Welcome Back!

I hope that you had a restful half term, although the weather was not in our favour. The first week back has been so busy with lots of brilliant events going on across the school, with many of them being mentioned below.  From sporting events, educational visits and a celebration of Luna New Year the school has been a buzz with so many exciting and engaging activities. This term is a short one so we are trying to squeeze six weeks of our normal activities into five weeks, so please bear with us if it seems a bit manic. 

ArtsMark Gold

We got Gold!

Last week we were notified that Rodings has been awarded a Gold Artsmark award for our commitment to arts education. We truly believe in the power of the arts to develop our children academically but also to support their wellbeing. I will write a much longer piece soon about why we believe the arts are so important in education, as we now intend to work towards the Platimum Award.  

We were actually working towards the Silver Award, as it was our first time making a submission, so we are over the moon to be awarded Gold. ArtsMark is more than a kitemark at the bottom of a page. It is a strategic approach to education that is overseen by the Governing Board and quality assured and monitored by Goldsmiths University. 

A huge 'Thank you' has to go out to Mrs Coates-Reynolds for two years of dedicated hard work and commitment to achieve this amazing achievement. Her enthusiasm and positivity is infectious and draws us all into being creatives in our own right. To all those that have supported arts projects, from our incredible Miss Raban and her Singing Squad, those that have attended arts clubs or joined in with the various activities and themes such as Inktober.

We received such positive feedback from the assessors about our achievements over the last two years, but their summary comment was about the future direct and impact, concluding Rodings will 'develop into a powerful, positive force for young people’s access to high quality arts provision in your local and wider area'.

Thank you! Your support is really helping to promote the importance of the arts for wellbeing, academic success and future careers.

The work towards Platinum starts now! 

 

Parent Governor

Homework Survey 

Just a reminder to spare a few minutes to complete our parent survey on homework. We really want to create a homework policy that reflects the views of parents the best it can. The more people that respond, the better! So far we have had 79 responses. The deadline is Friday 6th March. Thank you! 

https://forms.gle/3w6K8AwuckeA8xME6

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Raraty

Rodings has had a bumper sports week, attending 3 USSP events!

On Tuesday, 8 girls from year 3 travelled to Joyce Frankland in Newport to take part in a year 3/4 girls football festival. 

On Wednesday afternoon, a large group of key stage 2 children attended the USSP level 2 cross-country event at Carver Barracks in Saffron Walden, racing against children from schools across Uttlesford. All those racing had qualified at the level 1 event at Great Easton back in October. The children all ran brilliantly, with some strong finishes, but congratulations must go to Oisin (Y3) and Lochie and Albie (Y5) who have qualified for the Level 3 event against schools from all of Essex. We wish them all the best for their race later in March.

On Friday afternoon, 16 children from year 4 and 5 competed at the USSP archery competition at Felsted school. This was a very well attended event with 15 year 5/6 teams and 11 year 3/4 teams from a number of Dunmow schools. Our teams made a good account of themselves on only a very limited amount of practice!

News from the Friends

Raraty Bars – on sale now!

Thank you to everyone who has already ordered their Raraty Bars, if you haven’t yet done so, you still have until the 3^rd March to order yours. There are 12 money-can’t-buy prizes to be won. Bars will be handed out on World Book Day (5^th March) and prizes announced in assembly once all the Golden Tickets have been found.

Save your pennies, Penny Wars is back!!

After the success of last year’s Pennie Wars, we’re bringing it back for a second year! Penny wars will run from the 9^th to 27^th March.

Raid those change jars, change up some notes and get saving for this highly competitive event. Please see the poster below for more details.

Save the date – Quiz Night 13^th March

The ever popular Rodings Quiz is back hosted by the one and only Mr Raraty!

Tickets are on sale in Arbor now!

Once you have formed a team please email us with your team members and any dietary requirement so we can organise catering OR if you do not have a team, let us know and we’ll make one for you! (Friendsofrodings@gmail.com)

Please see the poster below for more information.

Easyfundraising

Thank you to everyone who raised donations for Friends of Rodings Primary School with Easyfundraising. This is such an easy way to raise funds for the school while shopping as you normally would!

Not joined yet? Sign up to Easyfundraising and when you shop online with your favourite brands, they’ll donate to us. It's free and your shopping won't cost you any extra - the brands you shop with will donate, not you!

Sign up today:

https://join.easyfundraising.org.uk/friendsofrodingsps/wc9zo6/at/ixjes5ko/facebook/

School Lottery

Thank you to those winners who donated your winnings back to the school, it is greatly appreciated.

If you do not take part but would like to support this you can sign up here: https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/rodings-primary-school.

This is an easy way to support the school and you might be a winner!

Contact Us

If you would like to connect with us please follow us on social media:

Facebook – Friends of Rodings Primary School

Instagram - @the_friends_of_rodings_school

Or email us at: friendsofrodings@gmail.com