Rush Common School Newsletter
Thursday 23rd April 2015
Our School Value: Patience
“When someone is talking and you want to talk to them, you have to wait.”
“It is like waiting for the ice cream truck – pushing through isn’t being patient.”
“Sometimes you have to wait for the bus. You can pass the time by playing a game like rock, paper,
scissors!”
Class 3LK
Home talk time: Patience
This week’s home talk time question is detailed below.
Why is it important to be patient? How could you help someone else to be more
patient?
Dear Parents/Carers
School News
A very warm welcome back after the Easter Break. I hope that you had a restful holiday and were able to
enjoy some of the glorious sunshine!
The last week of last term was extremely busy and ended with the Friends of Rush Common (FoRC) school
discos, which were highly successful. I would like to publicly thank FoRC and all of the parent helpers who
made this event run so smoothly. I was also delighted to receive positive feedback from the parents
regarding the behaviour of our children at this event and in particular their politeness and excellent manners.
During the break, we also held a very successful Easter School for the Year 6 pupils which was well
attended. The children enjoyed the day and it provided them with some valuable revision opportunities prior
to their SATs in May. There was even time for a challenging ‘Big Quiz’ to test their knowledge and some
outside games in the sunshine. Thank you to Mrs Davies, Mrs Donovan, Miss Rowe and Mrs Rolfe who
supported the event.
I am pleased to report that the new term has started very positively and the children have settled back into
school well. Having spent time walking around the school over the past two weeks, visiting classrooms and
observing children’s responses, I have been delighted to see the children working hard and showing a
determined approach to their learning. The Year 6 children, who have already been involved in practice tests
and revision activities this week, have shown remarkable resilience and determination to succeed. Keep up
the great work!
The Year 1 children have also been particularly busy practising their ‘Flavours Around the World’ assembly,
which I had the pleasure of watching yesterday. All of the children demonstrated exceptional confidence,
maturity and enthusiasm. They also showed that they had learnt a huge amount about a variety of different
cultures around the world and the importance of respecting different beliefs and practices. Well done!
The school also received the news this week that a Rush Common pupil had won a recent KS2 ‘Create an EBook Competition’ hosted by 123ICT. Last term, as part of their English curriculum work, the Year 6 children
were provided with the opportunity to use the ipads to create a book about the rainforests for a younger
audience. The overall winning entry was Zak Lyel in Year 6, for his super, Rainforests in a Monkey's Eyes,
entry. In addition to Zak's success in the competition, Elizabeth Lyon's, ‘All you need to know about
Rainforests’, entry was also awarded a Highly Commended Certificate. As the winning school, we will
receive a year's subscription to an electronic library of books and a collection of print books, kindly donated
by 2 Simple Software. Prizes will be awarded in an upcoming assembly - what a great way to start the term!
Rush Common Academy Trust is an exempt charity and a company limited by guarantee.
Registered in England and Wales. Company No. 7931886
Registered Office: Rush Common School, Hendred Way, Abingdon. OX14 2AW
There have already been a huge number of activities taking place in school over the past two weeks. Please
read the summaries below to find out a little more about what has been happening in school.
Lower School
The children in Foundation Stage started a new topic on 'Growing'. They have been thinking about what
humans and plants need to grow. They had great fun planting lettuce seeds and are eagerly awaiting their
growth! The children have brought in photographs of themselves when they were a baby and have played
‘Guess Who’. In Literacy, the children have been learning how to label parts of a flower. As part of Space,
Shape and Measure activities, the children have thought about height. They were asked, 'What is the tallest
thing you can think of?' There were some brilliant responses including 'my house', 'the Shard' and 'a giraffe'
The children are excited about next week’s visit from Nick Cope and have been learning some of his songs
including 'Grow, grow, grow'.
Year 1 pupils have started their new topic, ‘Plants and Gardens’ and have considered what they already know
and what they would like to find out more about. In Science, the children have set-up an investigation in their
classrooms to discover what plants need to grow and will be observing this over the next few weeks. In
Literacy, links will be made with the children’s Science work to create instructions on how to plant a seed. In
addition, the children have been very busy planning, writing the scripts and rehearsing for their year group
assembly on their 'Flavours Around the World' topic.
Middle School
Year 2 have been working on riddles about animals. They have started their new topic about habitats and
have considered what living and non-living things are. The children had an amazing trip to Chedworth Villa
where they wrapped up last term’s topic of the Romans. During the trip, the children (and staff!) had a great
time creating their own Roman medicine and handling real Roman artefacts. The children were a credit to
the school and a wonderful time was had by all. In French, Eric Carle's ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ has
inspired some artistic use of tissue paper and some counting.
Year 3 had a great end to last term on their trip to the Post Office to send postcards to their Spanish pen pals,
who were very excited to receive handmade postcards. Many children brought in fantastic homework
projects on Egypt, which they had completed over the Easter holidays. In addition, they have delved into
their topic of Egypt this term by researching Howard Carter and locating Egypt on a world map.
Upper School
The children returned fresh from their holidays and ready to learn. In Year 4 the children have started their
new topic: investigating the local history of Abingdon. As part of their learning, in week 3, the children will
walk into the town centre to make observational drawings of historic buildings. In Literacy, the children wrote
letters to Vale of the White Horse District Council to put their views about the proposed closure of the outdoor
pool. In Maths, both classes have enjoyed making the most of the warm weather by learning outdoors.
Year 5 pupils have begun their new topic on The Titanic, looking at the events surrounding this disaster using
evidence from original letters, menus and photographs. They have started their new class text, ‘An
Edwardian girl's diary on The Titanic’ and written their own diary entries imagining what it would be like to see
the ship.
Year 6 have looked at the features of newspaper reports and written their own newspaper articles about
various current topics in the news using laptops. In Topic, the children have begun looking at the history of
their local area and begun to sketch the architecture. Last Thursday, Miss Rowe’s class visited Junior
Citizenship in Oxford to take part in ‘real life’ personal safety and citizenship activities; Mrs Davies’ class will
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attend the same sessions on Friday 22 May.
The Future
Alongside normal classroom activities this term, there will be a number of assessment activities taking place
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including both Year 6 and Year 2 SATs testing. As a reminder, SATs begin for Year 6 on Monday 11 May
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for one week and for Year 2 on Monday 18 May for a week. The National Phonics Screening tests begin on
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15 June for a week. In other year groups, formative assessment is on-going, with summative assessments
towards the end of the year. Please note that unless there are exceptional circumstances, absence will not
be authorised during these weeks.
Despite this, the school will continue to ensure that the children experience a broad, balanced and exciting
curriculum. Please do keep your eye on our website for the latest news of events.
I wish you all a lovely weekend.
Yours sincerely
Laura Youngman
Headteacher
Other News
Homework survey
Last week a link to a survey about our homework provision was sent out to the parents of children in Years 1
to 6. We have already had a huge number of responses – thank you. If you have not done so already, I
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encourage you to provide your responses by Friday 1 May. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and a
summary of the findings will be provided in the next newsletter.
PE News
Athletics Awards
In Terms 5 and 6, Athletics will be taught within PE lessons. In order to ignite children’s passion for Athletics
and develop their appreciation of competitive sports, the school will be introducing Rush Common awards for
Athletics. Pupils will be participating in throwing, running and jumping events for which their distance/time will
equate to a number of points. The points are then calculated, resulting in a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum
award. These awards will also contribute to overall House Points. These events will also help with practice
for the upcoming Sports Days.
House T-shirts
With the exception of the Foundation Stage pupils who will be allocated a coloured t-shirt from our previous
supply, each child was provided with a House t-shirt at last year’s Sports Day. Unfortunately we do not have
a further stock of t-shirts in school and therefore, if your child has lost their t-shirt, parents/carers are asked to
provide a t-shirt in the correct colour for their PE bag for any future House events, including Sports Days.
Play leaders
The school currently has 30 play leaders in Years 5 and 6 who have been trained by Mrs Barnes. Their role
is to organise games at lunchtimes for KS1 pupils. These children are excellent role models and have helped
to encourage pupils to participate in a variety of games. Their supportive, mature and nurturing approach has
been wonderful to observe. It has been lovely to see children being even more active and taking part in fun
games during the lunchtime break. Please see Mrs Barnes if you have any questions about the
aforementioned items.
House Top Trumps Tournament
Having run a House Top Trumps Club for 4 weeks, each week playing elimination rounds, our winner was
Jonny Adams in Year 5. Jonny has been registered for The National 2015 Schools Top Trumps Tournament
featuring Beast Quest. This tournament is an annual event where thousands of schools up and down the
country battle it out to find the UK Top Trumps Champion.
Read for my School
The Read for my School competition has now closed but I have been amazed by the huge amount of reading
that has taken place over the past few months! Mrs Browning has nominated the following group of children
for the Read for my School ‘Wall of Fame’ due to their outstanding commitment to Reading. Well done to
them!
Dominic Lowe – a truly enthused reader!
Ola Dafa’Alla – for trying new types of books for the first time.
Lauren Bellcourt – a reading heroine!
Katie Simpson – super book worm!
Jasmine Cooper – reading star!
Zoe Pratley – our reading rocket!
Holly Stowell – a reading champion!
Library News
4,524 books have been loaned from the school library since the beginning of the academic year which is a
brilliant amount! In Terms 3 and 4 alone, 2,313 books were loaned and 33 children have borrowed more than
30 books since September. Thank you to Claire Cross, our School Librarian for all her hard work and efforts
to encourage all pupils to make use of the library.
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
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A SEND Coffee morning was held on Friday 20 March and attended by a small number of parents. The
focus of the meeting was dyslexia and strategies that could be used to support pupils. The next SEND coffee
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meeting is due to take place on Friday 26 June. It would be lovely to see as many of you there as possible.
Following the success of the Anti-bullying Parents Evening in March a number of parents have agreed to take
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part in an Anti-bullying forum. The forum will be held in school on Monday 18 May (2-3pm). Please could
you contact the school office if you are interested in being involved. We will discuss the current Anti-bullying
Policy and look at how we can continue to promote effective anti-bullying strategies in school. A letter has
also been sent to parents/carers regarding a possible E-Safety Information session to be led by the Police. If
you are interested in attending this, please return the reply slip.
Cycling Proficiency
I am delighted to announce that 11 out of our 12 children who took their cycling proficiency test at the end of
last term passed. 36 children have passed their cycling proficiency so far this year. Thank you to Mr Latimer
and all of the volunteers who support this extremely valuable activity. The next group of children will be
starting their cycling proficiency training this term – we wish them lots of luck!
Friends of Rush Common (FoRC)
The EYFS Party at the end of last term was attended by 44 children and raised £190 for the school. Thank
you to FoRC for organising such a lovely event.
FoRC would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the Rush Common parents, carers and students who
supported their fundraising activities during the month of March. A total of £844 was raised! The aim
remains for this money to go towards a new Scooter Parking Bay. Options for the ground breaking and
installation required are currently being researched. If you know anyone who might be able to help with this,
please contact: Lisa Bolcato at: [email protected]. The next big FoRC event will be the Summer
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Fete on Saturday 20 June. Lots of helpers, marquees, gazebos, chipped crockery, cakes, etc. will be
required. If you would like to help, please contact Kerri Carmichael at: [email protected]. More
information about the Summer Fete, a June non-uniform day and tombola donations will be sent out shortly so watch this space!
School Meals
I recently gave parents the opportunity to come into school to try our school dinners. A few parents have
been into school this week and had a school dinner alongside our pupils. I am very pleased that those
parents have enjoyed the experience and to have received positive feedback regarding the size of the
portions and the quality of the meals. In addition, I have received positive comments concerning the manners
of the children.
An Act of Kindness
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I am very proud of one of our pupils, Ronnie Bellcourt, who held his 6 birthday party at the weekend. Rather
than ask his friends for presents, Ronnie asked them instead for donations for JDRF (the type 1 diabetes
charity). By doing this he raised over £250 for JDRF. He decided to do this because he wanted to help find a
cure for all the other children with diabetes. Ronnie and his parents wanted to thank pupils of 1TA for their
generosity.
Charity Trek
Mrs Evans will be joining Mrs Clear, Mrs Kendry, Mrs Atyeo and Mrs Prior (a friend of Mrs Atyeo) in a 52 mile
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trek along The Ridgeway, from Watlington to Barbury Castle. The challenge starts at 2pm on the 20 June
and has to be completed within 24 hours! The trek is in aid of the UK based charity Sense, which provides
help and support for deaf/blind people and their families. If you would like to sponsor the team, please go to
the Just Giving link: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/AKC
Upcoming Dates for your Diary
English Meeting for Parents
KS2 Sports Day (venue to be confirmed)
Non-uniform day, tombola donations
New Parent Meeting – new FS intake
FoRC Summer Fete
SEND Coffee Morning
KS1 Sports Day on the field
FS New Starter Visit 1
Whole school move up day
Initial Parent Meeting, Years 1, 2 and 3
Whole school move up day
Initial Parent Meeting, Years 4, 5 and 6
FS New Starter Visit 2
FS New Starter Visit 3
School Finishes
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30 April, 6.00pm
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5 June, 10.00am onwards
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12 June
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17 June, 6.00pm-7.00pm (School Hall)
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20 June, 11.30am-2.30pm
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26 June, 8.45am
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26 June, 1.15pm-3.00pm
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29 June, 1.20pm-2.40pm
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7 July
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7 July (Classrooms)
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8 July
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8 July, 6.00pm-7.00pm (Classrooms)
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9 July, 9.30am-11.30am
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13 July, 9.30am-11.30am
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17 July, 1.30pm
*NB: Further details regarding move up days will follow in due course.
Photograph Gallery