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BARNES PRIMARY SCHOOL—NEWSLETTER
EDITION 21 24TH MARCH 2015
This week’s photographs show reception pupils enjoying the
traditions of the festival of Holi and having some fun with
paint.
School meals – a response to questionnaire
comments (all parents)
The take up of school meals at our school is 81% (93.2% in
the early Years and Key Stage 1 and 67% in Key Stage
2). This is high when compared with the national take up of
school meals: 42.6% (2014). It is also most pleasing that 95
of the 118 parents (83%) who responded to the statement
My child enjoys their dining experience (school lunch,
variety of options, salad bar and dining room set up) either
agreed or strongly agreed with it, or had no strong view.
There were, however, 19 respondents who disagreed with
the statement and 4 who strongly disagreed. Going forward
we want these respondents to feel happier with our
provision.
Senior leaders work very closely with our Chef, Amanda, and
Caterlink, the meal providers, to continually improve the
service that we offer. Amanda is relentless in her mission to
provide high quality, freshly cooked meals on a daily basis
and she is quick to respond to feedback from children and
staff. We have already shared the findings from the
questionnaire with her – once again, she wants to respond
with positive action.
Attached to this newsletter is the proposed new menu for
the Summer Term. This is a Gold Standard Menu (official
certification) and bespoke to Barnes. You will note that we
have made several changes:

We will not offer the option of a meat and vegetable
lasagne or a cheese based dish on the same day, as this
limits the choice of food for those children who may not
like cheese.

We will change the options available on a Friday. Since
Caterlink took on our contract we have always had ‘Fish
Fridays’. Whilst this is a favourite for many children,
there are some who do not enjoy fish. So, from the
start of the Summer Term we will continue to offer Fish
Friday (for those for whom this is their favourite menu
of the week), but in addition we will add a meat and a
vegetarian option and remove the jacket potato option.

We will reduce the spice in some of our dishes –
especially for the younger children.
We welcome your views on our new proposed menu. Please
take the time to read through the offer and contact us if
you have any comments, or requests, that you would like to
make ([email protected]). Please note that
the menu needs to be confirmed by the end of the day on
Thursday 26th March to enable the stock to be ordered in
for the start of next term.
Finally, with the intention to receive more regular parental
feedback, we have invited the parent representatives to
have a termly school lunch with us. The day of the lunch will
vary so that food standards across the days and weeks can
be observed and tasted! Amanda and Sue Jepson will join
the class reps to gather their feedback. In the past, when
we have invited parents the take up has been very low. We
warmly welcome any parent who would like to join us for a
lunch. Please let Charlotte (Key Stage 2 Office) know in
advance which day you would like to come. Adult meals are
charged at £2.55.
In a future newsletter, we will provide more details of our
current work with Food for Life and the development work
that is taking place in relation to nutrition, growing food and
children cooking at Barnes.
Year 1 reading - a response to questionnaire
comments (Year 1 parents)
A couple of Year 1 parents had strong views about the way
reading is organised in Year 1. In Year 1, the same as in
Reception, all children read with their teacher as part of a
guided reading session every week and have daily phonic
lessons. In addition to this every child reads, one to one,
with their teacher fortnightly. These reading sessions take
place alongside all the class reading opportunities that are
maximise within the school day.
We would like to explain how additional reading opportunities
are organised. Before doing so we would like to thank all the
parents who have supported reading, either at school, or at
home, during Year 1.
BARNES PRIMARY SCHOOL—NEWSLETTER
EDITION 21 24TH MARCH 2015
Parent readers come into school between 2.15 pm and
3.15pm to read with children. This is different to the
system in 2013-14, when the children were in reception,
when they came in at different times of the day.
The Year 1 arrangement means that children are removed
from free flow learning and handwriting and there is minimal
disruption to lessons.
This year we have had far fewer parent readers sign up
compared to last academic year. The system was advertised
in July at a welcome event, then again at an induction
evening in September where signup sheets were available.
Subsequently these sheets remained on classroom doors for
two weeks. In addition, we again asked for volunteers in
letters sent home. We decided that as there were fewer
parent readers than anticipated, the children already
receiving staff intervention on a daily basis for reading
would not be supported by a parent reader. In addition,
children reading at a more advanced level to their peers
would not be involved in this scheme. We viewed this as
equitable. In these circumstances sharing this finite support
out amongst a large number of children would have resulted
in minimal impact on anyone as so few opportunities would
have been available.
Some concern was also expressed about children staying on
a colour level for an extended period of time. We may not
always get it right, but we feel that sensible, evidence based
decisions are made about when children are ready to take on
a greater level of challenge. The consistently high reading
outcomes pupils achieve at our school suggest that our
decisions are well informed. We are in the process of
redesigning the reading diaries and will include a section on
book levels and skills that we are focusing on within each
colour band. We hope that this will make the reading colour
system more transparent and user friendly for parents.
Teachers assess children’s reading standards half termly
together, as a year group. Children in the three classes are
doing very well and we are very confident indeed that there
is consistency in judgements about levels across the three
classes. Children who need extra support are given it, as far
as the available capacity allows.
Going forward Jade Huxley, The Key Stage 1 Leader, will
coordinate the parent reading system very closely. She and
her team will change the format of children’s reading
journals so that there is more information provided on skills
that need developing at each colour level. Teachers will
offer more comprehensive and diagnostic feedback to
parents on how they can help their child to improve. The
team are also looking at guided reading and ways they can
record this weekly reading in the journal so that parents
know how many times their child is heard reading by a
teacher.
News in brief
Attendance last week was 98.0%. Another great outcome –
thank you.
Our boys’ and girls’ table tennis teams have both won through
to the national English table tennis championships. Both teams
performed extremely well in the south of Britain finals in
Bournemouth. They now move on to the English Schools Table
Tennis Association National Finals in Hinckley in April. The team
were: Molly Lavin, Nicole Burnett, Ellie Panton, Jaikalin Batara,
Joe Durling, Cameron Avon, Kian Shayegan, Thomas Hall and Ed
Small.
We are seeking a referee for a rugby match that will be
taking place on Wednesday 24th from 3.30pm to 4.15pm in Vine
Road. It’s the quarter finals! Any parent willing to help, please
contact Jo.
Term ends this Friday, at the slightly earlier time of 2.30 pm.
School restarts for the Summer Term on Monday 13th April.
After school clubs continue this week, running from 2:30pm on
Friday. Priority re-booking options will be sent out this week,
with the new summer term listing distributed at the start of
the w/c 6th April. Clubs will commence Monday 20th April.
The Bunnies are Back - The Sewing Bee will be running an
Easter stall this Thursday 26th March. If you are looking for
handmade Easter gifts and an alternative to chocolate please
come and take a look and support year 6 fundraising.
Beautiful bunnies (£6), lavender chicks (£3), cards, biscuits and
many more treats to be found at afternoon pick up (cash &
cheques welcome!!).
The Sports sale was a great success and raised just over £624
for the book initiative! Thank all those who kindly donated to and
bought from the sale - we saw some fabulous items receive new
homes including a surf board, skates, swimwear, dance wear and
ski kit! Special thank you to the residents of Cross Street who
didn't mind the noisy market trading. It was well worth it and
lots of fun - possibly a new annual event? Thank you to Fiona
McKinlay and Sally Morrow for organising this event. They would
like to thank Jo Beale, Camilla Curtis, Cecilia Ezaz-Nikpay and
Catriona Tamlyn (who designed all the wonderful signage)!
All staff working at Barnes wish children and parents a very
Happy Easter.
BARNES PRIMARY SCHOOL—NEWSLETTER
EDITION 21 24TH MARCH 2015
Community Notices
Barnes’ dads football night – Dads from our school play
football every Wednesday evening from 8 pm to 9 pm at
Rocks Lane. New players (of all levels) are warmly invited to
attend. There is a local pub visit afterwards. The contact
person is John Lowit: [email protected].
Donkey Rides....
On Palm Sunday, which is 29th March, there will be Donkey
Rides in the Vicarage Garden (39 Elm Bank Gardens). Open
to everyone from 11am till 12.30pm. And there's tea and hot
-cross-buns. And it's all free.
This happens every year and is great fun, and all welcome…
Easter Activities at Orleans House Gallery
Monday 30th March – Friday 9th April
Join us this Easter for two fun-filled weeks of art and
creativity. Work with professional artists specialising in a
range of different art-forms and be inspired by our Stables
Gallery exhibition A Guest in Turner’s House by Katie
Sollohub.
Star Club 2 week FREE trial
Monday 20 & Monday 27 April, 3.45 - 5pm. A series of
workshops for 4-7 year olds combining movement, story
telling, music and art.
Short workshops
Full day workshops
10am-12pm or 2pm-4pm
10am-3pm (packed lunch)
£11.20
£28
Materials are included in all workshops
No booking required for drop-in workshops
Booking for holiday activities is essential. Please call 020
8831 6000, or book online for holiday activities and star
club.
Cycling Event in Wandsworth Park - and World Record
Attempt
Everyone is welcome to join in a free cycling event on 1 April
in Wandsworth Park. Barnes Primary parent, Jane
Greatholder has helped to organise this event as the sendoff for a Putney primary school teacher (aka
SuperCyclingMan) who is about to set off on a 7 continent
cycle tour. You can find out more about SuperCyclingMan
and his exploits at http://www.supercyclingman.com/
The event starts at 11am and will include a range of bike
related activities. At 12 there will be an attempt to break
the world record for the most people ringing bike bells
together. Please come along with a bike bell and help to
make SuperCyclingMan's tour a record breaker before he's
even left home!
Wandsworth Park is located on Putney Bridge Road and is
easy to reach by bike, for example by following the tow path
from the Wetlands Centre down to Putney Bridge. If you
think you'd like to join in, or if you'd like to find out more,
please contact Jane at [email protected] or
Stuart’s Goal (parental article: all interested parents)
I received the following e-mail from a Year 2 father last
week:
A team of current and former BPS dads are raising money for
Stuart Brookes who has been diagnosed with a rare form of
cancer. You can find out more about Stuart’s Goal here:
http://www.gofundme.com/stuartsgoal
We all know Stu as a regular at the BPS Dads’ weekly football
and we were shocked and saddened when we found out he has
a rare form of cancer (Metastasis Myxoid Liposarcoma). The
disease is not treatable in the UK but a programme of
experimental treatment exists in the States. Our goal is to
help Stuart undertake this treatment by raising £150,000.
We are embarking on number of exciting and fun fundraising
activities in the coming weeks and months including recreating
the first ever Football League match between Barnes and
Richmond. Next month we have a family screening at
the Olympic where we’re showing Raiders of the Lost
Ark which captures Stu's spirit of bravery and determination.
Stuart’s Goal Charity Screening: RAIDERS OF THE LOST
ARK [PG] - 10am Sunday April 26th, Olympic Studios.
Tickets are £10 and will be available from Jo Patience from
Monday 13th April.
Mayors March march
Reception children went fundraising for the mayor’s charities
on Saturday. Neo Millar from Amber and Otis Andres-Bayliss
from Topaz joined Harry Wang, also from Topaz, to support
Harry’s march. Together they raised a hefty £28.10 pounds,
which Harry presented to Cllr Jane Boulton on Sunday.
Harry marched one mile with Cllr Boulton, Mayor of Richmond
upon Thames for 2014-15, and other children in Kneller
Gardens of Twickenham on Sunday. He said the march was
“very difficult” but he was glad he did it.
The march was part of the mayor’s fundraising events to
support Homelink, a day respite centre for adults, and
Momentum, which supports local children with cancer.
Police Cadets
Aged 10 to 18? The Richmond Volunteer Police cadets are
starting a new unit at Collis Primary School in Teddington. A
new unit will start on Wednesday 22nd April in the new hall at
Collis primary School. The cadets are aged between 10 and 18
years of age. The junior cadets are aged 10 to 12 and will
meet from 6pm to 7.15pm. The senior cadets aged 13 to 18
will meet from 6.30pm to 9pm. Cadets will take part in team
games, first aid training, drill, sports and lot's more. The
cadets will be issued a uniform Cadets will also have the option
to take part in weekend camping trips, outward bound
activities and team building days. For more information please
email [email protected] or call / text the cadet
mobile on 07939 659 518. The cadet units will be run by fully
vetted Police Officers, community members and young people
working towards their D of E award. Spaces are limited to 20
junior cadets per unit and 40 Senior cadets per unit. Cost is
£1 per session for junior cadets and £2 for the senior cadets.