Reception 2023
If you have a child born between the 1st September 2018 and the 31st August 2019, they are due to start in Reception in September 2023.  The application window is currently open, and the deadline is the 15th January 2023.  Even if your child is currently in our Nursery, you must make a fresh application for a school place.  We have been doing lots of tours over the past few months, so please make sure that you get your application in on time to try and secure a place at King’s Oak.  You should apply using the eAdmissions website which is linked here. You can also find further information about primary school applications from the Kingston Council website here. 

Brite Box
As some of you may be aware, we are currently part of an initiative to give each family in Year 3 a weekly food box (Brite Box) containing all the ingredients and a recipe card to create a simple and tasty family meal.  The idea being that the family will cook this together and develop new tastes and opportunities for cooking and eating together.  The feedback from Year 3 has been excellent and in the Spring Term, it will be Year 4s turn to have the boxes before Year 5 take over in the Summer Term.  The children in Year 3 have shared some pictures of them cooking in action - the results look delicious!

Update from Governors
Last night the governing board held the final meeting of the year.  It was an agenda packed full of interesting information and lots of great news for us to be able to share with parents.

The board approved the latest school strategy for how we spend our Sports Premium - this is additional funding for the school to support sport and health across the school.  The strategy as well as supporting the provision of specialist sports coaching across the school allows for involvement in many other sporting events and activities - look out for further information from the school in the near future.

We also had a presentation on Well-Being - this covered children, staff and parents.  We heard about how the school is currently supporting wellbeing for staff with the introduction of Low Key Weeks, for children with continued drop-in support at lunchtimes and for parents with workshops and guidance.  This is such an important area and is a key action on our School Development Plan.  We will continue to monitor this carefully over the year ahead.

We also discussed governor recruitment - we currently have vacancies for parent governors and for governors from outside of the school.  Being a governor is a fantastic opportunity for your own development as well as a way of supporting the school.  If you think that you or someone you know would make a positive addition to our governing board please get in touch with our Clerk, Anne Jones or look out for governor recruitment information in the Spring Term.

PSA Grotto
Thank you very much to our inspirational PSA team who have this week put together the most phenomenal Santa’s Grotto experience for our children to enjoy.  The level of thought and detail that went into the planning and delivery of this event has been exceptional and the feedback from visitors highly positive. The team have put in many hours of work to make this happen and deserve huge praise and gratitude from us all - thank you to everyone involved!

Supporting Your Child With Sleep
Gabriela, who is our Education Wellbeing Practitioner, will be delivering a Supporting Your Child with Sleep Parent Workshop at King’s Oak on the 10th January 2023, from 9:00-10:00. This is an in-person workshop, so please come along to learn from this informative session.
Date: 10th January 2023, 9:00-10:00, at King’s Oak.
Overview of content:
● Why is sleep important and how much sleep children need.
● The circadian rhythm.
● How to encourage good sleep.
● Resetting the circadian rhythm.
● The bedtime routine.
● The bedroom environment.
● Wider sleep hygiene strategies.
● Specific strategies.

If you would like further information about this, or any other work offered by the Mental Health Support Team, please speak to the designated Mental Health Lead for your child's school, Mrs Sener. Alternatively, you can contact Gabriela on
gabriela.morenovera@achievingforchildren.org.uk.
 

HENRY

Several of our families have benefitted from access to the HENRY programme - they have provided an update newsletter below for you to find out if any of the modules might be useful in supporting your family.  Please get in touch with them if you think it might be useful.

Kingston Christmas Trail

If you've got some spare time over the coming weeks and need an activity to get out of the house, why not have a go at the Kingston Christmas Trail - details below or follow this link for more information.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend - only one week to go! I look forward to seeing many of you at the Christmas performances next week and please remember that term ends at 14:00 next Friday 16th December.

Ian Hutchings

Headteacher