Dear Parents,
Well, it has been quite a week with Year 6 SATs, Year 2 finishing the more formal part of their assessments and the Class R trip to Drusillas. We have also had lots of children representing the school over the last week or so in sports. Our Year 3 and 4 children represented the school at Kwik Cricket. Mr Carrick commended them on their efforts, noting that we were one of the smallest schools taking part. We were proud to take 3rd place out of the 14 teams from across town.
Our Year 5 and 6 Gymnastics team were in action and we have now had confirmation of their results. Our Level 2 team with Theo, Islay, Sally and Catherine gained again a very respectable 3rd place. Our Level 3 team won their group and will be going on to represent our area at the Finals in June. Well done to Emma, Charlie, Chloe and Annabelle.
Our footballers are in action tomorrow in a tournament so we wish them luck too. Our older cricketers are in action next week. We are sending two teams of girls on Tuesday to one tournament and a mixed team will be going out on Wednesday for another. Check back on the website to find out more and see some action shots.
We have one week left of this term. The children will be coming home next Friday full of their plans for Enterprise Week which we are holding on the first week we return. As part of this, some of you have already volunteered to take part in our Jobs Fair on the Thursday morning. On the Friday morning, we would love for you to come and see what the children have been up to and, hopefully, be persuaded to purchase some of the items they have prepared! On Tuesday 4th, we are inviting children to come dressed as someone from a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) based profession. This will a great way to celebrate the focus we have had throughout this year.
As you can see, there has been a lot of exciting opportunities and we, as teachers and support staff, are very aware that sometimes these changes to the usual routines can create different responses in our children. We have been looking at a framework for discussing these and other feelings in a way that our children can identify with and that is rooted in cognitive behavioural therapy. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the film ‘Inside Out’. We have found that using these characters and linking them to the ‘Zones of Regulation’ framework has already begun to give our children tools to discuss and therefore manage their feelings.
Zones of Regulation is a framework and easy-to-use curriculum for teaching children strategies for emotional and sensory self-management. The Zones approach uses four colours to help pupils identify how they are feeling in the moment given their emotions and level of alertness as well as guide them to strategies to support regulation. By understanding how to notice their body’s signals, detect triggers, read social context and consider how their behaviour impact those around them, they learn improved emotional control, sensory regulation, self-awareness, and problem-solving abilities.
Please see the images below for more information.
A final plea – can you ensure that all lunchboxes, snack pots and assorted Tupperware items are named? We seem to have a growing stockpile of unclaimed items, often containing unsavoury remains…
Have a good weekend.
Kind regards, Julie Burton
