Weekly Top tip

Please click here to read this week's pupil wellbeing newsletter.

We’re pleased to let you know that our school is taking part in a new initiative called Classroom Sounds, developed by our IT support service Chestnut Infrastructure Ltd.

The aim of Classroom Sounds is to help us create a calmer, more focused learning environment for pupils by monitoring and understanding environmental factors in our classrooms throughout the school day.

Each Classroom Sounds device measures sound volume (in decibels) along with simple environmental factors such as temperature and humidity. This helps teachers and senior leaders understand when classrooms might be too noisy, too hot, or too cold — so we can make adjustments that improve learning and wellbeing.

We want to reassure you that:

• No conversations or voices are recorded. The device does not capture or store audio of any kind.
• It simply measures overall sound levels — similar to how a thermometer measures temperature.
• The data is used to identify patterns (e.g., “Is noise higher after lunch?”) to support better classroom management and comfort.
• All data is securely stored and fully compliant with UK GDPR and data protection standards.

This is an exciting step forward in using technology to support positive learning environments. We’ll be reviewing the results over the coming months and sharing updates with parents once the project develops further.

If you have any questions about Classroom Sounds, please don’t hesitate to contact the school office.

Children in Need

Next week we will be supporting the BBC Children in Need appeal.

From Monday we will be selling Pudsey themed merchandise at breaktimes.  Items include wrist bands, pin badges, pens and Pudsey headbands.  These are priced between £1.00 and £3.00.

Children can also purchase a raffle ticket for £1.00 to have the chance to win a Pudsey teddy or water bottle.  The raffle will be drawn on Friday 14 November 2025.

On Friday 14 November 2025 we will be having a non-uniform day.  Our theme this year is spots and stripes. We are asking for a donation of £1.00 for your child to attend school in their own clothes.

On Friday afternoon the whole school will be participating in our popular RunPudsey Fun Run around the school grounds.

Please click on the link below to register your child for this event.  Our school code is 06FD.  All children who have registered on the website and collected some sponsor money will receive a Pudsey medal.  These are sent to the school following the event and will be handed out in Collective Worship - https://www.runpudsey.co.uk/school/abberley-parochial-vc-primary-school

Harvest Donations

Thank you very much for your donations during the Harvest Festival.  They were delivered to the Salvation Army and the person from the Street Kitchen was grateful to receive them.

It has been lovely to welcome the children back refreshed after the half term holiday and hearing all about their adventures.  We have started our new topic on "Festivals and Celebrations" this week by learning all about the celebration of Bonfire Night.  During Drawing Club we learnt the story of Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament.  In art we explored colour mixing to create some fantastic firework and bonfire pictures. We have also enjoyed doing some lovely firework inspired dancing and had some very busy fire fighters keeping us safe in the role play area.

This week we have introduced our Rainbow Challenges.  The children have 6 different challenges to complete around the classroom over the course of the week.   By completing their challenges, the children take ownership of their learning and start to become more independent. If the children complete all their challenges by the end of the week they are able to choose a prize from the pot of gold.  We have been very impressed by how the children have embraced these new challenges.

Next week we will be exploring the festival of Remembrance in a child appropriate way.

In maths, we have been focusing on addition. The children added two numbers together practically using coloured cubes. Year 1s did this and wrote two addition sentences and Year 2s wrote four addition number sentences for each set of cubes. Writing more than one number sentence e.g.  4+3=7,  3+4=7,  7=4+3,  7=3+4, has allowed the children to see that addition is commutative. We have also looked at 'adding more'. For example, Sam had 10 sweets and then bought 8 more. How many does he have now? The children have been learning how to spot the key information in word problems before beginning to solve them.

In geography, we have been learning about our natural habitats and how we can look after them. The children created information posters to share ideas with others about how to protect the environment. Some of their ideas included sticking to paths when out walking, not dropping litter and reusing plastic bottles and bags.

In D.T. the children have been creating their own moving storybooks, based on the story of Humpty Dumpty. They have made a book where each page has a different moving part. This took a lot of thought to figure out how their sliders should move depending on which part of the story they were telling.

Timetable

Monday: Wellies and appropriate clothing for outdoor learning

Tuesday & Thursday: PE kits - please can those with longer hair have their hair tied up ready

It has been lovely to welcome the children back after half term and to see them rested and keen to learn.

In English, we have been working on setting descriptions inspired by our class book 'Leaf'. The children have been using their writer's knowledge to try and include expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and exciting vocabulary to bring their writing to life. They are really enjoying our new book and putting themselves in the position of the polar bear who is lost and trying to get home.

In maths, the children have started looking at formal column subtraction. We have been focusing on the importance of starting from the top of the calculation (you may hear about washing a baby!) and how they may need to exchange between columns (you may also get told off for using the word 'borrowing'!) in order to complete the calculation.

The children also enjoyed designing their Christmas cards this week, which will be available for parents to purchase in the coming weeks.

In science, the class completed their end of unit assessments on last half term's topic of 'Living Things and their Habitats' and are now ready to move on to our brand-new topic: Forces and Magnets.

It has been great to see the children return refreshed and ready for learning after what we hope was a restful half term break. The class have settled back into routines brilliantly and we’ve had a busy and exciting first week back.

In English, we have continued our work based on A Story Like the Wind by Gill Lewis. This week, we have focused on analysing a flashback narrative, exploring how authors use shifts in time to reveal important moments in a character’s past. This analysis will inspire our own original flashback narratives later this half term.

In maths, the children have been exploring properties of numbers, including prime numbers, prime factors, square numbers and cube numbers. Towards the end of the week, we moved on to practising multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, and 1000, focusing on how the digits move left or right depending on the number of zeros in the multiplier.

In art, we began our artist study of the celebrated Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. The children have been fascinated by her unique self-portraits and the powerful stories behind her artwork. This week, they created detailed visual notes, recording their observations and ideas about her style and life.

In PE, we started our new sport, handball! This fast-paced game combines elements of football and basketball and the children enjoyed learning the basic rules, practising passing and movement skills and applying these in small game situations.

In RE, we began our new topic on Hinduism, focusing this week on the concept of samsara (reincarnation). The children explored the idea that the soul, or Atman, moves on to a new life after death and that the quality of that new life is influenced by the karma a person creates through their actions.

Please see below information within the community but independent of the school