March 2022

22 Buckden Roundabout March 2022 School & Pre - School Another busy month at Preschool! The children enjoyed mak- ing their own pizzas—a fun and delicious activity that also pro- vided an opportunity for learning in several different areas: fine motor skills, turn - taking, listening to instructions, mathe- matical language around size and shape, understanding of the world by talking about past experiences of making and eating pizza, and developing vocabulary around senses, preferences and actions. They ’ ve also enjoyed bead threading, collaging to recreate their favourite pizzas or storybook covers, and finding letters from their name on computer keyboards. The small world area has featured pirate ships and a castle, while part of our outside area has become a construction site, complete with hard hats, hi vis jackets and traffic cones. We ’ ve loved listening to the stories these toys and props have inspired. During National Storytelling Week, the children voted for a story every day. This encouraged them to participate and have a voice in their learning, and this early experience of democra- cy ties in with the curriculum ’ s British Values component. We used not just books but videos and props to tell the chosen stories. The children loved marking Chinese New Year with themed activities and Chinese foods, developing their fine motor skills using chop sticks! A big thank you to the librarian, Sally, who provided a great selection of books about Chinese New Year, and about emotions for Children ’ s Mental Health Week. These books helped us to get the children chatting about feelings and healthy ways to express them. As Valentine ’ s Day approaches, the children have also been talking about people who are im- portant to them and using mixed media to create hearts. Looking ahead, some of the children will be visiting the church in March to mark Easter. We ’ re looking forward to our re- scheduled visit from the oral health educator, and more fun activities after half - term. JOB VACANCY: We are recruiting a new Manager, term time only, 35.5 hours per week Mon - Friday. A minimum Level 3 Ear- ly Years Qualification is required, and previous management experience is preferred. Salary is dependent on experience, and a DBS check will be required. For further details, please contact our Acting Chair, Helen Lumb, at buckdenpreschool- committee@gmail.com . To arrange a visit or apply for a place, please call 01480 810600 or email us at buckdenpreschool@yahoo.co.uk . For more in- formation, visit www.buckdenpreschool.co.uk or our Face- book page https://www.facebook.com/ www.buckdenpreschool.co.uk/ BUCKDEN CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY ACADEMY March 2022 February is always one of our quieter months. Some days throughout February felt positively Spring like with bright days and beginning to see many of the bulbs we have planted starting to flower around the school. Since returning after the Christmas break the children have been working hard, many of them preparing for their tests in the summer term. Reaching the half term break in February signifies we are already half way through the academic year, time is just flying by!! Towards the end of last year, we commissioned a videogra- pher to put together a video with our current Year 6 to tell people all about our school from the children ’ s perspective. The video is now appearing on our school website and can be found on the ‘ About Us ’ page, there are some great aerial views of the school and playing field. We hope you enjoy learning more about our school. In January we were able to welcome the school photographer in for the first time in over two years, the children enjoyed having their photographs taken and hopefully parents and families are pleased with their proofs and photo orders. Currently at the time of writing we have a very small number of children and staff absent due to COVID - 19, so fingers crossed this continues. We would like to thank parents for their continued support with following our school guidelines and appreciate families lateral flow testing on a regular basis and when children are identified as close contacts daily testing for seven days as per the current government guidelines. We are still limiting visitors within school, so again we held our parent evening consultations in February virtually via TEAMs. After doing these consultations between teachers and parents this way for the last two years we seem to as a school and par- ents have got the hang of it and ironed out any IT issues. Fin- gers crossed that maybe the next set of consultations can be done face to face, here ’ s hoping. We have gratefully received donations of art and craft materi- als and several collections of children ’ s reading books for both our KS1 and KS2 libraries. Once again as a village and commu- nity thank you for your continued support for our school and enriching the lives of our children.