Stanmore Post - 23 April 2021

Dear Parents/ Carers, 

Welcome back to the Summer Term. We have had a brilliant start to the term helped by some lovely sunny weather. With Covid restrictions easing slightly, we have taken the decision to allow the children to mix in Year group bubbles outdoors in the fresh air during break and lunchtime. It has been good to see the children playing with their friends in the good weather. During lessons the new topics have started across the school with exciting hooks to inspire the learning for the term. As we hoped, the children have returned to school much more settled after the Easter holiday. While we are remaining cautious, we are working to return to as much of the planned summer events as possible. Have a look at some of this week’s wonderful work.

I would like to welcome Mrs Emma Holland to the Stanmore Team. Emma is our new Admin Officer and she has made an excellent start, working with Mrs May Eagle in our school office this week. I hope that you get the opportunity to meet with her in person soon. She can be contacted via adminoffice@stanmore.hants.sch.uk

We have two further new members of staff who I would like to welcome. Mrs Kate Barton and Miss Amber Noel-D’Avila have joined our teaching assistant team and we are very pleased to have them in school. Finally, to complete our Stanmore family, Mrs Mason, Mrs Griffiths and Mrs McGovern have returned following the end of Covid shielding restrictions. The children and staff were delighted to see them back in school this week. 

I was really proud of the school today as we had our final virtual visit from Whiteknights Primary School, the English Hub who have been supporting us with our early reading programme: Read Write Inc. This has been a two year support package which has seen our teaching strengthen and our outcomes improve by 20%. We will continue to invest time, money and energy into this programme as children throughout the school continue to benefit. As we have made such strong progress with reading, this term we have added a highly focused spelling programme to the daily lessons. In order for this to be effective for all children we need to start the English lesson at 9:05am. Children split into different groups to get teaching at precisely the right level and so for many, this means moving. Children who arrive in the office after 9am are missing their speed sounds. Over time this amounts to a lot of lost learning, affecting reading, spelling and self-esteem. It would be brilliant if this term we could see every child in school by 08:50am. 

If you need any support with this please contact Mrs Fenton or Mrs Mason via the admin office email and we can look at ways to help you adjust the morning routine.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor