I hope you have all had a good week and the news of the Covid variant,  Omicron, is a distant ‘thing’ for you all. We will continue to be cautious at school and offer as many activities as we can, without being careless. The connection and positive activity is very important for all but needs to be balanced with care. It is a hard balance to strike.

From one virus to another, the flu-vaccination that is offered to our younger children has not yet taken place and as yet, we do not have a date. Our admin team have been chasing the local NHS team that organises and administers the vaccinations for a date but as yet, they are unable to provide one. I appreciate this does not help but be assured we are chasing each week and will let you know as soon as we do.

We have two weeks left until we break up for Christmas and hope they are great for all.

Attendance is something that we have always been very proud of here at Krishna Avanti Primary School. With the National Averages being around the 95/96% mark, pre-Covid, we have been much higher with 97/98%. For all children (and staff) to be at school as much as possible, makes a huge difference.  There have been a few requests for extended breaks – note these will not be authorised. We deliberately have a three week Christmas break to allow for travel to visit families in other countries and more than those three weeks is not justifiable.

Nationally at present, attendance in primary schools is 91.1%, down from 93.6% on 11 November. Here at Krishna Avanti Primary School it is 95.4% which whilst better than the National Average, we want to get as high as possible.

Please do avoid non-essential absences. For your information, if of interest, see the image to compare attendance across the school classes.

Foundation Two Decorations Day

Foundation Two will be holding a Decorations Day on Wednesday 15th December at 09:15 and parents are welcome to join us via Zoom. Please check your child’s Google Classroom for the link. Thank you!

Christmas Cards

The school red postbox is in position and ready for children that want to send a Christmas card to their friends. If your child wishes to send a message to someone at school in a different class, then encourage your child to use the postbox, making sure the name and class of the person the card is for is clearly written on the envelope. The School Council representatives will then deliver the cards on the same day – not sure you get that with Royal Mail! Your child may even wish to post a letter to Father Christmas. If they do, please ask them to write their name and class on the letter.

Father Christmas Visit and Carols Around the Tree

On the last day of school, Friday 17th December, Father Christmas will be coming to school. He will visit all classes to visit the children but will also be in his ‘Santa’s Grotto’ for those children that would like to meet him individually. We will organise the individual visits during the morning so do need you to complete a simple form so we can ensure we have enough time – there may even be a little gift for all that do book to see him as well as a photograph opportunity. Mr Linnett has kindly offered to take a picture and these will be emailed to you.

A reminder that we finish school on the 17th December at 12:30. When you come to pick up your child at 12:30, please join us for some Christmas Carols around the tree in the courtyard. There will be some warmed Ribena and vegan mince pies for you to enjoy – please don’t sing with your mouth full, but join in when empty. We think this would be a lovely way to finish the term and is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to you for being great parents and partners.

In 2022, Her Majesty The Queen will become the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, seventy years of service, having acceded to the throne on 6th February 1952 when Her Majesty was 25 years old.

Throughout the year, Her Majesty and members of the Royal Family will travel around the country to undertake a variety of engagements to mark this historic occasion culminating with the focal point of the Platinum Jubilee Weekend in June.

An extended bank holiday, from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June, will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone. The four days of celebrations will include public events and community activities, as well as national moments of reflection on The Queen’s 70 years of service.

Because schools are on their half-term break during the week, all schools in the country have been asked to set a day which suits their calendars and area. As such, both Avanti Fields School and Krishna Avanti Primary School have agreed on Tuesday 3rd May, 2022. Please add this to your diaries.

Building Relationships, Improving Behaviour and Creating Stronger Communities

Early on in the book Mark Finnis has a chapter where it talks about all behaviour being nothing more than an unmet need. It can be really hard at times in any situation, whether at home or at school, to remember this but it really is important that we do. When people hit or kick out, argue or express a view, it can be challenging. There is always a root cause for it and in that person’s mind they are right.

One of the things I noticed having returned from Avanti Fields School are the staff outside at the gate. It is not necessarily the fact the staff are out, as I know our staff very much care about your children; it pleases me that the staff engage, smile and welcome your children into school each morning in the positive manner that they do. It may not be noticeable, but what we say to the children and how we welcome them, may have subtle differences depending on what we know to be the needs of the child.

Mark Finnis’s line, ‘all behaviour is nothing more than a display of unmet needs‘, is something that the staff here are very aware of and we hope our deliberate aim to meet your child’s needs actually happens. Children who are valued and loved are in a better position to learn. We will continue to do that with the 1% ripple that we have talked about – every day adding that 1% little bit more; that 1% increase in quality – over a period of time it makes a huge difference.

We currently have £176.25  owed for lunches, a drop from last week’s £324.04. Whilst it is not my money, I would like to express my huge gratitude for reducing this amount as it puts us, as a school, in a good position to concentrate on the right things. Please do continue to ensure payments are made to avoid the need for children to be picked up for the duration of lunch next week. It would be amazing to have the amount owed to be zero – challenge set!

With regards school lunches, you should have seen my email earlier in the week regarding sausages. I had a positive meeting with the caterers who explained the supply issue with that particular item. It was agreed that alternatives need to be available and I have been assured that in the absence of sausages, burgers will be served. I spent the full hour in the dining area yesterday, talking to the children and taking the opportunity to look at portion sizes and get feedback on lunches. Not one child complained nor said the food wasn’t good, which is brilliant to hear.

With Christmas lunch coming up soon, we are planning to arrange a tasting session for a number of the Young Leaders so that this year’s Christmas lunch will be chosen by them, on behalf of their classmates.

For lunches beyond Christmas you may have noticed a new menu is now on the website. The current term’s menu is also there so please make sure you check which menu you are looking at depending on the week you are booking for. We will also be having a very good look at the menu and connecting with the children when we plan for the summer term menu.

Thank you to those that have completed the questionnaire so far. The following comments have been made recently and our initial thoughts and responses to them. We will continue to reflect and work hard to make positive changes where possible. To read all comments and responses, click here.

There is a discrepancy between the homework set between classes – some get a great deal of work set literally everyday for the next day and others don’t. Before covid when the kids had to do there work in their homework books it was so much better! Setting work on google classroom and not asking for evidence or simply asking to discuss the topic rather than write about it means my other child in year 1 doesn’t have the same practice compared to how much my older child had. Why is this work not set over the weekend instead so they have time and energy to do it?

Homework is on this year’s school development plan and something that we want to make very beneficial without being onerous. We will explore this further and respond soon.

Why does yr 1 not have teaching assistants? I asked regarding this at the last parents evening??? Surely 1 teacher cannot appropriately manage that many kids in a class and give attention fairly to each child in a day?

There are two points to note here: there are a number of teaching assistance employed to work across the school and they are deployed depending on the needs of the children in the year group. This is also related to the age of the child. In the simplest terms, Younger children need more help than older children when for example tying laces and doing up their coats. For this reason in our earliest years at school, although not link specifically to a class, there are more teaching assistants (such as two for the two Foundation Two classes.

As the children get older and their general needs reduce, so do the number of teaching assistants – as a general rule we have two teaching assistance for the key stage one classes, where children are much better at putting on coats and shoes and other key activities. Moving into key stage two, there are again to teaching assistants, but for the eight classes; we would not expect these children to need help when getting dressed, tying laces and other key tasks.

You will appreciate that the teaching assistance are not there just to do up coats and tie laces and work very hard with the teachers in all of the lessons across the curriculum, as required. There are some additional teaching assistants to those already explained who work with specific children on specific tasks according to specific needs.

The second point to note is one that many parents possibly realised during lockdown: teachers undergo a great deal of training so that they are in fact able to be with classes of children all on their own to appropriately manage behaviour in a positive way and give the required attention to every child. I appreciate that can be very hard to imagine when having just one child (or a few) at home. When it is safe to do so and we can invite parents in again to experience life in a school today, you will be able to see how the art of teaching is not something that just happens.

Please can you give more notice for things such as dress up days and school photos rather than 24-48 hours notice!!! Is becomes very very difficult sometimes as a working parent to organise things when you’ve been given very little notice. It seems that the school thinks that mums do not work and can drop what they are doing to sort the children out! I’m sure thats not the case but that’s how it feels, those of us who have demanding jobs like yourselves need notice to sort things out so we don’t let our kids down and they can fully take part in activities.

I expect all events to be on our school calendar on the website well in advance. There are occasions when we are invited with little notice and do accept to enable your children greater opportunities – this however should not be often. We have added the calendar to these updates (at the bottom). We will also work very hard to ensure that full details of events are shared in advance as we do very much appreciate the difficulties of finding things out late. Apologies wherever this has happened.

We genuinely could have not asked for a better start. Our son has settled in so well and we are extremely pleased. This school is great and I would highly recommend to ALL parents. To be honest, we have already recommended to parents with newborn babies and young kids (2 and 3 years old) to ensure that they at least come and see this school before exploring their options elsewhere! 

Keep up the excellent work and we look forward to better and brighter future.

Thank you, Such kind words make a positive difference. We will keep doing our best and strive for that very bright future.

parking for pickup is a really big issue (the morning drop-off is not though). there are vehicles littered all along the main road in undesignated spots. speaking to many parents, we are forced to due to to schedules/commitments. some parents may be lazy but other parents have to rush against time. if there were more after-school clubs, there would be fewer vehicles rushing to do pickups. last academic year, due to the staggered lockdown release, pickup times were split over two time points across different year groups (2:30pm and 2:45pm). i realise there may be some education rules and guidelines normally in place, but a similar setup would help reduce the rush of parked vehicles on the main road, which also would help safety. this is something i can easily compare with my memory.

please start the drive through drop off again! I appreciate with covid things have changed but the crowding and ramming at the end of the day at the gate on exiting the school does not adhere to social distancing and the kids are mixing now so its irrelevant anymore. Wouldn’t morning drop off work better like it use to and ease the terrible traffic caused by stupid parking outside the school?

Parking in all schools is problematic, even where purpose-built drop-off points are part of the build. It must be appreciated that there are more after-school clubs here at Krishna Avanti Primary School than most schools – I certainly am not aware of any school that does as many. Please also remember that staff volunteer their time without payment to give the children as much as they can. Regarding staggered finishes, complications that arise during the school day which during Covid, we got on with due to the huge need to help with social distancing. The flexibility and adaptability of staff able to help in different classes and year groups becomes harder with staggered times and all considered, the same finishing time works better for most, especially those parents with more than one child at the school.

We have received far more positive comments about the walk to drop off and pick up than we have from those preferring cars. We do it cruciate the issues with parking but the highways agency, the police, and local schools have strongly made the case for cars not being able to come in.

Thank you very much for your continued support. 

Yours sincerely   

Mr Kite

Principal

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