Miss Palmer's Weekly Message
Weekly Message
Thursday 06th February 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we mark Children's Mental Health Week, it's a timely reminder of the importance of nurturing our children's emotional well-being. This week, children have been part of many different and exciting activities supporting them to become more self-aware and to develop personally, all linked to this year's theme of 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself'. At Endeavour one of our ANCHOR values is 'Challenge'; we actively support our children to embrace new adventures through tenacity and resilience. Resilience is a crucial skill that helps children navigate the challenges of growing up. Encouraging them to develop resilience can be as simple as fostering a supportive environment, to see failure as a stepping stone to success alongside promoting a positive mindset. These efforts will not only help children manage and navigate any current stresses, but also help prepare them for the complexities of teenage years and adulthood.
There has been so much exciting learning happening across school this week.
Brass lessons have started this week - I know our KS2 children are loving the opportunity to choose a Brass instrument to learn to play. The trombone, euphonium and French horn have all been popular.
Year 2 have continued learning about New Zealand, they have been investigating why Wellington is a good tourist destination and comparing it to Hampshire. They recently tested me on my geographical knowledge of the names of the 5 oceans and 7 continents* and explained to me that New Zealand has a different season to the UK, which they were amazed and fascinated with. Great geographical knowledge year 2!
Year 1 have been so excited and busy learning about the Great Fire of London in their project 'Fire Fire'. I was amazed at the details children were sharing with me when I popped in to speak with them. They explained the date the fire started, how the fire started in Pudding Lane in Thomas Farriner's Bakery, why the fire spread so quickly and how long it lasted for.
Year 4 were so enthusiastic to explain in great detail all the amazing science they have been involved in recently. I loved how animated they were in describing everything they have learnt about teeth; the name and job of each tooth and what they should do to look after them. I also loved how honest they were when one said '...I know I should floss each day, but it is so hard to fit it in, I do clean my teeth twice a day though!'
We have enjoyed welcoming a number of different visitors to school this week. A visit from the Local Authority Maths team for a day, where the inspector looked at books, visited classrooms and spoke to children. We received some wonderful feedback regarding the learning journey children experience, how teachers support and scaffold learning and move children on to the next step in their learning at the right time and our children also talked very positively about maths which is something we are actively encouraging across school. Maths is FUN! I was also particularly pleased with feedback from our English consultant who spent a day reviewing our 4Reads provision. He was very complimentary at how well staff were developing children's fluency, allowing them to read more and more challenging texts, the outstanding learning behaviours he saw where every child was fully engaged, focused and making good progress. We are very proud that Hampshire are using our approach to reading as a model of good practice and encouraging other schools to visit.
A huge Thank you and well done for an amazing £344.81 raised from our cake Sale last week in aid of 'Simon Says' bereavement charity.
Thank you to everyone for their continued support in making our school a nurturing and supportive place for all our children. Together, we can help them to build the resilience and healthy habits they need to thrive in our school and to realise our vision of, 'Together we give children the skills, knowledge and self-belief to change their world'.
Helen Palmer, Headteacher
*Because every day is a school day 🙂 The 5 Oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern & Arctic. The 7 Continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Oceania & Antarctica.