A huge thank you to the PTFA for their support with this!

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1 3 rd February 2016 Dear Parents / Carers, Our newsletter theme across this term has been Working In Partnership and this newsletter will continue the theme. The Upton PTFA are fabulous ambassadors of partnership working between home and school. Upton is truly blessed to have such a committed team of parents that work tirelessly in support of our school. They organise numerous fundraising opportunities in a bid to raise additional money to be spent on our children. This term, the PTFA have agreed to fund half the costs of the GO-KARTS recently purchased for all the children to play with at lunchtime. Hopefully, your child has come home excited about earning their Upton Driving License. You may well have questioned exactly what vehicle they were going to be driving and why they were taking a driving test. It s all been very good fun and the GO-KARTS are a fabulous addition to the lunchtime activities on offer to the children. A huge thank you to the PTFA for their support with this! HOT CHOCOLATE Friday returns Popular demand requested the return of the PTFA s special end of the week treat! Members of the PTFA will be selling Hot Chocolate every Friday outside 6G s class room. Don t forget to bring your pennies along on a Friday afternoon!

2 Mr Curtis, Upton s Chair of Governors, sent an important letter out to parents on Friday. The letter detailed exciting news of Upton s future. As of 1 st September 2016, I will lead Chilton Primary School and The Ramsgate Free School alongside Upton; taking on the role of Executive Headteacher across the three schools. What does this mean for the children and families of Upton? Perhaps on hearing the news you asked the question Why? or What benefit will this be to Upton as an already successful, high achieving school? of. Don t forget to ask your child to speak to their class Form Captains if they have ideas they wish to raise with the governors. If you have any questions for the governing body please contact them via the school office or them: governors@upton.sch.uk THANK YOU creative, talented parents the children in Year 4 and Year 6 shared in two wonderful WOW days last week with Year 6 spending the day involved in practical activities linked to the, Human Body. Upton is an outstanding school and it has been my privilege to lead this school forward and achieve the success it richly deserves. The journey doesn t stop here however, and as we face an ever changing educational landscape we must ensure we build on our success, continue to move forward and this must see us work collaboratively with other schools. Upton s future will see us working as part of a larger TEAM of schools; sharing excellent practice across the three schools and ensuring at all times, that our ethos ONE CHILDHOOD ONE CHANCE the mantra that drives every member of TEAM Upton, remains at the heart of everything we do! I assure you, that this move forward will see Upton strengthen and continue to improve. Miss Arthur, Mr Walker and the dedicated team of Upton staff wouldn t have it any other way! Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.-buddha In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed - Charles Darwin. Year 4 travelled back to Ancient Egypt and had a day filled with art, crafts and drama. The costumes you created were superb. Thank you so much for the time and effort spent on ensuring the children immersed themselves in their topic days. Meet The Governors : Friday 5 th February 2 3pm: Mr Curtis and other members of the Governing Body will be hosting their Meet The Governor session this Friday. If you have any questions regarding Upton s future or any other questions you wish to raise please come along. Refreshments will be provided! Also on Friday, the Governors will be meeting with members of the Pupil Council, in the Spring Term Pupil Forum. The governors will chat to Form Captains about Upton s future; listen to ways the children believe the school can be further improved and share the things about Upton they are most proud For a larger selection of photographs, please visit the children s Learn Anywhere platform.

3 Staying with the online learning theme a REMINDER that Safer Internet Day 2016 is on Tuesday 9 th February. Keeping Children Safe Online The theme this year is, Play Your Part for a Better Internet. Mrs Sedgewick will lead the children in a special Safer Internet Day assembly on this day; reinforcing the importance of staying safe online. The fundamental message for our children is to speak out if they are unsure or worried about anything online or not! We are hosting a PARENT SAFER INTERNET WORKSHOP Mrs Sedgewick will also lead an E-Safety workshop for parents (or grandparents) to coincide with Safer Internet Day This will take place on Tuesday 9 th 2:30 pm in the school hall. Mrs Sedgewick will save her presentation on to our website for parents to access following the workshop. Alongside this, Mrs Sedgewick has produced a Parent s Booklet entitled Staying Safe Online which we recommend you read through and is a great way to start a conversation about e-safety with your child. This is on our website and can be accessed clicking on the link below: afety&pid=68 Special Achievements: We have an extremely talented group of children at Upton. Many of our pupils are able to develop their talents through the wide variety of clubs we have on offer in school. Lots of our children are fortunate to participate in a range of clubs and activities outside of school. We want to be able to share your child s talents and successes whatever they may be! In order for us to celebrate success we need to know about it! Don t be shy be proud and let us know. We have a Celebration Assembly every Friday and encourage children to bring in their certificates, trophies and medals and receive congratulations from the whole school community. We also have a Special Achievement display board and welcome photographs and newspaper articles celebrating the many talents and successes of the children of Upton! Congratulations and Well Done to Ella Crompton 5Y was awarded a distinction in her Grade 3 Imperial Classical Ballet Exam. Ella also was awarded a 1 st in Freestyle dancing at Page Mason School of Dance & Drama. Katie Hoyle and Sofia-Rose Baker (5R) have jointly been awarded SIXER for their Brownie pack. Well done girls; it shows what super ambassadors you both are to your Brownie group. New Year s Resolution January Challenge. Very well done to the children that kept and returned their January New Year s Resolution. I received over 100 responses from parents, signing their name on the dotted line to witness their child s dedication and achievement. The children have received a small prize to recognition of the required determination to achieve their goal ; the bigger prize of course was felt by every child in their hearts, knowing that they have made the right choice!!! UPTON JUNIOR SCHOOL PTFA DISCO Friday 5th February 2016 LOWER SCHOOL DISCO (5:30 6:45 pm) UPPER SCHOOL DISCO (7:00 8:15pm) Tickets 3.00 Refreshments on sale with a recycling incentive bring your containers back to the kitchen and receive a free gift. 5 max limit on sale of raffle tickets. Please drop off your child to our main school entrance (school office). Your child will exit the disco from the side hall door. Please ensure your child is collected by an adult and collected promptly at 6:45 pm. Pupils will not be allowed to leave the hall unless accompanied by an adult. Please do not ask taxis or other children to collect them unless you have notified the PTFA disco organisers. Ticket numbers are limited and will be on a first come first serve basis. Please note that if your child receives a red card during the week of the disco they will not be able to attend the disco.

4 Term 3 Dates: Please see below a list of events still to take place in the final days of Term 3. If you have any questions regarding forthcoming events please contact your child s teacher or the school office. 04/02/16 5G Class Assembly 5G 04/02/16 Year 3 KIC Theatre workshops Stone Age Year 3 (Costumes please) 04/02/16 Year 3 Thanet Trust For Archaeology Year 3 05/02/16 Pupil Forum : Meet with Governors Form Captains at lunch time 05/02/16 2:30 pm Governors Meet & Greet Parents invited 2:00pm 09/02/15 2:30pm Safer Internet Day - Assembly and activities in school Parent Workshop 11/02/16 Yellow House Assembly taken by House Captains Parents of House Captains invited 11/02/15 Year 6 Exit Point Year 6 Parents invited 2:15pm 12/02/16 School finishes at 3:15 pm for Term 3 Whole school 15-19/02/16 Half Term Break Whole school 22/02/16 INSET DAY: SCHOOL CLOSED TO PUPILS Whole school 23/02/16 School opens to all pupils (7:50 am for Breakfast Club and 8:40 am for the rest of the school) Whole school Come Dine With Us - Parents invited to dine with their children! Thank you to the many parents and grandparents that enjoyed a special lunch date with their child last term. We will open the doors to lunchtime again to parents in March, please see dates overleaf: Year 3: Wed 2 nd and Thurs 3 rd March Year 4: Wed 9 th and Thurs 10 th March Year 5: Wed 16 th and Thurs 17 th March Year 6: Wed 23 rd March Letters with more information have been ed to all Parents / Carers. You can access a copy of the letter on our website. Mr Langridge s Music Dates Music News! Ukulele Club Adam Covey has begun our new Ukulele club, which meets every Friday, after school until 4.30pm. There are still a few places left and letters are available from the fab folk at the School Office. Children do need a ukulele of their own. Spring Concert Update Over the next two weeks, children who signed up will be given their audition to determine whether they are ready to take part in our annual Spring Concert on March 22nd, (three days after my birthday!). The times of their auditions are on the Music Room board. Here is this years Spring Concert schedule. Thanet Music & Dance Festival 10 th, 11 th or 12 th March TBC by organiser! Thanet Festival of Song Harmony Group Only! Tuesday 15 th March Upton Spring Concert Tuesday 22 nd March Other News The Thanet School Prom, run by Kent Music, has been cancelled this year; therefore the Rock Band and Choir will not be representing Upton as they usually do. Timetabling and content issues seem to have been a major factor in this decision, but Kent has said that they hope to reinstate the event next year. That's all Folks, Mr Langridge Music Co!

5 GOVERNOR News Governors Meetings taking place across Terms 3 & 4: Meeting Terms 3 & 4 Full Governing 5pm Term 4: 29/02/16 Strategy 12:30pm 4;30pm 4:45pm Term 4: 11/03/16 Term 3: 10/02/16 Term 3: 01/02/16 Governing Body Meeting Summary of Personnel Meeting held on 1 st February 2016 The Personnel Committee met on Monday 1 st February. The focus of this meeting was discussion on the behaviour of the pupils at Upton Junior School both in the classroom and outside on the playground. Miss Arthur reported to governors about the number of children that have displayed exemplary behaviour and have been awarded all of their behaviour badges so far this year! Discussion also took place around children s attendance and the children with attendance falling below expected level (lower than 97%) were discussed. Year % Year % Year % Year % Our Year 6 pupils unfortunately have the lowest attendance across the whole school. Come on Year 6 your final year at primary school before the move to secondary this is such an important year you should be setting the right example: Make every day count! ROAD SAFETY The school was delighted to receive confirmation from KCC Highways for a NEW ZEBRA CROSSING to be installed along Broadstairs Road. It is intended to be placed on the site of the existing pedestrian island. Fingers crossed this goes ahead as it will ensure safe passage for our children and families at the start and end of the school day. If you wish to offer support to the proposal, could you TRO@Amey.co.uk The Upton School Parent Teachers & Friends Association is a small group parents from the school that volunteer a few hours a week, a term or just a year (its up to you). Currently the PTFA is made up of Keith Lee (Chairman), Wendy Carr (Treasurer) Ian Banning (Secretary) Picture Right 3 Executive Committee members and a half dozen or so others that help with events. We have 1 meeting a term, normally in a classroom after school that lasts no longer than one hour to decide what, when and who can help on the upcoming events. We raise funds by providing refreshments at school events like the Disco, School Fair and Hot Chocolate Fridays. Selling ice creams and tossing the occasional burger at a BBQ. Last year most of the monies raised when towards the Upton Swimming Pool, but we also pay for the Year Six leavers event and gifts, and train tickets for the Winter Gardens. We have a great relationship with the school head, and take advice from where the schools Pupil Council would like help with something that does not come from the schools budget.

6 We desperately need more parents. that we can add to our list of people to call on for help. You don t have to sacrifice your life & soul but just an hour here or there. But of you want to get more involved you can!!! Trust me you get out what you put in. If you are interested please fill out the attached form and drop into the school office or your details to Upton.Ptfa@upton.kent.sch.uk or text me your details to Hi, I m Emma. This is why I joined the PTFA- My eldest daughter has just left and my youngest daughter has just started at Upton. A school I have grown to really admire including people I have become familiar with. I have helped out as a parent helper over the past four years. Mainly with the school disco but also with school outings and the Environment Club. This meant that I grew to know some of the children and really enjoy their company. Last year I helped out at the school summer fair and then the next day at the family camping event. This is when I realised just how much effort is put in to creating these great events for the Upton community but also just how much money they could raise by having fun and bringing people together. I was asked to help out because the PTFA were in need of bodies to help. I was amazed at just how much these handful of PTFA members were doing and felt the need to help them out. The beauty of joining has to be two fold, firstly knowing how much money they raise goes into buying things and creating events for the children and secondly being able to have a say in what and how things are run. It's also great meeting some lovely people too. Emma Warne Come along and join in fun. Lets make a difference together. Thank You, Ian Banning (PTFA Secretary) If you are interested please fill out this form and drop into the school office or your details to Upton.Ptfa@upton.kent.sch.uk or text me your details to Ian Banning Name:.... Childs Name / Class:..... Mobile: