After School Clubs

Firstly, we would like to apologise for the lack of zorbes at zorbing club this week! Unfortunately, the coaches remembered the zorbes but not the electric pump to pump them up. Luckily, they had the archery kit with them, so the club was able to run. They have promised to remember in future!

The numbers for the zorbing club are high (with a waiting list too) but the Owls multi-sport and Penguins rugby clubs only have about 6 children in each. We would like to open these clubs up to others to see if we can increase the numbers, so...

Year 4 children can join the Year 5/6 children for Leicester Tigers rugby on a Monday. 

Year 2 children can join Year 3/4 children for Mrs Sheridan's multi-sports on a Wednesday.

Both of these clubs are £3 per session and run to half term so have 5 sessions left. =£15 total. (If you miss next week's sessions because of the short notice, pop in to the office and Mrs Everett will make sure you are only charged from when you start.)

Sponsored Fitness Fund Raising Event Next Week!

The PTA are holding a sponsored event for National Fitness Day on Wednesday 24th September. Children will be taking part in fitness activities throughout the day arranged by Mrs Sheridan. If you are able to sponsor your child to take part in this then envelopes will be sent home at the beginning of next week for cash donations or you can donate by card at the following link: Manor Primary Academy PTFA National Fitness Day. 

School council had their first meeting with Mr Robson today having received their badges in assembly this week. The councillors are: 

• Year 1 - Felicity
• Year 2 - Ethan
• Year 3 - Shivam and Grayson
• Year 4 - Bella Rose and Finn
• Year 5 - Bruno and Jenson
• Year 6 - Zachary and Bailey

They had some great ideas about things we could do in school to make it even better for our pupils.

House Captain and Vice-House Captains were also voted for after they made their speeches to the children in their house. They have done a great job of organising the house points assemblies and choosing the staff star of the week each Thursday so far. They are (House Captain first then Vice-captain):

• Bassett - Erin and Orlaith
• Bryan - Amelia and Molly
• Dudley - Echo and Arrietty
• Peel - Annabelle and Jenson

Some great choices for democratically elected representatives for their year groups and houses. The future of our British democracy is alive and well at Manor!

Lunchtime Supervisor Post

Unfortunately, despite a couple of enquiries, we had no applications for the vacant lunchtime supervisor post. We will extend the deadline to Monday 22nd to give any last-minute applications a chance to come in before we start to readvertise it.

National Tests and Checks

We have distributed parent information booklets about the different national tests and checks this week. These include:

• EYFS Baseline - a check of pupil levels on entry to Reception year. This has already been completed for this year and gives useful information about where children are starting to know what to build on.
• Year 1 Phonics Screening Check - a check done by the teacher at the end of the year to make sure children have firm phonics foundations in their reading before moving on.
• Year 2 End of KS1 SATS - optional tests in summer that we choose to do as it helps us analyse strengths and weaknesses as children move on to the KS2 curriculum. These are no longer published in league tables so are more low key externally but are important for our own assessment information.
• Year 4 Multiplication Checks - An online test in the summer with 25 random times tables questions. This is an important building block to support maths in upper Key Stage 2 and beyond. Results are not published but we are able to compare ourselves against national averages.
• Year 6 End of KS2 SATS - Exams in reading, maths and GPS (Grammar, Puctuation and Spelling) that are taken in May by Year 6. These results are published and are used as part of the judgement of schools and the progress that children make from their baseline.

If you have any questions following reading the booklets, do speak to your class teacher or Mr Robson.

Leicester Tigers Rugby

After some confusion this week can we clarify please that Owls will have lots of PE this half term. They will have rugby on a Monday with Leicester Tigers and PE on a Wednesday with Mrs Sheridan. Tuesday is Year 4 swimming up to half term and it will be Year 3 in the second half term. Sorry for any confusion this week.

School Dinners

There has been a clear improvement in the standard of catering since we joined Fierté MAT. I should know as I have the school dinners every day! There is a good range of nutritious hot dinners that are reasonably priced (free for KS1!) and convenient and meet all the standards for a balanced diet, low salt and sugar content etc. that give parents peace of mind that their child has had a healthy meal at school each day. We have a new catering manager in the Trust now and she is keen to find ways to encourage more take-up and improve the offer. If you have any constructive feedback and suggestions then please do let us know so we can pass your ideas on. Thank you.

My School Fund

Please see the leaflet at the end of this Newsletter for details on how to register your credit or debit cards with My School Fund. It doesn't cost you anything more than a few minutes of your time but Manor benefit through a cash back scheme. With lots of people signed up across school we get a significant amount of money that can be spent on the children.