HEAD TEACHER`S UPDATES

Juniors: 020 8653 2618 (t) 020 8653 8925 (f) juniors@cypressprimary.co.uk Infants: 020 8653 4203 (t) 020 8771 1792 (f)
HEAD TEACHER’S UPDATES
UPDATES
Bulge Class Updates
We are now all up and running in the new classroom accommodation. We also have our “hut” back
so that has made life much more straight forward. We currently have 17 children in the new Amber
Class. It would appear that the new classes schools were directed to take are not going to be full.
In fact a school local to us who were also directed, ended up only having 4 pupils. They have decided
to close the bulge for this year and have the extra form of entry for next year’s cohort.
We considered this, but the number of families still wanting to come for us, and who had waited patiently, was too significant for us to accommodate in the existing provision.
So if you have any neighbours who did not get into reception this year (13/14) and have not realised
that they could now, please let them know. I really want to keep our intake local. If we fill up with
families from outside the area it will skew our intake so that when these families have sibling priority
more local families could then be excluded.
We are hopeful that the works to build the new kitchen and extended soft play area will begin anytime now.
Many thanks,
Ms Godetz
Head Teacher
Triathlon
You will see in Cypress News this week a flyer advertising the “TRITOGETHER” event taking place
at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre on August 31st 2014. This event is aimed at getting people
active, doing sport together and raising money for the Leonard Cheshire Disability Trust, a local organisation based in the Crystal Palace area. There are a range of categories for age 8 to adult. The
events are aimed at beginners and are meant to be fun! This is the fourth year and one of the organisers came into speak with the junior site children today.
I warn you that the children were very keen! They are bringing slips home today. These are expression of interest forms. If you and /or your children would like to find out more about taking part then
please complete the form and return it to the school office.
As you all know we are a healthy school and like to promote healthy eating along with exercise. It
would be great to have a “healthy show” of Cypress children and adults at the event.
To get the ball rolling on this Mr Roebuck, Mrs Hart and I are signing up. So come and join us and
keep us company.
Many thanks,
Ms Godetz
Head Teacher
2
Progress Of Our OfSTED Action Plan
We have all been working hard to target the areas identified by the school inspection earlier in the
year.
The quality of teaching, as you know, took us by surprise and we did not feel that this was an accurate reflection of what typically takes place in our school. The percentage of good lessons observed
at the time of the OfSTED was around 60%.
Our recent whole school review put the number of good or above lessons at over 80%. None observed were in adequate. Where lessons were judged to require improvement, this sometimes
meant that there was just one aspect of the lesson that could be better, even where all other aspects were good or outstanding. This is in line with the OfSTED framework.
Issues about use of questioning raised by OFSTED were looked at closely and this was found to be a
strength of the teaching observed in the Whole School Review process.
We also focussed on provision for the most able. We saw all children well catered for. The project
based work that we have begun to introduce in key stage two is really captivating our children and
we need to continue these sorts of foci.
During the review, we saw lots of excellent writing provision and the standard in terms of quality
and quantity of writing has vastly improved this year. This shows us that the initiatives we have introduced to improve writing are having a positive impact on our children’s progress.
The other area we are looking at very closely is how effective we are being in ensuring our children
who are eligible for pupil premium funding are progressing. We are undertaking a detailed scrutiny
of the extra support we are offering children to ensure that it is making a difference, and where it is
not, we are changing it to try something different.
Overwhelmingly, what was evident during this review process was how hard our staff are working to
ensure that children are clear about what they are learning, where they have progressed to, what
they need to work on next and how they can get there. Children spoke enthusiastically about their
learning and the progress they are making. Children are self-assessing their progress as a routine
part of their learning. They feel part of the learning process and accountable for their own learning
journeys.
I would like to thank all the staff, pupils and you the parents for your hard work in ensuring that all
our children reach their potential.
We are anticipating another improvement this year to our year 6 results. The SATs for year 6 are
next week and year 6 staff and children have been working incredibly hard in order to be ready for
them.
Year 2 have also been working really hard and their testing period will be throughout May and June.
We wish year 2 and 6 the best of “good thinking and effort” for these testing times.
Assessment and testing of all year groups will be taking place over the next month so that teachers
can make end of year judgements.
All your children’s successes and efforts will be celebrated in their end of year reports.
The other major aspect of our OfSTED Action Plan is preparing for the new curriculum.
At Cypress we have taken this as an opportunity to stop and think about what we want the
“Experience of Cypress” to be for our children and community. We have embarked on a full scale
consultation.
We have asked pupils, staff, parents and governors to think about how they want our year 6 pupils
to equipped in terms of skills, values, knowledge etc by the time they leave us. We have also asked
for reflections on good learning experiences and thoughts on what we want our children to experience at lunch times.
We held two parents forums and also asked for written feedback for parents who could not attend.
We have consulted with all staff, governors and pupils too.
We are currently collating all this feedback so that we can ensure that our vision is driven by what
our community want and also that this vision then drives all that we plan to offer at our school.
Watch this space……….
3
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL
ASPECTS OF LEARNING
The personal and social learning
focus for the whole school in
assembly and in the classrooms
this week was "Coping with
anxiety." Children were
awarded SEAL certificates and
invited to Head Teacher's tea
party for recognising when they
are feeling worried and knowing
how to do something about their
worries. Congratulations to:
KEY STAGE 1:
EMERALD
KANE, DYLAN & ARCHER
BLUE
MAIA, MARIAM A & MARYAM I
GREEN
JASMINE, LENNY & RUBI
INDIGO
DYLAN, MICHELLE &
DEBORAH
VIOLET
ISAIAH, SAMUEL &
REBECCA
JADE
ERIN, KAIDEN & EPPI
RUBY
SOPHIA, KAINE & MARIO
KEY STAGE 2:
CEDAR
BEBE, DERON &
LARENZ
HOLLY
JANNAH, ISLAM &
TERRELL
BIRCH
AMARIE, DYLAN &
SHYANNE
ROWAN
ON RESIDENTIAL
HAWTHORN
ON RESIDENTIAL
POPLAR
ON RESIDENTIAL
WILLOW
GULCIN, LUCIA &
ALFIE
EDRIC, SHAKUR &
LAMAR
SYCAMORE
HORSE
CHESTNUT
ELLIOT, IDARA & ZAC
OAK
MEGAN, JASMINE &
EMILY
LARCH
TANAE, HARVEY &
DEMIE
BEECH
SAIFALLAH, AIBA &
JHANE
Well done to all the
children who were
awarded certificates.
ATTENDANCE &
PUNCTUALITY FOR
23/04/14 - 02/05/14
JUNIOR
Many congratulations to Ruby class who
were Mathletics champions and top of the leaderboard this week, having earned 10 certificates.
Well done to Laurence P who was awarded his first
GOLD Mathletics certificate and a gold medal in
assembly on Wednesday.
Winners of the
punctuality
award this week:
BIRCH CLASS
HAWTHORN CLASS
Mrs Hart
Head of School
HORSE CHESTNUT
CLASS
OAK/BEECH CLASS
Winners of the
attendance
award this week:
CEDAR CLASS
HAWTHORN CLASS
WILLOW CLASS
2 GOLD certificates were awarded this
week. Well done to Jaya (Rowan) and Kemar
(Larch) on earning their gold medal.
BEECH CLASS
INFANT
The Super Mathlete Trophy returns to Year 3 this
week. Birch class take over as champions with
their haul of 6 certificates.
Winners of the
punctuality
award this week:
Year 3: Birch (6 certificates) - 20pts
Year 4: Poplar (5 certificates) - 10pts
Year 5: Sycamore (5 certificates) - 10pts
Year 6: Larch (4 certificates) - 10pts
ORANGE CLASS
GREEN CLASS
Mr Roebuck
Head of School
INDIGO CLASS
Winners of the
attendance award
this week:
Gardening Rota
Day
Date
Time
Class
Year
Friday
09-May-14 09:30-12:00
Birch
3
Friday
16-May-14
Holly
3
Friday
23-May-14 09:30-12:00
Hawthorn
4
Friday
06-Jun-14 09:30-12:00
Poplar
4
Friday
13-Jun-14 09:30-12:00
Beech
6
Friday
20-Jun-14 09:30-12:00
Oak
6
Friday
27-Jun-14 09:30-12:00
Larch
6
PM
Friday
04-Jul-14 09:30-12:00
Horse Chestnut
5
Friday
11-Jul-14 09:30-12:00
Sycamore
5
Friday
18-Jul-14 09:30-12:00
Year 2 Introduction 2
YELLOW CLASS
BLUE CLASS
RUBY CLASS
4
Match Attax
A hot topic of discussion on the Cypress playground recently has been Match Attax
cards. These football trading cards are great fun to collect and play games with, but
problems have been coming up with children feeling pressured to swap cards when
they do not want to, and arguments over which cards belong to who.
As you know, toys from home are banned from being brought into school to prevent
the risk of them being damaged or lost. I reminded the children of this in assembly
two weeks ago and said that as we were having the same sort of problems with
Match Attax we would have to apply this rule to them too.
We wouldn’t want to discourage children from pursuing hobbies like collecting cards,
but would ask you please to talk to your child about doing this outside of school.
Since our assembly, two of our Y3 pupils have found a creative way of playing cards
at school without bringing shop-bought cards in. Edward and Dylan (Birch) have
hand made their own sets of football cards to play with. What a lovely idea!
Here is Edward’s star attacking midfielder Jamie Johnson:
Well done Edward and Dylan
for finding such a positive way to
respond to the ban!
Mr Roebuck
Head of School
5
Cheese And Herb Scones
These scones are a little different from your average cheese
scone: they contain two types of
cheese and you don't need to roll
them out. You can just drop the
mixture in dollops onto baking
trays. They'll turn out to be all different shapes and
sizes but they are still wonderfully delicious - soft
and light in the middle and packed full of cheesy
goodness.
Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil

250g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley

1/8 teaspoon dry thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon caster sugar

140g grated Gouda cheese

4 tablespoons grated Cheddar cheese

90g butter

250ml semi-skimmed milk
Method:
1.
Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6. Using olive oil,
grease a baking tray.
2.
With a fork, mix together the flour, baking
powder, parsley, thyme, salt, sugar and
cheeses together in a bowl. Cut the butter
into the flour mixture in coarse chunks, then
use the fork to further cut the butter into the
flour-cheese mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Lightly stir in the
milk just until the dough holds together.
3.
Create mounds, using about 2 tablespoons of
the mixture per scone, on the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven until
risen and golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes.
Enjoy!
Water bottles - a plea for help!
As a healthy school, we do all that we can to
actively encourage our children to keep hydrated throughout the school day. This is especially
important on PE days and as the warmer
weather approaches. Children are allowed to
drink from their bottles at any time (with the exception of during
whole class carpet sessions for the younger children). To help
us achieve this, we ask for parental support in providing children with water bottles (330ml with a sports cap is ideal).
Children are able to re-fill their bottles in school. However, water bottles should be brought in to school every morning and
returned home at the end of each school day to be washed
and replenished with fresh water.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Mrs Hart
Headship lead on physical development, health and wellbeing
6
7
What's on in the local community?
Dulwich Youth Orchestra 2014
Established for more than forty years, DYO offers exciting opportunities for musicians aged 7 to 18 from grade 2 to 8+. It meets each
school holiday for five mornings and divides into:·
Junior String Ensemble
·
Concert Band
·
Symphony Orchestra
·
Senior String Orchestra
There are opportunities for the more experienced and regular attendees to perform a concerto. Generous bursaries are also available.
Please apply asap as we do not like to turn students down.
2014 Dates
Summer: July 28 – August 1 at Alleyn’s School
Christmas: December 27 – 31
Check out our website for more information and for how to apply
www.dyodulwich.com
8
9
10
11
12
What's on in the local community?
GRANGEWOOD PARK:
The friends of Grangewood park invite you to their Annual General Meeting.
It will be held on Sunday 11th May 3-4pm at the huts next to
the playground.
This is an excellent opportunity to voice your thoughts and
share your ideas for improving the park. Anyone who is interested in helping to put together the Picnic in the Park this summer, please stay on for our first meeting afterwards.
We are also looking for help with updating our website and
funding application. Please get in touch if you have any of these
skills and would be willing to offer support.
PICNIC IN THE PARK ...put Sunday 20th July 12-4pm in your
diaries now.
More details on this fun, free, family event will follow soon.
Anyone who would like to get involved with organising it please
do come along to the AGM on May 11th or contact us by email
at friendsofgrangewood@yahoo.co.uk. No special skills are required other than enthusiasm and the willingness to participate
in this enjoyable community project.
Coming soon to Stanley Halls, a day of interactive
storytelling.
On Saturday, 17 May at 11:30am, come and participate in an
interactive story session, Mrs McMoon, for 3-5 year olds, where
a sweet old lady will take you by the hand to explore a world of
brave and daring adventures.
Set in the warm surroundings of her cosy old living room where
tea is brewing and the smell of freshly baked cookies tickle your
nostrils. “A cuddle a day keeps the blues away!” says Mrs
McMoon.
There follows at 2pm, an interactive children’s show, for
5-8 year olds.
There’s chaos in the kitchen when Signor Baffo is left in charge.
Expect plates-full of fun, with generous helpings of silliness,
mischief and adventure. What's the best way to mix meatballs
with spaghetti? How do you make a chicken lay an egg, and how
does a sausage roll? All is revealed in the charming culinary chaos of Signor Baffo's kitchen.
‘This is a perfectly entertaining, funny and engaging show that
the entire audience will love, performed by an actor who knows
exactly how to connect with his audience.’
Tickets for both shows are priced at £8 for adults and £5 for
children.
Tickets are available from http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/
stanleyhalls,
Or by calling our box office on 0333 666 3366 open 9am-7pm
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Saturday Groups of 8 or more can be booked
by emailing thestanleypeoplesinitiative@gmail.com
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14
KEY DATES FOR THE YEAR
02-Jun-14
Y6 SATS week
Y1 Trip Blue and Green Class 1 to Monument and Bank
of England
Y1 Trip Emerald and Indigo Class 1 to Monument and
Bank of England
Y4 Visit to Museum of London (Poplar & Hawthorn class)
School breaks for half term
Training Day for Staff (school closed to children)
03-Jun-14
Children return to school
12-May-14
13-May-14
14-May-14
22-May-14
23-May-14
03-Jun-14
25-Jun-14
01-Jul-14
03-Jul-14
08-Jul-14
14-Jul-14
15-Jul-14
16-Jul-14
23-Jul-14
01-02-Sep-14
03-Sep-14
24-Oct-14
27-31-Oct-14
03-Nov-14
19-Dec-14
22-Dec-14 to
02-Jan-15
05-Jan-15
Y4 Visit to Museum of London (Rowan class)
Y4 Visit to the Science Museum
Y1 and Y2 Sports Day 09:30am – 11:30am
Nursery and Reception Sports Day 1:30pm-3pm
Y5 and Y6 Sports Day 9:30am-11:30am
Y3 and Y4 Sports Day 1pm-3pm
New to Nursery 2014 Parents Information Evening 6pm7pm
New to Reception 2014 Parents Information Evening 7pm
-8pm
Parents’ Evening
Year 6 Leavers Performance 2:15pm-3:15pm
Year 6 Leavers Performance 6:30pm-7:30pm
Year 6 Leavers Performance 9:15am-10:15am
Year 2 End of Year Performance 9:30am-10:30am
School closes for summer break
Inset Days
Children return to school
School closes for half term break
Half Term
Children return to school
School closes for Christmas break
Christmas
INSET day (tbc)
Children return to school
06-Jan-15
16-Feb-15 to 20
-Feb-15
Half Term
30-Mar-15 to 10
-Apr-15
Easter
25-May-15 to
29-May-15
01-Jun-15
17-Jul-15
Half Term
Return to school
School Closes