Earlier this week I attended the second AST Leadership Group meeting of the year. The focus for this year across all of our meetings is around creating more inclusive practices, particularly for SEND and PP (Pupil Premium/Free School Meals) pupils across our schools. Key information was shared around SEND and PP figures across each school, with some clear themes emerging around variability of local authority processes, and that identification processes are slightly different across schools. It was pleasing to see that adaptations and scaffolding to meet pupil needs is a strength, as is the use of the 12 habits to support quality first teaching.

Reminder for secondary parents: early school closure on Thursday 5th December at 12:50pm for Year 11 Parents Evening. Work will be set via TEAMS for Year 7 – 10 period 5 and 6 lessons for independent completion. 

Parent Survey Feedback

Parent survey responses indicated that over 77% of our parents (of those responding) attended at least one of our start of year information evenings. Whether that was a Secondary Parent Information evening, the Year 7 Meet the Tutors evening, the KS4 Careers Fair, Primary Reading Workshops, Primary Parent evening, or the whole school e-safety evening, it was good to see a large proportion of our parents attending these important sessions.

50% of parent responses included comments. From those comments, there are two common themes around lunches and communication that I will address this week.

Lunches

I can confirm with all families (particularly secondary) that pupils are allowed to bring a healthy snack with them for breaktime. As we are part of Avanti Schools Trust, we do not allow a packed lunch, in line with our ethos. This is common across all of our schools, including the community schools. Where there is a dietary requirement, our kitchen staff are able to accommodate these; please just get in touch.

This year, we have moved to allowing the purchase of secondary breaktime snacks to be on a rotation basis. However, as students can bring in a snack for breaktime, this allows for any pupil to have a snack throughout their day.

One comment was around the late lunch timings. As an all-through school, our catering staff begin serving primary pupils from 11:30am – 12:30pm, and then start secondary service from 12:50pm – 1:45pm (1st lunch) and 1:45pm – 2:40pm (2nd lunch). On a typical day, lunch service is complete within 20 minutes, with only students who have chosen to play first continuing to be served as they come in.

In the Spring term, we will be working with our student council to allow them to feedback to the Govinda’s staff to help plan the Summer term menu.

Communication

4 responses shared concerns around the school communication processes. While this is only a small number, we do believe it is important to take notice of this feedback.

Earlier in the year, we updated our communication process to try to ensure that emails were clearly titled as being for either primary or secondary pupils. We re-trained our admin staff on sending communications to only targeted year groups to try to reduce the number of unnecessary emails parents receive from the school.

At the end/start of each year, we provide parents with a yearly overview of key assessment dates, and also include known school events such as INSET days and festival days. As the year progresses, and the school plans other enrichment activities, we communicate these as they come up.

The school has a dedicated website contact form which auto directs parent queries to relevant members of staff. Should you not receive a response within 2 working days please do let me know via the “Concern / Issue” option on the contact form. In January, we are expecting a website refresh, and with that, will come a slight change to our contact form to allow more separation for primary and secondary parent queries.

Secondary Calendar

• Tuesday 3rd December: Y9: Book Talking event
• Thursday 5th December: Y11: Parents Consultation Evening (Secondary School will finish at 12:50pm)
• Friday 6th December: Y10: DMU Inspire Devise Drama Trip

Primary Calendar

• Monday 2nd December – Friday 6th December: Primary: Enterprise Week
• Tuesday 10th December: Pre- School: Parents Workshop (2:00 – 2:45pm)
• Tuesday 10th December: Primary: Christmas Fayre (3:00 – 5:00pm)
• Wednesday 11th December: Y2: Assembly
• Wednesday 11th December: Y1 & Y2: Parents workshop & Carols (1:00 – 2:45pm)

Winter Holiday Activity and Food Programme

Please see link and information about Winter holiday activity and food programme below:

Details of the Winter Holiday Activity and Food Programme can be viewed here.  Children eligible for benefits-related free school meals can access one free programme of free activities and receive healthy lunches on the days they attend.

Registration will close at 11.59pm on Tuesday 3 December 2024

Leicester Family Hub Christmas stay & Play timetable:

Early Help (Children’s Centre’s and Family Support)

Social Care and Early Help Division

Social Care and Education Department

Leicester City Council

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we approach the festive season, we know many of you would like to send Christmas cards to each other.

As part of the Avanti Way, we want to uphold our core principle of:

Strengthening connection. In Strengthening connections, we believe all life is interconnected and therefore strive to care for and respect all life- human, animal and plant- living in a way that causes the least possible harm.

With the above in mind, we are asking all pupils who would like to send cards to their peers and teachers to send a single card addressed to the whole class, rather than individual ones. This may even be a home-made card! Teachers will share and display these cards in their classrooms wishing all pupils a Merry Christmas.

We want to thank you in advance for supporting in making our world a better place to live in.

Enterprise Week

As part of our school’s enterprise week (Wk bg. 2^nd December), all children will be participating in an enterprise challenge! Each year group will have a budget of £20.00 to buy resources to make and sell products at the Christmas fayre on the 10^th December, I do hope you will be able to come along to that fayre to explore the different stalls. All money raised at the Christmas fayre will support with school resources! May the best year group win!

Pre-school: This week pre school have enjoyed making snowflakes using salt and paint to crystallise the snowflakes

Reception: In Reception, we’re learning how to do step-by-step drawings this week… can you guess what we’re drawing?

Year 1: This week children in Year One have been learning all about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. They have also learnt how to create slider mechanisms in DT.

Year 2: In Year 2, we have been scientists in action! We tested how long different materials take to fall from a height. We learned about various materials and their properties and ensured it was a fair test!

Stars of the week

All pupils who were a star of the week joined the ‘top table’ for lunch. A huge well done to: ……..

RRSA Article of the Week

Article of the Week – Rights Respecting Schools Award (unicef.org.uk)

Week 5: International Day of People with Disabilities

Article’s you could explore which link to this topic: 2, 23

This week, we spoke about how on the 3rd December we celebrate International Day of People with Disabilities. This global event promotes equality for people with disability and celebrates their achievements. It has been celebrated every year since 1981. It is also a day to promote awareness of the challenges faced by over 1 billion people living with disabilities, and the role communities and societies play in breaking down barriers to inclusion.

Article 2 states:  The Convention applies to every child without discrimination, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status, whatever they think or say, whatever their family background.

Article 23 states: A child with a disability has the right to live a full and decent life with dignity and, as far as possible, independence and to play an active part in the community. Governments must do all they can to support disabled children and their families.

Here is a linked activity you can do at home:

Use dolls, toys and or images to open up a discussion with children about disability. Design a poster or welcome banner for your class to promote inclusion and diversity linked to Article 2. 

Primary School Calendar:

December

10^th– Pre-school Christmas parent/ carer workshop 2.00pm- 3.00pm

-Whole school Christmas Fayre 3.00pm- 4.00pm

11^th– Reception Christmas Carol performance and Christmas parent/ carer workshop 1.00pm- 2.45pm

• Year 2 learning assembly 15am

13^th– End of Term (Last day of school for children)

January

6^th– School open- pupils back to school

28^th/ 30^th – Parents evening 3.00pm- 5.30pm

We have an abundance of exciting events taking place throughout the academic year. 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

Premier Education Christmas Holiday Camps at Avanti Fields

ASDA – Cash for Schools

Healthy Together Newsletter : Secondary

Please see link and further information of healthy together newsletter- Secondary school.

Exciting News from the Drama Department!

Homework help

Maths Tuition

To register interest, please complete the form on this link:-

https://forms.gle/rLAHcx1euPr7gkuC7

Benefits of Maths Tuition:

• Experienced GCSE & A-Level Maths Teacher
• Build your child’s confidence
• Learn in a small group environment
• Tailored learning specific to students at Avanti (working with the Maths department)
• Provides instant feedback
• Classes held at Avanti Fields School

Classes starting in January 2025.

Community Activities @ Avanti Field

Community Activities @ Avanti Fields

We have a number of classes for the community to participate in on evening and weekends.

 We are excited to  introduce New Circuit Training Class

Suitable for all abilities

Ladies & Men welcome

Starts Monday 9th December @ 7.15 pm

To register for a trial class in December for only £1 email [email protected]

To register or find out more information for any of the classes please complete the form on this link:-

https://krishnaavantips.wufoo.com/forms/z1nqh0i70d8s885/

Limited spaces available on all classes.

PTFA AGM meeting Notice

In order for the PTFA to continue and flourish, we are in need of a much bigger team that represents all year
groups in the school, including the Primary phase.

You are all invited to the PTFA AGM to be held at the school on Sunday 19th January 2025 at 3pm.

please see link below for any further information.

PTFA AGM Letter 2025 Notice

Please get in touch with us at [email protected].

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.