Atwood News for Week ending Friday 16th June

Mr Veale’s welcome

‘It ain’t half hot, mum.’

With the mercury reaching around 26% consistently this week, with a very, very humid day on Monday, we have all enjoyed some warmer weather.  I have been trying to model sun safety with the children this week, by remembering to wear my hat whilst on my lunch duty.  Many of the children have said that I either look like Sheriff Veale or that I am going on safari!

Uniform 

I take pride how the children are ‘turned out’.  Atwood is proud of its uniform which includes a crisp white, cotton shirt and a tie, rather than an air-tex polo shirt.  There is plenty of variety within our uniform for both boys and girls, including shorts, trousers, skirts, skorts, summer dresses and the like.

Here are some of the key expectations for uniform, even in the hot weather:

• Children should have their shirts and tee shirts tucked in.  We know that they become untucked during the day, but staff will check and provide reminders to the children to tuck them in, including before school, before assembly, after break and after lunch.  Even if it is hot, they still need to be tucked in, and this includes the PE tee shirt.
• PE shorts- these should be ROYAL BLUE and should be the draw-string type.  They can also be a ROYAL BLUE skort.  Please note, that CYCLING SHORTS are not permitted, even if they are royal blue.
• PE tee shirts- these should be the Atwood ones and not carry any sporting logos.
• School shoes and Trainers- from September, these are required to be BLACK only.  Indeed, a discrete black training shoe can double up as the school shoe AND the PE shoe, thus saving money.  In the meantime, I am not expecting anyone to purchase any new trainers, but please do bear this in mind from September.

My aim is for any visitor to comment that Atwood is the ‘smartest’ school in Croydon.  Don’t forget that we are preparing our children for transition to secondary school in which there are strict uniform codes; the children may as well get used to this now.

Sports Day

Sports Day is this Thursday.  Going back to the kit issue- we would like you to prepare your child’s PE kit over the weekend so that the class teachers can double check next week that the children are going to be wearing the correct PE kit on Thursday.  If the children are in AIR, they just need to come to school in their Atwood gold tee shirt, royal blue shorts and trainers.  In the case of the other Houses, you just need to provide your child with the appropriate coloured tee shirt, keeping the royal blue shorts and trainers as per usual.

So, if your child has PE before Thursday, please send them to school in what they will be wearing on Sports Day so we can check AND we can practice the events with the children in their House colours.

House Football Competition- KS2

May I thank SAS for organising such a super KS2 football competition this morning.  Sadly, I was not able to cheer the teams on, but I have seen the photos, and of course, the children were bursting to tell me all about it when I returned back to school.  Air were in the final with Water with Water ending up the eventual winners.  Now bearing in mind Water won Sports Day last year, have they set their stall out early?  Photos in the gallery below.

Sun Safety 

As we approach the zenith of the year, with the summer solstice upon the horizon on the 21st June, the sun is at its highest and is at its strongest, and therefore, we all need to consider our own safety in the sun and of course, for the children.

Please ensure that you send your child to school with a hat and apply plenty of sun-screen in the morning.  I took at look at the NHS advice about sun safety.  There is a very brief overview:

Children and sun protection

Take extra care to protect babies and children. Their skin is much more sensitive than adult skin, and damage caused by repeated exposure to sunlight could lead to skin cancer developing in later life.

Children aged under 6 months should be kept out of direct strong sunlight.

From March to October in the UK, children should:

• cover up with suitable clothing
• spend time in the shade, particularly from 11am to 3pm
• wear at least SPF30 sunscreen

Apply sunscreen to areas not protected by clothing, such as the face, ears, feet and backs of hands.

Why not take a look at the Atwood news stories from this week?

Atwood children past and present raise funds for leading diabetes charity: https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/events/atwood-children-past-and-present-raise-funds

Thought of the Week 

‘‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’  Nelson Mandela 

Points (Pupil Reward Points)

Remember that everyone at Atwood believe in the Terrific Trio:  Kind Words, Kind Thoughts, Kind Actions and for that, the children are rewarded.  The first key milestone for a pupil is to reach 50 Pupil Reward Points because they will be awarded a £5 Book Token in Celebration Assembly, as we also wish to promote the love of reading at Atwood.  I will be taking a look at the leaderboard after half term.

Each pupil has been assigned to a Team or House.  These are Air, Earth, Fire and Water.  All Pupil Reward Points also contribute to the Team Points each week.

Here are the all important totals for the term so far:

Congratulations to AIR who have won the Team Points Competition for this week.  

Why not head over to the Pupil Reward Points website?  https://www.pupilrewardpoints.co.uk

Attendance

The DfE continue to be concerned about attendance in the post covid world.  Indeed, governments across the world have noticed a worrying trend of children attending school less than before covid.  Atwood works on the 95% expectation and each year, we endeavour to hit our whole school community target of attending at least 95% of the time.  Most years, Atwood nearly reaches 97% which is higher than the national average.  Looking at the Year to Date percentage we have crept to the 95% mark and this is excellent news- let’s keep it up, Atwood.

Attendance is important.  After all, children only have one opportunity to go to school, don’t they?  As a rule of thumb, we expect children to attend school at least 95% of the time.  This allows for a child to be absent for a couple of days per year due to coughs, colds and medical appointments that cannot be made in holiday times.  Remember that we never authorise holidays in term time.  Often I am asked to authorise a family wedding abroad, or to visit a poorly relative abroad.  None of these are valid reasons for absence in term time.  Please bear this in mind.

Here are the attendance figures for this week:

From us all at Team Atwood, enjoy the continued warmer weather this weekend.  Stay safe and see you all on Monday 19th June. 

Mr. Veale