May 2023

15 Buckden Roundabout May 2023 School & Pre - School BUCKDEN CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY ACADEMY April 2023 For the first two weeks of April, we were on Easter school holidays, at the time of writing it is the last day of the Spring term and it has been very showery this week. So fingers crossed that we get to experience warmer/sunnier weather very soon. After the Easter holidays our Year 4’ s are going straight onto their residential trip. For the second year running 39 children and 5 adults are going for a 2 night/3 - day stay at Grafham Wa- ter Centre and they will be taking part in lots of activities such as archery, bushcraft, mountain biking and raft building. The children will hopefully enjoy themselves and have lots of fun, and return home happy and exhausted. We have continued to take part in various sporting tourna- ments with other local primary schools over the term. One being for Year 5 - 6 students Football Tournament at Brampton School, the group were fantastic and showed a range of team and individual skills. The team won the tournament and now move onto the next round to face other teams who have also won their group matches. An excellent performance by all involved. Our Reception children have been learning all about inspiring local super heroes this term and they have been doing lots of activities. These have included a visit from the biggest tractor the children have ever seen. The children got to touch the tractor and compare their size to the giant size of the wheels. We were lucky enough to have the St Neots Fire Brigade visit with their fire engine and talked all about their role, uniforms and equipment. It was very exciting for the children. One of our parents kindly came into to talk about first aid and the children learnt how and when to get first aid for people and how they can be helpful in emergency situations. On Tuesday 21 st March we celebrated World Down Syndrome Day by children and staff wearing odd socks to school for the day. Odd Socks Day highlights that everyone is different and unique in some way. We talked to the children about equality and equity and held a special assembly to highlight and raise awareness of Down Syndrome. Father David invited our Choir Club to church this week to rec- ord an Easter piece which they sang beautifully and the record- ing will be played to the congregation of St Mary ’ s on Easter morning. After the recording the children were able to ask questions all about the recording process and about the sci- ence of recording sound, it was such a great experience for the children, so a big thank you to Father David and Christian Payne the recording specialist. On the last day of Spring Term, the PTA organised a ‘ Break the Rules ’ day, the children really enjoyed being rebellious. The children were able to say no to school ties, school shoes, and yes to hoodies, colourful hair accessories, temporary tattoos, nail varnish, messy hair, unhealthy snacks and writing in a different coloured pen! It was a great way to end the Spring term. As we look forward to the Easter break, we would like to thank the PTA for funding and organising professional help and ad- vice towards the refurbishment of our pond area. We have already had the area extended and can ’ t wait to see the next stage. We are very grateful to those parents and staff who are giving their time to help with this exciting project. We look forward to the Summer Term! Ofsted Success! Our big news, which we had had to keep quiet until official publication, is our very successful Ofsted inspection! The Pre- school was inspected by Ofsted in late February and rated as Good. In their breakdown, Ofsted rated Preschool as Good for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management, and Outstanding for personal development! Here are some of Preschool ’ s strengths highlighted in the re- port: • “ Children demonstrate incredibly high levels of inde- pendence. ” • “ Children and staff engage exceptionally well with their local community. ” • “ Children enjoy a rich set of experiences, which en- hance their understanding and respect of their environ- ment. ” • “ Children behave well in the pre - school. Staff make good use of regular group sessions to support children's understanding of appropriate behaviour. ” • “ Children's transitions are incredibly well supported. Staff engage exceptionally well with children's previous settings … [and] … the local primary school. They work together to create unique transition plans to meet the specific needs of individual children. ” • “ Relationships between staff and parents are exception- ally strong. Staff engage well with families to gather detailed knowledge about children's early experiences. ” • “ Parents are incredibly complimentary about staff and the exceptional support they provide for the whole fam- ily. They acknowledge the immensely positive impact this has on children's well - being. ” To read the full report, go to https://buckdenpreschool.co.uk/ index.php/useful - info/our - ofsted - inspection - report/ . Welcome to New Staff Members We have welcomed new members to our team: Early Years Practitioner, Gemma Coz, and Preschool Assistant, Emily Reyn- olds (some staff remember Emily attending Preschool herself!). We hope they will enjoy being part of our Preschool family. We Are Still Looking For: • A Cleaner • New Committee Members —this role does not need to take up very much time, nor do you need to be related to, or the guardian of, a Preschool child. If you ’ re new to the village, it ’ s a great way to meet people and become involved in the community! (Continued on page 18)