Please look on our website www.kf.starmat.uk for up-to-date information.

Dear Parents / Carers,

Well, we are halfway through this school year!

I have taken some time to reflect on the first half of this year that has seen changes in staff and an Ofsted visit. Change is, of course, inevitable and often for good reasons, done with the right intentions. Both Mr Whiteley and Miss Moody have settled in well to their classes and the children have adapted to the changes easily as they often do. A small number of children across school however are finding things challenging at the moment, and we continue to support them as well as we can, with the resources we have. We are working hard to ensure the wellbeing of all our children so that we can fulfil our aims of being an inclusive and happy school and community. This is backed by the Trust and tomorrow's training day is for all the Trust schools focussing on developing pupil welfare and wellbeing. As always, your child's teacher should be your first point of contact in discussing any challenges or pastoral concerns that you or your teachers have about your child.

I have been disheartened by the approach of some of our families recently. We truly value good communication and regard this as essential for effective provision. We encourage families to talk to us about their children, and welcome those conversations. We know that we don't get everything right and in some cases we need to make improvements, but we are all determined to make these changes for the benefit of all children. Some of the recent communication has been confrontational, and on occasions, rude. It is not what we would expect from the children, and is entirely inappropriate from adults. Please try to be empathetic in your communication and remember that we are trying to help. This is one reason why personal contact is always encouraged, by making an appointment with your class teacher, as emails, letters and emojis can be interpreted differently by the reader. Please be assured that everyone in school is trying their best to do a good job, and whilst society at large seems very quick to criticise and condemn people, we should always endeavour to be better than that and model courtesy and good manners in our interactions. Of course, we have a code of conduct for parents' behaviour that we will enact when we need to but the vast majority of our parents are a joy to talk to and understand that we have the best interests of all our children at heart.

We break up today for half term and return to school at 8:45 on Monday 20th February. Have a lovely week.

Karen Williams

Head Teacher

After half term we will be starting to recycle empty crisp packets at lunchtimes. There will be a labelled box in the hall for the children to put their finished packets in. We will then take them to the nearest recycling point to be recycled.

We still have a lot to do on our action plan for this year and will be meeting next half term to talk about our next steps.

Watch out for more information about Waste Week which is coming up in March.

If you have any ideas or suggestions about ways in which parents and families could be more involved in 'all things eco', please speak to either myself or Mrs Clarke.

Have a lovely half term.

Mrs Slater and the Eco-Committee

On Thursday 2nd March at 15:30, we will be holding a phonics workshop for parents/carers of children in reception and year 1. During the workshop, we will be explaining the terminology that we use with children during the teaching of phonics, and giving you information about how children progress through their phonics learning and how you can support them at home. If you need childcare in order to attend the session, we will have staff available to look after your child/children during the workshop. Please could you let us know prior to the workshop if you need to leave your child with us.

Training Day

Friday 10th February

Half Term

Monday 13th - Friday 17th February

Parent Coffee Morning

Friday 24th February

Usborne Book Fair

Monday 27th February, 3.15pm

World Book Day - dress as your favourite character

Thursday 2nd March

YR/1 Parent/Carers Phonics Workshop

Thursday 2nd March, 3.30pm

Year 4 Zephaniah Class Worship

Friday 3rd March, 9.05am

Open Classrooms

Friday 3rd March, 3pm

Reception/Year 1 Hughes Class Worship

Friday 10th March, 9.05am

Year 2 Rosen Class Worship

Friday 17th March, 9.05am

Year 5 Shakespeare Class Worship

Friday 24th March, 9.05am

Friends of Kirk Fenton Quiz & Curry Fundraising Night

Friday 24th March, school hall, time tbc

Year 1 Coelho Class Worship

Friday 31st March, 9.05am

Term Ends

Friday 31st March

Training Day

Monday 17th April

Summer Term Begins

Tuesday 18th April

If anyone would like to say thank you to or has any positive comments for a member of staff then please complete and submit the form below.

Readathon: Everyone should have received their Readathon sponsorship sheets and bookmarks this week - we hope everyone enjoys reading lots over the coming weeks. A really simple way to raise some money - set yourself a reading challenge and go!

Curry & Quiz night: tickets for the upcoming curry and quiz will be on sale in the next few days. We'll update our Facebook page with the booking details once ready, and share a further update after half term.

Hope everyone enjoys the half term.

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As ever, you can always set up EasyFundraising as an easy, free,
way to help raise funds for the school whilst you shop.

(Easy Fundraising will link to: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/kirkfenton/)

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friends@kf.starmat.uk

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Registered charity no: 1154660

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Like us on Facebook for up-to-date information www.facebook.com/FriendsOfKirkFenton

Please click on the following link for details of our current vacancies:

https://web.starmat.uk/vacancies/

rev.paulie@aol.com

www.tadcasterbenefice.org

www.facebook.com/churchfentonchurch