Welcome Back!

It has been lovely to see our Rodings family back together after the summer break and the children have settled really well into the new routines. Over the coming year we are looking forward to working with you make this year an even greater success than last. We are currently putting the finishing touches to our School Development Plan for the year; we will share our goals with you at a later date. We want you to be involved in this as much as possible and aim to do this through questionnaires, parent workshops and a slightly different focus with the newsletter. As well as the usual update on the week and celebrations, we are going to introduce a blog style section with themes, advice and guidance on current education hot topics. The first one today focusing on habits. 
 

Habits 

I always compare the start of a new academic year to that of the calendar new year in January. It is a great time to refect on the past educational achievements and think about what can be achieved in the coming year. As with any good 'New Year's resolution', its success is determined by the good habits that are established at the beginning. 

Habits take a long time to establish and need perseverance, resilience and focus but habits can be broken very quickly. Research suggests it takes 70 days to establish good habits but only a minimum of 18 days to break one. Now is the right time to establish and revisit good school habits ready for the coming year. I'm suggesting the following:

• Sleep - it is essential for our bodies to recover and repair itself. Good sleep routines can be hard to keep to, but the more routine there is around bedtime for children the better. For 4-7 year olds, 10 to 12 hours is suggested, for 7 - 11 year old - 10-11 hours is recommended. Establishing good pre-bed routines will also help with quality sleep.  Follow this link for NHS advice on sleep https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/health/sleep-and-young-children/
• Reading - is a fundamental skill for all learning. Establishing a reading routine will help with reading progress and building a love for reading. Teachers will talk about the expectations for reading at home at the Meet the Teacher sessions. However, daily engagement with books is a good habit to get into whether that is being read to, reading out loud or the children reading to themselves. 
• Homework routines - children lead very social and busy lives and fitting in quality time for homework can de difficult. Each home has a different schedule of activities during the week, however, establishing a focused, quiet space for homework to be completed, ideally at the same time each week will help to build a good routine and hopefully fewer arguments about getting it done. 

 

Parents Governors 

Two parent governor positions have become available on the Governing Board. Being a governor is a voluntary position that supports the strategic development of the school. We have a very dedicated and hardworking group who are looking for enthusiastic people who have an interest in education to join the team. You do not need any educational experience or have been on a committee before. 

Being a governor involves a mix of meeting after school and visits during school hours. These happen on a regular basis throughout the year. The Governing board help to develop policy and procedure and provide constructive challenge to make sure it is running the best it can. 

If you are interested in becoming a parent governor please contact me at mr.raraty@rodingsprimary.co.uk or on 01279876288 for further information. If more than two people express an interest in the position there will be a parental vote. 

Declarations of interest need to be with me by Friday 22nd September. 

There is a lot of information in today's newsletter, so thank you for hanging on in!

Information about dates and clubs will follow soon. 

 

Have a lovely (and hot) weekend!

Mr Raraty