Headteacher's Blog @ Tanfield Lea Community Primary School

Our Winning Racing Cars

17/1/2015

On Friday 16th January our winning Racing Car Designers were announced in assembly. The School Council agreed on what car frames would be given to the classes and then this week every class had a competition to design the car that would represent their class on the 'Road to Success' attendance display. Here are our winning designers with their designs (excluding the Reception winners).
Mrs Brown's class were in the lead last week - they have now been joined by Mrs Marley's class - both having moved 4 spaces on the board for their attendance. Any class could catch them up with good attendance in the next week - we'll be watching closely to see how the race develops.
Below is a table showing the space moved this week and the on going total progress of the 'Road to Success'.

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Attendance at Tanfield Lea Community Primary School

17/1/2015

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Last Friday our assembly was all about attendance and how important it is to have good attendance.

We began by posing the question:-

‘Is 90% attendance good enough?’

There was a lot of discussion around this and, as the assembly progressed, we realised that 90% attendance is really not good enough.

We learnt that 90% attendance is:

half a day missed every week
4 weeks missed in 1 whole year
3/4 year missed in the 7 years of primary school

We considered when it is alright to stay off school and when it isn’t.

Here are some of the ones we considered:-

If you have chicken pox                                                                                     ü

If your brother or sister is ill.                                                                             X

If you haven’t done your homework.                                                              X

If you have been violently sick the night before                                           ü

To go on holiday                                                                                                  X

We also talked about wages linked with qualifications and the fact that it is important to get as many qualifications as you can to help you in the world of work. Class attendance was then discussed. On a weekly basis the class with the highest attendance are awarded the ‘Attendance Banner’. In addition to this, from this week, we have now started to award any class whose attendance is 95% or above. We're having a half termly race. The racing track is displayed in the hall and the classes are designing their own racing car . If a class has at least 95% attendance they move 1 space on the track, for over 98% they can move 2 spaces and, if they get 100% attendance, they move 4 spaces. There will be a treat for the winning class/es at the end of each half termly race. The race began last week and Mrs Brown’s class are in the lead after the first lap!

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Christmas Fair - Enterprise in Action

15/12/2014

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Thank you to all who supported our Christmas Fair last week - whether it was by sending donations in for the stalls, baking cakes, attending the Fair itself or by doing all of those things. Your support is really appreciated. The children had a lovely afternoon and I know many parents enjoyed seeing what the children had been making for their class stall.
For the last two years we have run an enterprise competition. Each class receives up to £20 to fund their project. They then have to get creative, agreeing on a product or activity they can sell and the c

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Christmas Fair photos

11/12/2014

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Champions Again

7/12/2014

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Our Y1 and Y2 children competed in the CNS Sports indoor hockey competition. There were 8 teams in total from Witton Gilbert, Langley Moor, Brandon and our school. They had an excellent morning competing against each other and our A team managed to qualify for the final against Witton Gilbert. It was a hard fought game which we won 3-0.

Great result - great morning. Well done everyone!

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Children in Need - Friday 14th November 2014

16/11/2014

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Watch this space next week to find out how much money we managed to raise.

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School Council are voted in

9/11/2014

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Our School Council for 2014-2015 - another example of democracy in action!

Last Thursday was a big day! A number of children from each class from Y2 to Y6 put themselves forward to be their class School Council representative. They made speeches, explaining what they would do if they were successful, and then the class went to the voting booths to cast their vote. Counting took place early on Friday morning and all of the counts were incredibly close. Well done to all who made sure that every class had a choice. We announced the successful candidates at the end of our assembly on Friday. Their first meeting is on Monday.

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Halloween Disco

24/10/2014

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What a fantastic end to the half term!

Thank you to the Friends and Mr Priestley who put all that effort in to the disco last night to make it such a success - it was enjoyed by children, parents, carers and staff alike! There were some fantastic costumes - some children were actually unrecognisable! Purple monsters, mummies, scary physicians, zombies - you name it, we had it. It made the judging of the best fancy dress costumes a real tricky one. Thanks again for a great night!

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3D Jigsaw Success

12/10/2014

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It took God 7 days to create the universe - it took two of our Y3 boys just 3 days to build the earth - pretty good going!! Check out the slideshow to watch it grow. Next stop the Eiffel Tower or maybe Big Ben! We'll see...

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Harvest Celebration

3/10/2014

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Yesterday our Key Stage 1 children treated us to a real Harvest Celebration. They sang the harvest songs beautifully and we enjoyed their choral speaking. Thanks to everyone who joined us for this and to all who donated some harvest produce. The gifts will be shared within our community.