Latest News

Maths Mastery & Calculation Policy

Fri 25 Oct 2019

Following our Maths Mastery session this week, we said we would direct you to the relevant area of the website. For those who were able to make our session & for those who were unable to attend please follow the path to find the slides and the calculation policy that we shared with you.

Many thanks, Mrs Coventry.

School app - school (at bottom) - school information - Curriculum - Maths (you will need to scroll up if you are using a mobile phone)

If you are on a computer use the drop down lists.

Macmillan Cake Sale - Update

Fri 04 Oct 2019

We banked a total of £263.89 for the Macmillan Cake Sale, thank you to everyone for your support - especially to Amethyst class for hosting the event.

One Can Trust - Harvest Donations

Fri 27 Sep 2019

Thank you to Years 3.4 & 5 for helping us to understand the message of Harvest Festival - we would also like to thank you for providing so many donations for One Can Trust, they will be very pleased to see so much!

Harvest Festival Friday 27th September

Tue 24 Sep 2019

Dear Parents and Carers,

The assembly being held this Friday is our Harvest assembly, which will be led by Year 3,4 and 5.

As it is quite lengthy, we will not be presenting Hand-writer or writer of the month and will do Stars of the Week and birthdays in classrooms on Friday.

As is our tradition, we will be collecting for the One Can Trust, a local charity who serve as a food bank for Wycombe and South Bucks. We are proud to be able to support such a worthwhile charity making difference in our local area.

Please see the list on the poster for the most urgent food needs.

We would request that children bring in an item during the course of the week, or on Friday. They will be able to add their donation to the table on Friday before the assembly.

Thank you in advance for helping us support the One Can Trust and we look forward to seeing some of you on Friday.

Kind regards,

Fiona O'Reilly

Headteacher

Holtspur School & Pre-School

Communication to Parents

Wed 18 Sep 2019

We are now using the SchoolApp to communicate with parents, the new updated version allows us to personalise messages to individuals, can you please ensure that you read messages sent to you as we will only message if it is important information for you. If you have any queries, please do contact the office.

We appreciate your cooperation with this, Many thanks.

TheSchoolApp - Update

Thu 05 Sep 2019

The system will go live today, you will receive a text message from TheSchoolApp, please follow the instructions on the text to update.

Any problems, please contact the office and we will try to resolve these as soon as possible.

Many thanks for your patience.

TheSchoolApp

Wed 04 Sep 2019

Further to our communication at the end of term about the new updated version of TheSchoolApp we would like to let you know that there has been a slight delay in the roll out of the system. They are hoping that this will be resolved by tomorrow. If it is you will need to take the following action:

1. Update your app on your phone (TheSchoolApp) to the newest version - some people's phones do this automatically & you will see the new features

2. Wait for us to text you with a verification code

3. Follow & complete the instructions given to you via your phone

In the meantime we will email you with any messages from the school. We do apologise for any inconvenience however, this matter is external to our abilities. Once up and running, the advantages are that we can personalise messages to groups, classes and individuals in order to simplify our communication with you.

Thank you for your patience.

Headteachers' End of Year Letter

Wed 24 Jul 2019

24 July 2019

Dear Parents and Carers,

So, another year has flown by and we are at the end of summer term once again.

I would to thank all of you, on behalf of myself and the whole staff, for all the many good wishes, thanks and gifts we have received over the last few days. Positive feedback makes all the difference to us.

This year has been another eventful and busy one. We have achieved the Silver Award for our Learning Outside the Classroom, thanks to all the team and in particular Mrs Vandyken, who leads this area for us.

We have also achieved the Bronze Award for School Games – Miss Noble has worked tirelessly with our own staff, Club Sport and the Alfriston Sports Partnership to provide opportunities to take part in tournaments and competitions across the school. New sporting competitions we have tried this year include tennis and cycling – thanks to Mr Scott!

Our focus on the Arts remains strong – so many of our children have performed in Celebration Assembly, Arts Evening, class assemblies and productions, which seem to go from strength to strength. We have several musical and dance clubs which children have enjoyed.

Thanks must go to our Year Six mental wellbeing mentors, trained by Bucks Mind this year and who ran TLC club. Many of your sons and daughters benefitted from this club with visits at lunchtime to talk over issues big and small. Combined with our focus on MindUp and growth mindset, we hope you have noticed resilience, empathy and perseverance building in your children.

We remain committed to providing a wide breadth of curriculum, from cookery, outside learning, themed days, a wide range of visits and trips and visitors coming into the school.

We are always looking for ways to improve the academic outcomes for our children and in English, we have introduced Letter Join across the school to set high expectations for handwriting and are embarking on a scheme called the Power of Reading in both Key stages as part of our English curriculum. We want our children to view reading as a pleasurable activity which opens the doors to a fount of knowledge and interest – within class through high quality texts shared with them and in their own personal reading development. Alongside a new spelling scheme, this will provide the building blocks and structure to get the most from our pupils at every stage.

In Maths we can report an increase in children achieving the expected standard in every year group, including Reception. In 6 of our 8 classes, this is also true of working at greater depth.

Statutory Results:

In Reception, this year we have achieved a 9% increase from last year of children achieving a Good Level of Development, which is at 77%.

Phonics results remain high – 90% pass rate in Y1 this year, which is well above average.

KS1 – We have maintained our levels of GDS in Reading and Writing with a 5% increase in Maths. We have had a slight dip in levels of WA in writing and maths from last year, but progress for this year group compared to their Reception results remains good.

KS2 – An increase in the percentage of children achieving working at in all three subjects of Reading, Writing and maths over last year.

Over half the class achieved the higher level in reading and 41% of children achieved the higher level in Maths. We have also seen an increase in those achieving GDS in writing.

Y6 SATs results

READING

WRITING

MATHS

Working at and above

Higher level

Working at

and above

GDS

Working at

and above

Higher level

% of pupils

79.3%

51.4%

86.2%

13.8%

75.9%

41.4%

I am immensely proud of all that our hardworking staff and children have achieved this year – and I thank you for your support for the work we do here.

I wish you all a well-deserved break – a time to reconnect and enjoy family time.

For our leavers this year – we send you with our very best wishes for your future adventures.

Autumn Term will start for children at 8.40am on Wednesday September 4^th.

With my very best wishes,

Ms O'Reilly

Amazon Wish List ...

Tue 23 Jul 2019

Detailed below is a link to Amazon for our wish list, we have added resources that the classrooms will need for September and if you would like to make a donation to the school you can order something from our list and have it sent directly to us. We are very grateful for your support. Many thanks.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2MZ8KKPKHX8N7?ref_=wl_share