closely with the Education Welfare Officer at LCC, and we do seek to ensure that any requests for authorised absence are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, in a sensitive manner. However, the school can never authorise a family holiday or a trip abroad to visit family members during term time.   

This academic year, families will have two weeks at the October half-term, three weeks at Christmas and two weeks at Easter for extended family holidays. Please do ensure that if booking holidays, they fall within the holiday periods.